Tainted Drugs Tied to Maker of Abortion Pill

A huge state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company that exports to dozens of countries, including the United States, is at the center of a nationwide drug scandal after nearly 200 Chinese cancer patients were paralyzed or otherwise harmed last summer by contaminated leukemia drugs.

Chinese drug regulators have accused the manufacturer of the tainted drugs of a cover-up and have closed the factory that produced them. In December, China’s Food and Drug Administration said that the Shanghai police had begun a criminal investigation and that two officials, including the head of the plant, had been detained.

The drug maker, Shanghai Hualian, is the sole supplier to the United States of the abortion pill, mifepristone, known as RU-486. It is made at a factory different from the one that produced the tainted cancer drugs, about an hour’s drive away.

The United States Food and Drug Administration declined to answer questions about Shanghai Hualian, because of security concerns stemming from the sometimes violent opposition to abortion. But in a statement, the agency said the RU-486 plant had passed an F.D.A. inspection in May. “F.D.A. is not aware of any evidence to suggest the issue that occurred at the leukemia drug facility is linked in any way with the facility that manufactures the mifepristone,” the statement said.

When told of Shanghai Hualian’s troubles, Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, a leading consumer advocate and frequent F.D.A. critic, said American regulators ought to be concerned because of accusations that serious health risks had been covered up there. “Every one of these plants should be immediately inspected,” he said.

The director of the Chinese F.D.A.’s drug safety control unit in Shanghai, Zhou Qun, said her agency had inspected the factory that produced mifepristone three times in recent months and found it in compliance. “It is natural to worry,” Ms. Zhou said, “but these two plants are in two different places and have different quality-assurance people.”

The investigation of the contaminated cancer drugs comes as China is trying to restore confidence in its tattered regulatory system. In the last two years, scores of people around the world have died after ingesting contaminated drugs and drug ingredients produced in China. Last year, China executed its top drug safety official for accepting bribes to approve drugs.

Shanghai Hualian is a division of one of China’s largest pharmaceutical companies, the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group, which owns dozens of factories. Neither Shanghai Hualian nor its parent company would comment on the tainted medicine.

Last week, The New York Times asked the F.D.A. whether the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group exported to the United States any drugs or pharmaceutical ingredients other than the abortion pill. But after repeated requests, the agency declined to provide that information; it did not cite a reason.

On at least two occasions in 2002, Shanghai Hualian had shipments of drugs stopped at the United States border, F.D.A. records show. One shipment was an unapproved antibiotic and the other a diuretic that had “false or misleading labeling.” Records also show that another unit of Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group has filed papers declaring its intention to sell at least five active pharmaceutical ingredients to manufacturers for sale in the United States.

One major pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, declined to buy drug ingredients from Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group because of quality-related issues, said Christopher Loder, a Pfizer spokesman. In 2006, Pfizer agreed to evaluate Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group’s “capabilities” as an ingredient supplier, but so far the company “has not met the standards required by Pfizer,” Mr. Loder said in a statement.

Because of opposition from the anti-abortion movement, the F.D.A. has never publicly identified the maker of the abortion pill for the American market. The pill was first manufactured in France, and since its approval by the F.D.A. in 2000 it has been distributed in the United States by Danco Laboratories. Danco, which does not list a street address on its Web site, did not return two telephone calls seeking comment.

Problems with the cancer drugs first surfaced last summer after leukemia patients received injections of one cancer drug, methotrexate. Afterward, patients experienced leg pain and, in some cases, paralysis. At the People’s Liberation Army No. 307 Hospital in Beijing, a 26-year-old patient, Miao Yuguang, was unable to stand up five days after being injected in the spine with the drug. “We were already unlucky to have this illness,” her father, Miao Futian, said of the leukemia. “Then we ran into this fake drug.”

The authorities recalled two batches of the drug, but issued only mild warnings because the cause of the problem was unclear. Officials with Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group stood by their products, saying that drug regulators investigating the plant had found no problems. But when another cancer drug made in the same factory — cytarabin hydrochloride — also began causing adverse reactions, investigators suspected contamination.

In September, health and drug officials announced that they had found that the two drugs were contaminated with vincristine sulfate, a third cancer drug, during production. After issuing a nationwide alert, the government announced a wider recall, and Shanghai’s drug agency sealed manufacturing units at the plant.

“Many people thought there was a problem with the hospitals,” said Zheng Qiang, director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Information and Engineering Research at Peking University. “It wasn’t until later that they discovered the problem was with the medicine.”

Chinese media attention on the case has surged, after a terse statement by China’s drug agency in December, accusing Hualian company officials of a systematic cover-up of violations at the facility that made the drugs.

Family members at the No. 307 hospital have counted 53 victims in Beijing, and say they were told that there were least 193 victims nationwide. It is unclear how many were paralyzed, because the authorities have not released an official figure. Relatives have joined to share information and advocate for the victims. Based on interviews with several families in Beijing and Shanghai, it appears that about half of those injected still cannot walk.

Wu Jianhua said his daughter, Wu Xi, 15, collapsed on her way to school after an injection in August. “We thought she was tired,” Mr. Wu said. Doctors now say she may never walk without a cane, he said.

Last week, on a window near the gate of the closed plant was a notice from the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration, dated Sept. 8, accusing the plant of “producing substandard medicine that poses major risks of causing serious harm to human health.” It identified a company official, Gu Yaoming, as the “person responsible” for the plant.

Records show Mr. Gu also met with the United States F.D.A. inspectors last May as part of the routine inspection of the plant that makes RU-486.

Reached by telephone, Mr. Gu declined to describe his role at the two plants. “I cannot answer your questions,” he said.

A spokeswoman for China’s Food and Drug Administration, Yan Jiangying, said that Shanghai Hualian had been stripped of its license to produce antitumor drugs, but that this action did not affect RU-486.

Hualian is the latest in a string of tainted medicine cases that have undermined confidence in the safety of drugs here. In 2006, at least 18 Chinese died after an intravenous drug used to treat liver disease, Armillarisin A, was laced with diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical used in some antifreeze. Also in 2006, at least 14 Chinese died after taking a Chinese antibiotic, Xinfu, which was not properly sterilized during production. And more than a hundred people died in Panama after taking cold medicine containing a mislabeled and toxic chemical from China.

In each of these cases, the manufacturer failed to follow good manufacturing practices to ensure the final product was safe.

Describing the cover-up at the factory, Ms. Zhou, the regulator who led the investigation, said workers did not tell investigators that vincristine sulfate — a drug too toxic for use in spinal injections — had been stored in a refrigerator with materials for other drugs.

“At the time, we didn’t think they had lied to us,” Ms. Zhou said. The deception sent investigators on a two-month hunt for other possible causes of the adverse reactions. “If they had been open about the vincristine sulfate in the beginning, maybe fewer people would have been harmed,” she added.

While regulators have accused factory employees of a systematic cover-up of violations in production, they have not said whether superiors at Shanghai Pharmaceutical were aware of it. “We’ll have to wait until the police investigation is finished” to make more details public, said Ms. Yan, the drug agency spokeswoman.

Mr. Zheng at Peking University said that producing multiple drugs in a single workshop was risky, but that some Chinese companies saw it as a way to save money. “It was an accident,” he said of the Hualian case. “But it was bound to happen.”

Lipz to Hipz

As every dieter knows, a moment on the lips could spell a lifetime on the hips. But now the adage has been turned on its head, with the creation of a lip gloss that claims to help women lose weight.

