Emotion complexity and emotion regulation across adulthood

This research used data from a study on daily emotional experience in adulthood to examine the associations between age, emotion complexity, and emotion regulation. Data were drawn from a study of daily stress that included 239 participants ranging in age from 18 to 89 from North Central Florida. Two indicators of emotion complexity were considered: emotion differentiation and the co-occurrence of positive and negative affect. Emotion regulation was assessed in terms of individuals’ likelihood of maintaining adaptive emotion states. There were no age differences in adults’ co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions. In contrast to theories suggesting age would be associated with greater emotion complexity, the findings revealed that older adults had lower differentiation scores than younger adults. Age was also associated with more adaptive patterns of emotion regulation. Specifically, older adults persisted in low negative states and moved out of high negative states more readily than younger adults. Finally, neuroticism, self-concept incoherence, mean daily stress, and emotion complexity were associated with emotion regulation. Notably, adults who reported a greater mix of positive and negative affect moved out of high negative affect states more rapidly than adults with lower co-occurrence scores. This finding is in keeping with a growing body of work suggesting that positive affect promotes recovery from negative affect. Overall, the findings suggest that although emotion complexity is associated with emotion regulation, it does not appear to be a key factor underlying age differences in emotion regulation.     

Induction of immune tolerance in patients with hemophilia A and inhibitors treated with porcine VIIIC by home therapy

Home therapy with porcine factor VIIIC was safe and effective when administered to five hemophilic patients over periods of 8 1/2, 6, 4, 3 1/2, and 2 years. No significant transfusion reactions occurred. Before treatment with porcine factor VIIIC, all five had high-level, high- responding anti-human VIIIC inhibitors initially lacking anti-porcine factor VIIIC activity. Although specific anti-porcine VIIIC inhibitors arose in all patients, these were generally transient, and only one patient became refractory to treatment. We believe that porcine factor VIIIC is the treatment of choice in patients whose inhibitors do not cross-react. All five patients lost their original anti-human VIIIC inhibitors after starting treatment with porcine VIIIC, permitting the reintroduction of human VIIIC in three of them. There has been no recurrence of anti-human VIIIC inhibitor activity during 2 to 3 years of regular treatment with human VIIIC in these patients. This suggests that tolerance to human VIIIC has arisen as a result of treatment with porcine VIIIC. Porcine VIIIC may have a role in the desensitization of some factor VIIIC inhibitor patients.     

Kinetics and viral protein specificity of the cytotoxic T lymphocyte response in healthy adults immunized with live attenuated varicella vaccine.

The cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response was evaluated in adults given live attenuated varicella vaccine, using target cells expressing varicella-zoster virus (VZV) immediate-early protein (IE62) or VZV glycoproteins gpI, gpIV, or gpV to determine viral protein specificity. The frequency of CTL that recognized IE62 was 1:171,000 +/- 46,000 SE in subjects tested 10 days to 8 weeks after the initial vaccine dose; the induction of CTL specific for gpI was equivalent. CTL recognition of VZV proteins was mediated by CD4+ or CD8+ cells. CTL recognition of IE62 and gpIV persisted in vaccinees (tested approximately 4 years later) and was comparable to that in the naturally immune. The mean frequency of CTL specific for gpV was lower (but not significantly) in vaccinees than in naturally immune subjects. Assay of responder cell frequencies showed persistence of equivalent numbers of T lymphocytes that recognized IE62 and gpI in vaccinees and naturally immune subjects. Immunization with this vaccine elicited memory T lymphocyte responses to VZV comparable to those induced by natural infection.     

Childhood urinary tract infection in primary care: a prospective observational study of prevalence,diagnosis, treatment,and recovery

