23 p23 UPDATE informs you of changes in clinical practice. This week: smoking prevalence p26 PrAcTicAl ProcEDUrEs illustrates procedures. This week: assessing consciousness p28 gUiDED lEArNiNg includes online cPD. This week: surgery and haemophilia p30 DEVEloPmENT shows how nurses are developing practice. This week: delegating consent-taking p32 rEsEArcH presents research papers. This week: pat...

23 p23 UPDATE informs you of changes in clinical practice. This week: contraception p26 PrAcTicAl PrOcEDUrEs illustrates procedures. This week: removing an indwelling catheter p28 gUiDED lEArNiNg includes online cPD. This week: law on advance decisions p30 DEVElOPmENT shows how nurses are developing practice. This week: evaluating telemedicine p32 rEsEArcH presents research papers. This week: s...

Recovery from severe spinal injury in adults is limited, compared to immature animals who demonstrate some capacity for repair. Using laboratory opossums (Monodelphis domestica), the aim was to compare proteomic responses to injury at two ages: one when there is axonal growth across the lesion and substantial behavioural recovery and one when no axonal growth occurs. Anaesthetized pups at postn...

Mature stellate cells of the rat medial entorhinal cortex (EC), layer II, exhibit subthreshold membrane potential oscillations (MPOs) at theta frequencies (4-12 Hz) in vitro. We find that MPOs appear between postnatal days 14 (P14) and 18 (P18) but show little further change by day 28+ (P28-P32). To identify the factors responsible, we examined the electrical responses of developing stellate ce...

Many psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and autism spectrum disorders, have early ages of onset and high incidence in juveniles. To better treat and prevent these disorders, it is important to first understand normal development of brain circuits that process emotion. Healthy and maladaptive emotional processing involve the basolateral amygdala (BLA), dysfunction of which has been implica...

Newborn rats exposed to high oxygen (O2), mimicking preterm birth-related neonatal stress, develop later in life cardiac hypertrophy, dysfunction, fibrosis, and activation of the renin-angiotensin system. Cardiac renin-angiotensin system activation in O2-exposed adult rats is characterized by an imbalance in angiotensin (Ang) receptors type 1/2 (AT1/2), with prevailing AT1 expression. To study ...

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a major cause of neonatal morbidity in premature infants, occurring as a result of arrested lung development combined with multiple postnatal insults. Infants with BPD exposed to supplemental oxygen are at risk of retinopathy of prematurity as well. Thus, we studied the effects of hyperoxia on the retinal vasculature in a murine model of BPD. The retinal phen...