Acupuncture as a Treatment Option in Treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder-Related Tinnitus in War Veterans: A Case Presentation.

Although close associations between tinnitus and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among war veterans has been documented, there is limited research that explores evidence-based, efficacious interventions to treat the condition in this particular population. This article presents a case of three war veterans with PTSD symptoms who received a series of acupuncture treatments for tinnitus with positive outcomes. Even though the article presents cases of only three veterans and was based on self-reports, there were very clear trends on how veterans with tinnitus symptoms responded to acupuncture treatments. Information generated from this case presentation is a good starting place in exploring evidence-based approaches in treating tinnitus symptoms in war veterans with PTSD.

Suicidal Asian American College Students' Perceptions of Protective Factors: A Qualitative Study.

This study addresses the paucity of knowledge on protective factors associated with Asian American college students' suicidal behavior. Participants were 58 Asian American college students who seriously considered suicide within the past 12 months and responded to open-ended online survey questions about what was helpful during their suicide crisis. A phenomenological analysis of participants' narratives revealed the following protective factors: (a) a desire not to hurt or burden others, (b) social support, (c) fear, (d) self-reliance, and (e) insight. These findings can guide culturally informed clinical interventions by mental health professionals.

Reasons for living, social support, and Afrocentric worldview: assessing buffering factors related to Black Americans' suicidal behavior.

This study utilized an ecological framework to explore the role of 4 culturally relevant protective factors-reasons for living, Afrocentric worldview, family support, and friend support-in protecting Black American college students from suicidal behavior. Participants were 289 Black American college students. We hypothesized that these 4 culturally relevant factors would exert indirect protective effects on suicidal behavior through their association with reduced depressive symptoms. Results indicated that reasons for living, perceived supportive behaviors from family, and Afrocentric worldview exerted indirect protective effects on suicidal behaviors through their negative associations with depressive symptoms. The mediation effect from friend support to depression and suicidal behavior was not significant.

Examining suicide protective factors among black college students.

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the nascent literature on resilience and suicidality among Black Americans by examining factors that may predict less suicidal behavior among this population. The authors hypothesized that reasons for living, life satisfaction, and religious awareness would account for unique variance in suicidal thoughts and behavior among Black Americans, above the variance accounted for by depressive symptoms. They also hypothesized that reasons for living and religious awareness would be stronger inverse predictors among Black women than Black men. Results indicated that both depression and life satisfaction were stronger predictors of suicidal behavior among Black men. Among women, only reasons for living was a significant inverse predictor of suicidal thoughts and behavior. More frequent reasons for living moderated the relationship between depression and suicidal thoughts and behavior among Black women.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of the biological interface between cancer and the microenvironment: a fractal anomalous diffusion model with microenvironment plasticity.

BACKGROUND: The invasion-metastasis cascade of cancer involves a process of parallel progression. A biological interface (module) in which cells is linked with ECM (extracellular matrix) by CAMs (cell adhesion molecules) has been proposed as a tool for tracing cancer spatiotemporal dynamics. METHODS: A mathematical model was established to simulate cancer cell migration. Human uterine leiomyoma specimens, in vitro cell migration assay, quantitative real-time PCR, western blotting, dynamic viscosity, and an in vivo C57BL6 mouse model were used to verify the predictive findings of our model. RESULTS: The return to origin probability (RTOP) and its related CAM expression ratio in tumors, so-called "tumor self-seeding", gradually decreased with increased tumor size, and approached the 3D Pólya random walk constant (0.340537) in a periodic structure. The biphasic pattern of cancer cell migration revealed that cancer cells initially grew together and subsequently began spreading. A higher viscosity of fillers applied to the cancer surface was associated with a significantly greater inhibitory effect on cancer migration, in accordance with the Stokes-Einstein equation. CONCLUSION: The positional probability and cell-CAM-ECM interface (module) in the fractal framework helped us decipher cancer spatiotemporal dynamics; in addition we modeled the methods of cancer control by manipulating the microenvironment plasticity or inhibiting the CAM expression to the Pólya random walk, Pólya constant.

