Ligaments are strong fibrous bands that connect bones and help control their range of motion. They are closely related to tendons, which connect muscles to bone.

Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound and NSAIDs have both been used to treat ligament injuries, but their effects on the healing process, when used alone or together, have not been determined.

To investigate, Dr. Stuart J. Warden, from Indiana University in Indianapolis, and colleagues assessed healing in 60 adult rats with experimentally induced injuries to ligaments in both knees. The animals were treated with Celebrex in a carrier solution or with the carrier alone. In each animal, one knee was treated with active ultrasound, while the other received ultrasound without the equipment actually being on.

The researchers' findings appear in The American Journal of Sports Medicine.

Active ultrasound "accelerated ligament healing," Warden told Reuters Health, while "celecoxib did the opposite. Knees treated with these modalities reached the same level of healing, it just took longer when celecoxib was given."

When both Celebrex and active ultrasound were given, the effects canceled each other out. The end result was that these knees healed about as fast as those exposed to inactive ultrasound and vehicle solution.

As to how NSAIDs impair ligament healing, Warden said that it is thought to relate to a reduction in the formation of collagen, the protein responsible for the strength of ligaments.

"NSAIDs are fine if you just use them to control inflammation and pain for 3 or 4 days after injury," Warden noted. "But our findings suggest that you should get off of them as soon as you can because they can impair ligament healing."

For people still experiencing pain beyond 3 or 4 days, Warden recommended the use of acetaminophen (e.g., Tylenol), known as paracetamol in many countries.

"There was one dead chicken in her backyard," she said.

Sulistyowati said there was no information on whether any other members of the toddler's family were also infected.

Indonesia has seen a steady rise in human bird flu infections and deaths since its first known outbreak of H5N1 in poultry in late 2003, and has registered more deaths this year than any other country.

It has the second highest number of human deaths from bird flu after Vietnam.

Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease but many countries around the world are on alert over fears it might mutate into a form that passes easily among people and trigger a pandemic, possibly killing millions.

Indonesia drew international attention in May when the virus killed members of a single family in North Sumatra. Experts said there could have been limited human-to-human transmission in the cluster case.

On Thursday, leading science journal Nature reported that multiple mutations have been found in the H5N1 virus that killed the seven family members in Sumatra although scientists are unsure of the significance of the mutations.

The mice suffered the loss of trabecular bone, the spongy area of bone inside the dense outer area known as the cortical bone.

"It's interesting that the trabecular bone, not the cortical bone, suffered the damage," said Bateman, a bioengineer who studies bone biomechanics. The remaining spongy bone must redistribute the load to bear the weight, but this makes the bone support structure less efficient and leaves the bone more vulnerable to fracture.

"A murine model for bone loss from therapeutic and space-relevant sources of radiation," by Sarah A. Hamilton, Neil D. Travis, Jeffrey S. Willey, Eric R. Bandstra and Ted A. Bateman, Clemson University; and Michael J. Pecaut, Daila S. Gridley and Gregory A. Nelson, Loma Linda University and Medical Center, appears in the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology, published by The American Physiological Society.

Mouse model applies to humans

The results of a mouse study cannot be directly applied to humans. However, both mice and humans lose bone after radiation exposure, so the results raise a red flag. Bateman noted that a recent clinical study of 6,000 cancer patients reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that post-menopausal women who received pelvic radiation for cervical and colorectal cancer increased their bone fracture risk by 60%. Radiation following anal cancer increased the risk of fracture by 200%, he said.

Astronauts lose 2% of bone mass for each month they are exposed to the effects of microgravity. So far, astronauts have not been exposed to the increased radiation of outer space, but that will change when they undertake a proposed 30-month trip to Mars, Bateman said. NASA has focused on radiation's cancer-causing properties and its ability to compromise the central nervous and immune systems. But the effect on bone health is an unexamined concern.

The murine (mouse) model such as the one in this study provides a way to study the physiological effects of radiation using controlled experiments. Clinical studies of people who undergo radiation to treat cancer are limited because of the complicating factors of the illness itself and the chemotherapy which often accompanies it. "You can't study this in people, so having a well-defined animal model is important," Bateman said.

Study focuses on four types of radiation

In the current study, the mice received a single 2 Gray (Gy) dose, which is comparable to the single dose of 1-2 Gy that human cancer patients receive. However, cancer patients receive a series of doses over the course of therapy, totaling 10-70 Gy. (The amount of radiation in a Gy varies, because it is calculated based on the recipient's weight.)

The mice were divided into five groups. The control group received no radiation. Each of the remaining four groups received a different type of radiation: gamma, proton, ion or carbon. Those exposed to the carbon radiation suffered 39% spongy bone loss; proton, 35%; ion, 34%; and gamma, 29%. The loss of spongy connections in the four groups ranged from 46-64%, he said.

Cancer patients typically receive either gamma or, less commonly, proton radiation. Astronauts on a Mars mission are expected to receive extended periods of low-dose radiation of multiple types, including protons and heavy ions, Bateman said.

The foal's sire, E.T., a 20-year-old stallion who has won two world showjumping cups, was castrated at age three as is common practice for jumpers, and was therefore incapable of reproducing normally.

In cooperation with E.T.'s Austrian jockey Hugo Simon, scientists performed a biopsy on the stallion in 2003, removing cells which were then kept frozen in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius (minus 320 Fahrenheit).

As a genetically identical copy of his sire, the cloned foal will be used exclusively for breeding purposes from age three onwards, said Cryozootech.

He is to be raised at Cryozootech's stables in France from the autumn and could produce his first descendants through artificial insemination from 2009, the statement said.

The French laboratory has produced two previous equine clones, including one of the 1994 and 1996 world endurance champion Pieraz. The world's first cloned horse, Prometea, was born in 2003.

Since 2003, equine cloning has taken off in the United States, where the practice is widespread for pigs and bovines. One US firm, Viagen, recently announced it was capable of producing 100 horse clones per year.

But thoroughbred racing rules do not allow artificial insemination, cloning or any kind of fertility treatment, to produce racehorses.

Cryozootech has a gene bank from 49 horses, all exceptional in disciplines such as endurance, jumping and dressage - all of which use geldings, horses whose testicles are removed at an early age - to be used for reproduction.

Two more equine clones are due to be born shortly in its laboratories, one this summer - son of the champion high-jumper Calvaro V - and another to be cloned next year from the dressage champion Rusty, it said Wednesday.

For each cloned horse, Cryozootech issues subscriptions - 200 in the case of E.T.'s clone - worth EUR 5,000 (6,360 dollars), which give holders the right to use the stallion for reproduction.

Scientists say that the cloning of complex multi-celled organisms is still at an early technological stage.

Cloning entails taking an egg, removing its nucleus, and replacing it with the nucleus of any cell taken from the donor animal.

This nucleus contains almost all of the donor's genetic code, so if the egg is then transplanted into a surrogate and results in a birth, the offspring should be a genetic duplicate in all but neglible detail.

However, most cloning attempts result in miscarriages because the egg fails to develop properly.

In addition, cloned mammals face a high risk of falling sick or dying young, apparently because of flaws inflicted to the genetic code during the cloning process.