Florian Olshausen

Home Institution
Humboldt-Universität Berlin

Host Institutions
Yale University of Medicine, New Haven, CT; St.Kitts Biomedical Research Foundation, St.Kitts, West Indies
Mentor: Donald Eugene Redmond Jr., M.D., Ph.D.

E-Mail
florianolshausen@freenet.de

Research Topic
see Abstract
Personal Reactions to the U.S. Experience
The most astonishing fact was how similar and how different the USA is compared to Germany. In my opinion the differences in mentality and attitude towards life in general are based on the fact that it is a "young" country trying to integrate a lot of different cultures. Most of the people I met and worked with, from whatever cultural background they came, had one thing in common. They worked for a system in which they really believed. One is tempted to say a lot of the people are uncritical, but this wouldn't be true, at least not for the educated people I encountered. In Germany people are much more critical of their environment, their working place, and above all, their government. In the USA all those I talked to had an attitude of, "I'll do it myself," which is not as often seen in Europe. On the other hand, I sometimes found the fanaticism about the rightness of the American system and its values rather frightening, although this is certainly influenced by the horrible events that took place on September 11th.
In general, my impression of the USA is that of a country of extremes, which is reflected, among other things, in the lack of a substantial middle class as we have in Germany. Regarding everyday life, I finally found a system of administration which is even more confusing than the German one, especially the paperwork in hospitals. It certainly was a very refreshing experience and I think the principle of exchanging ideas between German and American people is essential, because both sides can learn a lot from the other, scientifically, socially and, regarding recent events, above all, politically.
Describing St. Kitts, the little island in the West Indies on which I have worked, would be far too much for this page, but it simply was amazing, and working with the people down there was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Life is really not easy in the Caribbean - but they certainly take it that way.
Greatest Difficulties Encountered
I didn't encounter real difficulties besides the slow administration and the continuous hole in my purse.
Most humorous incident
Every day in the Caribbean was a humorous incident, but one of the funniest was when some wild monkeys stole the clothes of a female American tourist at the beach, because she put them in the bag with some fruits. That was a chase worth seeing.
Helpful Hints for Future Students
Speak to Ms. Heller in Germany; talk to students from the years before; take a lot of money: and use the internet. In the USA nearly everything is available, especially if you work at a university-associated lab. Otherwise, I only can recommend that you speak to as many people as you can and from as many different cultures as you can.

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Abstract on Research Topic:
Evaluation of Hypothermia and its effect on the cell survival in fetal Transplants in MPTP lesioned monkeys

Authors:
F. Olshausen1, D. E. Redmond Jr.2, T. J. Collier3, J. R. Sladek Jr.4
1 Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Humboldt University, 10098 Berlin, Germany 2 Neurobehavior Labaratory, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street New Haven, CT 06510, USA 3 Rush Medical School, Chicago, USA 4 University of Colorado, Health Sciences Center

Institution at which research was done:
St. Kitts Biomedical Research Foundation, St.Kitts, West Indies
Purpose:
Neural Transplantation has been investigated for the last 30 years as an alternative therapy for Parkinson's Disease. A major limiting factor is the survival of only 5-10% of the transplanted cells in both animal experiments and clinical trials. The first week after transplantation seems to be a very critical period during which most of the cells die because of apoptosis. This can be triggered by a variety of reasons ranging from mechanical trauma to free radicals or hypoglycemia. Accordingly, a lot of different methods to increase the number of surviving cells have been investigated. The application of agents counteracting oxidative stress, neural growth factors, or inhibitors of apoptosis are some examples. But also the transplantation procedure itself has been evaluated and refined, leading to improvements, for example, in the hibernation medium or preparation and preservation procedure for the donor tissue (Brundin et al., 2000).
Hypothermia which is used to reduce neuronal death in ischemic and traumatic brain injury (Fukuda et al., 2001; Inamasu et al., 2000) has been recently discovered to have an effect on neural transplantation too. The group of Brundin used a rat model of Parkinson's Disease to examine the effect of hypothermia on mesencephalic embryonic grafts in mildly hypothermic rats (32-33°C) compared to normothermic rats (37°C). Hypothermia was applied during grafting and for 90 min. afterwards. Karlsson and his colleagues found that graft survival in the hypothermic group was increased to 171% of control values (Karlsson et al., 2000). Another study with similar results was published on the Neuroscience Abstracts 2000 (Burnstein et al., 2000).
In this retrospective study we are evaluating the effects of hypothermia on fetal transplantation in monkeys with MPTP induced Parkinsonism. We are collecting data of 10 years of Neural Transplantation and are looking for correlation of different body temperatures and their influence on the survival of transplanted cells.
Materials and Methods: Statistical Analysis
Results: in progress
References:
1. Brundin, P., J. Karlsson, M. Emgard, G.S. Schierle, O. Hansson, A. Petersen und R.F. Castilho, Improving the survival of grafted dopaminergic neurons: a review over current approaches. Cell Transplant, 2000. 9(2): p. 179-95.
2. Burnstein, R.M., F.C. Colbourne, M.A. Caldwell, D.K. Menon, A.M. Buchan und C.N. Svendsen, Prolonged Hypothermia as a neuroprotective strategy for intrastriatal nigral grafts. Book of abstracts, Congress of Neuroscience, 2000. Transplantation 3(328.16).
3. Fukuda, H., T. Tomimatsu, N. Watanabe, J. Wu Mu, M. Kohzuki, M. Endo, E. Fujii, T. Kanzaki und Y. Murata, Post-ischemic hypothermia blocks caspase-3 activation in the newborn rat brain after hypoxia-ischemia. Brain Res, 2001. 910(1-2): p. 187-91.
4. Inamasu, J., S. Suga, S. Sato, T. Horiguchi, K. Akaji, K. Mayanagi und T. Kawase, Postischemic hypothermia attenuates apoptotic cell death in transient focal ischemia in rats. Acta Neurochir Suppl, 2000. 76: p. 525-7.
5. Karlsson, J., M. Emgard, G. Gido, T. Wieloch und P. Brundin, Increased survival of embryonic nigral neurons when grafted to hypothermic rats. Neuroreport, 2000. 11(8): p. 1665-8.

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