Sold under the slogan "Always on the lips. Never on the hips", Fuze Slenderize gloss is said to be oozing with ingredients that curb the appetite.If that weren't enough, the "guilt-free lip gloss" also claims to speed up the metabolism, while boosting energy levels. One of the key ingredients is SuperCitrimax, a plant extract said to keep hunger pangs at bay and stop the body turning carbohydrates into fat. Katie Holmes is rumoured to be a fan of drinks with a similar ingredient. Other contents include chromium, a mineral said to boost metabolism, and L-carnitine, an energy-giving amino acid. Similar ingredients are found in Fuze diet drinks, a range of low-calorie fruit juices reputed to be a favourite of actresses Katie Holmes and Jessica Simpson. Costing £9.50 a tube, the brightly-coloured gloss is made by Californian make-up company Too Faced and is available in three flavors.

A spokesman for Too Faced said: "Application of this long-lasting, high-shine formula will actually help suppress one's appetite for food without sacrificing delicious glamour. "With a single swipe of the tube, Fuze Slenderize provides a pretty, plump pout with an added bonus of healthy, energy-boosting, appetite curbing ingredients.

"One delicious dab on the lips will give you a taste of what all the Hollywood starlets are losing it over."

Available by mail order from cosmetics company Sephora, the gloss comes in a trio of flavours - blueberry and raspberry, strawberry and melon and dragon fruit and lime. However, diet experts cautioned there is no quick-fix when it comes to losing weight. Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said: "People will buy this and it will do nothing for them unless they have already taken steps to lose weight. "There is only one way to lose weight in the long-term and that is by sensible eating, sensible exercise and making sure you know what you are eating and it is not full of fat, sugar and salt.

"People should pay more attention to what goes into their mouth than what goes on their lips."

Too Faced is not the first company to produce a lip gloss with healthy properties. Other glosses already on the market claim to use the scent of vanilla to lift mood and the smells of lemon and geranium to curb smokers' cravings for nicotine.

Cheeseburger in a Can

This is a cheeseburger. In a can. It's a cheeseburger in a can.

I honestly can't figure out how I feel about this: is it the greatest achievement of mankind thus far, or is it an abomination of foodstuffs that deserves to be hucked back into the gaping maw of whatever food processing plant it was spewed from? I just don't know what to think anymore. Would you eat a cheeseburger in a can? Keep in mind that it'll look nowhere near as delicious as the example above when you pull it out of the can.

Researchers in Maryland unleash synthetic DNA

Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute have created the largest man-made DNA structure to date, putting them one step closer to producing a completely synthetic organism, according to the institute.

The work, published online by Dan Gibson, Ph.D. in the journal Science, raises hopes for benefits like new drugs and pollution scarfing micro-organisms while spooking some with visions of biological warfare and patent wielding corporations controlling all future forms of synthetic life.

The researchers chemically created DNA fragments in the lab then used homologous recombination (a process that cells use to repair damage to their chromosomes) in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to rapidly build the entire bacterial chromosome from large sub-assemblies, according to the press release. "This extraordinary accomplishment is a technological marvel that was only made possible because of the unique and accomplished JCVI team," said president and founder J. Craig Venter.

Venter dismisses concerns that what JCVI is really creating is the "microbesoft" of synthetic life. His team has long been concerned with the societal issues surrounding its work and has undergone"significant ethical review" by experts who founds no reason why work should cease "as long as the scientists involved continued to engage public discussion," according to the JCVI Web site.

Critics remain unimpressed. "Venter is claiming bragging rights to the world's longest length of synthetic DNA, but size isn't everything. The important question is not 'how long?' but 'how wise?'" said Jim Thomas in a bio-watchdog article castigating Venter.

"While synthetic biology is speeding ahead in the lab and in the marketplace, societal debate and regulatory oversight is stalled and there has been no meaningful or inclusive discussion on how to govern synthetic biology in a safe and just way. In the absence of democratic oversight profiteering industrialists are tinkering with the building blocks of life for their own private gain."

Next step would be to insert the synthetic DNA into living cells and hope it becomes the world's first artificially created, self-replicating organism.

Finnish patient gets new jaw from own stem cells

Scientists in Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient's upper jaw with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen. Researchers said on Friday the breakthrough opened up new ways to treat severe tissue damage and made the prospect of custom-made living spares parts for humans a step closer to reality.

"There have been a couple of similar-sounding procedures before, but these didn't use the patient's own stem cells that were first cultured and expanded in laboratory and differentiated into bone tissue," said Riitta Suuronen of the Regea Institute of Regenerative Medicine, part of the University of Tampere.

She told a news conference the patient was recovering more quickly than he would have if he had received a bone graft from his leg. "From the outside nobody would be able to tell he has been through such a procedure," she said. She added, the team used no materials from animals -- preventing the risk of transmitting viruses than can be hidden in an animal's DNA, and followed European Union guidelines.

Stem cells are the body's master cells and they can be found throughout the blood and tissues. Researchers have recently found that fat contains stem cells which can be directed to form a variety of different tissues. Using a patient's own stem cells provides a tailor-made transplant that the body should not reject. Suuronen and her colleagues isolated stem cells from the patient's fat and grew them for two weeks in a specially formulated nutritious soup that included the patient's own blood serum. In this case they identified and pulled out cells called mesenchymal stem cells or immature cells than can give rise to bone, muscle or blood vessels. When they had enough cells to work with, they attached them to a scaffold made out of a calcium phosphate biomaterial and then put it inside the patient's abdomen to grow for nine months. The cells turned into a variety of tissues and even produced blood vessels, the researchers said. The block was later transplanted into the patient's head and connected to the skull bone using screws and microsurgery to connect arteries and veins to the vessels of the neck.

The patient's upper jaw had previously been removed due to a benign tumor and he was unable to eat or speak without the use of a removable prosthesis. Suuronen said her team had submitted a report on the procedure to a medical journal to be reviewed.

Simple Jokes For Twisted Minds

Clean Jokes For Slightly Twisted Minds

Work Out and Drink Up

This article by Sanjay Gupta in this weeks Time magazine was provocative & interesting. Thought our blogeurs would appreciate a bit of tippling-news.

If you want to live a long and healthy life, you're probably trying to eat right, exercise regularly and get enough sleep. Good steps. Now how about adding a little alcohol to your regimen?

That's right. It is well documented that tossing a few drinks back in a week (and that means a few: up to one a day for women, up to two for men) has potential heart benefits. But researchers in Denmark decided to look further. Could drinking alcohol have a benefit similar to that of exercise?

"If you don't want to exercise too much," asks Dr. Morten Gronbaek, epidemiologist with Denmark's National Institute of Public Health, "can you trade it for one to two drinks per day and be fine?" A study Gronbaek and colleagues just published in the European Heart Journal suggests the answer just may be yes. That finding, not surprisingly, has proved to be a crowd-pleaser.

There are a number of reasons a drink can be such a tonic. First, alcohol and exercise affect your heart health in similar ways. "They help increase good cholesterol, or HDL [high-density lipoproteins], and clean the circulatory system's pipes," says Dr. Arthur Klatsky, a cardiologist and researcher at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. "HDL helps remove fatty deposits, created by bad cholesterol, or LDL [low-density lipoproteins], from blood-vessel walls. The higher the HDL, the less likely vascular disease becomes. The lower the HDL, the more likely."

Gronbaek and his team surveyed 12,000 people over a 20-year period. They found that exercise and drinking alcohol each had an independent beneficial effect on the heart and a compounded effect when practiced together. The investigators got even greater insight when they separated the study participants into four categories.

People who don't drink at all and don't exercise had the highest risk of heart disease. People who drink moderately and exercise had a 50% lower risk. Teetotaling exercisers had a 30% decreased risk, as did moderately drinking couch potatoes. "There's an additional protective effect to doing both," says Gronbaek. "That's the new finding."

