Enhancing Adolescent Risk Perception of Electronic Cigarette Use.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent electronic cigarette use has been steadily increasing since first being introduced commercially in 2007. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this pilot study was to determine if adolescents who watched an educational video during a wellness visit would increase their perception of risk related to electronic cigarette use. METHOD: Seventy-nine adolescents participated and were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 40) or control (n = 39) group. Results included risk perception, perceived benefit, and provider discussion about electronic cigarettes. RESULTS: There was no statistical difference between intervention and control groups for electronic cigarette risk or perceived electronic cigarette benefit. Adolescents who watched the video intervention compared to those who did not watch a video intervention were significantly more likely to report having discussed electronic cigarettes with their provider (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Watching a video intervention on electronic cigarettes increased the likelihood of a reported discussion between provider/patient about electronic cigarettes but did not increase risk perception or decrease perceived benefit of electronic cigarettes. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Utilizing video education is one tool that could potentially be used to augment provider education during wellness visits.

Alternative transcripts of rat slc19a1: defective sorting and inefficient expression of alternative splicing products--an addendum.

Recently, we have reported about the existence and cloning of alternative transcripts of the solute carrier 19a1 in rat liver and kidney, and have explained their origin from tissue specific promoters and by alternative splicing [DNA Seq. 2005, 16(1), 1-6]. The variant open reading frames (ORFs) of these transcripts were now expressed as fusion proteins with an N-terminal GFP. Transfection of HPCT-1E3 hepatocytoma cells as well as the MDCK kidney epithelial cell line with the GFP-fusion of the major splicing form containing 12 transmembrane domains (TMD) resulted in a strong fluorescence at the plasma membrane, which was stable over at least 3 days. Expression of GFP alone gave a comparable overall fluorescence intensity, although, staining was distributed evenly throughout the cells. Fusions of GFP with the shorter ORFs of all alternative slc19a1 transcripts containing 6-7 predicted TMD were expressed less efficiently and not sorted to the plasma membrane. Instead, these proteins accumulated in intracellular granules, and were, apparently, degraded. Hence, it is unlikely that these minor splicing forms are directly involved in solute transport across the plasma membrane.

Alternative transcripts of rat slc19a1: cloning, genomic organisation, tissue specific promoters and alternative splicing.

Recently, the rat genome project revealed the genomic sequence of slc19a1, coding for the methotrexate carrier-1, identical to the reduced folate carrier-1 of humans, on rat chromosome 20. At the same time, we have cloned and analysed the complete or partial cDNAs of now at least six different transcripts from rat liver and kidneys. Alignment with the genomic sequence revealed seven exons. The first two non-coding exons, exon I and Ia were used alternatively in kidneys and liver, respectively, suggesting usage of alternative promoters. Three minor mRNA forms resulted from absent splicing of intron III, a shortened exon III (exon IIIa), and a shortened exon IV (exon IVa). The minor transcripts were predicted to result in translation products with 7 or 6 instead of 12 transmembrane domains (TMDs) and a peptide mass of 38, 39 and 40 kDa instead of 58 kDa.