WHAT MOTIVATES WOMEN TO TAKE PART IN CLINICAL AND BASIC SCIENCE ENDOMETRIOSIS RESEARCH?*

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to identify factors motivating women to take part in endometriosis research and to determine if these factors differ for women participating in clinical versus basic science studies. METHODS: A consecutive series of 24 women volunteering for participation in endometriosis-related research were asked to indicate, in their own words, why they chose to volunteer. In addition, the women were asked to rate, on a scale of 0 to 10, sixteen potentially motivating factors. The information was gathered in the form of an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Strong motivating factors (mean score > 8) included potential benefit to other women's health, improvement to one's own condition, and participation in scientific advancement. Weak motivating factors (mean score < 3) included financial compensation, making one's doctor happy, and use of 'natural' products. No difference was detected between clinical and basic science study participants. CONCLUSION: This study is the first study to specifically investigate the factors that motivate women to take part in endometriosis research. Understanding why women choose to take part in such research is important to the integrity of the informed consent process. The factors most strongly motivating women to participate in endometriosis research related to improving personal or public health; the weakest, to financial compensation and pleasing the doctor.     

Extracting binary signals from microarray time-course data

This article presents a new method for analyzing microarray time courses by identifying genes that undergo abrupt transitions in expression level, and the time at which the transitions occur. The algorithm matches the sequence of expression levels for each gene against temporal patterns having one or two transitions between two expression levels. The algorithm reports a P-value for the matching pattern of each gene, and a global false discovery rate can also be computed. After matching, genes can be sorted by the direction and time of transitions. Genes can be partitioned into sets based on the direction and time of change for further analysis, such as comparison with Gene Ontology annotations or binding site motifs. The method is evaluated on simulated and actual time-course data. On microarray data for budding yeast, it is shown that the groups of genes that change in similar ways and at similar times have significant and relevant Gene Ontology annotations.     

Menarcheal onset is associated with body composition parameters but not with socioeconomic status

In the present study the menarcheal status (pre-or postmenarcheal), body composition, weight status, and socioeconomic parameters such as type of school and parental educational level as of 1752 female adolescents ageing between 12 and 18 years (x = 14.6) from rural areas of Eastern Austria were documented. Furthermore the association patterns between body composition, socioeconomic parameters and menarcheal status were analyzed. It turned out, that body composition parameters such as BMI, lean body mass and absolute and relative fat mass were significantly associated with menarcheal status. Postmenarcheal girls were taller and exhibited a higher weight status, a higher absolute and relative amount of fat mass and a higher amount of lean body mass than their premenarcheal counterparts of the same age. In contrast to the significant association between body composition and menarcheal status, no significant impact of educational level on menarcheal status, indicating socioeconomic status could be documented.     

Social prophylaxis: group interaction promotes collective immunity in ant colonies

Life in a social group increases the risk of disease transmission. To counteract this threat, social insects have evolved manifold antiparasite defenses, ranging from social exclusion of infected group members to intensive care. It is generally assumed that individuals performing hygienic behaviors risk infecting themselves, suggesting a high direct cost of helping. Our work instead indicates the opposite for garden ants. Social contact with individual workers, which were experimentally exposed to a fungal parasite, provided a clear survival benefit to nontreated, naive group members upon later challenge with the same parasite. This first demonstration of contact immunity in Social Hymenoptera and complementary results from other animal groups and plants suggest its general importance in both antiparasite and antiherbivore defense. In addition to this physiological prophylaxis of adult ants, infection of the brood was prevented in our experiment by behavioral changes of treated and naive workers. Parasite-treated ants stayed away from the brood chamber, whereas their naive nestmates increased brood-care activities. Our findings reveal a direct benefit for individuals to perform hygienic behaviors toward others, and this might explain the widely observed maintenance of social cohesion under parasite attack in insect societies.     

Lamins and lamin-associated proteins in aging and disease

Lamins, together with the lamin-associated proteins of the inner nuclear membrane, are structural proteins in the nucleus that mediate mechanical stress resistance. Novel findings show that lamin complexes also have scaffolding functions in the formation and regulation of higher order chromatin and in epigenetic regulatory pathways. Furthermore, lamins serve as scavenging complexes and regulators of signaling molecules in diverse pathways. Lamin complexes in the nuclear interior contribute to retinoblastoma-mediated cell cycle regulation. Because of their multiple and diverse roles, lamins are linked to an increasing number of human diseases. The molecular mechanisms of these diseases, which are just beginning to emerge, may involve cell cycle and differentiation defects in adult stem cells and genomic instability.     