This study is part of a growing body of work that makes a medical virtue out of what was once seen as a vice. There is evidence that alcohol in combination with caffeine can limit the damage to your brain after a stroke, even though it may not lower your risk of having a stroke in the first place. Other possible benefits include lowering your risk of diabetes, improving insulin sensitivity in postmenopausal women and decreasing dementia rates in older adults who had been consuming one to six drinks per week.

Before you rush off to hit the bar after your workout, keep in mind that your age matters. Alcohol may do you no coronary good until you reach the age at which heart disease becomes an appreciable risk. "You wouldn't advise everyone to drink," says Gronbaek. "You shouldn't even think about doing it until age 45 or 50. There's absolutely no proof of a preventative and protective effect before age 45." Also, younger women who have a higher risk of breast cancer and anyone who has a family history of alcoholism should pass on the pint and order a soda.

And remember, moderation is everything. Gronbaek's study, like most, stuck to the one-drink-a-day standard for women and up to two a day for men. It did not distinguish between type (wine vs. beer) or size (pint vs. shot). But here common sense must rule. A 10-oz. martini is a lot more than a 6-oz. serving of wine, even if they each fit in one glass. And it goes without saying that you should never drink your weekly allotment all at once!

Viagra & Assisted Reproduction

In order for successful implantation to occur, an adequately prepared endometrium has to be built up during the menstrual cycle. Endometrial development is regulated by steroid hormones and various growth factors and cytokines. Some of these factors are produced locally and act via paracrine mechanisms; others have to be transferred to the endometrium. Sufficient uterine blood supply is required for these factors to reach the endometrium, especially to its functional layer. Several studies have tried to evaluate the association between the morphologic characteristics of the endometrium and pregnancy rates in assisted reproduction therapy (ART) cycles. Although the results are sometimes conflicting, most studies agree that the endometrium has to reach a certain thickness for successful pregnancy to occur. We have found that endometrial thickness was significantly associated with in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcome. In addition, pregnancy rates were higher when the endometrium was thicker than 8-10 mm.

Various agents that influence blood flow have been evaluated to determine whether their use during ART has an impact on implantation/ pregnancy rates. Antithrombotic agents, aspirin, and heparin have been evaluated by several groups. Two prospective, randomized studies reported opposing results with aspirin use in an unselected IVF population. A third study including donor egg recipients found a positive effect of aspirin on implantation rates among those women whose endometrium was thinner than 8 mm. Heparin was found to improve pregnancy rates among women with thrombophilia and recurrent abortions. Currently the literature does not support the routine use of these medications among infertile women.

Nitric oxide relaxes vascular smooth muscle, an effect that is mediated by cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). Guanylate cyclase and cGMP have been detected in human myometrium obtained from both nonpregnant and pregnant women. Sildenafil is a selective inhibitor of the type V cGMP-specific phosphodiesterase. With the use of sildenafil, cGMP levels remain elevated, which leads to vascular relaxation and increased blood flow. Sher and colleagues evaluated the effect of sildenafil (viagra), administered in the form of a vaginal suppository, on endometrial development in 4 women who had had thin endometria during previous ART treatment (< 8 mm). Doppler studies revealed a decreased pulsatility index with sildenafil use, and in 3 of the 4 women a significantly thicker endometrium was achieved with the addition of sildenafil. All 3 of these women became pregnant. In a second study from the same group using a larger cohort of women (n = 105), improved endometrial development was achieved among 70% of women selected similarly to that in the initial study. Among these women, a 29% ongoing pregnancy rate was achieved. The pregnancy rate was significantly lower -- only 2% -- among those whose endometrium remained thin despite sildenafil(viagra) use.

The safety of sildenafil among infertile women has not been established, although no increased incidence of adverse events has been observed based on limited information. Most of the reported adverse events with sildenafil involved men with underlying cardiovascular disease or were possibly due to an interaction with other drugs. Animal studies have not revealed any adverse reproductive effects, but there are no human data evaluating sildenafil effects during pregnancy.

The exact mechanism by which vaginally administered sildenafil could improve pregnancy rates is not clear. One possible mechanism is that it may improve the uterine blood supply. Alternatively, sildenafil may have an effect on any of the cytokines that regulate endometrial development or implantation. Further, improved pelvic blood flow can have a beneficial effect on ovarian function. The effects of sildenafil among infertile women need to be evaluated in well-designed studies. The safety has to be established as well. At this point, sildenafil use should be considered experimental.

Mera Bharat Mahaan

Shipra Bhattacharya

I recently attended the Golden Brush-2008 award function for young artists in the cradle of art- Kolkata! I utilised the few hours I had before the function in browsing through some art galleries, as is my favorite hobby in Kolkata. I was completely over-awed by a small oil on canvas (18" x 18") that I discovered lying amongst some other paintings at the Vikalp Art Gallery at Swabhumi, Kolkata. I bought this splendid work & want to share it with our blogeurs.
Distinguished art critic Manasij Majumdar writes of the artist’s work - "Shipra Bhattacharya has made her presence felt on our art scene since her first solo show in 1981. In her early works she portrayed life-scapes she saw everywhere around, with an immense zest for the figurative idiom and a finesse in execution. Her subject was ordinary people, mostly women folk of the urban and non-urban milieu, painted with loving care in oil and mixed media for their formal and conceptual contours. These were remarkable pictures peopled by diversely positioned figures designed in a richly complexor simple structure and in schemes of piquant colours with splendid tonalor lineal flair. Her drawings done in the mid-80s and later were by no means related to her paintings except in their well-honed execution. The figures and forms in them, evoked in meticulous filigree of pen-and-ink hatchings, had strange awesome elfin looks. They enacted minor fantasies with lively gestures unlike any of the characters in her paintings.
The current series look so fresh unlike her images of the 80's. But these canvases evolve technically and conceptually out of her earlier works. The crowded life-scapes she once painted are missing here. Nevertheless, in portraits of individual faces and figures they delve into the life within. The characters are all women - each with her secret passion seeking fulfilment or innervoid of unfulfilled desire. They are placed either in landscapes of a tender fantasy or fairly realistic urban settings, indoor or outdoor. Oblique visual clues to her subject, often of symbolic and metaphorical nature, enrich Shipra's figurative idiom. What makes her oils most delightful are her smooth brushwork, glowing tonalities of complementary hues often with a soft sensuous sheen; tender dreamy painterly stillness in the faces of her characters, lineal flow fleshing out the beauty of her homely women and their bright colour saris in rhythmic furrows of fold and pleats. No doubt, in less than two decades Shipra's art has scaled a new height."
Would love feedback about this blog!

Ghost in the machine?

A friend forwarded this article to me from the BMJ archives. I thought it made very good reading sense for my medical colleagues on a Sunday!

