[Psychopathic personality in women. Diagnostics and experimental findings in the forensic setting and the business world]. / Psychopathische Persönlichkeit bei Frauen. Diagnostik und experimentelle Befunde im forensischen Setting und in der Arbeitswelt.

Highly psychopathic women are rare in the context of forensic psychiatry; however, the concept of psychopathy plays an important role in diagnostics, for court expertises as well as for treatment. Another so far neglected yet relevant field is the business world. The so-called successful female psychopaths are characterized by highly psychopathic traits but low antisocial behavior, at least with reference to criminal behavior. The basis for investigating and interpreting gender differences is the assessment of psychopathy. Gender differences have been repeatedly demonstrated, especially in the assessment of antisocial behavior and the differentiation of borderline personality disorder and psychopathy which have to be addressed. Group comparisons based on these diagnostic methods found lower inhibitory deficits but less aggressive behavior in female participants with respect to the first main symptom category. For the second symptom category, emotional detachment, so far there are almost no findings reporting gender differences but only few direct gender comparisons have been carried out. However, highly psychopathic women from the general population demonstrate a stronger correlation between psychopathic traits and self-perception as negotiation partner compared to men: they make more use of manipulation and perceive themselves as more powerful in negotiation situations. Future studies should address the diagnostic variability, direct gender comparisons in experimental tasks and the relationship between psychopathic traits, the core symptom categories and career-related success.

Desflurane-induced and ischaemic postconditioning against myocardial infarction are mediated by Pim-1 kinase.

BACKGROUND: Anaesthetic-induced (APOST) and ischaemic postconditioning (IPOST) against myocardial infarction are mediated via phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/Akt. Pim-1 kinase is acting downstream of Akt and has recently been demonstrated to enhance cardiomyocyte survival. We tested the hypothesis that both APOST and IPOST are mediated by Pim-1 kinase. METHODS: Pentobarbital-anaesthetized male C57BL/6 mice were subjected to 45-min coronary artery occlusion (CAO) and 3-h reperfusion. Animals received either no intervention, the Pim-1 kinase inhibitor II (10 µg/g intraperitoneally) or its vehicle dimethy sulfoxide (10 µl/g intraperitoneally). Three minutes prior to the end of CAO, 1.0 minimum alveolar concentration desflurane was administered for 18 min alone or in combination with Pim-1 kinase inhibitor II. IPOST was induced by three cycles of each 10-s ischaemia/reperfusion, and animals received either IPOST alone or in combination with Pim-1 kinase inhibitor II. Infarct size was determined with triphenyltetrazolium chloride and area at risk with Evans blue. Protein expression of Pim-1 kinase, Bad, phospho-Bad(Ser112) and B-cell lymphoma 2 was determined using Western immunoblotting analysis. RESULTS: Infarct size in control animals (CON) was 46 ± 3%. Dimethylsulfoxide (47 ± 3%) and Pim-1 kinase inhibitor II (44 ± 5%) did not significantly reduce infarct size. Desflurane (16 ± 2%*; *P < 0.05 vs. CON) and IPOST (21 ± 2%*) significantly reduced infarct size compared with CON. Inhibition of Pim-1 kinase abolished desflurane-induced postconditioning (46 ± 4%) and IPOST (44 ± 5%). Western blot analysis revealed that only desflurane enhances phosphorylation of Bad at serine 112 that was abrogated by Pim-1 kinase inhibitor II. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that Pim-1 kinase mediates both desflurane-induced postconditioning and IPOST in mice.