Elevated lead (Pb) in urban European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) feathers is not correlated to physiology or behavior.

Urbanization is rapidly changing the environment and creating new challenges in the lives of animals across the globe. Anthropogenic contaminants-like heavy metals-can persist within the environment for prolonged periods of time and present a widespread problem for those living near contaminated areas. Lead (Pb) was a commonly used heavy metal that continues to threaten the health of all organisms despite being phased out, especially in urban areas where historical use was more common. In this study, a common urban-adapter, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris), was trapped to explore whether feather Pb burden is greater in birds from urban habitats than rural habitats, as well as whether Pb burdens were correlated with behavior, physiology, and feather development. Across four sites (two rural and two urban), soil Pb concentrations were measured and 197 free-living starlings were captured to measure feather Pb concentrations. Using linear mixed models, this study found that urban starling nestlings had elevated feather Pb burdens compared to rural nestlings. In contrast, there was no correlation between Pb and urbanization in adult birds whose exposure to Pb may reflect a larger spatial range compared to nestlings. For both nestlings and adults, feather Pb was uncorrelated to corticosterone, testosterone, aggressive behavior, or feather growth rates. These findings suggest that starlings may be a useful biomonitoring tool to detect Pb in the local environment, however, the age and spatial range of birds is a critical consideration in applying this tool. Further work is needed to understand the intricate relationship between heavy metals, behavior, morphological development, and physiology in free-living organisms.

Potential Uses of Nonthermal Atmospheric Pressure Technology for Dermatologic Conditions in Children.

Nonthermal atmospheric plasma (NTAP)(also known as cold atmospheric plasma [CAP]) is a rapidly emerging technology showing promising treatment results for a wide variety of dermatologic conditions. Research on NTAP for the treatment of pediatric dermatologic conditions is limited. We conducted a systematic review to elucidate reported applications of NTAP for skin conditions in children. Overall, NTAP offers a promising safety profile and painless treatment option that has the potential to deliver similar efficacy to many standard therapies in pediatric dermatology.

Applications of Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging Technology in Dermatology.

Laser speckle contrast imaging or laser speckle imaging (LSI) is a noninvasive imaging technology that can detect areas of dynamic perfusion or vascular flow. Thus, LSI has shown increasing diagnostic utility in various pathologies and has been employed for intraoperative, postoperative, and long-term monitoring in many medical specialties. Recently, LSI has gained traction in clinical dermatology because it can be effective in the assessment of pathologies that are associated with increased perfusion and hypervascularity compared with that of normal tissue. To date, LSI has been found to be highly accurate in monitoring skin graft reperfusion, determining the severity of burns, evaluating neurosurgical revascularization, assessing persistent perfusion in capillary malformations after laser therapy, and differentiating malignant and benign skin lesions. LSI affords the advantage of noninvasively assessing lesions before more invasive methods of diagnosis, such as tissue biopsy, while remaining inexpensive and exhibiting no adverse events to date. However, potential obstacles to its clinical use include tissue movement artifact, primarily qualitative data, and unclear impact on clinical practice given the lack of superiority data compared with the current standard-of-care diagnostic methods. In this review, we discuss the clinical applications of LSI in dermatology for use in the diagnosis and monitoring of vascular, neoplastic, and inflammatory skin conditions.

Identifying risk factors for cutaneous disease among solid organ transplant recipients: A retrospective review.

Background: As solid organ transplant recipient (SOTR) life expectancy lengthens, the risk of developing other chronic diseases also increases. Objective: To determine the cutaneous pathologies for which SOTRs are at an increased risk. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of SOTRs seen by dermatology from January 1, 2012 and June 1, 2022. Data were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. Benjamini Hochberg-adjusted P values were examined for multiplicity. Results: Five hundred and thirty SOTRs were identified. Patients had cutaneous malignancy (38.3%), precancerous lesions (32.5%), inflammatory (35.5%), and infectious diseases (33.1%). Odds of precancerous lesions were higher with increased age at transplant (odds ratio [OR], 1.04; adjusted P =.006), and lower with female sex (OR, 0.505; adjusted P =.006) and African American race (OR, 0.027; adjusted P =.006). Odds of inflammatory lesions were lower with increased age at transplant (OR, 0.979; adjusted P =.023). Odds of infectious diseases were higher with prednisone use (OR, 2.615; adjusted P value =.023). Limitations: This study is retrospective and was not able to capture patients seen by dermatology outside of our institution. Conclusions: SOTRs at risk of cutaneous lesions should be referred to dermatology because these conditions may place a significant burden on the quality of life.