"Recently, I was the anaesthetist for some elective caesarean sections. All was running smoothly, with relaxing background music in dimmed ambient light. Despite this, one mother was very anxious about the impersonal medical environment. Thus when the baby was delivered, I allowed her to touch her newborn without any “foreign body” interfering. Not thinking too much, I took the saturation probe off her finger and clipped the probe onto the drip chamber of the infusion set. To my intense surprise, not only did the screen come up with a regular waveform, resembling an electrocardiograph trace rather than an artefact, but it also displayed the “oxygen saturation” of the bloodless solution and the rate of drops infused per minute (figure).Pulse oximeters are used to determine arterial oxygen saturations by using oximetry and Beer-Lambert’s law.1 Diodes send out light of the required wavelength, usually in the red and infrared spectrum as absorbance of body tissues in this range is small. Therefore absorbance essentially results from the presence of oxygenated or deoxygenated haemoglobin. A photometer on the opposite side of the probe detects the transmitted light. The signal is converted to a DC component, representing venous blood and tissue, and an AC component, representing pulsatile flow. Only the latter component is amplified and averaged over a few cycles. Inaccuracies are the result of several factors, including bright ambient light, movement, electrical interference, venous congestion, and various pigments or molecules (such as nail polish, bilirubin, carboxyhaemoglobin, methaemoglobin, or methylene blue).A near-infrared laser at a wavelength of 830 nm was used previously to measure lactic acid non-invasively.2 As Ringer’s solution was infused on this occasion, the lactate component (about 28 mmol/l) of the balanced crystalloid is the likely culprit, causing signal extinction and the generation of a numerical value for “oxygen saturation.” A gelatin solution was later tested, achieving a trace of inferior quality and lower readings. Physiological saline solution on the other hand produced a stronger signal, but even lower saturations. Both traces looked very much like artefacts compared with the one produced by Ringer’s lactate.So what about the pulsatile flow—surely, there was none? Although this all happened just around Hallowe’en, surely there was no supernatural spirit in the machine? No, in fact, it was the regular intermittent light absorption, induced by the falling drops, that had fooled the sensor into recognising an AC component and then displaying a “pulse rate.” - Andreas Kopka
Andreas Kopka is a consultant anaesthetist Greater Glasgow University Hospitals, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow G51 4TF a.kopka@doctors.org.ukI
Not commissioned; not peer reviewed.
1 Davis PD, Parbrook GD, Kenny GNC. Basic physics and measurement in anaesthesia, 4th ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998.
2 Pilotto S, Pacheco MTT, Silveira Jr L, Balbin Villaverde A, Zangaro RA. Analysis of near-infrared Raman spectroscopy as a new technique for a transcutaneous non-invasive diagnosis of blood components. Lasers in Medical Science 2001;16:2-9.

Chicken Soup For The Beer

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel shamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
~ Jack Handy


"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. "
~Frank Sinatra

"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading."
~ Henny Youngman

"24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not."
~ Stephen Wright

"When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. Sooooo, let's all get drunk and go to heaven!"
~ Brian O'Rourke

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine
invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza."
~ Dave Barry

BEER: HELPING UGLY PEOPLE HAVE SEX SINCE 3000 B.C.!!!
~ "Unknown"

Remember "I" before "E", except in Budweiser.

To some it's a six-pack, to me it's a Support Group. Salvation in
a can!

And saving the best for last, as explained by Cliff Clavin, of Cheers. One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the
Buffalo Theory to his buddy Norm. Here's how it went:
"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers.

Dark Humor

Lesbian Whips Lawsuit

A lesbian woman, from California, US, is appealing a court decision that upheld a decision made by her doctors to withhold fertility treatment from her on religious grounds. Her case will be heard in the California Supreme Court, the highest court in the state, after having been heard in various courts over the past five years. The woman, Guadalupe Benitez, who is now 33, was kept on a waiting list for fertility treatment for almost two years, before she was told that neither of her two doctors - Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton - would treat her. She claims that each doctor said that treating her and allowing her to have children, because of her sexual orientation, conflicted with their religious beliefs. Both of the doctors deny that this was the reason they denied her treatment, and say that it was the fact she is unmarried that was the deciding factor. However, at the time, Ms Benitez had been with the same partner for 15 years, and the couple had also legally registered their domestic partnership. Since the case was originally filed, Benitez has received fertility treatment elsewhere and given birth to a son, now three years old, and twin daughters.
Ms Benitez's case was initially unsuccessful in the state courts, but she won an appeal three years ago, the court finding that patients can sue health care providers who discriminate against patients on the basis of sexual orientation, and that federal law does not exempt health care providers from the civil rights laws. Later, in 2004, a court found that doctors working in the commercial sector must comply with the State's anti-discrimination laws and treat all patients equally, whatever the religious beliefs of the individual doctors. However, on appeal by the doctors, this decision was later overturned.
Jennifer C. Pizer, one of the lawyers acting for Ms Benitez, said that 'our client's doctors' behaviour goes against established medical ethics and violates California civil rights law'. She added that the 'doctors claim a right not to comply with California's civil rights law because they are fundamentalist Christians and they object to treating a lesbian patient the same way they treat other patients'. Ms Benitez said that she was intent on taking the case as far as it would go as the doctors 'humiliated my family and me by refusing to perform the insemination procedure after they'd been treating me and promising it to me for nearly a year'. She added 'I don't want anyone else to have to suffer the humiliating treatment by their doctors that I endured'.

"Micro-Bubbles" Boost Diabetes Gene Therapy Research

Scientists at Baylor University Medical Center in Texas, US, have developed a novel method of delivering an insulin gene into the pancreas of experimental rats in a potential breakthrough in diabetes research. The researchers injected the rats with microscopic spherical shells enclosing a gene that codes for insulin, which is not produced correctly in the pancreas of diabetes sufferers. The team then directed an ultrasonic pulse at the rats' pancreas, which broke the 'bubble' enclosing the new DNA. This method allows the gene to be delivered to a specific location, crucial in diabetes and until this point one of the biggest barriers to gene therapy.
Previous attempts at gene therapy have relied on the use of harmless viruses engineered to carry the healthy gene. These viruses are injected into the animal or person and the harmless virus and the new, desirable, gene become incorporated into the host's DNA. Gene therapy has a controversial history as this method has the potential for a dangerous immune response, thought to be responsible for the death of teenager Jesse Gelsinger in 1999 whilst undergoing gene therapy for a rare liver disorder. As well as the potential for a dangerous immune response this method does not allow the gene to be targeted to a particular location or organ. Pancreatic cells are the only cells in the body which are fine-tuned to release the correct levels of insulin in response to food intake. If other cells in the body were to pick up and start producing insulin the results could be disastrous. Speaking to the New Scientist, Mark Kay, from the Stanford University School of Medicine, explained that 'the results would be willy-nilly - you'd more likely die from hypoglycaemic shock than the high blood sugar levels' that characterise diabetes.
The team at Baylor injected the bubbles - made with a shell of water insoluble molecules - into rats. The bubbles that were initially injected contained an inert circular piece of DNA - known as a plasmid - engineered with a gene that codes for a fluorescent protein marker. The technique, known as 'ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction', involves using ultrasound waves directed at islet cells in the pancreas. These waves break bubbles in nearby blood vessels which consequently release the gene; the waves also break holes in the membranes of adjacent cells creating a passage for the genes to enter through. After breaking the bubbles in the rat pancreases using the directed ultrasound pulse, researchers dissected the animals and found higher levels of fluorescence in the pancreas than in other areas.
In further experiments the researchers injected bubbles containing a plasmid which had the human gene for insulin engineered into it. Again, after bursting the bubbles researchers dissected the rats and found significantly elevated levels of human insulin in the rodents. The animals' blood sugar levels also dropped compared with rats that were used as controls. 'This work shows that genes can be targeted to pancreatic islets in living, adult animals', commented Paul Grayburn, the cardiologist at Baylor who led the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The next big challenge with this therapy will be developing it so that the effect lasts for a long time - currently the protein produced by the new gene can only be detected for around three weeks after treatment.

FINDING TRAVEL INSURANCE THAT COVERS PEOPLE WITH MEDICAL CONDITIONS

Dear Friends,
I came across this nugget on the net. I really thought it worthwhile to share this British article with you.

