Human subjects' participation in medical research has often raised ethical concerns. After Nazi exploitation; various Guidelines & Declarations were prepared, but still unethical behaviour of healthcare practitioners is being reported. After graduation and entering into practical field; sudden exposure to challenges makes it difficult to take decisions, which shows a lacuna in traditional medical training. There are debates about inclusion of practical ethics in medical curricula. Present study assesses the knowledge, attitude and practices of healthcare ethics among doctors in a government teaching hospital. A self-administered structured questionnaire was devised, tested and distributed (n = 172). Faculty and residents were compared using Chi square test and the residents' responses in different years of residency were compared using Chi square test followed by Kendall's tau-c test to find correlation. Faculty was more aware of the guidelines. About 77.8% faculty and 48.5% residents were aware of Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC), and about 37.5% from faculty and 23.5% from residents were satisfied with IEC. Faculty encountered ethical problems more often (62.5% vs 45.5%) than residents. Source of knowledge of bioethics was multiple. Departmental lectures were not preferred mode of learning (8.8%). Colleague was most preferred mode of consultation for any problem. Some residents faced ethical problem in publication. All faculty and 94.1% residents felt the need for further education on bioethics. There was negative correlation (-0.3, p<0.001) between the frequency of ethical problems and residency years. There is an urgent need to include formal training of practical ethics and make departmental learning more interesting.

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Intercellular communication plays a pivotal role in various physiological functions. This is mainly done through gap junctions and trans-membrane channels. The structural proteins forming these channels are different in vertebrates and invertebrates namely connexins and innexins respectively. Recently, a new class of proteins playing a crucial role in intercellular communication was discovered and named pannexins. They are found to have similar homology to innexins. Earlier they were also thought to form gap junctions and hemi channels on oppositional cell surfaces like connexins but later they were found to have different structure, location and function than connexins. Their main role is in the initiation and propagation of cellular calcium waves and ATP release. They are also considered an integral part of the greater purinergic and adrenergic receptor complexes. They are implicated in wide variety of biochemical and pathophysiological functions ranging from apoptosis, inflammation, ischemia, seizures and immune response; to paracrine signaling, vasodymanics, tumor genesis, cellular differentiation and development. Due to their ubiquitous distribution and involvement in myriad cellular functions, they are considered as potential therapeutic targets for diseases like hypertension, epilepsy and immune disorders.

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