Effects of auricular acupressure on menstrual symptoms and nitric oxide for women with primary dysmenorrhea.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of auricular acupressure on relieving menstrual symptoms and decreasing nitric oxide (NO) for women with primary dysmenorrhea. DESIGN: This was a randomized clinical trial comparing the effects of auricular acupressure by seed-pressure method and placebo adhesive patch. SETTING: Settings included colleges in northern and central Taiwan. SUBJECTS: Serum CA-125 testing was used as a screening test for primary dysmenorrhea (<35 mg/dL). The study included 36 college females randomized to acupressure group, 35 to control group. INTERVENTIONS: The acupressure group received auricular acupressure by seed-pressure method on liver (CO12), kidney (CO10), and endocrine (CO18) acupoints. The control group had a plain adhesive patch placed on the same acupoints with no seed attached. Acupressure protocol included massaging 15 times on each acupoint, 3 times a day, for a total of 20 days. OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary: Short-form Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQs). Secondary: blood sample of NO. Assessments of MDQs and NO were performed at baseline and within the first 2 days of their next menses (after completion of 20 days of acupressure). RESULTS: In the acupressure group, the overall menstrual symptoms (95% confidence interval [CI] = -49.8 to -6.5, effect size [ES] = 0.43, p = 0.01) and two subscales, menstrual pain (95% CI = -16.4 -to -2.2, ES = 0.45, p = 0.01) and negative affects (95% CI = -11.9-2.0, ES = 0.38, p = 0.04), revealed that menstrual symptoms decreased significantly after auricular acupressure by the seed-pressure method. The ES for the MDQs were in favor of the auricular acupressure by seed-pressure method. NO level increased in the acupressure group, although this difference did not achieve statistical significance (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the effects of auricular acupressure by seed-pressure method in improving menstrual symptoms, and offers a noninvasive complementary therapy for women with primary dysmenorrhea.

Maternal effects on daughters' eating pathology and body image.

Effects of maternal eating behaviors and attitudes, maternal feedback to daughter about weight issues, mother-daughter relationship closeness, media influences, and mothers' perceptions of daughters shape on daughters' body image and eating pathology were examined using 91 pairs of mothers and college-aged daughters. Hierarchical multiple regressions using daughters' BMI as the first step were separately performed for daughters' body image and eating pathology. Variables predictive of daughters' body image included negative feedback from mother, mother's disapproval of daughter's figure, and mothers' eating behaviors and attitudes as perceived by daughters. A similar pattern was found for daughters' eating pathology scores with the addition of mothers' tendency to internalize media messages regarding thinness and beauty significantly adding to the prediction. Maternal influence through modeling may be best assessed by using the daughters' perceptions of their mothers because this corresponds to what the daughter was aware of in their mothers' eating attitudes and behaviors. Negative feedback from mothers about daughters' figures and eating patterns significantly increased daughters' difficulties in these areas. Mothers who showed a greater internalization of media messages about thinness were most likely to have daughters with eating pathologies.

Degradation of sarcomeric and cytoskeletal proteins in cultured skeletal muscle cells.

