Multilevel Correlates of Satisfaction with Neighborhood Availability of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Background  

Little is known about influences on perceptions of neighborhood food environments, despite their relevance for food-shopping behaviors and food choices.     

Corticosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone in songbird plasma and brain: effects of season and acute stress

Prolonged increases in plasma glucocorticoids can exacerbate neurodegeneration. In rats, these neurodegenerative effects can be reduced by dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), an androgen precursor with anti-glucocorticoid actions. In song sparrows, season and acute restraint stress affect circulating levels of corticosterone and DHEA, and the effects of stress differ in plasma collected from the brachial and jugular veins. Jugular plasma is an indirect index of the neural steroidal milieu. Here, we directly measured corticosterone and DHEA in several brain regions and jugular plasma, and examined the effects of season and acute restraint stress (30 min) ( n  = 571 samples). Corticosterone levels were up to 10× lower in brain than in jugular plasma. In contrast, DHEA levels were up to 5× higher in brain than in jugular plasma and were highest in the hippocampus. Corticosterone and DHEA concentrations were strongly seasonally regulated in plasma but, surprisingly, not seasonally regulated in brain. Acute stress increased corticosterone levels in plasma and brain, except during the molt, when stress unexpectedly decreased corticosterone levels in the hippocampus. Acute stress increased DHEA levels in plasma during the molt but had no effects on DHEA levels in brain. This is the first study to measure (i) corticosterone or DHEA levels in the brain of adult songbirds and (ii) seasonal changes in corticosterone or DHEA levels in the brain of any species. These results highlight several critical differences between systemic and local steroid concentrations and the difficulty of using circulating steroid levels to infer local steroid levels within the brain.     

Variation in RTN3 and PPIL2 Genes Does not Influence Platelet Membrane β-Secretase Activity or Susceptibility to Alzheimer’s Disease in the Northern Irish Population

β-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme (BACE1) is the rate-limiting enzyme for production of beta-amyloid peptides (Aβ), which are proposed to drive the pathological changes found in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Reticulon 3 (RTN3) is a negative modulator of BACE1 (β-secretase) proteolytic activity, while peptidylprolyl isomerase (cyclophilin)-like 2 (PPIL2) positively regulates BACE1 expression. The present study investigated whether there was any association between genetic variation in RTN3 and PPIL2, and either risk for AD, or levels of platelet β-secretase activity, in a large Northern Irish case-control sample. Four hundred and sixty-nine patients with a diagnosis of probable AD (NINCDS-ADRDA criteria) and 347 control individuals (MMSE > 28/30) were genotyped. SNPs in both genes were selected by downloading genotype data from the International HapMap Project (Phase II) and tags selected using multimarker approach in Haploview, where r ² > 0.8 and LOD > 3.0. Non-synonymous SNPs of interest were also included. Genotyping was performed by Sequenom iPLEX and TaqMan technologies. Alleles, genotypes and multi-marker haplotypes were tested for association with AD, and platelet β-secretase activities were measured for a subset of individuals (n = 231). Eight SNPs in RTN3 and 7 in PPIL2 were genotyped. We found no significant associations between allele, genotype or haplotype frequencies and risk of AD. Further, there was no effect of genotype on platelet membrane β-secretase activity. We conclude that common or potentially functional genetic variation in these BACE1 interacting proteins does not affect platelet membrane β-secretase activity or contribute to risk of AD in this population.     

Maternal effects and β-carotene assimilation in Canary chicks

Carotenoids are pigments responsible for the red, orange and yellow coloration of plants and animals. They may be beneficial in two ways; they have a powerful antioxidant activity, and they can behave as an immunostimulant. Animals however cannot synthesize carotenoids de novo, they must obtain them through their diet. In our experiments on Canaries, we investigated how mothers transfer their dietary carotenoid-related benefits to their offspring; either through the egg, or through the diet (during chicks' feeding). Female Canaries were allowed to access β-carotene enriched food during egg formation and/or chicks' feeding. We sorted the chicks into four groups using the period when they assimilated the beta-carotene as a variable. The four groups were: (i) before hatching (from yolk), (ii) after hatching (from maternal feeding), (iii) before and after hatching, or (iv) never. Colorimetry and HPLC analysis from sub-samples of yolks confirmed the maternal transfer of dietary carotenoids to the yolk. Our results show that benefits from maternal dietary carotenoids are transferred to the chicks, but according to the period when they are assimilated by the chicks, the physiological effects are different. It was found that the chicks' growth was enhanced when carotenoids were assimilated both before and after hatching. However an increase in cellular immunity efficiency only occurs when the assimilation takes place after hatching.     

Religiousness/spirituality and health behaviors in younger adult cancer survivors: does faith promote a healthier lifestyle?

Positive health behaviors are crucial to cancer survivors’ well-being, yet little is known about the personal factors that may facilitate positive health behaviors. The current study focuses on the association of religion/spirituality (R/S) and health behaviors, examining links between health behaviors and religious attendance, daily spiritual experiences, and religious struggle in a sample of 167 younger adult survivors of a variety of cancers. The extent to which positive affect (self-assurance) and negative affect (guilt/shame) mediate these links was also investigated. Results revealed that religious attendance had little impact on health behaviors, but that daily spiritual experiences were related to greater performance of health behaviors, while religious struggle was related to less. Self-assurance partially mediated the effects of daily spiritual experiences, while guilt/shame partially mediated the effects of religious struggle. The findings suggest that aspects of R/S may play important and different roles in the lifestyle choices of cancer survivors.