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Cellular senescence plays an important role in human diseases, including osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Senescent cells (SCs) produce the senescence-associated secretory phenotype to affect the function of neighboring cells and SCs themselves. Delayed fracture healing is common in the elderly and is accompanied by reduced mesenchymal progenitor cells (MPCs). However, the contribution of cellular senescence to fracture healing in the aged has not to our knowledge been studied. Here, we used C57BL/6J 4-month-old young and 20-month-old aged mice and demonstrated a rapid increase in SCs in the fracture callus of aged mice. The senolytic drugs dasatinib plus quercetin enhanced fracture healing in aged mice. Aged callus SCs inhibited the growth and proliferation of callus-derived MPCs (CaMPCs) and expressed high levels of TGF-[beta]1. TGF-[beta]neutralizing Ab prevented the inhibitory effects of aged callus SCs on CaMPCs and promoted fracture healing in aged mice, which was associated with increased CaMPCs and proliferating cells. Thus, fracture triggered a significant cellular senescence in the callus cells of aged mice, which inhibited MPCs by expressing TGF-[beta]1. Short-term administration of dasatinib plus quercetin depleted callus SCs and accelerated fracture healing in aged mice. Senolytic drugs represent a promising therapy, while TGF-[beta]1 signaling is a molecular mechanism for fractures in the elderly via SCs., Introduction More than 5 million long bone fractures occur annually in the United States, and 15% of them occur in people older than 50 years of age (1). Furthermore, most [...]

Fibroblasts are ubiquitous cells that demonstrate remarkable diversity. However, their origin and pathways of differentiation remain poorly defined. Here, we show that connective tissue growth factor (CTGF; also known as CCN2) is sufficient to induce human bone marrow mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) to differentiate into fibroblasts. CTGF-stimulated MSCs lost their surface mesenchymal epitopes, expressed broad fibroblastic hallmarks, and increasingly synthesized collagen type I and tenacin-C. After fibroblastic commitment, the ability of MSCs to differentiate into nonfibroblastic lineages--including osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and adipocytes--was diminished. To address inherent heterogeneity in MSC culture, we established 18 single MSC-derived clones by limiting dilution. CTGF-treated MSCs were α-[SMA.sup.-], differentiating into α-[SMA.sup.+] myofibroblasts only when stimulated subsequently with TGF-β1, suggestive of stepwise processes of fibroblast commitment, fibrogenesis, and pathological fibrosis. In rats, in vivo microencapsulated delivery of CTGF prompted postnatal connective tissue to undergo fibrogenesis rather than ectopic mineralization. The knowledge that fibroblasts have a mesenchymal origin may enrich our understanding of organ fibrosis, cancer stroma, ectopic mineralization, scarring, and regeneration., Introduction Fibroblasts are ubiquitous cells that constitute the stroma of virtually all tissues. The conventional view of fibroblasts as no more than collagen-producing cells is being challenged by their interactions [...]

This review explores the relationship between engagement with the creative arts and health outcomes, specifically the health effects of music engagement, visual arts therapy, movement-based creative expression, and expressive writing. Although there is evidence that art-based interventions are effective in reducing adverse physiological and psychological outcomes, the extent to which these interventions enhance health status is largely unknown. Our hope is to establish a foundation for continued investigation into this subject and to generate further interest in researching the complexities of engagement with the arts and health. (Am J Public Health. 2010;100:254-263. doi: 10.2105/AJPH. 2008.156497)

This qualitative study examines the recovery stories of 27 adult sexual abuse survivors. Although recovery is highly individualized, participants' narratives indicated three critical elements: (1) disclosing the abuse; (2) making meaning of one's trauma; and (3) developing supportive relationships. Contrasting perspectives toward recovery and healing were revealed where as the former was viewed by participants as obtainable while the latter was not. Results from this study underscore the challenges of opening 'space' within adult survivors' narratives for considering alterative meanings and thus alternative futures.

