Combined Administration of Pravastatin and Metformin Attenuates Acute Radiation-Induced Intestinal Injury in Mouse and Minipig Models.

Radiation-induced gastrointestinal (GI) damage is one of the critical factors that serve as basis for the lethality of nuclear accidents or terrorism. Further, there are no Food and Drug Administration-approved agents available to mitigate radiation-induced intestinal injury. Although pravastatin (PS) has been shown to exhibit anti-inflammatory and epithelial reconstructive effects following radiation exposure using mouse and minipig models, the treatment failed to improve the survival rate of high-dose irradiated intestinal injury. Moreover, we previously found that metformin (MF), a common drug used for treating type 2 diabetes mellitus, has a mitigating effect on radiation-induced enteropathy by promoting stem cell properties. In this study, we investigated whether the combined administration of PS and MF could achieve therapeutic effects on acute radiation-induced intestinal injury in mouse and minipig models. We found that the combined treatment markedly increased the survival rate and attenuated histological damage in a radiation-induced intestinal injury mouse model, in addition to epithelial barrier recovery, anti-inflammatory effects, and improved epithelial proliferation with stem cell properties. Furthermore, in minipig models, combined treatment with PS and MF ameliorates gross pathological damage in abdominal organs and attenuated radiation-induced intestinal histological damage. Therefore, the combination of PS and MF effectively alleviated radiation-induced intestinal injury in the mouse and minipig models. We believe that the combined use of PS and MF is a promising therapeutic approach for treating radiation-induced intestinal injury.

Olympic Health Legacy; Essentials for Lasting Development of Host City.

The purpose of the Olympic Games should be to contribute to the social development by leaving behind economic, cultural and environmental legacies to the hosting region. While tangible examples such as venues are often recognized as representative legacies of the Olympics, intangible aspects such as the environment, culture, policy and human resources have been gaining in importance. The Olympic Games, at its most fundamental level, is a sporting event. Sports not only is closely related to the physical health, but is also instrumental to fostering mental health through inspiration. One of the most important sports legacies was the general change in the population's perception on sports and physical activities; due to such change, people were able to enjoy sports as part of healthy and active everyday life and benefit physically. However, compared to tangible legacies such as the facilities, social legacies such as the general health and their planning, execution and achievements are hard to monitor. Therefore, for the Olympics to leave behind socio-cultural legacies that contribute to the development of the hosting region, there must be a thorough business plan that takes into account region-specific purpose, and is divided into stages such as before, during and after the Games. Should the 2018 Winter Olympic Games hope to create continuing contribution to its hosting region, it must leave behind 'Health Legacies' that will enhance the happiness of the hosting region's population. To this end, establishment of region-specific purpose and systematic promotion of business via detailed analysis of precedents are a must. This article aim to review the health legacy endeavors of past host cities and suggest the appropriate forms of health legacy of 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Semiconditional electrical stimulation of pudendal nerve afferents stimulation to manage neurogenic detrusor overactivity in patients with spinal cord injury.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of semiconditional electrical stimulation of the pudendal nerve afferents for the neurogenic detrusor overactivity in patients with spinal cord injury. Forty patients (36 males, 4 males) with spinal cord injury who had urinary incontinence and frequency, as well as felt bladder contraction with bladder filling sense or autonomic dysreflexic symptom participated in this study. METHOD: Patients with neurogenic detrusor overactivity were subdivided into complete injury and incomplete injury groups by ASIA classification and subdivided into tetraplegia and paraplegia groups by neurologic level of injury. Bladder function, such as bladder volumes infused to the bladder until the first occurrence of neurogenic detrusor overactivity (V(ini)) and the last contraction suppressed by electrical stimulation (V(max)) was measured by water cystometry (CMG) and compared with the results of each subgroup. RESULTS: Among the 40 subjects, 35 patients showed neurogenic detrusor overactivity in the CMG study. Among these 35 patients, detrusor overactivity was suppressed effectively by pudendal nerve afferent electrical stimulation in 32 patients. The infusion volume until the occurrence of the first reflex contraction (V(ini)) was 99.4±80.3 ml. The volume of saline infused to the bladder until the last contraction suppressed by semiconditional pudendal nerve stimulation (V(max)) was 274.3±93.2 ml, which was significantly greater than V(ini). In patients with good response to the pudendal nerve afferent stimulation, the bladder volume significantly increased by stimulation in all the patients. CONCLUSION: In this study, semiconditional electrical stimulation on the dorsal penile afferent nerve could effectively inhibit neurogenic detrusor overactivity and increase bladder volume in patients with spinal cord injury.