Objective. Sports injuries are one of the most common injuries in the modern Western society. In line with the increased interest in eHealth, a tailor-based online injury prevention intervention was developed to influence determinants and actual sports injury preventive behaviour. An effect study was carried out among runners. Methods. Runners between 18 and 35 years were randomly assigned to the intervention (n=109) or control group (n=105). Participants in the intervention group were invited to visit the website for 30 minutes. Those in the control group were invited to read magazines that did not contain information about running, injuries or other sport related issues for 30 minutes. Online questionnaires were completed just before (T0) and immediately after the intervention (T1), and after 3 months (T2). Outcome measures were knowledge, risk perception, attitude, intention and injury prevention behaviour. Results. Immediately after the intervention (T1) an effect was found on all outcome measures. After three months (T2) the effect remained only for behaviours relating to warm-up and frequency of shoe replacement. Conclusion. Short-term (3 months) effects were demonstra­ted on determinants and actual performance of sports injury prevention behaviour. These results confirm the value of online tailored interventions for the dissemination of injury prevention knowledge.

Although results did not reach significance because of strong clustering effects, a trend was found suggesting that a school-based educational programme to improve falling skills may be more beneficial for the prevention of falling-related injuries in children with low levels of habitual physical activity.

The disaccharide galactosea1,3galactose (the aGal epitope) is the major xenoantigen responsible for the hyperacute vascular rejection occurring in pig-to-primates organ transplantation. The synthesis of the aGal epitope is catalyzed by the enzyme a1,3-galactosyltransferase (a1,3GalT). To be able to control porcine a1,3GalT gene expression specifically, we have analyzed the upstream portion of the a1,3GalT gene, and identified the regulatory sequences.Porcine a1,3GalT transcripts were detected by 5¢ RACE analysis, and the corresponding genomic sequences were isolated from a phage library. The porcine a1,3GalT gene consists of at least 10 different exons, four of which contain 5¢ untranslated sequence. Four distinct promoters, termed A-D, drive a1,3GalT gene transcription in porcine cells. A combination of alternative promoter usage and alternative splicing produces a series of transcripts that differ in their 5¢ portion, but encode the same protein.Promoters A-C have been isolated, and functionally characterized using luciferase reporter gene assays in transfected porcine endothelial cells (PEC-A). Promoter preference in porcine endothelial cells was estimated on the basis of relative transcript levels as determined by real-time quantitative PCR. More than 90% of the a1,3GalT transcripts in PEC-A cells originate from promoter B, which has characteristics of a housekeeping gene promoter. While promoter preference remains unchanged, a1,3GalT mRNA levels increase by 50% in 12 h upon tumour necrosis factor a-activation of PEC-A cells. However, the magnitude of this change induced by inflammatory conditions could be insufficient to affect cell surface a1,3-galactosylation.

Background In the Netherlands annually 39 000 children aged 8–12 years have to be treated medically due to a fall incident. The number of wrist fractures in this age group has increased with 32% over the period 2004–2008. Objective Primary objective is to describe the effectiveness of a school-based programme aimed at the prevention of physical activity (PA) related fall injuries in Dutch primary school children. Design In a prospective randomised control trial 35 primary schools were assigned to the intervention group (n=19) and control group (n=16). Randomisation took place at school level. Setting Physical education classes in school. Participants Children attending PA classes in grades 4, 5 and 6 participated in the study: 1539 in the intervention group and 1920 children in the control group. Intervention A teaching package with exercises. It includes a teacher's manual, teaching aids, a DVD with exercises, an exercise ball and a book on fall techniques. During 8 weeks, children learn exercises from different levels of difficulty. The first four lessons form the base of the program, with one lesson to be taught each week. The second part consists of follow-up lessons, in which the core is extended in difficulty. Main outcome measurements The number of injuries due to fall accidents, knowledge, risk perception, self-efficacy in relation to falling and fall techniques. Results The results will be available in October 2010. First indications show children in the intervention group have less accidents and better knowledge of how to fall safely than children in the control group. There seem to be no differences in risk perception or self-efficacy. Conclusions Although the overall results are not yet available, first indications suggest that the teaching package is effective: the incidence of injuries due to falls is lower in the intervention group than in the control group.