The Voices on Vax Campaign: Lessons Learned from Engaging Youth to Promote COVID Vaccination.

Background: The Voices on Vax campaign was a collaborative effort that engaged youth to create an interactive website and social media presence to increase COVID vaccine confidence and uptake among African American families in Baltimore, Maryland.

Objectives: To describe lessons learned and offer recommendations for future health communication campaigns involving youth ambassadors and virtual platforms.

Methods: We collected website analytics and limited data from pop-up surveys on the Voices on Vax website, as well as reflections from the youth ambassadors about their experiences.

VEGF family members regulate myocardial tubulogenesis and coronary artery formation in the embryo.

This study tested the hypothesis that coronary tubulogenesis and coronary artery formation require VEGF family members. Quail embryos were injected with soluble vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors R1 (Flt-1), R2 (Flk-1), R3 (Flt-4), VEGF-Trap (a chimera of R1 and R2), or neutralizing antibodies to VEGF-A, VEGF-B, or fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-2. Our data document that tubulogenesis is temporally dependent on multiple VEGF family members, because the early stage of tubulogenesis was markedly inhibited by VEGF-Trap and to a lesser extent by soluble VEGFR-1.

TGF-beta1, -beta2 and -beta3 cooperate to facilitate tubulogenesis in the explanted quail heart.

Background: Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) isoforms have been implicated as both pro- and anti-angiogenic modulators. In this study we addressed the roles of TGF-beta isoforms on coronary tubulogenesis.

Methods: Embryonic (E6) quail ventricular specimens were explanted onto collagen gels allowing endothelial cells to migrate and form vascular tubes.

Leadership in a public housing community.

Community Health Advocate (CHA) programs train community members to assist and advocate for other members of the community regarding health and other community issues. These programs have been successful in improving the health and quality of life of communities. We developed a CHA program in a single public housing development.

Role of VEGF family members and receptors in coronary vessel formation.

The specific roles of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family members and their receptors (VEGFRs) in coronary vessel formation were studied. By using the quail heart explant model, we found that neutralizing antibodies to VEGF-B or VEGF-C inhibited tube formation on the collagen gel more than anti-VEGF-A. Soluble VEGFR-1, a receptor for VEGF-A and -B, inhibited tube formation by 87%, a finding consistent with that of VEGF-B inhibition.