Internationalisation of the curriculum in health programs.

Internationalisation is a broad term that has been used to encompass a range of activities including international student recruitment, student mobility and exchange, international teaching and research collaborations, institutional partnerships, and embedding international and/or intercultural perspectives within curricula.There are numerous drivers for institutions to develop an internationalisation strategy including building global reputation and influence, having a positive influence on communities, income generation, and helping their students gain a global perspective or develop intercultural competencies. Health students benefit from internationalisation activities as they will enter a workforce that increasingly engages with global diseases and works within multicultural societies.However, there are risks associated with internationalisation that stem from disjointed institutional decision making, power imbalances, and neo-colonial attitudes. There are also multiple barriers to effectively engaging in internationalisation including individual student circumstances, staff and institutional preparedness, and geopolitical factors.Within this broader context, internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC) is aimed at incorporating international, intercultural, and global dimensions into the curriculum, including consideration of content, teaching methods, learning outcomes, and how these are supported at a program and institutional level. This is a major undertaking requiring alignment of philosophy between teaching academics, senior university leadership, and the relevant professional body. Examples of IoC within health programs, and the significant challenges involved, are critically discussed in this paper, and strategies to overcome these challenges highlighted.Whilst recognising the challenges, this paper concludes that undertaking purposeful IoC is a critical step towards ensuring that the future health workforce is adequately prepared for the 21st Century environment.

SIRT1 and SIRT2 Modulators: Potential Anti-Inflammatory Treatment for Depression?

Depression is a psychiatric disorder that has a significant health burden on patients and their families. Unfortunately, the current antidepressant medications that mainly target monoamine neurotransmitters have limited efficacy. Recent evidence has indicated that neuroinflammation participates in the genesis and development of depression, and interacts with other factors involved in depression. Therefore, exploring effective anti-inflammatory medications could be beneficial for the development of new treatment options for depression. Sirtuins are a unique class of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+)-dependent deacetylases, which have seven members that can affect multiple downstream targets by deacetylation activity. Among these seven members, SIRT1 and SIRT2 have been shown to participate in the pathophysiology of inflammation in numerous studies. Thus, in this short article, we review the association of SIRT1 and SIRT2 activity and depression, and evidence of the effects of SIRT1 and SIRT2 modulators on inflammation in vitro and depressive-like behaviours in vivo.

High-performance liquid chromatography spectrometric analysis of trans-resveratrol in rat plasma.

A HPLC method for determination of trans-resveratrol concentrations in rat plasma was developed. Plasma samples were treated with acetonitrile to deposit proteins. The analysis used a Hypersil ODS(2) C(18) column (5 microm, 4.6 mm x 250 mm) and methanol/distilled water as the mobile phase (flow-rate=1 mL/min). The UV detection wavelength was 303 nm, and chlorzoxazone was used as the internal standard. The calibration curve was linear over the range of 0.02-40 microg/mL with a correlation coefficient of 0.9997. This concentration range corresponds well with the plasma concentrations of resveratrol in pharmacokinetic studies. There was 98.7%, 91.3% and 84.4% recovery from 0.02, 0.4 and 40 microg/mL plasma samples respectively. The R.S.D. of intra- and inter-day assay variations were all less than 12%. This HPLC assay is a quick, precise and reliable method for the analysis of resveratrol in pharmacokinetic studies.

Decrease in hepatic drug-metabolizing enzyme activities after removal of rats from pine bedding.

Wood is often used as a contact bedding material for laboratory animals. It has been established that wood, particularly softwood, has the potential to induce hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes. However, to the authors' knowledge, changes in enzyme activity after removal of animals from bedding have not been characterized. The purpose of the study reported here was to determine how hepatic ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylation and p-nitrophenol hydroxylation activities alter over time after removal of rats from pine bedding. Male rats, three to four months old, raised in cages containing pine bedding, were transferred to wire-bottomed cages. At various times thereafter (up to 84 days), groups of rats were euthanized and the liver was processed to obtain microsomes. The microsomal protein and total cytochrome P450 (CYP) content and enzyme activities were determined. Significant differences in total microsomal protein or total CYP values were not observed over the 84 days, but a decrease in ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylation and p-nitrophenol hydroxylation activities was detected. For p-nitrophenol hydroxylation, the decrease was exponential, with a half-life of approximately nine days, whereas for ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylation, a rapid decrease in activity in the first week was followed by a reduced rate of decrease thereafter. Enzyme activities did not stabilize for at least six weeks. Researchers using laboratory animals should, therefore, be aware that it takes several weeks for enzyme activities to stabilize once animals are removed from the bedding.