Cicero, Tullia, and Marcus: Gender-Specific Concerns for Family Tradition?

A fair number of Cicero's letters reveal his concern for his daughter Tullia and his son Marcus. Recent scholarship has read these letters as evidence for a ‘natural’ emotional attachment of a father to his children, in reaction to Philippe Ariès's opposite claim. This chapter considers whether Cicero's letters can be analysed only as expressions of paternal affection. The fact that the pater familias Cicero occupies a political position simultaneously in his nuclear family, his domus, and the Senate, results in a concern for his prestige within the social field of the aristocracy. And this concern is necessarily conferred upon his support of the education and the social and political career of his children. The chapter traces the gender-specific differences between Cicero's treatment of Tullia and Marcus, shows the social construction of parental affection, and contributes to a further understanding of the different functions of daughters and sons in the social force field of family memory.

Cell-based therapy for myocardial repair in patients with acute myocardial infarction: rationale and study design of the SWiss multicenter Intracoronary Stem cells Study in Acute Myocardial Infarction (SWISS-AMI)

Recent studies report that intracoronary administration of autologous bone marrow mononucleated cells (BM-MNCs) may improve remodeling of the left ventricle after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Subgroup analysis suggest that early treatment between days 4 and 7 after AMI is probably most effective; however, the optimal time point of intracoronary cell administration has never been addressed in clinical trials. Furthermore, reliable clinical predictors are lacking for identifying patients who are thought to have most benefit from cellular therapy.

Intracoronary injection of bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells early or late after acute myocardial infarction: effects on global left ventricular function

BACKGROUND Intracoronary administration of autologous bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BM-MNC) may improve remodeling of the left ventricle (LV) after acute myocardial infarction. The optimal time point of administration of BM-MNC is still uncertain and has rarely been addressed prospectively in randomized clinical trials. METHODS AND RESULTS In a multicenter study, we randomized 200 patients with large, successfully reperfused ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction in a 1:1:1 pattern into an open-labeled control and 2 BM-MNC treatment groups. In the BM-MNC groups, cells were administered either early (i.e., 5 to 7 days) or late (i.e., 3 to 4 weeks) after acute myocardial infarction. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging was performed at baseline and after 4 months. The primary end point was the change from baseline to 4 months in global LV ejection fraction between the 2 treatment groups and the control group. The absolute change in LV ejection fraction from baseline to 4 months was -0.4±8.8% (mean±SD; P=0.74 versus baseline) in the control group, 1.8±8.4% (P=0.12 versus baseline) in the early group, and 0.8±7.6% (P=0.45 versus baseline) in the late group. The treatment effect of BM-MNC as estimated by ANCOVA was 1.25 (95% confidence interval, -1.83 to 4.32; P=0.42) for the early therapy group and 0.55 (95% confidence interval, -2.61 to 3.71; P=0.73) for the late therapy group. CONCLUSIONS Among patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and LV dysfunction after successful reperfusion, intracoronary infusion of BM-MNC at either 5 to 7 days or 3 to 4 weeks after acute myocardial infarction did not improve LV function at 4-month follow-up.