Cancer screening practices among Amish and non-Amish adults living in Ohio Appalachia.

Purpose: The Amish, a unique community living in Ohio Appalachia, have lower cancer incidence rates than non-Amish living in Ohio Appalachia. The purpose of this study was to examine cancer screening rates among Amish compared to non-Amish adults living in Ohio Appalachia and a national sample of adults of the same race and ethnicity in an effort to explain cancer patterns.

Methods: Face-to-face interviews focusing on perception of risk, cancer screening behaviors, and screening barriers were conducted among Amish (n = 134) and non-Amish (n = 154) adults living in Ohio Appalachia.

CCI-779 inhibits cell-cycle G2-M progression and invasion of castration-resistant prostate cancer via attenuation of UBE2C transcription and mRNA stability.

The cell-cycle G(2)-M phase gene UBE2C is overexpressed in various solid tumors including castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Our recent studies found UBE2C to be a CRPC-specific androgen receptor (AR) target gene that is necessary for CRPC growth, providing a potential novel target for therapeutic intervention. In this study, we showed that the G(1)-S cell-cycle inhibitor-779 (CCI-779), an mTOR inhibitor, inhibited UBE2C mRNA and protein expression in AR-positive CRPC cell models abl and C4-2B.

Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) augmentation early in life alters hippocampal development and rescues the anxiety phenotype in vulnerable animals.

Individuals with mood disorders exhibit alterations in the fibroblast growth factor system, including reduced hippocampal fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2). It is difficult, however, to pinpoint whether these alterations are a cause or consequence of the disorder. The present study asks whether FGF2 administered the day after birth has long-lasting effects on hippocampal development and emotionality.

The 2011 Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D: what dietetics practitioners need to know.

The Institute of Medicine Committee to Review Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D comprehensively reviewed the evidence for both skeletal and nonskeletal health outcomes and concluded that a causal role of calcium and vitamin D in skeletal health provided the necessary basis for the 2011 Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) and Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for ages older than 1 year. For nonskeletal outcomes, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, infections, and autoimmune disorders, randomized clinical trials were sparse, and evidence was inconsistent, inconclusive as to causality, and insufficient for Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) development. The EAR and RDA for calcium range from 500 to 1,100 and 700 to 1,300 mg daily, respectively, for ages 1 year and older.

Effects of tomato- and soy-rich diets on the IGF-I hormonal network: a crossover study of postmenopausal women at high risk for breast cancer.

To determine whether dietary modifications with tomato products and/or a soy supplement affected circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 and other markers of cell signaling in postmenopausal women at risk for developing breast cancer. Eligible and consented postmenopausal women at high risk for developing breast cancer were enrolled in a 26-week, two-arm (tomato and soy, 10 weeks each) longitudinal dietary intervention study in which each woman served as her own control. Changes in biochemical endpoints including IGF-I, IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-3, estradiol, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), C-peptide, and insulin were measured for each intervention arm.

Effects of a selectively bred novelty-seeking phenotype on the motivation to take cocaine in male and female rats.

Background: Gender and enhanced novelty reactivity can predispose certain individuals to drug abuse. Previous research in male and female rats selectively bred for high or low locomotor reactivity to novelty found that bred High Responders (bHRs) acquire cocaine self-administration more rapidly than bred Low Responders (bLRs) and that bHR females in particular self-administered more cocaine than the other groups. The experiments presented here aimed to determine whether an individual's sex and behavioral phenotype interact to affect motivation to take cocaine.

Novelty-seeking behavior predicts vulnerability in a rodent model of depression.

Background: The onset of major depressive disorder is likely precipitated by a combination of heredity and life stress. The present study tested the hypothesis that rats selectively bred on a trait related to emotional reactivity would show differential susceptibility or resilience to the development of depression-like signs in response to chronic mild variable intermittent stress (CMS).

Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats that were bred based on the trait of either high or low locomotor activity in response to a novel environment were exposed to 4 weeks of CMS or control conditions.

