The religion-health connection: evidence, theory, and future directions.

The volume and quality of research on what we term the religion-health connection have increased markedly in recent years. This interest in the complex relationships between religion and mental and physical health is being fueled by energetic and innovative research programs in several fields, including sociology, psychology, health behavior and health education, psychiatry, gerontology, and social epidemiology. This article has three main objectives: (1) to briefly review the medical and epidemiologic research on religious factors and both physical health and mental health; (2) to identify the most promising explanatory mechanisms for religious effects on health, giving particular attention to the relationships between religious factors and the central constructs of the life stress paradigm, which guides most current social and behavioral research on health outcomes; and (3) to critique previous work on religion and health, pointing out limitations and promising new research directions.

Evidence for peroxidase-mediated metabolism of cyclophosphamide.

Lung and bladder injury are side-effects of chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide (CP). Although the mixed-function oxidases are known to metabolize CP to reactive species, inhibitors of these enzymes have no significant effect on therapeutic activity or lung toxicity in vivo. In contrast, inhibitors of prostaglandin H synthase (PHS) can significantly decrease CP-induced lung injury.

Cloning, expression, and protein interaction of human nebulin fragments composed of varying numbers of sequence modules.

Nebulin, a family of giant myofibrillar proteins of 600-900 kDa, contains a large number of highly conserved sequence repeats of 31-38 amino acids. To investigate the significance of this repeat, human skeletal muscle nebulin cDNA fragments encoding two, six, seven, eight, or fifteen repeat modules were expressed in high yield as nonfusion proteins in Escherichia coli with the pET3d plasmid vector. F-actin cosedimentation and solid phase binding assays demonstrated that all nebulin fragments, except the smallest two-module 67-mer, bound to muscle actin with high affinity under physiological ionic conditions.

Effects of acute, submaximal exercise on skeletal muscle vitamin E.

Vitamin E is the major lipid soluble anti-oxidant and may play an important protective role against free radicals produced during exercise. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a submaximal exercise bout on vitamin E levels in selected tissues. Five week- old lean, female Zucker rats were randomly divided into sedentary and run groups.

Nitrous oxide exposure reduces hepatic C1-tetrahydrofolate synthase expression in rats.

C1-tetrahydrofolate synthase (C1-THF synthase) is a trifunctional enzyme which catalyzes the interconversion of one-carbon units attached to the coenzyme THF. Nitrous oxide (N2O) inhalation is known to inactivate hepatic cobalamin-dependent methionine synthase leading to methionine deficiency and trapping of THF in the methyl-THF form. Liver tissue from rats exposed to N2O for 48 hours exhibited a coordinate decrease in all three activities of C1-THF synthase of approximately 25%.

Purification and properties of a protamine kinase and a type II casein kinase from bovine kidney mitochondria.

Bovine kidney mitochondrial extracts contain an inactive protamine kinase and an inactive casein kinase. The protamine kinase was activated by chromatography on poly(L-lysine)-agarose. Two forms of this soluble mitochondrial protamine kinase were separated by chromatography on protamine-agarose.