How to decrease the emotional impact of cadaver dissection in medical students

Teaching of anatomy is based on cadaver dissection. Working with cadavers whether through active dissection or by examination of prosected specimens, constitutes a potential stressor in medical education. To reduce the anxiety level by mentally preparing the student before going to the dissection hall. Two questionnaires were distributed among 68 medical students. The pre-dissection questionnaire No.1 comprised questions relating to demographics and first encounter with a cadaver.Then all the students were randomly divided into experimental and control groups.The experimental group was prepared psychologically prior to dissection but the control group had no such preparation. After the first dissection class all the students were surveyed by questionnaire No.2 which included physical and cognitive symptoms of anxiety, resulting from exposure to the dissection room at the first visit and six weeks later. There was a significant difference p<0.05 in the rate of anxiety between experimental and control group in the initial visit. The difference in the rate of anxiety between the first exposure and six weeks later was significant in control group [p<0.008], while it was not significant in experimental group. The initial preparation could relatively reduce the rate of stress, so that the experimental group experience less emotional effects during dissection compared to control group

Isolation and differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells

Recently, embryonic stem [ES] cells have become very important resources in basic medical researches. These cells can differetiate into derivatives of all primary germ layers. In order to isolate embryonic stem cells in vitro, the blastocyst were cultured and the morphological aspects, population doubling time, alkalin phosphatse and differentiation properties of the cells were investigated. The balstocysts from NMRI mice were cultured for 3 days up to time that inner cell mass [ICM] reach to the outgrowth stage. The cells were disaggregated and trypsinized every 3 days until the appearance of the colonies of ES cells. The colony positive cells were fixed and stained for alkaline phosphatase. The ES cells were cultured in suspension state for 5 days, at the same time Leukaemia Inhibitory Factor [LIF] was removed from media to form embryoid bodies[EBs]. The EBs were cultured for 8 - 20 days on collagen coated dish to induce the spontaneouse differentiation. During the 6-9 days after the disaggregation of ICM in the expansion stage, the colony of ES cells appeared as a flat monolayer mass with strike boundaries and nondistinguish cytoplasm including a few nuclei. In colony formation stage, the morphology changed from flat monolayer to round multilayer with strike define boundaries. Undifferentiated cells were seen as intensely small cells attached together compactly with high nucleus/cytoplasm [N/C] ratio. The cells of colonies tend to differetiate by separation from each other and became larger and diffused on substrate by attaching to dish. The positive alkaline phosphatase cells were seen in typical morphology of ES colonies. The EBs cells were seen in culture after 5 days in suspension and began to spontaneously differentiate into various types of cells such as nerve and hematopoitic lineages.Despite strike morphology of ES colonies, it is difficult to distinguish the differentiated from undifferentiated cell colonies in the colony formation stage. New ES cells are capable to give rise into EBs and are susceptible of spontaneously differentiation in various type of cells