A selective role for dopamine in stimulus-reward learning.

Individuals make choices and prioritize goals using complex processes that assign value to rewards and associated stimuli. During Pavlovian learning, previously neutral stimuli that predict rewards can acquire motivational properties, becoming attractive and desirable incentive stimuli. However, whether a cue acts solely as a predictor of reward, or also serves as an incentive stimulus, differs between individuals.

The 2011 report on dietary reference intakes for calcium and vitamin D from the Institute of Medicine: what clinicians need to know.

This article summarizes the new 2011 report on dietary requirements for calcium and vitamin D from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). An IOM Committee charged with determining the population needs for these nutrients in North America conducted a comprehensive review of the evidence for both skeletal and extraskeletal outcomes. The Committee concluded that available scientific evidence supports a key role of calcium and vitamin D in skeletal health, consistent with a cause-and-effect relationship and providing a sound basis for determination of intake requirements.

Loss of carotene-9',10'-monooxygenase expression increases serum and tissue lycopene concentrations in lycopene-fed mice.

Two enzymes have been identified for the oxidative metabolism of carotenoids in mammals. Carotene-15,15'-monooxygenase (CMO-I) primarily centrally cleaves β,β-carotene to form vitamin A. We hypothesize that carotene-9',10'-monooxygenase (CMO-II) plays a key role in metabolism of acyclic nonprovitamin A carotenoids such as lycopene.

Tomato-based food products for prostate cancer prevention: what have we learned?

Evidence derived from a vast array of laboratory studies and epidemiological investigations have implicated diets rich in fruits and vegetables with a reduced risk of certain cancers. However, these approaches cannot demonstrate causal relationships and there is a paucity of randomized, controlled trials due to the difficulties involved with executing studies of food and behavioral change. Rather than pursuing the definitive intervention trials that are necessary, the thrust of research in recent decades has been driven by a reductionist approach focusing upon the identification of bioactive components in fruits and vegetables with the subsequent development of single agents using a pharmacologic approach.

Constitutive activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway impairs vitamin D signaling in human prostate epithelial cells.

We studied the effect of prolonged activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling on 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)(2)D(3)) action in the immortalized human prostate epithelial cell line RWPE1 and its Ki-Ras transformed clone RWPE2. 1,25(OH)(2)D(3)-treatment caused growth arrest and induced gene expression in both cell lines but the response was blunted in RWPE2 cells. Vitamin D receptor (VDR) levels were lower in RWPE2 cells but VDR over-expression did not increase vitamin-D-mediated gene transcription in either cell line.

Omega-3 fatty acid supplements in women at high risk of breast cancer have dose-dependent effects on breast adipose tissue fatty acid composition.

Background: Preclinical evidence of the preventive benefits of omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in breast cancer continues to fuel interest in the potential role of dietary fat content in reducing breast cancer risk. The dose of fish-oil/omega-3 PUFAs needed to achieve maximal target tissue effects for breast cancer prevention remains undefined.

Objective: To determine the dose effects of omega-3 fatty acids on breast adipose tissue fatty acid profiles, we conducted a study of 4 doses of omega-3 PUFAs in women at high risk of breast cancer.

Binding and activation of host plasminogen on the surface of Francisella tularensis.

Background: Francisella tularensis (FT) is a gram-negative facultative intracellular coccobacillus and is the causal agent of a life-threatening zoonotic disease known as tularemia. Although FT preferentially infects phagocytic cells of the host, recent evidence suggests that a significant number of bacteria can be found extracellularly in the plasma fraction of the blood during active infection. This observation suggests that the interaction between FT and host plasma components may play an important role in survival and dissemination of the bacterium during the course of infection.

Identification and quantification of apo-lycopenals in fruits, vegetables, and human plasma.

Research has suggested that lycopene may be metabolized by eccentric cleavage, catalyzed by beta-carotene oxygenase 2, resulting in the generation of apo-lycopenals. Apo-6'-lycopenal and apo-8'-lycopenal have been reported previously in raw tomato. We now show that several other apo-lycopenals are also present in raw and processed foods, as well as in human plasma.

