After nearly 24 hours of traveling that consisted of countless security checks, restless sleep on the planes, and an aching back from carrying my luggage, I must admit that my mood upon entering Norway was not as "chirpy" as I had anticipated. That all soon changed as I was greeted by my BRAVO! mentor, Dr. Anne Grete Bechensteen from the University of Oslo, and a few of my relatives who reside in Norway. The excitement of living in an entirely different country, experiencing a new culture, meeting new people, and working in a research lab thousands of miles away from home (all of this for three months!) was definitely kicking back into gear.

I arrived in Norway the day before Constitutional Day (May 17), a national holiday commemorating Norway's independence. The day was filled with Norwegians wearing traditional clothes, parades comprised of students, teachers, bands, a police unit, and delicious hot dogs wrapped with lompa (a potato tortilla). I even got to pay my respects to the royal family and learned things about Norway, that I could never have picked up from books. For example, one of the most important traditions of May 17 is to be a Reuss -- high school seniors dress in red overalls and have only one mission for the entire week before the 17th and that is to get completely drunk and wild as possible!!! Becoming one is such a memorable experience that my mentor and the other doctors I worked with still remember their wild days as a Reuss.

Another amazing sight was the hospital where I worked, Ulleval Sykehus. It is considered to be the largest hospital in Norway, which is no surprise when you see the hospital's map consisting of over ten buildings. I worked in the pediatric building, a structure that was recently built in 1999. I did have the opportunity to follow several clinical rotations and was rewarded with seeing the latest technology and machinery offered by the medical world. Despite the size of the hospital, it is uncommon for a physician/researcher to have a designated lab to work in. Therefore, I had to constantly switch from one building or floor to the next, depending on what I needed for my experiment.

My project involved examining the effects of altered iron in the diet of pregnant and lactating mice, and to determine its effect on erythropoiesis (red blood cell production) and iron status in their suckling offspring. Our mice model was organized into four groups: normal/normal (nono), iron deficient/iron deficient (idid), normal/iron deficient (noid), and iron deficient/normal (idno). Two groups (nono and idid) were placed on a high iron diet (which is considered normal) and a low iron diet, with each being able to keep their original litter. The other two groups participated in a crossover study where the entire litter was switched to the other mother with a different diet (e.g. from one high iron mice to a low iron mice). Studies have shown that early anemia in some mammals can be reversed by parental iron treatment, and we wanted to test whether this was true. The litters from these four groups were sacrificed at four different ages (0, 8, 14, and 20 days), and their blood and organ samples were collected and analyzed for results. A centrifuge was used to spin down the capillary tubes for the hematocrtit (Hct), hematology by Advia 120 Flow Cytometry to analyze blood cells (specifically Hb, Hct, retic%, and MCH), and atomic absorption flame spectroscopy and furnace spectroscopy to measure iron content in the liver and stomach.

Unfortunately, not all of our results were collected and analyzed while I was there. There were breeding problems with the mice during the first two months of my stay. We ran into complications ­ the female mice failed to become pregnant and/or they would eat all their pups before the sacrificing day. However, breeding began to pick up, and we did manage to salvage some results during my last month (hooray!). So far with the results that we have, we are able to see a trend for Hct and reticulocyte%. For Hct, noid is a first similar to nono, but its values begin to decrease from 0-8 days, and continues to do so until it eventually shares similar values with group idid at 20 days. On the other hand, idno did a dramatic increase from 0-8 days, and leveled off the same with nono for the remaining ages. Reticulocyte% was also compared, and its trend indicated that idno had a huge increase in reticulocytes during its first 8 days of life. These trends, although incomplete, do seem to suggest our hypothesis that iron in the diet of pregnant and lactating mice does have an effect on their pups. This is seen during the first 8 days of life. Currently Dr. Bechensteen is collecting the remaining results needed, and we will stay in contact with the hope of completing this study.

Living in a foreign country allowed me to learn, see and appreciate things that I never even thought about before. I learned to leave work early on days that are nice and sunny, otherwise, you will regret it when it rains for the next two weeks straight. I saw the beautiful fjords of Norway, full of lush vegetation and huge waterfalls. And finally, I grew to appreciate the deep and rich culture that Norway and other countries offered me.

I have so many people to thank for this awesome experience. All of this would not have been possible without Carol Bender, director of BRAVO!; Genevieve Kenney, her assistant; Dr. Pamela Kling, my UBRP research mentor in pediatrics, (who helped me with the entire process of applying to BRAVO!); and Dr. Anne Grete Bechensteen, my BRAVO! research mentor and friend. Thank you so much for everything that you have done for me!

My advice to you: take advantage of this opportunity (BRAVO!). Be bold and adventurous, you definitely will not regret it!

Lisa Ngo, UBRPer from Dr. Pamela Kling's lab, Pediatrics