BackgroundThe prevalence of targeted and serendipitous treatment for, and associated recovery from, urinary tract infection (UTI) in pre-school children is unknown.AimTo determine the frequency and suspicion of UTI in children who are acutely ill, along with details of antibiotic prescribing, its appropriateness, and whether that appropriateness impacted on symptom improvement and recovery.MethodSystematic urine sampling from children aged <5years presenting in primary care with acute illness with culture in NHS laboratories.ResultsOf 6079 children’s urine samples, 339 (5.6%) met laboratory criteria for UTI and 162 (47.9%) were prescribed antibiotics at the initial consultation. In total, 576/7101 (8.1%) children were suspected of having a UTI prior to urine sampling, including 107 of the 338 with a UTI (clinician sensitivity 31.7%). Children with a laboratory-diagnosed UTI were more likely to be prescribed antibiotics when UTI was clinically suspected than when it was not (86.0% versus 30.3%, P<0.001). Of 231 children with unsuspected UTI, 70 (30.3%) received serendipitous antibiotics (that is, antibiotics prescribed for a different reason). Overall, 176 (52.1%) children with confirmed UTI did not receive any initial antibiotic. Organism sensitivity to the prescribed antibiotic was higher when UTI was suspected than when treated serendipitously (77.1% versus 26.0%; P<0.001). Children with UTI prescribed appropriate antibiotics at the initial consultation improved a little sooner than those with a UTI who were not prescribed appropriate antibiotics initially (3.5 days versus 4.0 days; P = 0.005).ConclusionOver half of children with UTI on culture were not prescribed antibiotics at first presentation. Serendipitous UTI treatment was relatively common, but often inappropriate to the organism’s sensitivity. Methods for improved targeting of antibiotic treatment in children who are acutely unwell are urgently needed.     

Clinical variability of Fanconi anemia (type C) results from expression of an amino terminal truncated Fanconi anemia complementation group C polypeptide with partial activity

Fanconi anemia (FA) is an autosomal recessive disease characterized by congenital anomalies, aplastic anemia, and cancer susceptibility. Mutations within the FA complementation group C (FAC) gene account for approximately 14% of diagnosed FA cases. Two mutations, one in exon 1 (delG322) and one in exon 4 (IVS4 + 4 A to T), account for 90% of known FAC mutations. The delG322 mutation results in a mild FA phenotype, while the IVS4 + 4 A to T mutation results in severe FA phenotype. To determine the molecular basis for this clinical variability, we analyzed patient-derived cell lines for the expression of characteristic mutant FAC polypeptides. All cell lines with the delG322 mutation expressed a 50-kD FAC polypeptides, FRP-50 (FAC-related protein), shown to be an amino terminal truncated isoform of FAC reinitiated at methionine 55. All cell lines with the IVS4 + 4 A to T mutation lacked FRP-50. Overexpression of a cDNA encoding FRP-50 in an FA(C) cell line resulted in partial correction of mitomycin C sensitivity. In conclusion, expression of an amino terminal truncated FAC protein accounts, at least in part, for the clinical heterogeneity among FA(C) patients.     

Blockage of the Early Events of Mitogenic Signaling by Interferon-gamma in Macrophages in Response to Colony-Stimulating Factor-1

Inhibition of cell proliferation is an important biologic funcphorbol ester, as measured by early gene expression, DNA tion of interferons (IFNs), which has been exploited in therasynthesis and cell proliferation. Although activation, phospeutic treatment of certain hematologic malignancies. Howphorylation, and turnover of the CSF-1 receptor and CSF-1- ever, the molecular mechanism was not clear. We have induced increase in diacylglycerol production remained norrecently shown that IFNs (/ and ) inhibit protein kinase mal, IFN- blocked CSF-1- stimulated activation of mitogen-C (PKC)-dependent (such as PDGF and phorbol ester) but activated protein kinases, Raf-1 kinase, increase in GTP-not PKC-independent (such as epidermal growth factor) actibound Ras and tyrosine phosphorylation, and activation of vation of Raf-1 and mitogen-activated protein kinases protein kinase C  (PKC-). PKC- was required for CSF-1- (MAPK/ERKs) in fibroblasts (Xu et al, Mol Cell Biol 14:8018, induced mitogenic signaling and a primary target for IFN-- 1994), suggesting a novel mechanism by which IFNs execute induced inhibition. Interestingly, although phorbol myristate their antiproliferative function. Monocytes/macrophages acetate stimulated Ras activation, PKC- did not appear to are primary targets in vivo for IFN-, the major activity of be an upstream activator of Ras. These studies clearly indimacrophage-activating factor. In the present study, mechacated that IFN- specifically inhibits PKC- activation, renism of IFN-- induced antiproliferative action in macrosulting in blockage of the early events of mitogenesis in phages in response to colony-stimulating factor- 1 (CSF-1) macrophages in response to CSF-1.