"Last November, the UK's Genetics and Insurance Committee held a meeting on Family History, Genetics and Insurance, which included presentations providing advice to people with a serious medical condition on buying insurance. This article deals with buying travel insurance if you are affected by a genetic condition, or indeed any long-term medical condition. Finding the right travel insurance policy can be more difficult if you have been diagnosed with a serious health condition. This need not be a major worry, as insurance will be available in almost all cases, but you do need to make sure you shop around with the right insurers. People diagnosed with health conditions will, however, find they usually pay more for travel insurance than people with no serious health issues. This is because they typically present insurers with a higher likelihood of making an expensive medical-related claim. Travel insurers are not concerned with your genetic susceptibility to health conditions and will not ask for the results of predictive genetic screening before selling you a policy. But they do need to know if you have an actual diagnosis of illness. Travel insurance is designed principally to help you pay for emergency medical help while abroad, which is by far the most costly risk people typically face when travelling, and the reason you pay more for cover if you present a higher medical risk. The figures below from the Foreign Office website illustrate the typical costs of getting you home to the UK after a medical emergency:
£30-35,000: Air ambulance from East coast of USA
£15-20,000: Ordinary scheduled flight with doctor escort from Australia
£12-16,000: Air ambulance from Canaries
£10-12,000: Air ambulance from Balearics
£3-£6,000: Ordinary scheduled flight, with stretcher and Doctor escort from Mediterranean
£1,200-3,000: Air taxi (light aircraft) from Northern France
So, in spite of the higher cost you can pay if you have an illness, travel insurance is still well worth buying. The costs of emergency help are high in places that do not offer free health care, such as North America, but even in Europe, emergency medical repatriation to the UK can cost thousands.It is also the case that not all insurers are able to provide cover to
people with serious conditions, such as active cancers. This is because they will not have the right experience in underwriting these risks. In these cases, you will need to contact one of the many specialist insurers on the market.
Here are some useful tips on finding insurance if you have a medical condition:
- Don't always rely on the mass-market insurers, or tour operators that sell insurance as part of a package holiday. Some of these won't be able to cover medical conditions, especially very serious ones.
- Go to specialists - more and more insurers have specialist knowledge of medical conditions and can offer you cover. Some companies specifically market to people with pre-existing medical conditions.
- Shop around - insurance policies differ on both cover and price, so compare the quotes you receive to find the best deal.
- If you have any problems trying to find specialist insurers, use a broker.
They can do the work for you. You can contact a broker through the British Insurance Brokers Association, who host a website and a dedicated customer helpline: Telephone: 090 1814 0015; Email: enquiries@biba.org.uk
The most important thing to remember if you have a medical condition is not to leave insurance until the last minute: make it a key part of your travelling plans and shop around with the right providers to get the best deal.
- Sean Worth, UK Association of British Insurers

Unknown Sperm Donor Passes Disease to Five Children

Doctors have discovered that a sperm donor in the US has passed on a rare genetic disease to five children born to four couples who used his sperm to conceive. The disease, severe congenital neutropenia (SCN), can be fatal in children if untreated but is so rare that sperm banks do not typically test for it. Even though donors are asked to give full details about their medical and family history, the information they provide would not necessarily ever indicate the presence of the risk, especially if the man had no symptoms of the condition himself or was only a carrier.
Although the provision of fertility treatment is not regulated in the US, guidelines issued by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) state that anonymous gamete donors must provide a family medical history that goes back for at least three generations. The ASRM guidelines also state that full chromosomal screening is not needed where there is a proper family history detailing any potential heritable disorders. Sperm donors are routinely screened for more common genetic disorders, such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anaemia, but not for more rare genetic diseases. The cluster of SCN cases was identified by the SCN International Registry and by Dr Laurence Boxer, director of paediatric haematology and oncology at the University of Michigan and an expert on the disease. Although the researchers did not have sperm samples to test, as the clinic had discarded the remainder of the man's sperm, they concluded that the children affected could all be traced back to the sperm of one man because the four couples with affected children all used sperm from the same sperm bank in Michigan, US, and all had the same version of the defective gene. Dr Boxer, who co-authored a report on the findings published in the Journal of Paediatrics, refused to identify the sperm bank by name, or say where the couples treated came from, and stated that it was not known whether the man concerned knew he was a carrier - the sperm bank only reported that the man concerned was 'healthy'. Dr Boxer speculates that as the man was otherwise healthy, he must have had an unusual condition called mosaicism, in which the mutated gene was carried only in his sperm and not in the rest of his body. 'Otherwise he would have been a very sick man', he said.
SCN occurs in only about one in 5 million births - children born with the disease cannot make the type of white blood cell that kills bacteria in the body and, as a result, they are unable to fight infections. The children affected are receiving treatment which helps them to build up their white blood cell production, said Dr Boxer. But he added that they will always have a greater risk of developing leukaemia than other children and all face a 50 per cent chance of passing the condition on to their own children. 'The bottom line is, when you use a sperm donor, you really don't know what you're getting', he said, adding that prospective parents should be advised that screening of donors will not always identify all potential genetic diseases. 'The mothers need to be prepared that there is always an inherent risk of a genetic disorder being transmitted by the donor's sperm', he advised.

Twins Born 16 Years Apart

UK newspapers have reported on the story of 'twin' girls born 16 years apart following IVF treatment. Jane and Alan Davis began IVF treatment in March 1989. Thirty-three eggs were collected, and fertilised with Mr Davis' sperm, producing a number of viable embryos. Three were implanted and 22 others were kept in frozen storage to potentially be used in the future.
Emma Davis, now 16-years old, was born in December 1989. Her sister, Niamh, who began life as an embryo at the same time as Emma, was born in December 2005. According to UK law, IVF embryos can usually only be kept for five years, with the possibility of an extension. Doctors treating the couple decided that their circumstances were so exceptional that they should be granted a special dispensation to keep their frozen embryos in storage for longer. Although siblings have been born up to 21 years apart after the use of frozen sperm, this means that 16 years is now the record for siblings being born from the same batch of IVF embryos.
'We feel incredibly lucky that we've finally been able to complete our family. It's been a long and traumatic journey, but we're so glad we never gave up', said Mrs Davis who has had ten miscarriages, three ectopic pregnancies and lost a third child - conceived from the same batch of IVF embryos. The ectopic pregnancies, which followed after Mrs Davis conceived naturally after the birth of Emma, damaged Mrs Davis' fallopian tubes so badly that she had no chance of conceiving naturally again. After saving money for more IVF treatment, in 2002, the Davises told Emma they wanted to try for another child using an embryo stored since she was conceived: 'We'd told Emma about the unusual circumstances of her birth and she'd simply accepted it', said Mrs Davis, adding 'she was just thrilled at the prospect of a brother or sister'. However, despite getting pregnant, they lost the baby at six months old. A second attempt ended in a miscarriage and doctors told the couple that embryos could not be kept frozen for ever without losing quality.
In April 2005, the couple decided to have one final attempt at IVF. Each time they tried, six embryos were thawed and the best selected for implantation. 'We knew that after this attempt, only three frozen embryos would remain, which might not be enough to keep trying', said Mrs Davis. But this time the pregnancy was uncomplicated. Dr Goswamy, who treated the couple initially at London's Churchill Clinic, and then later at the Harley Street Fertility Centre, said that he believed 16 years is the longest time between siblings born from embryos created at the same time. 'As far as I know, this is a record', he said, adding 'I don't know of any other case, anywhere in the world, where children from the same batch of eggs have been born 16 years apart'.
The Davises are discussing what to do with their three remaining frozen embryos, but are almost certain they will have them destroyed. 'I doubt three embryos is a large enough number to be useful in research', they said. Speaking about her new sister, Emma Davis said that she realises that 'it's very unusual to have a twin sister born 16 years after me'. She added: 'But we're not identical, and I don't really think of her as my twin, more as my baby sister'.
Although theoretically very long term freezing is possible, the normal period for embryo storage in the UK is limited to five years, because of the risks of embryo deterioration. However, this story seems to suggest that longer-term freezing carries few significant dangers. Planer, the company that developed the freezing equipment in which the embryos were stored, said in a press release that Niamh's birth 'is believed to set a new record for viability in the long term'. The previous record was twelve years, when in February 2004 it was reported in that a 39-year old Israeli woman has given birth to twins using frozen embryos created twelve years prior. On that occasion, the embryos had been frozen prior to storage in a controlled rate freezer also made by Planer.
We have a Planer at Rotunda:)