Characterizing Skin Cancer in Transplant Recipients by Fitzpatrick Skin Phototype.

INTRODUCTION: Nearly half of organ transplants occur annually in patients with Fitzpatrick skin phototypes (Fitz type) III-VI. Organ transplant recipients (OTRs) are at risk for sequelae of chronic immunosuppression, of which skin cancer is common. As literature regarding skin cancer risk is largely conducted in OTRs with Fitz types I and II, we aimed to further characterize the incidence and risk factors for skin cancer in OTRs with higher Fitz types. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of OTRs with Fitz types III-VI evaluated by dermatology between 1 January 2012 and 1 June 2022. The primary outcome of this study was development of skin cancer post-transplant. Secondary outcomes included risk factors for skin cancer development. Data were analyzed using two-sample t-tests and Pearson's chi-squared. RESULTS: Of 530 OTRs, 193 had Fitz type III or higher. Ten patients (5.18%) developed 87 skin cancers and one recurrence at a mean of 5.17 years posttransplant. Patients with skin cancer self-identified as Black (70%, p-value ≤ 0.001), male (70%, p-value ≤ 0.001), and kidney transplant recipients (70%, p-value ≤ 0.001), with a mean age of 58.20 years at transplant (p-value ≤ 0.001). Subjects with skin cancer were more likely to be former smokers (60%) and prescribed tacrolimus (p-value ≤ 0.001 each). Development of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (66, 75.86%) was most common, followed by basal cell carcinoma (17, 19.54%), and malignant melanoma (3, 3.45%). Skin cancer most often occurred on the face or scalp (60%, p-value = 0.027), though also developed in sun-protected sites (30%, p-value = 0.002). Verruca vulgaris was present in 10% of patients (p-value = 0.028). CONCLUSIONS: Risk factors for skin cancer post-transplant differ in OTRs with higher Fitz types. Our results suggest that among OTRs who self-identified as Black, kidney recipients are at increased risk for skin cancer in non-sun-exposed regions. These cancers may be associated with human papillomavirus (HPV). Education is key for preventing morbidity and mortality secondary to skin cancer.

The development of behavioral and endocrine coping styles in nestlings from urban and rural sites.

Urbanization is increasing globally and altering the stressors that animals face in their everyday lives. Organisms often differ in their coping styles-both behavioral and endocrine-across urban to rural habitats. For example, urban animals are often bolder, more exploratory, and mount stronger glucocorticoid stress responses compared to their rural counterparts. While these coping styles are important in shaping fitness across the urban-to-rural gradient, it remains unclear when these differences arise in the life of organisms. We explore the development of coping styles in European starling nestlings (Sturnus vulgaris), an urban-adapted species. We test whether breathing rate, handling struggle rate, and bag struggle rate differ across sites and find no difference in the behavioral coping styles of nestlings raised in urban versus rural sites. We also explore differences in baseline and stress-induced glucocorticoids, finding that urban nestlings develop a stronger stress response than rural birds before fledging the nest. We find no significant correlations between behavioral and endocrine traits for urban or rural birds, which supports the two-tiered model of coping styles. One possibility is that behavioral and endocrine differences develop at different times over the lives of organisms. Our findings support prior work suggesting that behavioral and endocrine coping mechanisms act independently of one another, and suggests that endocrine coping mechanisms develop in early life and before differences in behavioral coping styles might arise. Future work on the mechanisms leading to early-life differences in coping styles-from genetics to maternal effects to environmental effects-is needed to best predict how urban-adapted organisms cope with environmental change. Studies across a greater number of sites will help disentangle site from urbanization effects.