HKU Bulletin June 2006 (Vol. 7 No. 3)

7 Mind Body Harmony Aids Conception Women undergoing fertility treatment could have their chances of pregnancy boosted by using relaxation techniques like tai-chi and massage. E vidence from a recent study shows that women receiving in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment have an almost 13 per cent greater chance of falling pregnant if they undergo anxiety-reducing treatment. The pioneering study, conducted between 2000 and 2006 by the Faculty of Social Sciences and our Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, explored the effectiveness of Eastern Body-Mind-Spirit (EBMS) intervention on Chinese women. A total of 227 women, undergoing their first cycle of IVF treatment were recruited, of which 69 (the intervention group) received four sessions of EBMS while the control group of 117 women received no intervention at all. Anxiety levels were monitored at three different periods during the IVF course. The EBMS approach was based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Chinese phi losophy with the goal of encouraging patients to re-examine the meaning of childbearing, family and life. Professor Cecilia Chan, Director of the Centre on Behavioural Health, said these reflections can enhance a patient’s holistic health and ‘build up personal competence and resilience to reduce anxiety and other psychological distress, and subsequently help them to let go of unrealistic expectations for the outcome of treatment’. The therapy included lectures on adopting a healthy lifestyle based on TCM, which promotes health as a state of mind-body harmony; relaxation techniques like acupressure, massage, tai-chi and meditation; group sharing activities like singing and journal keeping and reflections on inspirational excerpts from ancient Chinese texts on suffering and the meaning of life. The intervention group reported a ten per cent drop in anxiety and a higher pregnancy rate in comparison to the control group. A full 27.7 per cent of the intervention group fell pregnant compared to just 14.8 per cent of the control group. Professor Chan said: “The results recognize the value of psychosocial intervention for people undergoing IVF in medical settings, which helps in enhancing whole person well-being by maintaining a state of harmonious balance between the internal and the integrated whole of the person in the aspects of body, mind and spirit.” And she added: “We are excited and happy to see such promising results. Though we are quite confident that people will experience the anxiety reduction after intervention, we are encouraged by the increased pregnancy rate. “The resul ts can be cer tainly used in developing local psychosocial support service on infertility and assisted reproduction technologies, especially on the aspect of facilitating fertility potentials. The outcome of the study contributed to better insight into the effectiveness of psychosocial intervention group for women undergoing IVF. The results of this study are of direct relevance for the implementation of counseling services and we recommend on the role of counseling for the benefit of infertile women and thus contribute to more tailor-made services,” she said. BMS intervention has already been applied to different populations such as divorced women, bereaved families and various kinds of cancer patients, all of whom have had traumatic experiences throughout their lives. Chan said: “We are happy to see that most of the participants experienced personal growth and life transformation after the intervention. This is also a way of living and so we hope people can maintain their mind-body-spirit harmony in daily life.” The results of the survey were recently published in the journal Fertility and Sterility. 6 RESEARCH Brain Function Restored with Nanotechnology Hamsters hold out hope for reconnecting brain tissue. A team of scientists from our Department of Anatomy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has successfully reconnected brain tissue in hamsters using nanotechnology, holding out hope that human victims of brain injuries can regain some functions. The team used nanomaterial that was injected into the brains of hamsters that had been surgically blinded in one eye. The substance created a permissive environment that allowed the re- growth of neural connections in damaged areas, restoring partial vision. Significantly, re-growth occurred in both young and adult animals. The scientists thought they would need to add an extra factor to promote growth in the adult animal brains, similar to fertilising a plant, but this turned out to be unnecessary. Dr Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, a neuroscience researcher in the Department of Anatomy who divides his time between our University and MIT, carried out the research with Professor So Kwok Fai, Head of the Department of Anatomy, and five other scientists. He said the substance not only created a permissive environment for re-growth, but was biodegradable and was not rejected by the hamsters. “What we are trying to do is reconnect areas that may have died back. Once the [injected] substance has helped connections to regenerate, we want it to disappear or be used as a building block,” Ellis-Behnke said. The substance is a clear liquid made up of amino acids that self-assemble into a comb-like gel structure when immersed in a saline solution. This both stimulates cells to re-grow and provides a scaffold on which neural connections can be made from one part of the brain to another. Ellis-Behnke said they targeted visual areas of the brain because it was easy to test whether there was a return of function and, hence, re-growth. Within 24 hours of surgery, the brains of hamsters injected with the amino acid solution started healing and within six weeks vision started to return. Ellis-Behnke said brain function was achieved with as little as 42 per cent re-growth. The results could potentially be repeated in other areas of the brain besides vision to help patients regain lost abilities. Victims of severe stroke and brain injury are often unable to feed or look after themselves, or to communicate or understand what others say. “We hope that our work will ultimately restore quality of life to people,” he said. The initial findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (available free to the public) and apply to acute brain injuries, such as surgery to remove a brain tumour. The researchers are now investigating whether the same can be achieved with chronic injuries, such as strokes that occur several weeks or months before treatment. The idea would be to make a new cut in the stroke-affected area of the brain to encourage re-growth. Ellis-Behnke expects human trials of their findings could start for patients with acute injuries within three to five years, and for chronic patients, in about 10 years. So far the amino acid substance has shown no toxic side effects but further study is needed. Apart from Ellis-Behnke and So, the research team includes Teaching Consultant Dr David Tay and Research Assistant Dr Liang Yuxiang of the Department of Anatomy, Professors Shuguang Zhang and Gerald Schneider of MIT and Professor Si-wei You of Mainland’s Fourth Military Medical University.