scholarly journals Roles of miR-31 and Endothelin-1 in Psoriasis Vulgaris: Pathophysiological Functions and Potential Biomarkers

2017 ◽  
pp. 987-992 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. BORSKA ◽  
C. ANDRYS ◽  
M. CHMELAROVA ◽  
H. KOVARIKOVA ◽  
J. KREJSEK ◽  
...  

Psoriatic lesions are characterized by hyperproliferation, aberrant differentiation of keratinocytes resistant to apoptosis and inflammation. miR-31 plays pro-proliferative, pro-differentiative and pro-inflammatory roles and modulates apoptosis in psoriatic keratinocytes. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is produced by psoriatic keratinocytes and suppresses apoptosis. Inflammation increases the production of ET-1, which in turn leads to the chronic stimulation of keratinocyte proliferation. The aim of this study was to identify the putative link between two potential biomarkers (miR-31 and ET-1) in patients with psoriasis. The study design included experimental group (29 patients with psoriasis), and the control group (22 blood donors). The PASI score evaluated the state of the disease (median: 18.6; interquartile range 14.5-20.9). Both, the serum level of ET-1 and the whole blood level of miR-31 were significantly increased (p<0.001 and p<0.05, respectively) in patients compared to the controls. However, a significant negative relationship between ET-1 and miR-31 was observed (Spearman’s rho=-037, p=0.05). It is possible that a negative feedback loop will be present between miR-31 and ET-1. Our results indicate that miR-31 and ET-1, potential biomarkers of the disease, play significant roles in the pathophysiology of psoriasis.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jéssica Esther Machado Farias ◽  
Ronaldo Pilati

This research’s major objective consisted of assessing the effect of a manipulation of peer descriptive norms on dishonest behavior. Specifically, we aimed at analyzing to what extent an interaction with an ingroup member would influence participants towards cheating in a task to obtain more money. A laboratory experiment with 198 participants in which a confederate interacted with the experimental group participants, telling them how to act to achieve the maximum reward in a task was performed. We found that the tip provided by the confederate led individuals toward being more dishonest in comparison with the control group. Besides, descriptive norms of daily dishonesty were significant predictors of the results obtained in the task, providing further evidence to the influence of other’s dishonesty on participants’ behavior. Also, a significant negative relationship between descriptive norms and self-esteem has been found, which indicates that individuals with low self-esteem are particularly more impressionable by such norms. These results suggest that making descriptive norms of honesty salient as well as working toward promoting enhancement of individuals’ self-esteem may reduce engagement in dishonest behavior.


1976 ◽  
Vol 129 (6) ◽  
pp. 598-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Lucas ◽  
Sidney Grown ◽  
Peter Stringer ◽  
Saradha Supramaniam

SummaryThe UCLS questionnaire, in a form modified to include a measure of syllabus-boundness, and a questionnaire to measure psychiatric symptomatology (the MHQ) were administered to two groups of students, one seeking help for emotional problems, the other a control group. Groups were compared on tests, test findings were inter-correlated, and scores were related to academic success. The UCLSQ is confirmed as a reliable research instrument. Principal component analysis again indicates a separation of psychoneurotic and motivational components of study difficulty. Syllabus-boundness (‘Sylbism’) emerges as a relatively independent trait, with a significant negative relationship to work satisfaction in both groups. MHQ, scores again show a positive correlation between phobic anxiety and academic attainment for patients.


Author(s):  
Hosseinali Gholami ◽  
Ahmad Fauzi Mohd Ayub ◽  
Aida Suraya Md Yunus ◽  
Nurzatulshima Kamarudin

<p>Based on many researches, there is negative relationship between mathematics anxiety and achievement. However, there is no study about mathematics anxiety and achievement in Malaysian foundation centers. This research studied the impact of Lesson Study (LS) on mathematics anxiety and achievement of students in a Malaysian university. A total of eight lecturers were involved in planning the LS which was experimented on 44 students as experimental group, while 42 others were in the control group. In the experimental group, students solved problems individually and in teams in a student-centered approach. For the control group, students were taught using the conventional method. Mathematics anxiety was measured using the Mathematics Anxiety Scale-Revised (MAS-R). A mathematics test was used to measure the students’ ability in problem solving. The data was analyzed using t-test, ANOVA and MANOVA. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the means of the experimental and control groups in mathematics anxiety and achievement scores. However, there is no statistically significant interaction between the effects of educational method and gender on both mathematics anxiety and achievement. LS was found to be a suitable method to increasing the student’s ability in problem solving and reducing their anxiety.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (9) ◽  
pp. 862-870
Author(s):  
Dragana Stanojevic ◽  
Svetlana Apostolovic ◽  
Sonja Salinger-Martinovic ◽  
Ruzica Jankovic-Tomasevic ◽  
Danijela Djordjevic-Radojkovic ◽  
...  