We examined the involvement of cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 as well as COX-2 in the healing of gastric ulcers and investigated which prostaglandin (PG) EP receptor subtype is responsible for the healing-promoting action of [PGE.sub.2]. Male SD rats and C57BL/6 mice, including wild-type, COX-1(-/-), and COX-2(-/-), were used. Gastric ulcers were produced by thermocauterization under ether anesthesia. Gastric ulcer healing was significantly delayed in both rats and mice by indomethacin and rofecoxib but not SC-560 given for 14 days after ulceration. The impaired healing was also observed in COX-2(-/-) but not COX-1(-/-) mice. Mucosal [PGE.sub.2] content increased after ulceration, and this response was significantly suppressed by indomethacin and rofecoxib but not SC-560. The delayed healing in mice caused by indomethacin was significantly reversed by the coadministration of 11-deoxy-[PGE.sub.1] ([EP.sub.3]/[EP.sub.4] agonist) but not other prostanoids, including the [EP.sub.1], [EP.sub.2], and [EP.sub.3] agonists. By contrast, CJ-42794 (selective [EP.sub.4] antagonist) significantly delayed the ulcer healing in rats and mice. VEGF expression and angiogenesis were both upregulated in the ulcerated mucosa, and these responses were suppressed by indomethacin, rofocoxib, and CJ-42794. The expression of VEGF in primary rat gastric fibroblasts was increased by [PGE.sub.2] or AE1-329 ([EP.sub.4] agonist), and these responses were both attenuated by coadministration of CJ-42794. These results confirmed the importance of COX-2/[PGE.sub.2] in the healing mechanism of gastric ulcers and further suggested that the healing-promoting action of [PGE.sub.2] is mediated by the activation of [EP.sub.4] receptors and is associated with VEGF expression. gastric ulcer; healing; prostaglandin [E.sub.2]; cyclooxygenase-1 and -2; selective cyclooxygenase-1 and -2 inhibitors; [EP.sub.4] antagonist; rat; cyclooxygenase-1 and -2 knockout mice

Mucosal healing requires migration and proliferation. Most studies of focal adhesion kinase (FAK), a protein that regulates motility, proliferation, and apoptosis, have focused on rapid phosphorylation. We reported lower FAK protein levels in motile Caco-2 colon cancer cells and postulated that this reduction in FAK available for activation might impact cell migration and mucosal healing. Therefore, total and active FAK (FA[K.sup.397]) immunoreactivity was assessed at the migrating fronts of human Caco-2 and rat IEC-6 intestinal epithelial cells. Caco-2 and IEC-6 motility, quantitated as migration into linear or circular wounds, was examined following FAK protein inhibition by small interfering RNA (siRNA). FAK protein stability and mRNA expression were ascertained by cycloheximide decay, RT-PCR, and in situ hybridization in static and migrating Caco-2 cells. Cells at the migrating front of Caco-2 and IEC-6 monolayers exhibited lower immunostaining for both total and activated FAK than cells immediately behind the front. Western blot analysis also demonstrated diminished FAK protein levels in motile cells by [greater than or equal to] 30% in both the differential density seeding and multiple scrape models, siRNA FAK protein inhibition enhanced motility in both the linear scrape (20% in Caco-2) and circular wound (16% in Caco-2 and 19% in IEC-6 cells) models. FAK protein degradation did not differ in motile and static Caco-2 cells and was unaffected by FA[K.sup.397] phosphorylation, but FAK mRNA was lower in migrating Caco-2 cells. Thus FAK protein abundance appears regulated at the mRNA level during gut epithelial cell motility and may influence epithelial cell migration coordinately with signals that modify FAK phosphorylation. healing; migration; restitution; ulcer doi:10.1152/ajpgi.00292.2005

Boys are in a crisis--boys in treatment and boys next door. Practitioners need to know more about research that helps to elucidate this crisis of boyhood as well as new clinical insights, derived from a modern rethinking of boyhood. The results of the Listening to Boys' Voices project (see W. S. Pollack, 1999) are reviewed as a springboard for pragmatic suggestions for changes in clinical attitudes toward, and treatment of, boys and young men. Practitioners are also urged to help society stem the tide of pain that today's boys must face in the midst of changing attitudes toward the normative journey toward masculinity. Keywords: boys, male adolescents, boy code, real boys, male or gender development

We have examined wound healing during regeneration of Drosophila wing imaginal discs fragments by confocal microscopy and assessed the role of components of the JNK pathway in this process. After cutting, columnar and peripodial epithelia cells at the wound edge start to close the wound through formation and contraction of an actin cable. This is followed by a zipping process through filopodial protrusions from both epithelia knitting the wound edges from proximal to distal areas of the disc. Activation of the JNK pathway is involved in such process, puckered (puc) expression is induced in several rows of cells at the edge of the wound, whereas absence of JNK pathway activity brought about by hemipterous, basket, and Dfos mutants impair wound healing. These defects are accompanied by lowered or loss of expression of puc. In support of a role of puc in wound healing, hep mutant phenotypes are rescued by reducing puc function, whereas overexpression of puc inhibits wound healing. Altogether, these results demonstrate a role for the JNK pathway in imaginal disc wound healing, similar to that reported for other healing processes such as embryonic dorsal closure, thoracic closure, and adult epithelial wound healing in Drosophila. Differences with such processes are also highlighted. Keywords: Drosophila; Imaginal discs; JNK pathway; Wound healing; Regeneration

