Keeping the body in mind: Insula functional organization and functional connectivity integrate interoceptive,exteroceptive, and emotional awareness

Relatively discrete experimental literatures have grown to support the insula's role in the domains of interoception, focal exteroceptive attention and cognitive control, and the experience of anxiety, even as theoretical accounts have asserted that the insula is a critical zone for integrating across these domains. Here we provide the first experimental demonstration that there exists a functional topography across the insula, with distinct regions in the same participants responding in a highly selective fashion for interoceptive, exteroceptive, and affective processing. Although each insular region is associated with areas of differential resting state functional connectivity relative to the other regions, overall their functional connectivity profiles are quite similar, thereby providing a map of how interoceptive, exteroceptive, and emotional awareness are integrated within the insular cortex. Hum Brain Mapp 34:2944–2958, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Structurating Expanded Genetic Carrier Screening: A Longitudinal Analysis of Online News Coverage

Expanded carrier screening (ECS) is a genetic test that is designed to assess the risk of a healthy person passing down a genetic disorder, such as spinal muscular atrophy, to future children. ECS screens for up to several hundred disorders in one test, expanding on traditional carrier screening tests that target one or a few genetic disorders. However, little is known about how this health technology is being presented to the public in media coverage. Accordingly, this study is a qualitative content analysis of online news and information of ECS over a 6-year period, beginning in 2010 when the technology was publicly available. Results indicate that major coverage themes were consistent across the years included, although content within those themes changed over time. Using structuration theory to guide analysis, results reveal that online news and information from 2010 to 2015 structurated ECS as a health technology innovation, an opportunity for business and investment, and a tool for family planning. Results are discussed in terms of implications for future research, for health journalism practice, and for clinical interactions.     

Structural polymorphism of glycophorins demonstrated by immunoblotting techniques

We have explored the polymorphism of the glycophorin system in the human erythrocyte membrane using the immunoblotting techniques and examining 52 individuals selected without prior bias as to their serologic state and ten documented serologic variants of M, N, S, s blood group system. Polyclonal antisera to alpha glycophorin and to alpha glycophorin CNBr carboxyl terminal fragment C (residues 82-131) and M and N specific monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) were used. The first two reagents detect specific regions of the alpha glycophorin molecule and all electrophoretically resolved species of glycophorins immunologically related to alpha and delta glycophorins (delta glycophorin, [alpha-delta] hybrids and other glycophorins with an alteration in the carboxyl terminal segment); the M and N MoAbs identified the glycophorin species containing or lacking the M or N determinant in the amino terminal octapeptide structures. We find that immunoblotting confirmed in all cases the serologically determined phenotype; we also find that polymorphic forms of the glycophorin system are relatively infrequent; immunoblotting, independent from serologic testing, was capable of detecting five mutants, two most likely S-s-U-phenotypes; a new glycophorin species was detected in normal red cells with both antiglycophorin and antipeptide C sera, which is not evident with MoAbs; immunoblots of known glycophorin variants (En(a-), U-, Mg, Mi I, II, III, V, and Sta) confirmed but also extended our knowledge of the abnormal glycophorins involved; and the He+ and Wrb(-) cells showed normal patterns.     

STAT3 is required for IL-21-induced secretion of IgE from human naive B cells

The production of immunoglobulin E (IgE) is tightly regulated. This is evidenced by the fact that it comprises less than 0.0001% of serum Ig, and aberrant production causes atopic conditions, including allergy, rhinitis, and anaphylaxis. Interleukin-4 (IL-4) is a well-characterized inducer of IgE by human and murine B cells, whereas interferon-gamma can antagonize this effect. IL-21 has also been recognized for its ability to suppress IL-4-induced IgE production by murine B cells. Here, we identified IL-21 as an inducer of IgE production by CD40L-stimulated human naive B cells. Furthermore, there was a striking synergy between IL-4 and IL-21 on inducing IgE secretion by CD40L-stimulated human B cells, such that the levels detected under these conditions exceeded those induced by IL-4 or IL-21 alone by more than 10-fold. IL-21 induced activation of STAT3 and analysis of B cells from patients with loss-of-function STAT3 mutations revealed that the ability of IL-21 to induce IgE secretion, and augment that driven by IL-4, was STAT3-dependent. These findings highlight a fundamental difference between the regulation of IgE production by human and murine B cells and have implications for the dysregulated production of IgE in conditions characterized by extremely high levels of serum IgE.