Underage drinking: prevalence and correlates of risky drinking measures among youth aged 12-20.

Background: Underage drinking and its effects have been researched extensively. However, no study to date has examined how the levels of drinking that have been defined as risky for adults might relate to youth who have a heightened physiological vulnerability to alcohol.

Objectives: To examine a range of drinking measures that go beyond common measures of youth alcohol use to gain a more detailed understanding of the nature of underage drinking and its associated correlates and outcomes.

Modified alpha A crystallin in the retina: altered expression and truncation with aging.

Crystallins are small heat shock proteins with chaperone function that prevent heat- and oxidative stress-induced aggregation of proteins. This is the first report describing modifications of alphaA crystallin in the sensory retina, including altered content and truncation with aging. Proteins from adult, middle age, and old Fischer 344 Brown Norway rats were compared.

Altered proteasome function and subunit composition in aged muscle.

Myofibrillar protein degradation is mediated through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. To investigate if altered proteasome activity plays a role in age-related muscle atrophy, we examined muscle size and proteasome function in young and aged F344BN rats. Significant age-related muscle atrophy was confirmed by the 38% decrease in cross-sectional area of type 1 fibers in soleus muscle.