Laterality and otorhinolaryngology: a review.

BACKGROUND: Laterality of paired organs involves the function of the eyes, ears, hands and feet. Whilst most people have a right-handed preference, about 10 per cent are left-handed. Similarly, the right eye is usually preferred to the left. Medicine is both taught and practised for those with right hand and eye preference, and left-handed medical students and doctors must negotiate the right-handed world. OBJECTIVE: This brief review looks at society's attitudes, medical training and the practice of otolaryngology in the UK towards laterality and handedness. METHOD: Literature review. RESULTS: Studies suggest that left-handers are more versatile and so are more ambidextrous. Conversely, this may result in problems when a right-hander tries to undertake a procedure with the non-dominant hand. CONCLUSION: Cultures and attitudes are changing towards those who are left-handed. Left-handed surgeons may encounter difficulties in the clinical environment throughout their training.

The future training of surgeons to manage patients with cleft lip and palate disorders.

The development of the face and the upper lip occurs during the fifth to ninth week of pregnancy. A cleft is a separation or split in either the upper lip or palate and sometimes both. Cleft lip and palate can occur on its own (nonsyndromic) or is sometimes part of a wider series of birth defects (syndromic).

No significant role for angiogenesis in nasal polyposis.

BACKGROUND: Nasal polyposis is a common disease of which little is currently known. Recent studies have shown up-regulation of several proangiogenic factors. The aim of this study was to assess and quantify how much angiogenesis occurs in nasal polyps and therefore whether angiogenesis is involved in the etiology of polyposis. METHODS: Biopsy specimens of polyp tissue and inferior turbinate (IT) were taken from patients undergoing polypectomy and compared with IT samples from control patients. Five patients were used per study group. Biopsy specimens were either stained with a fluorescent lectin for confocal microscopy or snap frozen and sectioned for histology for the examination of multiple measures of angiogenesis. RESULTS: No significant differences in capillary density, capillary-associated proliferation, capillary surface density, or capillary volume density were seen between the three study groups, and the regression of surface density versus volume density described a linear relationship. Polyp samples showed increases in capillary diameter and interstitial proliferation. CONCLUSION: These results show no active angiogenesis occurring in the polyp or changes in capillary bed architecture, although capillaries seem more edematous in the polyp. As the capillary supply increases in line with the physiological needs of the growing polyp, we conclude that angiogenesis is not a driving force in the etiology of nasal polyposis.

Tonsillar homing of Epstein-Barr virus-specific CD8+ T cells and the virus-host balance.

Patients with infectious mononucleosis (IM) undergoing primary EBV infection show large expansions of EBV-specific CD8+ T cells in the blood. While latent infection of the B cell pool is quickly controlled, virus shedding from lytically infected cells in the oropharynx remains high for several months. We therefore studied how responses localize to the tonsil, a major target site for EBV, during primary infection and persistence. In acute IM, EBV-specific effectors were poorly represented among CD8+ T cells in tonsil compared with blood, coincident with absence of the CCR7 lymphoid homing marker on these highly activated cells. In patients who had recently recovered from IM, latent epitope reactivities were quicker than lytic reactivities both to acquire CCR7 and to accumulate in the tonsil, with some of these cells now expressing the CD103 integrin, which mediates retention at mucosal sites. By contrast, in long-term virus carriers in whom both lytic and latent infections had been controlled, there was 2- to 5-fold enrichment of lytic epitope reactivities and 10- to 20-fold enrichment of latent epitope reactivities in tonsil compared with blood; up to 20% of tonsillar CD8+ T cells were EBV specific, and many now expressed CD103. We suggest that efficient control of EBV infection requires appropriate CD8+ T cell homing to oropharyngeal sites.

The serotonin transporter (SLC6A4) is present in B-cell clones of diverse malignant origin: probing a potential anti-tumor target for psychotropics.

Following our previous description of the serotonin transporter (SERT) acting as a conduit to 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)-mediated apoptosis, specifically in Burkitt's lymphoma, we now detail its expression among a broad spectrum of B cell malignancy, while exploring additional SERT substrates for potential therapeutic activity. SERT was readily detected in derived B cell lines with origins as diverse as B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia, mantle cell lymphoma, diffuse large B cell lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. Concentration and timecourse kinetics for the antiproliferative and proapoptotic activities of the amphetamine derivatives fenfluramine (an appetite suppressant) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; "Ecstasy") revealed them as being similar to the endogenous indoleamine. A tricyclic antidepressant, clomipramine, instead mirrored the behavior of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine, both being effective in the low micromolar range. A majority of neoplastic clones were sensitive to one or more of the serotonergic compounds. Dysregulated bcl-2 expression, either by t(14;18)(q32;q21) translocation or its introduction as a constitutively active transgene, provided protection from proapoptotic but not antiproliferative outcomes. These data indicate a potential for SERT as a novel anti-tumor target for amphetamine analogs, while evidence is presented that the seemingly more promising antidepressants are likely impacting malignant B cells independently of the transporter itself.