Three Siblings affected with rare genetic disease

A British couple have spoken of their heartbreak at having had three young sons diagnosed with the same rare terminal genetic condition. Scott and Nicola Smith, from Eyres Monsell, Leicester, have spoken to the press about discovering their sons' incurable brain disorder. Eight-year old Connor, six-year old Callum, and five-year old Jack all have a condition called adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), sometimes also called Schilder's Disease. The condition, which affects one in every 20,000 boys, attacks the brain and central nervous system, and most of those affected will die before they reach adulthood. Sufferers are unable to produce an enzyme that breaks down saturated, fatty acids in the brain, causing these to accumulate. Eventually, sufferers lose their sight, hearing and the ability to walk or talk. Current treatments include bone marrow transplants and a dietary fat known as Lorenzo's Oil, also the name of a feature film about a boy suffering from ALD. The film tells the real-life story of Augusto Odone, who developed the oil as a treatment for his son, Lorenzo.
Mrs Smith recently found out that she was a carrier for ALD. The disease is caused by a genetic abnormality involving the X chromosome and is carried by about one in 14,000 women. But by then, she said that she and her husband Scott had already started to see the signs in Callum. Callum was the first to be diagnosed, only last month and, following tests on the other boys, it was discovered that they both were also affected. 'We can't believe this is happening', said Mrs Smith, adding 'it's a nightmare'. She went on to say that 'we always knew there was a chance Connor and Jack would have it, but we prayed and hoped they would escape it'. At present, all three boys appear normal, but doctors say Callum is already showing signs of brain damage.
Dr Jayaprakash Gosalakkal, the consultant paediatric neurologist treating the brothers at Leicester Royal Infirmary, said that it is almost unheard of to have three sufferers of ALD in one family. The only other case where the disease affected more than two boys in the same family was in China where four siblings were diagnosed with the condition, he said. He added that doctors 'are exploring the possibility of bone marrow transplants and also the possibility of stem cell treatment. The investigation is still in its very early stages'. 'I really didn't know how to break it to the mother', he said, adding 'I saw their reaction when I told them about the first son, Callum. Telling them was one of the most awful things I have ever had to do'.

Placenta Previa linked to ART

Researchers at St Olav's University Hospital in Trondheim, Norway, have discovered a link between assisted reproduction and an increased risk of placenta previa - a dangerous complication of pregnancy where the placenta covers all or part of the cervix. The condition normally affects around three in 1000 births, but with a single IVF or ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) conception the risk raises to 16 in 1000. The researchers also examined women who had one pregnancy conceived naturally and one conceived using assisted reproduction (ART), in this case the risk rose from around seven in 1000 for two natural conceptions to 20 in 1000 for one ART and one natural; it did not make a difference which pregnancy was through assisted reproduction. This helps to rule out the possibility that there was some maternal factor in the single ART pregnancies which could cloud the findings.
The study, published in Human Reproduction, looked at more than 845,000 cases between 1988 and 2002, and was designed to correct for factors such as maternal age. The underlying reasons for the increased risk are not clear although the team postulate that the position in which the embryos are placed into the womb in ART may be a factor. There is research that suggests conception rates are higher when the embryo is inserted lower down in the uterus - this is also thought to reduce the risk of ectopic pregnancy. The team are now calling on fertility clinics to record this extra data. Dr Liv Bente Romundstad, leader of the study, said 'we now routinely do this, but we need other centres worldwide to do this as well'. She added: 'Although the risk of placenta previa is considerably higher with ART it is still quite rare, which means it will probably take several thousand pregnancies to get sufficient data to be able to make any definite recommendations about clinical practice'.
In the paper the researchers suggest that assisted reproduction techniques may induce uterine contractions after stimulation of the cervix, this may then lead to more embryos implanting low-down. If the placenta covers the whole of the cervix then the baby must be delivered by caesarean section. There is also an increased risk of bleeding or hemorrhage as the placenta is stretched during the final stages of pregnancy.
Dr Romundstad said that 'regardless of whether it was the first or second pregnancy that was conceived through assisted reproductive technology, we found a nearly threefold higher risk of placenta previa', adding that 'this suggests a substantial proportion of the extra risk may be attributable directly to factors relating to the reproduction technology'. In the light of the findings, Dr Mark Hamilton, chairman of the British Fertility Society, said that 'patients who are considering IVF treatment should discuss concerns with their gynecologist in advance of treatment and those who are pregnant might want to discuss this with their obstetrician'.

Uphill Metro

Here is something you don’t see everyday (unless you live in Israel of course). In the city of Haifa in Israel you can find the only subway system in Israel - and it’s a pretty complicated one since it is capable of going uphill. I like it maybe because I live a sheltered life but I’ve never been more surprised by a public transport system than when I came across this little beauty. It’s called the Carmelit, it runs underground in the citry of Haifa, Israel and it’s the country’s only subway system. Due to the city being located on the side of Mount Carmel, the entire single track ‘funicular’ system has been designed to accommodate the incline, hence the strange stepped stations and diagonal trains. I’m told they’re more common at ski resorts which would maybe explain why I’ve never seen one before.

Either way, it’s quirky and it’s brilliant.

Because much of Haifa is built on top of the Mt Carmel, the Carmelit (named after this mountain) is an underground funicular that goes up and down the mountain. The altitude difference between the first and last stations is 274 meters.) Carmelit cars have a slanted design, with steps within each car and on the station platform. Since the gradient varies along the route, the floor of each car is never quite level, and slopes slightly "uphill" or "downhill" depending on the location. The Carmelit is one of the smallest subways in the world, having only four cars, six stations and a single tunnel 1800 meters long. The four cars operate as two two-car trains, which run on single track with a short double-track section to allow trains to cross.
It is not the smallest subway in the world - the Istanbul Tünel, with two stations and 573 meters long, is smaller. However, since Istanbul also has a newer and bigger (though separate) subway system, the Carmelit is the smallest subway system in the world.

Human embryos successfully cloned from skin cells, cloned babies next?

Stem cell research, whether you agree with it or not, looks to have taken another step forward recently. A company called Stemagen out of La Jolla, California has “created the first mature cloned human embryos from single skin cells taken from adults, a significant advance toward the goal of growing personalized stem cells for patients suffering from various diseases,” reports the Washington Post. Stemagen’s chief executive Samuel H. Wood isn’t interested in — and is, in fact, opposed to — cloning human beings. “It’s unethical and it’s illegal, and we hope no one else does it either,” says Wood, noting that his companies goal is solely to help with diseases and patient-specific medicine.

Stemagen’s process involves creating an embryonic, genetic twin of a patient and then extracting replacement tissue from the embryo’s stem cells. The transplanted tissue wouldn’t be rejected by the patient’s body because the body would genetically see the tissue as its own. Making the cloned embryo looks to be a relatively simple process with about a 25 percent success rate.