Neural and environmental factors impacting maternal behavior differences in high- versus low-novelty-seeking rats.

Selective breeding of rats exhibiting differences in novelty-induced locomotion revealed that this trait predicts several differences in emotional behavior. Bred High Responders (bHRs) show exaggerated novelty-induced locomotion, aggression, and psychostimulant self-administration, compared to bred Low Responders (bLRs), which are inhibited and prone to anxiety- and depression-like behavior. Our breeding studies highlight the heritability of the bHR/bLR phenotypes, although environmental factors like maternal care also shape some aspects of these traits.

Impact of cocaine on adult hippocampal neurogenesis in an animal model of differential propensity to drug abuse.

Hippocampal plasticity (e.g. neurogenesis) likely plays an important role in maintaining addictive behavior and/or relapse.

1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D-mediated orchestration of anticancer, transcript-level effects in the immortalized, non-transformed prostate epithelial cell line, RWPE1.

Background: Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer mortality among US men. Epidemiological evidence suggests that high vitamin D status protects men from prostate cancer and the active form of vitamin D, 1alpha,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D) has anti-cancer effects in cultured prostate cells. Still, the molecular mechanisms and the gene targets for vitamin D-mediated prostate cancer prevention are unknown.

Building the affordable medical home.

Medical homes and accountable care organizations have become the great hope for many health industry stakeholders and policy makers seeking to reconstitute fragmented healthcare delivery within a coordinated cost-conscious framework. The need to increase coordination has been evident to analysts for many years and, in the past, has resulted in developments such as capitation and disease management. The hope of these reforms is that through changes in risk/reward to providers or by layering in external programs to improve patient coordination the system will improve patient outcomes and reduce total cost.

Prospective study of prostate tumor angiogenesis and cancer-specific mortality in the health professionals follow-up study.

Purpose: Tumor growth requires the development of independent vascular networks that are often primitive in morphology and function. We examined whether microvessel morphology contributes to the considerable biologic heterogeneity of prostate cancer.

Methods: We evaluated microvessel morphology as a predictor of prostate cancer mortality among 572 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study diagnosed with cancer during 1986 to 2000.

An animal model of genetic vulnerability to behavioral disinhibition and responsiveness to reward-related cues: implications for addiction.

Rats selectively bred based on high or low reactivity to a novel environment were characterized for other behavioral and neurobiological traits thought to be relevant to addiction vulnerability. The two lines of animals, which differ in their propensity to self-administer drugs, also differ in the value they attribute to cues associated with reward, in impulsive behavior, and in their dopamine system. When a cue was paired with food or cocaine reward bred high-responder rats (bHRs) learned to approach the cue, whereas bred low-responder rats (bLRs) learned to approach the location of food delivery, suggesting that bHRs but not bLRs attributed incentive value to the cue.

A new role for FGF2 as an endogenous inhibitor of anxiety.

Human postmortem studies have demonstrated that fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) expression is decreased in the brain of depressed individuals. It remained unclear, however, whether this is a consequence of the illness or whether FGF2 plays a primary role in the control of mood and emotions. In this series of studies, we first ask whether endogenous FGF2 expression correlates with spontaneous anxiety, a trait associated with vulnerability to severe mood disorders in humans.

Molecular diversity of a North Carolina wastewater treatment plant as revealed by pyrosequencing.

We report the results of pyrosequencing of DNA collected from the activated sludge basin of a wastewater treatment plant in Charlotte, NC. Using the 454-FLX technology, we generated 378,601 sequences with an average read length of 250.4 bp.

Neonatal FGF2 alters cocaine self-administration in the adult rat.

The neurobiological bases of increased vulnerability to substance abuse remain obscure. We report here that rats that were selectively bred for greater drug-seeking behavior exhibited higher levels of FGF2 gene expression. We then asked whether a single FGF2 administration (20 ng/g, s.