Background/Aim. Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is an important cause of mortality/morbidity worldwide. Biomarkers improve diagnostic and prognostic accuracy in AMI. The aim of this study was to investigate an increase of markers of endothelial dysfunction in AMI, measured on the 3rd day after the initial event and to investigate their association with short- and long-term (3-year) prognosis (outcome). Methods. The prospective study included 108 patients with AMI in the experimental group and 50 apparently healthy subjects in the control group. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) and nitric oxide degradation products (NOx) were determined. Results. The average age of the participants in the experimental group was 62 ? 10 years and 59 ? 9 years in the control group; 74.1% of the patients in experimental group were males and 68.8% in the control group. In 74.1% of the patients, ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) was diagnosed, and 25.9% of the patients presented with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). Thirteen (5.6%) patients died during 3 years and they had significantly higher ET-1 levels compared to survivors [4.02 (2.72?5.93) vs 3.06 (2.23?3.58) pg/mL; p = 0.015]. Endothelin- 1 in 46 (42.6%) patients with composite endpoint (3- year mortality and rehospitalization) was significantly increased compared to other patients [3.14 (2.54?4.41) vs 3.05 (2.18?3.56) pg/mL; p = 0.035]. Intrahospital complications were found in 41 (48%) patients. Participants with echocardiographically detected complications (ventricular dyskinesia, left ventricular thrombus and papillary muscle rupture) had higher ET-1 levels compared to other patients [4.02 (2.78?5.57) vs 3.06 (2.29?3.66) pg/mL; p = 0.012]. Endothelin- 1 concentration above the 75th percentile (> 3.77 pg/mL) was associated with the increased risk for composite endpoint [Log Rank (?2 = 13.44; p < 0.001)]. Patients who were rehospitalized had significantly lower NOx concentration [125.5 (111.4?143.6) vs 139.3 (116.79?165.2) ?mol/L; p = 0.04]. Endothelin-1 positively correlated with high sensitivity troponin I (hsTnI), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and a number of leukocytes. Conclusion. Endothelin- 1 and NOx were increased on the 3rd day after AMI, and they were predictors of worse short- and long-term (3- year) prognosis (outcome). Endothelin-1 positively correlated with conventional prognostic markers in AMI.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bosong Wang ◽  
Hong Xu ◽  
Chengqin Li ◽  
Xiaoding Wang ◽  
Weidong Sun ◽  
...  

Objective: This study aims to analyze the effect of lyophilized recombinant human brain natriuretic peptide on the endothelial function of patients with acute myocardial infarction. Methods: One hundred and thirty-six patients with acute myocardial infarction in our hospital were randomly divided into a control group and an experimental group (68 cases each). The patients in the control group were treated by conventional treatment. The patients in the experimental group were treated with lyophilized recombinant human brain natriuretic peptide besides the conventional treatment. The levels of flow-mediated dilatation (FMD), serum nitric oxide (NO), and endothelin-1 were compared between the two groups before and after treatment. Results: Before treatment, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the level of FMD (P>0.05); after treatment, the level of FMD in the experimental group was higher than that in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05); before treatment, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the levels of serum NO and endothelin-1 (P>0.05); after treatment, the levels of serum NO and endothelin-1 in the experimental group significantly improved, which were better than those in the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Lyophilized recombinant human brain natriuretic peptide can improve the FMD, increase the content of NO in the blood, and effectively reduce the level of endothelin-1, which is of great significance to improve the endothelial function of patients with acute myocardial infarction and is worth clinical application. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.1.2706 How to cite this:Wang B, Xu H, Li C, Wang X, Sun W, Li J. Analysis of the effect of Lyophilized Recombinant Human Brain Natriuretic Peptide on Endothelial Function in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(1):99-103. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.1.2706 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


Author(s):  
D.C. Dominguez ◽  
J.T. Ellzey

Peroxisomes which participate in 1ipid metabolism have been shown to be altered in several metabolic disorders and toxic conditions. In alcoholic liver disease, the single lesion most frequently found is lipid accumu1ation in hepatocytes. However, the mechanisms for this 1ipid accumu1ation are not clear. The occurrence of modifications of liver peroxisomes due to excess alcohol consumption has not been subjected to a controlled study. We utilized a combination of cytochemica1 and morphometrictechniques to study the size and number of liver peroxisomes in rats fed an alcohol-supplemented diet compared to those of matched-paired control animals.Male Sprague-Daw1ey rats (400-500 g) received a liquid diet. The experimental group (N = 5/group) was fed a diet containing 30% ethanol-derived calories (EDC) and the control group was fed an isocaloric diet to 30% EDC. A pair feeding procedure was employed to control for caloric intake. Small pieces of liver randomly selected, were fixed in 2.3% -glutaraldehyde in 0.1 M sodium cacodylate buffer, pH 7.2, incubated in a DAB medium and postfixed with. 2% aqueous osmium tetroxide. EM photographs were taken from sections of 3 tissue blocks from each sample (7,200X) with a Zeiss EM10-A (60 kV). With the use of a point counting method and a digital planimeter the volume density (Vv) and numerical density (Nv) were determined.