Antimicrobial activity in the common seawhip, Leptogorgia virgulata (Cnidaria: Gorgonaceae)

Antimicrobial activity was examined in the gorgonian Leptogorgia virgulata (common seawhip) from South Carolina waters. Extraction and assay protocols were developed to identify antimicrobial activity in crude extracts of L. virgulata. Detection was determined by liquid growth inhibition assays using Escherichia coli BL21, Vibrio harveyii, Micrococcus luteus, and a Bacillus sp. isolate. This represents the first report of antimicrobial activity in L. virgulata, a temperate/sub-tropical coral of the western Atlantic Ocean. Results from growth inhibition assays guided a fractionation scheme to identify active compounds. Reverse-phase HPLC, HPLC-mass spectrometry, and 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy were used to isolate, purify, and characterize metabolites in antimicrobial fractions of L. virgulata. Corroborative HPLC-MS/NMR evidence validated the presence of homarine and a homarine analog, well-known emetic metabolites previously isolated from L. virgulata, in coral extracts. In subsequent assays, partially-purified L. virgulata fractions collected from HPLC-MS fractionation were shown to contain antimicrobial activity using M. luteus and V. harveyii. This study provides evidence that homarine is an active constituent of the innate immune system in L. virgulata. We speculate it may act synergistically with cofactors and/or congeners in this octocoral to mount a response to microbial invasion and disease.     

Ataxin-2 interacts with the DEAD/H-box RNA helicase DDX6 and interferes with P-bodies and stress granules

Tight control of translation is fundamental for eukaryotic cells, and deregulation of proteins implicated contributes to numerous human diseases. The neurodegenerative disorder spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 is caused by a trinucleotide expansion in the SCA2 gene encoding a lengthened polyglutamine stretch in the gene product ataxin-2, which seems to be implicated in cellular RNA-processing pathways and translational regulation. Here, we substantiate a function of ataxin-2 in such pathways by demonstrating that ataxin-2 interacts with the DEAD/H-box RNA helicase DDX6, a component of P-bodies and stress granules, representing cellular structures of mRNA triage. We discovered that altered ataxin-2 levels interfere with the assembly of stress granules and cellular P-body structures. Moreover, ataxin-2 regulates the intracellular concentration of its interaction partner, the poly(A)-binding protein, another stress granule component and a key factor for translational control. Thus, our data imply that the cellular ataxin-2 concentration is important for the assembly of stress granules and P-bodies, which are main compartments for regulating and controlling mRNA degradation, stability, and translation.     

A model of globin evolution

Putative globins have been identified in 426 bacterial, 32 Archaeal and 67 eukaryote genomes. Among these sequences are the hitherto unsuspected presence of single domain sensor globins within Bacteria, Fungi, and a Euryarchaeote. Bayesian phylogenetic trees suggest that their occurrence in the latter two groups could be the result of lateral gene transfer from Bacteria. Iterated psiblast searches based on groups of globin sequences indicate that bacterial flavohemoglobins are closer to metazoan globins than to the other two lineages, the 2-over-2 globins and the globin-coupled sensors. Since Bacteria is the only kingdom to have all the subgroups of the three globin lineages, we propose a working model of globin evolution based on the assumption that all three lineages originated and evolved only in Bacteria. Although the 2-over-2 globins and the globin-coupled sensors recognize flavohemoglobins, there is little recognition between them. Thus, in the first stage of globin evolution, we favor a flavohemoglobin-like single domain protein as the ancestral globin. The next stage comprised the splitting off to single domain 2-over-2 and sensor-like globins, followed by the covalent addition of C-terminal domains resulting in the chimeric flavohemoglobins and globin-coupled sensors. The last stage encompassed the lateral gene transfers of some members of the three globin lineages to specific groups of Archaea and Eukaryotes.     

A neuroglobin-overexpressing transgenic mouse

Neuroglobin (Ngb) is a recently discovered vertebrate globin expressed primarily in neurons. Ngb expression is induced by hypoxia and ischemia, and Ngb protects neurons from these insults. However, its normal physiological role and the mechanism underlying its neuroprotective action are uncertain. We report production of a transgenic mouse in which Ngb is overexpressed under the control of the chicken beta-actin promoter. This mouse should prove helpful for studying Ngb-mediated effects in vitro and in vivo.     

Increased behavioral and neuronal sensitivity to sex pheromone after brief odor experience in a moth

Plasticity in the response to stimuli related to food and oviposition cues is well documented in insects. However, responses to cues related to reproduction, for example, sex pheromones, are considered to be innate and thus not affected by experience. Here we show that brief preexposure to sex pheromones, without ensuing reward, lowers the threshold for behavioral response and augments the sensitivity in antennal lobe interneurons to pheromone compared with naive male moths. Thus, the sex pheromone system in insects can be modulated by experience. In addition, we show that the behavioral attraction to sex pheromone increases after preexposure in a time-dependent manner: a short-term effect, possibly a form of sensitization, and a long-term effect after more than 24 h. The behavioral long-term effect is paralleled by an increase in sensitivity of interneurons in the primary olfactory center, whereas the peripheral olfactory system does not change its sensitivity. We hypothesize that short-term sensitization to sex pheromone serves as a kind of alert system, whereas the long-term effect improves male performance when reproductively active females are present.