Lesbian participants with risk factors for cardiovascular disease were eager to be involved in individual and group culturally sensitive programs that focus on improved health and well being. Recommended interventions include lesbian specific multidimensional group interventions that could deal with the multiple factors involved in causing and maintaining the behaviours.

Arthritic diseases are characterized by a progressive loss of extracellular matrix (ECM), which may ultimately lead to frank tissue loss and gross joint damage. The conditions under which chondrocytes can be induced to replenish or repair a depleted matrix (and thereby prevent or slow the disease process) remain unclear. If these conditions were known, then in principal one could design a therapeutic strategy that takes into account the capacity (or absence thereof) for chondrocytes to repair their matrix naturally.A number of model systems have provided some insights. For instance, IL-1-degraded cartilage tissues and cell suspensions are frequently employed as model systems to study cartilage metabolism under osteoarthritis-like conditions [1][2][3][4] and to assess the efficacy of various drug dGEMRIC = delayed gadolinium enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of cartilage; ECM = extracellular matrix; GAG = glycosaminoglycan; IL = interleukin; NMR = nuclear magnetic resonance. (Print ISSN 1478-6354; Online ISSN 1478-6362). This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any non-commercial purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL. AbstractIn the present study we examined cartilage matrix repair following IL-1-induced matrix depletion. Previous data indicated that, in some cases, chondrocytes can synthesize macromolecules to establish a functional extracellular matrix in response to a matrix-damaging insult or when placed in a threedimensional environment with inadequate matrix. However, the conditions under which such 'repair' can occur are not entirely clear. Prior studies have shown that chondrocytes in trypsindepleted young bovine articular cartilage can replenish tissue glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and that the rate of replenishment is relatively uniform throughout the tissue, suggesting that all chondrocytes have similar capacity for repair. In the present study we used the characteristic heterogeneous distribution of matrix depletion in response to IL-1 exposure in order to investigate whether the severity of depletion influenced the rate of GAG replenishment. We used the delayed GadoliniumEnhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Cartilage (dGEMRIC) method to monitor the spatial and temporal evolution of tissue GAG concentration ([GAG]). For both mild (n = 4) and moderate (n = 10) IL-1-induced GAG depletion, we observed partial recovery of GAG (80% and 50% of baseline values, respectively) over a 3-week recovery period. During the first 2 weeks of recovery, [GAG] increased homogeneously at 10-15 mg/ml per week. However, during the third week the regions most severely depleted following IL-1 exposure showed negligible [GAG] accumulation, whereas those regions affected the least by IL-1 demonstrated the greatest accumulation. This finding could suggest that the most severely degraded regions do not recover fully, possibly because of more severe collagen damage; this possibility requires further examination.