The goal of this research was to evaluate the roles of calpains and their interactions with the proteasome and the lysosome in degradation of individual sarcomeric and cytoskeletal proteins in cultured muscle cells. Rat L8-CID muscle cells, in which we expressed a transgene calpain inhibitor (CID), were used in the study. L8-CID cells were grown as myotubes after which the relative roles of calpain, proteasome and lysosome in total protein degradation were assessed during a period of serum withdrawal. Following this, the roles of proteases in degrading cytoskeletal proteins (desmin, dystrophin and filamin) and of sarcomeric proteins (alpha-actinin and tropomyosin) were assessed. Total protein degradation was assessed by release of radioactive tyrosine from pre-labeled myotubes in the presence and absence of protease inhibitors. Effects of protease inhibitors on concentrations of individual sarcomeric and cytoskeletal proteins were assessed by Western blotting. Inhibition of calpains, proteasome and lysosome caused 20, 62 and 40% reductions in total protein degradation (P<0.05), respectively. Therefore, these three systems account for the bulk of degradation in cultured muscle cells. Two cytoskeletal proteins were highly-sensitive to inhibition of their degradation. Specifically, desmin and dystrophin concentrations increased markedly when calpain, proteasome and lysosome activities were inhibited. Conversely, sarcomeric proteins (alpha-actinin and tropomyosin) and filamin were relatively insensitive to the addition of protease inhibitors to culture media. These data demonstrate that proteolytic systems work in tandem to degrade cytoskeletal and sarcomeric protein complexes and that the cytoskeleton is more sensitive to inhibition of degradation than the sarcomere. Mechanisms, which bring about changes in the activities of the proteases, which mediate muscle protein degradation are not known and represent the next frontier of understanding needed in muscle wasting diseases and in muscle growth biology.

Roles of mu-calpain in cultured L8 muscle cells: application of a skeletal muscle-specific gene expression system.

The goal of this work was to characterize the roles of mu-calpain in skeletal muscle protein degradation. Three approaches were developed to alter mu-calpain activity in rat myotubes. These included over-expression of antisense mu-calpain (mu-AS), dominant negative mu-calpain (mu-DN) and the antisense 30-kDa calpain subunit (30-AS). Constructs were expressed in rat L8 myotubes, and their effects on protein degradation and on concentrations of intact and/or degraded fodrin, desmin and tropomyosin were examined. An ecdysone-inducible expression system, in which we replaced a constitutively active CMV promoter with a skeletal muscle-specific alpha-actin promoter, was used to drive expression. Cell lines were evaluated by expression of the gene-of-interest following addition of ponasterone A (PA; ecdysone analog) to culture medium. Changes in calpain activity were assessed by evaluating fodrin degradation. 30-AS, which should alter both mu- and m-calpain activities, increased intact fodrin concentration. mu-DN and mu-AS reduced fodrin degradation products. mu-DN reduced total protein degradation by 7.9% (P<0.01) at 24 h and by 10.6% (P<0.01) at 48 h. mu-AS reduced total protein degradation by 6.4% at 24 h (P<0.05). 30-AS reduced total protein degradation by 13.4% (P<0.05) and 7.3% (P<0.05) following 24 and 48 h of PA administration, respectively. We assessed effects of mu-DN, mu-AS and 30-AS on concentrations of desmin and tropomyosin. Inhibition of calpains stabilized desmin, but had no effect on tropomyosin. These data indicate that fodrin and desmin are mu-calpain substrates and that mu-calpain accounts for a small proportion of total protein degradation in muscle cells. Tropomyosin is not degraded by calpain in muscle cells.

Development of a ponasterone A-inducible gene expression system for application in cultured skeletal muscle cells.

The goal of this study was to develop an inducible gene expression system to assess functions of specific proteins in differentiated cultured skeletal muscle. We utilized and modified the ecdysone inducible system because others have used this system to express exogenous genes in vitro and in transgenic animals. A limitation of the commercially-available ecdysone system is its constitutive expression in all tissues. Hence, its application in vivo would result in expression of a cloned gene in undifferentiated and differentiated tissues. To target its expression to muscle, we removed the constitutively-active CMV promoter of pVgRXR and replaced it with a skeletal muscle alpha-actin promoter so that the regulatory features of the system would be expressed in differentiated muscle cells. We transfected our newly designed expression system into L8 muscle myoblasts and established stable cell lines via antibiotic selection. We determined that reporter gene activity was induced by ponasterone A in myotubes, a differentiated muscle phenotype, but not in myoblasts (undifferentiated cells). This proved the validity of the concept of an inducible muscle-specific expression system. We then determined that beta-galactosidase expression was dependent upon the dose of ponasterone A and duration of exposure to inducer. This creates potential to regulate both the level of expression and duration of expression of a cloned gene in differentiated muscle.