“In the new work, the team took skin cells — some from Wood’s arm and some from an anonymous Stemagen investor — and fused them to eggs from women who were donating their eggs to help infertile women. About one-quarter of the resulting clones, or five in all, developed into five-day-old blastocysts.”

These new developments, according to the Washington Post, offer “sobering evidence that few, if any, technical barriers may remain to the creation of cloned babies.”

Thought provoking article by a Pakistani Writer

Capital suggestion
By Dr Farrukh Saleem
12/9/2007


Twenty-five thousand years ago, haplogroup R2 characterized by genetic marker M124 arose in southern Central Asia. Then began a major wave of human migration whereby members migrated southward to present-day India and Pakistan (Genographic Project by the National Geographic Society; http://www.nationalgeographiccom/). Indians and Pakistanis have the same ancestry and share the same DNA sequence.

Here's what is happening in India:

The two Ambani brothers can buy 100 percent of every company listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and would still be left with $30 billion to spare. The four richest Indians can buy up all goods and services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis and still be left with $60 billion to spare. The four richest Indians are now richer than the forty richest Chinese.

In November, Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex flirted with 20,000 points. As a consequence, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries became a $100 billion company (the entire KSE is capitalized at $65 billion). Mukesh owns 48 percent of Reliance.

In November, comes Neeta's birthday. Neeta turned forty-four three weeks ago. Look what she got from her husband as her birthday present: A sixty-million dollar jet with a custom fitted master bedroom, bathroom with mood lighting, a sky bar, entertainment cabins, satellite television, wireless communication and a separate cabin with game consoles. Neeta is Mukesh Ambani's wife, and Mukesh is not India's richest but the second richest.

Mukesh is now building his new home, Residence Antillia (after a mythical, phantom island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean). At a cost of $1 billion this would be the most expensive home on the face of the planet. At 173 meters tall Mukesh's new family residence, for a family of six, will be the equivalent of a 60-storeyed building. The first six floors are reserved for parking. The seventh floor is for car servicing and maintenance. The eighth floor houses a mini-theatre. Then there's a health club, a gym and a swimming pool. Two floors are reserved for Ambani family's guests. Four floors above the guest floors are family floors all with a superb view of the Arabian Sea. On top of everything are three helipads. A staff of 600 is expected to care for the family and their family home.

In 2004, India became the 3rd most attractive foreign direct investment destination. Pakistan wasn't even in the top 25 countries. In 2004, the United Nations, the representative body of 192 sovereign member states, had requested the Election Commission of India to assist the UN in the holding elections in Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah and Dowlat-e Eslami-ye Afghanestan. Why the Election Commission of India and not the Election Commission of Pakistan? After all, Islamabad is closer to Kabul than is Delhi.

Imagine, 12 percent of all American scientists are of Indian origin; 38 percent of doctors in America are Indian; 36 percent of NASA scientists are Indians; 34 percent of Microsoft employees are Indians; and 28 percent of IBM employees are Indians.

For the record: Sabeer Bhatia created and founded Hotmail. Sun Microsystems was founded by Vinod Khosla. The Intel Pentium processor, that runs 90 percent of all computers, was fathered by Vinod Dham. Rajiv Gupta co-invented Hewlett Packard's E-speak project. Four out of ten Silicon Valley start-ups are run by Indians. Bollywood produces 800 movies per year and six Indian ladies have won Miss Universe/Miss World titles over the past 10 years.

For the record: Azim Premji, the richest Muslim entrepreneur on the face of the planet, was born in Bombay and now lives in Bangalore.India now has more than three dozen billionaires; Pakistan has none (not a single dollar billionaire).

The other amazing aspect is the rapid pace at which India is creating wealth. In 2002, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh and Anil Ambani's father, left his two sons a fortune worth $2.8 billion. In 2007, their combined wealth stood at $94 billion. On 29 October 2007, as a result of the stock market rally and the appreciation of the Indian rupee, Mukesh became the richest person in the world, with net worth climbing to US$63.2 billion (Bill Gates, the richest American, stands at around $56 billion).
Indians and Pakistanis have the same Y-chromosome haplogroup. We have the same genetic sequence and the same genetic marker (namely: M124). We have the same DNA molecule, the same DNA sequence. Our culture, our traditions and our cuisine are all the same. We watch the same movies and sing the same songs. What is it that Indians have and we don't?

Indians elect their leaders.

Reprogrammed Stem Cell Treatments Within Reach

The Japanese scientist whose team was responsible for the breakthrough that enabled human skin cells to be reprogrammed to behave like stem cells, Shinya Yamanaka from Kyoto University, has estimated that stem cell treatments for some diseases could be as little as a decade away. Stem cells have the ability to turn into any of the 220 different cell types found within the body, and therefore it is hoped they will play a crucial role in treating and curing illnesses by replacing damaged cells.
Yamanaka's team's work has been significant primarily because it avoids the need to use viable embryos to create stem cells, which is ethically problematic for many people. The cells created by Mr Yamanaka's team, called induced pluripotent stem
cells (iPS), take three months to create. Therefore, Mr Yamanaka has recommended that an iPS cell bank be created to shorten the time it would take to develop a tailor-made treatment. Mr Yamanaka commented 'by making such a bank, we can cut the cost of treatment and also we can shorten the period which is required for the generation of iPS cells'. However, there are still problems with the use of iPS cells, which means that many research laboratories are still pressing ahead with embryonic stem
(ES) cell research. Kevin Eggan, a stem cell biologist at Harvard University, has warned that because iPS cells are genetically changed they may not be safe. Therefore, until they have been deemed risk-free for clinical trials, Eggan predicts that the demand for ES cells will remain, and that they will still be a better option than the reprogrammed cells, despite the ethical objections. Richard Murphy, president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, also considers ES cells to be the 'gold standard' in research.
Meanwhile, Yamanaka also reported that other laboratories in the US and Japan were now also producing iPS cells, and maintained their potential for patients awaiting treatment. 'All you need is basic technology, cell biology, you don't need special technology or equipments', said Yamanaka, who also emphasised the increasing competition in this area of research
since his discovery of iPS cells last November. He estimated that while stem cell treatments might be available for some diseases within a decade, others could take considerably longer.

Life Today

Women Donate Their Eggs for Cheap IVF Treatment

A UK fertility centre has launched a scheme to provide women with cut-price IVF treatment in return for donating some of their eggs to research. The 'egg-sharing' initiative is being offered by the Newcastle NHS Fertility Centre and the North-East England Stem Cell Institute (Nesci) and will contribute £1500 - around half the cost of one cycle of IVF treatment - to
women who give half their eggs to research. The scheme was approved by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in July 2006 and received public support following a consultation in January 2007. It is intended to make the benefits of IVF more accessible to infertile women whilst addressing the shortage of high quality eggs for human stem cell research. Recruiting started in September 2007 and targets women in the North-East of England aged 21 to 35. So far, 15 women have been found suitable for the scheme out of 100 who came forward. Six of these are due to start their fertility treatment this month. Volunteers are selected after testing and extensive counselling.
Professor Alison Murdoch, who is leading the project, said that 'like all UK research, it will be strictly regulated at a local and national level by ethics committees and the principles of research governance. We expect this to open the door to some infertile women who may now find it less difficult to meet the cost of IVF'. She emphasised that 'the most important
thing is the patient's fertility treatment' - if less than six eggs are collected, the volunteer will be allowed to keep them all in order to maximize their chance of pregnancy. All the women approved for the scheme have had previous IVF treatment, enabling the researchers to select women likely to produce high numbers of good quality eggs.
The donated eggs will be used in somatic cell nuclear transfer experiments to derive embryonic stem cell lines from patients with incurable diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. This strategy, often referred to as 'therapeutic cloning', is used to study the development of these diseases and to test new drugs. A previous scheme allowing researchers to ask for unpaid donations of 'left-over' eggs resulted in insufficient numbers of eggs being contributed to the project.
The new scheme, paid for by the government-funded Medical Research Council, is the first time scientists in the UK have been permitted to offer monetary compensation in return for egg donations for research purposes. This has sparked much dissent amongst pro-life lobbies. Dr Callum MacKellar, director of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics voiced concern that 'this is an exploitation of poor couples. Rich people will not have to be presented with such a choice because they are able to pay for IVF treatment'.

