Nurses' views on the provision of physical healthcare for individuals with comorbid mental illness and chronic disease.

The prevalence of chronic diseases (such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) continues to increase among patients with mental illness. This cross-sectional study investigated the factors affecting nurses' views on the provision of physical healthcare to patients with comorbid mental illness and chronic disease. In total, 369 nurses working in mental health were assessed for the physical healthcare attitudes and practices using the Physical Health Attitude Scale for Mental Health Nurses. The results of generalized linear modelling indicated that nurses' involvement in physical healthcare was associated with psychiatric mental health nurse credentials (B = 1.560, 95% CI = 0.292-2.828, P = 0.016) and their confidence in delivering physical healthcare was associated with prior physical healthcare training (B = 0.639, 95% CI = 0.104-1.174, P = 0.019). In addition, the frequency with which the nurses engaged in physical healthcare practices was associated with working in a community unit (B = -7.416, 95% CI = -9.652 to -5.180, P < 0.001), involvement in physical healthcare (B = 0.349, 95% CI = 0.162-0.535, P < 0.001), and confidence in delivering physical healthcare (B = 1.148, 95% CI = 0.776-1.519, P < 0.001). Our findings suggest that interventions aiming to help nurses assess and improve their own physical healthcare practices should consider nurses' background and patients' physical health needs in various settings and focus on cultivating an organizational culture that gives nurses confidence in providing physical healthcare.

The exocytosis of fluorescent nanodiamond and its use as a long-term cell tracker.

Fluorescent nanodiamond (FND) has excellent biocompatibility and photostability, making it well suited for long-term labeling and tracking of cancer and stem cells. To prove the concept, the exocytosis of FND particles (size ≈100 nm) from three cell lines--HeLa cervical cancer cells, 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes, and 489-2.1 multipotent stromal cells--is studied in detail. FND labeling is performed by incubating the cells in a serum-free medium containing 80 µg mL(-1) FND for 4 h. No significant alteration in growth or proliferation of the FND-labeled cells, including the multipotent stromal cells, is observed for up to 8 days. Flow cytometric analysis, in combination with parallel cell doubling-time measurements, indicates that there is little (≈15% or less) excretion of the endocytosed FND particles after 6 days of labeling for both HeLa and 489-2.1 cells, but exocytosis occurs more readily (up to 30%) for 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. A comparative experiment with FND and the widely used dye, carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester, demonstrates that the nanoparticle platform is a promising alternate probe for long-term cell labeling and tracking applications.

The long-term stability and biocompatibility of fluorescent nanodiamond as an in vivo contrast agent.

Nanocarbon is a promising type of biomaterial for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Fluorescent nanodiamond (FND) containing nitrogen-vacancy centers as built-in fluorophores is a new addition to the nanocarbon family. Here, we study the long-term stability and biocompatibility of 100-nm FNDs in rats through intraperitoneal injection over 5 months and develop the potential application of this biomaterial for sentinel lymph node mapping in a mouse model. From both in vivo and ex vivo fluorescence imaging as well as transmission electron microscopy, we found that the intradermally administered FND particles can be drained from the injection sites by macrophages and selectively accumulated in the axillary lymph nodes of the treated mice. Our measurements of water consumption, fodder consumption, body weight, and organ index showed no significant difference between control and FND-treated groups of the rats. Histopathological analysis of various tissues and organs indicated that FNDs are non-toxic even when a large quantity, up to 75 mg/kg body weight, of the particles was administered intraperitoneally to the living animals. With the properties of wide-ranging biocompatibility and perfect chemical and photophysical stability, FND is well suited for use as a contrast agent for long-term in vivo imaging.