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Background: A number of otherwise healthy women with or without clinical alopecia complain of recurrent hair loss, presumably reflecting seasonality in the growth and shedding of hair. Objective: To test the hypothesis that periodicity in hair shedding reflects seasonal changes in human hair growth. Methods: Retrospective case study over a period of 6 years of apparently healthy women with the complaint of hair loss. All underwent biochemical investigations, and trichograms were made. Results: After exclusion of patients with a disease or on drugs known to cause hair loss, 823 women remained. Analysis of trichograms demonstrated annual periodicity in the growth and shedding of hair, manifested by a maximal proportion of telogen hairs in summer. A second peak seems to exist, though it is less pronounced, in spring. The telogen rates were lowest in late winter. Conclusions: These results confirm the findings of former authors who have indicated seasonal changes in human hair growth, though this is the first study performed systematically in a representative number of women.

Infections caused by the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are today a major burden in nosocomial disease control. The global trend shows an alarming increase of MRSA infections as well as multi-drug resistance (MDR). The problem is exacerbated by the fact that infections with community-associated (CA) MRSA strains showing increased virulence and fitness add to infections with multi-drug resistant hospital-associated (HA) MRSA. The toxicity of pathogens and limited effectiveness of available treatment have led to high mortality rates and vast expenses caused by prolonged hospitalization and usage of additional antibiotics. Recently approved drugs still have classical targets and upcoming resistance can be expected. In a new approach by targeting co-factor syntheses of bacteria, the drug target and the affected pathways are uncoupled. This novel strategy is based on the thought of a classical pro-drug which has to be metabolized before becoming toxic for the bacterium as a dysfunctional co-factor, named suicide drug. Ideally these metabolizing pathways are solely present in the bacterium and absent in the human host, such as vitamin biosyntheses. This mini-review discusses current ways of MRSA infection treatment using new approaches including suicide drugs targeting co-factor biosyntheses.

Pruritus is associated with various skin diseases, dry skin, and with it an impaired skin barrier function. The study objective was to investigate short‐term and long‐term effects of two emollients on symptoms and skin barrier functions in xerotic eczema. Randomized, double‐blind, study enrolling females/males, with bilateral itching. Two emollients, containing lactic acid and refined almond oil with/without polidocanol were administered on left versus right body sides. Itching severity, skin moisture, lipid content, and pH were assessed on Day 1, within 30–120 min after first administration, and on Days 7 and 14, and compared with baseline assessments. Severity of itching decreased 30 min after first administration of both emollients compared with baseline (p < .0001) and reached a maximum reduction of 63% (p < .0001) and 69% (p < .0001) on Day 14. Skin moisture and lipid content increased after first application, and further ameliorated within 14 days of treatment (p < .0001). Both emollients were tolerated well, and only a few adverse events were reported. This study confirmed the clinical efficacy of the two study emollients to substantially reduce itching already after first administration, and restore skin barrier integrity and thus should be considered as therapeutic approach for xerotic eczema.