This article concerns the variables antecedent to the beliefs surrounding, and experience of, shamanism. McClenon has devised a model--Ritual Healing Theory--in which a chain of variables leads to shamanic belief and experience and thence to healing of various sorts. The present study examined a number of variables in order to ascertain in a preliminary way the viability of McClenon's model: childhood trauma, hypnotizability, anomalous experience, and shamanic belief and experience. Childhood trauma was positively but nonsignificantly correlated with hypnotizability, hypnotizability was positively and significantly correlated with anomalous experience, and anomalous experience was positively and significantly correlated with shamanic belief/experience. Thus there was some evidence that the various variables postulated by McClenon in the chain of causation are related to each other in the way that he posits. Finally, transliminality correlated with all the variables in the model except childhood trauma. It is suggested that transliminality may be located between hypnotizability and anomalous experience or conceivably could be a factor underlying all the variables., The practice of shamanism still remains a vital tradition in many countries. McClenon (2002) defined the "shaman" as the person who links the world of people and the world of [...]

Introduction My interest in this paper is with the use of words in rituals. In part, I am concerned with indigenous notions regarding language, that is to say, with what [...]

Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in which entangled systems exhibit correlations that cannot be explained by classical physics. It has recently been suggested that a similar process occurs between people and explains anomalous phenomena such as healing. This paper explores the hypothesis that the therapeutic interaction involves some kind of 'entanglement' between people. There are several different versions of the theory that entanglement is possible between people: the versions differ in the way entanglement between people is derived, and the way it has a therapeutic effect. The two main versions are generalised, specific entanglement, and global, emergent entanglement-specific entanglement. Two research ideas are presented for testing the hypothesis of entanglement between people, both of which are based on predicting variation in outcome in naturally occurring contexts (the naturalistic observational study). KEYWORDS Healing; Mechanism; Entanglement; Quantum; Complexity

A field trial with lettuce plants was previously conducted in 2000 on a commercial organic farm. In that experiment, a healer was asked to enhance a group of healthy organic lettuce seeds for greater germination, growth, and better health. Only the third aspect gave significant results, with the plants grown from the enhanced seeds having legs fungal disease. The current study is a replication conducted the following year (2001) using a randomised double-blind design with four treatment conditions: one jar of seeds (HX) was enhanced by the healer while a control person mimicked his actions with a second jar (NH) and two jars (C1, C2) remained untreated on the table. The seeds were germinated, planted out, and harvested by the farmers. Each lettuce was weighed upon harvesting and after trimming, rated for slug and fungal damage, and sent off to market. The growth hypothesis was confirmed by significant enhancement in gross weight and net weight for treated seeds, and the health hypothesis by significant reductions in slug and fungal damage. Overall, the enhanced seeds yielded about a 10% larger total crop during the season than any of the other three groups, suggesting a practical value for the commercial farmer., A classic healing experiment with a very simple design was made famous by Grad (1963, 1964). In these experiments, two trays of seeds, which have been stressed in some way, [...]

It is pointed out that the organisation of an organism necessarily involves fields which are the only means to make an approximately simultaneous tuning of the different subsystems of the organism-as-a-whole. Nature uses the olfactory fields, the acoustic fields, the electromagnetic fields and quantum-vacuum fields. Fields with their ability to comprehend the whole organism are the natural basis of a global interaction between organisms and collective consciousness. Evidence is presented that electromagnetic potential fields mediate the collective field of consciousness. This result offers for the first time experimental access to the study of collective consciousness by measuring the field-related information-carrying potentials and their derivatives, the electric and magnetic fields between different individuals. The electrodynamic interaction of different brains/minds generates induction and in this way excitement, enhancement in the baseline of the interacting brains' activity. A list of empirical evidences is presented here proving the existence of this 'interactive excitement' effect in the known phenomenon of collective consciousness. The fundamental phenomenon of the collective consciousness is known as 'social facilitation' or 'group effect'. The character and completion of consciousness are outlined in the frame of this picture, and the role of the 'group effect' or 'social facilitation' as a primary factor in developing consciousness is described. A quantum-physical model of a multi-layered consciousness is presented, where the layering is expressed by the subsequent subtlety of the masses of the material carriers of information. I show that as the mental levels get deeper and more sensitive the couplings are on more and more global scales of their environment. I point out that direct, immediate action at a distance actually exists in the electromagnetic field, which is the coupling, mediator field between waves and particles. I show how the environmental, natural and cosmic fields are determinative sources of our consciousness. The results presented point out that the Collective Field of Consciousness is a significant physical factor of the biosphere. I show that the morphogenetic field has an electromagnetic (EM) nature. EM fields are vacuum fields. Different basic forms of vacuum fields exist, and all kinds of fields, including the particle-mediated fields as well, when overlapping each other, seem to be in a direct resonant coupling, and form a complex, merged biofield. The vacuum model of consciousness presented here points to the inductive generation of consciousness, and to its self-initiating nature. Individual and collective methods, as well as the experimental possibilities of a global healing and improving the consciousness field of mankind are suggested. KEYWORDS: olfactory, acoustic, electromagnetic, vacuum fields, generation of consciousness, evolution of collective consciousness, social evolution, completion of consciousness, healing.