1999 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-272
Author(s):  
Jörg Doll ◽  
Michael Dick

The studies reported here focus on similarities and dissimilarities between the terminal value hierarchies ( Rokeach, 1973 ) ascribed to different groups ( Schwartz & Struch, 1990 ). In Study 1, n = 65 East Germans and n = 110 West Germans mutually assess the respective ingroup and outgroup. In this intra-German comparison the West Germans, with a mean intraindividual correlation of rho = 0.609, perceive a significantly greater East-West similarity between the group-related value hierarchies than the East Germans, with a mean rho = 0.400. Study 2 gives East German subjects either a Swiss (n = 58) or Polish (n = 59) frame of reference in the comparison between the categories German and East German. Whereas the Swiss frame of reference should arouse a need for uniqueness, the Polish frame of reference should arouse a need for similarity. In accordance with expectations, the Swiss frame of reference significantly reduces the correlative similarity between German and East German from a mean rho = 0.703 in a control group (n = 59) to a mean rho = 0.518 in the experimental group. Contrary to expectations, the Polish frame of reference does not lead to an increase in perceived similarity (mean rho = 0.712).


Author(s):  
J. Santoantonio ◽  
L. Yazigi ◽  
E. I. Sato

The purpose of this study was to investigate the personality characteristics in adolescents with SLE. The research design is a case-control study by means of the Rorschach Method and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale. Study group: 30 female adolescents with lupus, 12–17 years of age. The SLE Disease Activity Index was administered during the period of psychological evaluation. Control group: 32 nonpatient adolescents were matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic level. In the Wechsler Intelligence Scale the mean IQ of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group (77 and 98, respectively, p < .001). In the Rorschach, the lupus patients showed greater difficulty in interpersonal interactions, although they displayed the resources to process affect and to cope with stressful situations. A positive moderate correlation (p = .069) between the activity index of the disease and the affect constriction proportion of the Rorschach was observed: the higher the SLEDAI score, the lower the capacity to process affect. There is a negative correlation between the activity index of the disease and the IQ (p = .001): with a higher activity index of the disease, less intellectual resources are available.


Author(s):  
Leonard Reinecke ◽  
Sabine Trepte

Abstract. This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of exposure to a computer game on arousal and subsequent task performance. After inducing a state of low arousal, participants were assigned to experimental or control conditions via self-selection. Members of the experimental group played a computer game for five minutes; subjects in the control group spent the same amount of time awaiting further instructions. Participants who were exposed to the computer game showed significantly higher levels of arousal and performed significantly better on a subsequent cognitive task. The pattern of results was not influenced by the participants' prior experience with the game. The findings indicate that mood-management processes associated with personal media use at the workplace go beyond the alteration of arousal and affect subsequent cognitive performance.


Author(s):  
Laetitia Idier ◽  
Aurélie Untas ◽  
Nicole Rascle ◽  
Michèle Koleck ◽  
Maider Aguirrezabal ◽  
...  

Introduction:Psychological impact of Therapeutic Patient Education (TPE) for dialysis patients is rarely evaluated since the focus of many studies is on medical variables (i.e., adherence).Objectives:The aims of this study were: 1) to estimate the impact of a TPE program on knowledge, depression and anxiety, 2) to examine change in knowledge as a mediator of the effects of a TPE program on mental health.Method:This study was conducted in three hemodialysis units and comprised two groups: an experimental group with education and a control group with routine care. The program was based of 5 educative sessions. Knowledge, depressive and anxious symptoms were assessed with self-reported outcomes measured before and 3 months after the program.Results:The sample comprised 125 patients. Knowledge about vascular access and nutrition (p < 0.01) and depressive symptoms increased in the experimental group (p < 0.01). Analysis of mediation showed that changes in knowledge about vascular access were a significant mediator of the effects of the program on depressive symptoms (F = 4.90;p = 0.01).Discussion:Knowledge acquired during an educational program could lead to an emotional change. Improving knowledge often leads to an awareness of the risks that can modify the psychological state of patients by reminding them of their vulnerability. This study shows that it is required to be attentive to the way of transmitting knowledge. It’s necessary adapting this transmission to the needs of patients and promoting the acquisition of psychosocial competence too.Conclusion:This study shows that knowledge acquired during an educational program can lead to an emotional change in the short term. A long-term follow-up of the population should be interesting to observe these emotional effects.


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