Human form of mad cow killed French kids
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PARIS, Feb. 6 A trial in Paris will determine whether seven French health officials were responsible for the deaths of more than 100 children in the 1980s.
The children died from the human form of mad cow disease after being injected with growth hormones taken from human corpses, the BBC reported Wednesday.
Prosecutors said the corpses came from hospitals that specialized in infectious diseases and neurological disorders and might have been infected with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human variant of mad cow disease.
The first child given the growth hormones died of CJD 16 years ago.
French prosecutors charge the seven on trial failed to follow safety rules and hid the dangers of the treatment from the parents of the children.
Fourteen countries, including Britain and the United States, banned the extraction of pituitary gland hormones in the early 1980s, the BBC said, however, the practice continued in France until 1988.
Trial of the seven was expected to last four months. If convicted, the defendants face up to 10 years in jail. Copyright 2008 by UPI
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Growth hormone deaths?
By:
Josef Hlasny ,
Thu, 07 Feb 2008 01:05:19 GMT
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Neurodegenerative diseases, including BSE, Alzheimer’s disease etc. are caused by different mechanisms but may share a final common pathway to neuronal injury due to the overstimulation of glutamate receptors, especially of the N-methyl-D -aspartate (NMDA) receptor subtype. It is generally accepted that the influx of Ca2+ as a result of excessive activation of the NMDA receptor underlies the toxic actions of glutamate in many systems. On the other hand, Mg2+ competes with Ca2+ at voltage- gated calcium channels both intracellularly and on the cell surface membrane. So, Mg2+ can protect against NMDA- induced neurodegeneration and Ca2+ deficiency can be important about „NMDA hypofunction“(e.g. in schizophrenia).
However, there is also evidence for a pivotal role of glutamate pathways in the regulation of growth hormone (GH) secretion; so activation of NMDA receptors stimulates growth hormone (GH) secretion. GH deficiency results from a failure of the pituitary gland to make sufficient amounts of the hormone. According to the 1994 Utah Growth Hormone Study, growth hormone deficiency occurs in 1 out of every 3,480 children. The largest study of its kind has found that the vast majority of those who received the GH from cadavers did not contract the fatal condition. However, some recipients- individuals (26 out of approximately 7,700) did develop the CJD.
Because of their central role in neurodegeneration, NMDA receptors have been considered prime therapeutic targets for the development of useful neuroprotective strategies. However, in some individuals, NMDA receptors may differ in their sensitivity to voltage-dependent Mg2+ block, agonists, and antagonists as a function of their subunit composition. So there is a question; is there a link about some recipients – individuals (CJD developing) and the NMDA receptors sensitivity in some individuals? If yes, then “growth hormone CJD deaths”, are not an “infectious disease”;more details see my website www.bse-expert.cz.
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wow
By:
Angela St. Sauveur ,
Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:08:32 GMT
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Are there any more articals like this? if so put them on this page.
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