There is no empirical basis for determining goals for stuttering treatment. One approach that might resolve this issue is to systematically investigate persons who claim to have recovered from stuttering without the assistance of treatment. However, critical methodological and conceptual issues must be overcome first in order to assure these persons had a valid stuttering problem and that their recovery was independent of treatment. This study examined a validation procedure for solving these issues based on the combination of two methods: independent verification and self-reports. Forty-two subjects participated: 14 adults who recovered from stuttering without assistance, 14 adults with persistent stuttering, and 14 adults who were normally fluent speakers. For the independent verification, a Speech Behavior Checklist was administered to 42 individuals familiar with the recovered subjects' past speech and the other subjects' current speech. Results indicated that persons who knew the recovered subjects when they used to stutter recalled speech behaviors consistent with subjects who still stuttered, but not the same as speech behaviors consistent with subjects who never stuttered. These findings were supported by an objective analysis of the recovered subjects' descriptions of their past stuttering. Furthermore, a content analysis of subjects' self-reports indicated that recovery was independent of treatment. KEY WORDS: spontaneous recovery, self-report, self-directed, cross-validation, treatment outcome

Byline: Gulay A. Tireli (1), Tansu Salman (1), Huseyin Ozbey (1), Latif Abbasoglu (1), Gulcin Toker (2), Alaaddin Celik (1) Keywords: Ischemia-reperfusion injury Pentoxifylline Small-bowel anastomosis Anastomotic healing Abstract: The negative effects of ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) on intestinal anastomotic healing have been described in previous studies. To determine the effect of pentoxifylline (PTF) on small-bowel anastomoses performed after IRI, 20 male Wistar albino rats were studied. Under ketamine anesthesia, the superior mesenteric artery was occluded for 30 min and ileal resection-anastomosis was performed after 10 min of reperfusion. In group I, no medication was given. In group II, PTF 50 mg/kg was administered intraperitoneally before reperfusion and i.m. on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th postoperative days (POD). All rats were killed and anastomotic segments were removed on the 7th POD. Anastomotic bursting pressure (ABP) and hydroxyproline (HP) content were measured in the anastomotic segments parameters were compared statistically with Student's t-test. In group I, the mean ABP was 225.5 +- 38.18 mmHg the and mean HP level was 16.03 +- 1.91 Aumol/g tissue. In group II, these levels were 277 +- 41.1 mmHg and 19.85 +- 1.81 Aumol/g tissue, respectively. The differences between the groups were significant (P &lt 0.005). Thus, PTF can improve anastomotic healing in an experimental model after IRI by promotion of collagen synthesis. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Pediatric Surgery, Istanbul University, Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey (2) Department of Biochemistry, Istanbul University, Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey (3) Zuhuratbaba SarsA+-lmaz sok., Ugur ap. No:6/1 BakA+-rkoy, 34740, Istanbul, Turkey Article History: Accepted Date: 07/09/2001 Article note: Electronic Publication

People think about health and illness in multifaceted ways, evidencing a conceptual complexity that corresponds to equally complex behaviours in relation to a diversity of healing practices. Stimulated by fieldwork in Lesotho and elsewhere, and engaging principally with Jurgen Habermas, we set out to introduce, explain and develop a conceptual innovation: healthworld. We argue that this notion describes and provides a key analytical tool for the field of health in its social context; a tool that can explain the empirical complexity of health beliefs (importantly, including religion) and behaviours, thereby illuminating possibilities for improving health practice and outcomes. Framed in relation to Habermas's notion of lifeworld, the healthworld is identified as a distinctive 'region' of the lifeworld defined by a particular telos - that of comprehensive well-being, a lifeworld without dysfunction.