The Chernobyl nuclear power plant and its surrounding area are showing increased radiation levels after heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops in the region, Ukrainian officials said Friday (Feb. 25).

"The use of cell salvage and subsequent transfusion of autologous blood have been shown to be an effective blood conservation strategy in both adult and pediatric cardiac surgery. Considering the potential risks associated with donor blood products as well as the increased morbidity and mortality associated with perioperative transfusion, the use of autotransfusion to minimize homologous blood use should be seriously considered by cardiac surgery programs," Molly Dreher emphasizes in the new textbook "Extracorporeal Circulation in Theory and Practice".

"The concepts `medicinal´ and ´recreational´ cannabis use are commonly used in the public discourse and in research. However, we observe that the lines between recreational and and medicinal cannabis use are not clear cut," Dr. Frederique Bawin reports in the new reader "Why? Explanations for drug use and drug dealing ..." She studied the narratives of adult self-identified medicinal cannabis users in Belgium and notes:

Many questions about how exposure to SARS-CoV-2 by infection or immunization might result in long-term protective immunity remain unanswered. Onur Boyman, head of the Department of Immunology, and his research team at the University of Zurich and the UniversityHospital Zurich have now taken a closer look at how this long-lived protection is formed. Together with researchers from ETH Zurich, they identified specific signaling pathways that determine when immune cells develop into so-called memory T cells.

A combined treatment strategy targeting SARS-CoV-2 symptoms and severe lung tissue injury is essential to minimize lung sequelae—chronic complications resulting from COVID-19 infection, according to a review published this week in Clinical Microbiology Reviews, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Therapy using lung epithelial stem and progenitor cells shows promise for mitigating the potentially lethal and highly damaging virus-induced inflammatory storm that can occur in severe cases of COVID-19, said Huaiyong Chen, Ph.D., principal investigator at Tianjin Institute of Respiratory Diseases, and Director of Tianjin Key Laboratory of Lung Regenerative Medicine, Haihe Hospital, Tianjin University, China.

Cardiopulmonary Bypass (CPB) activates the immune system, resulting in a systemic inflammatory response. Downstream consequences have a multi-organ system impact, and, if severe enough, they may result in significant morbidity or mortality after cardiac surgery. Dr. Kristin C. Greathouse describes the serious consequences and the possibilities of prevention or therapy (in the new textbook "Extracorporeal Circulation").