And the western media tells us that women are exploited in third world countries in egg-sharing schemes & surrogacy...

Dark Circles Under The Eyes

Stem Cell Research

Taare Zameen Par

I had the fortune of watching this movie and was moved to tears more than once. This will surely go down as one of the landmarks of Indian Motion Picture history. Never before in the history of Indian cinema have I seen as sensitive a portrayal of contemporary Indian parents & children. Dyslexia has never been exposed to the masses as a sensitive educational audio-visual "commercial" humane drama such as "Taare Zameen Par".
Darsheel Safary the child star seems to have been born for this role. He fits in like a glove & wrenches the audiences' emotions & drains their lachrymal glands in one sweet-little sparkling package!
The lyrics by my friend Prasoon Joshi had me spell-bound. Prasoon has a special gift from the almighty to tug at your heart-strings with his heavenly poetry. This is not a film review, but I just cannot stop gushing over the movie. First-time director Aamir Khan - words are not enough to salute his effort. What he has done to awaken the entire literate Indian Nation & enlighten grown-ups about parenting-truths is possibly beyond his own comprehension. Thank you Aamir. generations will remember you for your epic.
I think it needed this movie to change my own attitude to my kids. I am a changed person & promise myself & my family that I will be a much better fathter to my kids Ranveer & Akanksha after today.
Please visit www.taarezameenpar.com for loads of information about the film & the fabulous team that made this blockbuster.

Fragile X correctable in mice

Scientists have discovered a gene modification which helps to reduce some of the symptoms of Fragile X in mice - a condition which in humans is the leading inherited cause of autism and learning difficulties. Published in the journal Neuron, the research suggests that a new class of drugs entering human safety trials in America next year could help to reverse symptoms of Fragile X. Professor Mark Bear, who led the study at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at Massachusetts Institute for Technology, is optimistic that the discovery will lead to new treatments in the future. 'These findings have major therapeutic implications for fragile X syndrome and autism', he said. Fragile X is an incurable condition which affects one in 4000 boys and half as many girls and has been linked to learning difficulties, epilepsy, abnormal body growth and autism. The condition is caused by a mutation in the X-chromosome's FMR1 gene which results in a weakening of the electrical signals sent along so-called dendric spines - connections involved in communication between brain cells - which become abnormally longer, thinner and more abundant. Scientists believe that these brain abnormalities may be caused when, in the absence of the Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP) - the protein encoded by the FMR1 gene - the production of another protein - mGluR5 - runs out of control. To test this theory, the researchers created 'double mutant' mice which were genetically modified to lack the FMR1 gene and also produce half the amount of mGluR5. They found that many of the Fragile X symptoms, including some of the abnormalities in brain and body growth and development and epileptic seizures, were reduced in the double mutants when compared to 'single mutant' mice who lacked only the FMR1 gene. Although the researchers used a gene modification to reduce mGluR5, in theory the same thing could be achieved by a drug.
However Dr Mark Hirst, scientific advisor to the UK Fragile X Society, believes that reducing mGluR5 alone is unlikely be as effective on human Fragile X patients. 'We must not take our eye off the other proteins that are mis-regulated, as the basis of fragile X syndrome is likely to be more complex and involve other pathways', he told the BBC.

Fertility Falls with Weight Gain

Overweight women are significantly more likely to experience fertility problems, according to a study published in the journal Human Reproduction last week. Obesity is defined in adults as having a body mass index (BMI) above 30. The study found that for every BMI unit above 29, the probability of achieving pregnancy was reduced by four per cent. Dr Jan Willem van der Steeg of the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, who led the study, told the BBC that the findings were 'worrying' in light
of increasing obesity levels in the UK and elsewhere. 'We think that women should be informed about their lower pregnancy chances due to their overweight', he said in a statement, adding: 'We hypothesise that losing weight will increase the chance to conceive without treatment'.
BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. The BMI categories used clinically are normal (18.5-24.9),overweight (25-29.9) and obese (greater than 30). Last month, new guidelines from the British Fertility Society recommended recently that severely obese women, who are under 37 and therefore not in danger of thwarting their reproductive years, should have their fertility treatment deferred until they have lost weight. However at the time some critics voiced concerns that BMI was not a good indicator of body fat in all women, such as those who have a lot of muscle. The researchers examined 3,000 'sub-fertile' women - those who have had at least one year of unprotected sex without conceiving - in the first study of its kind to look at the link between BMI and pregnancy chances in a large group of women who have no obvious reasons for infertility. At the top end of the scale, very obese women (with a BMI of over 35) were found to be 26-43 per cent less likely to conceive than women within an average BMI range of 21-29.
One theory is that leptin - a hormone that regulates appetite and energy expenditure and is secreted in fatty acids - may affect hormone levels in obese women. 'It is possible that obese women may have disturbed hormone levels, which decrease the chances of successful fertilisation and implantation', said Dr van der Steeg, who is convinced that rising levels of
obesity is a primary factor in the increasing numbers of couples seeking infertility treatment.

Zero Sperm Counts & Genetic Links

What has become evident at our Centers over the last several years is that our ability to diagnose and successfully treat severe male infertility problems has surpassed our ability to understand the basic causes of these problems. In the recent past, it was considered that nearly 20% of men with extremely low or "zero" sperm counts had no known medical reason for their fertility problems. Most recently, major advances in molecular biology and genetics have provided the "reasons" for severe infertility (very low or zero sperm counts) in many men whose fertility problems were previously poorly understood. We now know that 20-30% of men with such low (under 10 million/ml) or zero sperm counts have a now identifiable genetic cause for their problem. While we are now able to assist many, many men previously thought to be "hopelessly" infertile achieve pregnancy, it remains very important to not only treat these men, but to provide such couples with genetic information related to the problem causing the low or zero count. This is important because many of these genetic characteristics may potentially be passed along to children conceived with the help of modern male infertility treatments. Genetic disorders that would previously not have been able to be "passed along" due to the male's infertility are now being retained in the "gene pool" as a result of new procedures that overcome most of these previously untreatable male conditions.
Y chromosome deletions can be a contributing factor in male infertility. Only men have a Y chromosome and it is passed from father to son. The Y chromosome contains genes that direct an embryo to develop into a male. While there are few genes on the Y chromosome, included are genes that are important for male fertility.Microdeletions are missing regions of DNA that are so small they can't be detected through normal chromosome analysis. Instead, labs use advanced techniques like polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect whether the regions are present or missing. Sperm production is affected when there are microdeletions on the long arm of the Y chromosome in regions called AZF (for azoospermic factor). Genetic testing looks at three AZF regions. If a deletion is found, the prognosis depends on the amount of missing DNA and the region in which it is missing. Y chromosome microdeletions are the second most common genetic reason that men have a low sperm count or lack sperm. (Klinefelter's syndrome is the most common reason.) Currently, there are no other known health problems that come from having a Y chromosome microdeletion other than infertility.
Incidentally, we were the first in India to offer this test. You can order this test from our homepage at http://www.iwannagetpregnant.com/myctest.shtml
Wishing our bloggeurs a fertile new year!