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Biomedical subjects

E Jenkinson

Publications and source records attributed to E Jenkinson.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

The impact of a new regional air ambulance service on a large general hospital.

BACKGROUND: Helicopter air ambulance crews are influenced in their selection of the destination hospital for their patients by several factors including: distance from the scene; facilities, on site specialties, and senior cover of the receiving hospital; and the proximity of the helicopter landing area to the emergency department (ED). Only a limited number of hospitals have landing sites adjacent to the ED from which patients can be taken directly into the department (primary landing sites). Helicopter crews will often elect to over fly hospitals that do not have primary landing sites because secondary land transfers will add delays in delivering patients. Birmingham Heartlands Hospital has an elevated helideck adjacent to the ED. In October 2003, the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) service was launched; the hospital sits on the western periphery of the area served by the service. METHODS: Prospective data was collated on all patients brought by WNAA to Heartlands Hospital between 1 October 2003 and 31 August 2004. RESULTS: In the 10 month period after the launch of the service, the helicopter delivered 83 patients to the ED; 74 of these were "off patch". This additional workload generated 163 ward days, 19 operative procedures, and 85 intensive care unit, high dependency unit, or coronary care unit days. The direct costs of this additional workload approached 160,000 pounds sterling. CONCLUSIONS: In future discussions on the cost effectiveness of air ambulances, it will be important to consider both the direct and indirect costs to the receiving hospitals arising from the redistribution of emergency workload.

Air Ambulances↗
PubMed2001

Protocols for high efficiency, stage-specific retroviral transduction of murine fetal thymocytes and thymic epithelial cells.

Viral vectors have the potential to provide a fast and economic alternative to transgenic methods for manipulating gene expression in studies of immune system development and function. Although protocols exist for the infection of hematopoietic precursors and peripheral T cells in vitro, critical stages of T cell differentiation are strictly dependent upon a three-dimensional thymic architecture and their analysis poses unique technical challenges. Whole fetal thymic lobes have been used as targets for retroviral and adenoviral infection, both in situ and in vitro, but this approach does not allow for discrimination between lymphoid and stromal components. Isolated thymocytes have been infected by co-culture with viral producer cells, but under these conditions they rapidly lose their developmental potential. To overcome these problems we have combined a number of efficient techniques for retroviral production, concentration, and infection that allow us to rapidly achieve significant transduction rates of purified populations of double-negative (DN) and double-positive (DP) thymocytes, single-positive (SP) T lymphocytes, as well as fetal thymic MHC II(+) epithelial cells without the need for co-culture with viral producer cells. Reaggregate thymic organ culture (RTOC) techniques were used to assess the development and function of transduced cells in defined cellular environments. As a demonstration of the utility of these methods, CD80 (B7.1) was transduced into thymic epithelial cells and shown to allow them to mediate negative selection of DP thymocytes, and to act as antigen-presenting cells (APC) to mature T cells. The ability to genetically manipulate primary cells of a specified type and differentiation stage provides a powerful complement to RTOC techniques for the study of T cell development.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Identification and characterization of lymphoid precursors in the murine intestinal epithelium.

Although in vivo evidence supports a role for the murine intestinal epithelium in the extrathymic generation of certain intraepithelial T lymphocytes (IEL), no intraepithelial cells with in vitro lymphoid progenitor potential have yet been demonstrated. Using reaggregate fetal thymic organ culture techniques, we show that a subset of CD3(-) cells isolated from the intestinal epithelium of young mice is capable of generating T cells (alpha beta and gamma delta) and NK1.1(+) cells in vitro. A novel IEL subset bearing a low level of CD45 was identified and found to comprise cells expressing highly immature lymphoid markers including CD34, c-kit, CD122, CD127 and high levels of CD16 and CD44. This subset represents 20-30% of intraepithelial CD45(+) cells from 4-week-old wild-type and nude mouse strains and contains cells with in vitro T cell differentiation capacity. The identification of such an early pluripotent precursor phenotype within the intestinal epithelium implies that the potential for T cell generation exists at this site, and suggests that extrathymic T cell generation may occur within the epithelium itself.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Immune-associated nucleotide-1 (IAN-1) is a thymic selection marker and defines a novel gene family conserved in plants.

Positive selection of thymocytes is a complex and crucial event in T cell development that is characterized by cell death rescue, commitment toward the helper or cytotoxic lineage, and functional maturation of thymocytes bearing an appropriate TCR. To search for novel genes involved in this process, we compared gene expression patterns in positively selected thymocytes and their immediate progenitors in mice using the differential display technique. This approach lead to the identification of a novel gene, mIAN-1 (murine immune-associated nucleotide-1), that is switched on upon positive selection and predominantly expressed in the lymphoid system. We show that mIAN-1 encodes a 42-kDa protein sharing sequence homology with the pathogen-induced plant protein aig1 and that it defines a novel family of at least three putative GTP-binding proteins. Analysis of protein expression at various stages of thymocyte development links mIAN-1 to CD3-mediated selection events, suggesting that it represents a key player of thymocyte development and that it participates to peripheral specific immune responses. The evolutionary conservation of the IAN family provides a unique example of a plant pathogen response gene conserved in animals.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1995

Vascular compliance and mean circulatory filling pressure in trout: effects of ACE inhibition.

Mean circulatory filling pressure (MCFP), whole body vascular compliance (C), and unstressed blood volume (USV) are important indexes of cardiovascular function in mammals, but they have not been measured in fish. In the present experiments, dorsal aortic (PDA) and sinus venosus (PSV) pressures were measured in unanesthetized trout before and during electrical cardiac fibrillation, while blood volume (BV) was manipulated between 50 and 150% of normal. Measurements were repeated after angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition with lisinopril. Cardiac fibrillation (zero-flow condition) rapidly (approximately 5 s) dropped PDA and increased PSV (equals MCFP). MCFP in normovolemic trout (4.8 +/- 0.3 mmHg) varied directly with BV. C determined from in vivo capacitance curves was similar to that obtained gravimetrically, in vitro (3.4 and 3.5 ml.mmHg-1.kg body wt-1, respectively). USV was 13.3 ml/kg body wt (approximately 45% of BV). ACE inhibition reduced PDA in unfibrillated trout at all BV and reduced PDA in fibrillated fish at BV > or = 80%. ACE inhibition did not affect PSV, MCFP, C, or USV. The systemic arteriovenous pressure gradient at zero flow (delta PF0) was greatest at 100% BV (8.2 +/- 0.5 mmHg) and was reduced by ACE inhibition at 80-120% BV. These results show that key indexes of venous function are readily measured in fish and that the trout venous system is not an effector of angiotensin-mediated regulation of arterial blood pressure. Thus angiotensin acts solely on arterial resistance vessels. Furthermore, the drop in delta PF0 during ACE inhibition is due to a decrease in arteriolar resistance.

Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors↗