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Responses To Many Anti-Aging Interventions Are Sexually Dimorphic., Andrzej Bartke, Erin Hascup, Kevin Hascup

Articles

There is increasing appreciation that sex differences are not limited to reproductive organs or traits related to reproduction and that sex is an important biological variable in most characteristics of a living organism. The biological process of aging and aging-related traits are no exception and exhibit numerous, often major, sex differences. This article explores one aspect of these differences, namely sex differences in the responses to anti-aging interventions. Aging can be slowed down and/or postponed by a variety of environmental ("lifestyle"), genetic or pharmacological interventions. Although many, particularly older studies utilized only one sex of experimental animals, there is considerable …

Chronic, Mild Hypothermic Environmental Temperature Does Not Ameliorate Cognitive Deficits In An Alzheimer's Disease Mouse., Samuel Mcfadden, Lindsey N Sime, Makayla F. Cox, Caleigh A Findley, Mackenzie R Peck, Kathleen Quinn, Yimin Fang, Andrzej Bartke, Erin R Hascup, Kevin N Hascup

Articles

Metabolic dysfunction increases with age and is a contributing factor to Alzheimer's disease (AD) development. We have previously observed impaired insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis in the APP/PS1 model of AD. To improve these parameters, we chronically exposed male and female mice to mild hypothermic environmental temperature (eT), which positively modulates metabolism. Although a hypothermic eT normalized insulin sensitivity, glucose tolerance was still impaired in both sexes of AD mice. We observed increased plasma glucagon and BAFF in both sexes, but additional sexually dimorphic mechanisms may explain the impaired glucose homeostasis in AD mice. Hepatic Glut2 was decreased in female …

Friend Or Foe? Defining The Role Of Glutamate In Aging And Alzheimer’S Disease, Makayla F. Cox, Erin R. Hascup, Andrzej Bartke, Kevin Hascup

Articles

Aging is a naturally occurring decline of physiological processes and biological pathways that affects both the structural and functional integrity of the body and brain. These physiological changes reduce motor skills, executive function, memory recall, and processing speeds. Aging is also a major risk factor for multiple neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Identifying a biomarker, or biomarkers, that signals the transition from physiological to pathological aging would aid in earlier therapeutic options or interventional strategies. Considering the importance of glutamate signaling in synaptic plasticity, motor movement, and cognition, this neurotransmitter serves as a juncture between cognitive health and disease. …

Growth Hormone Signaling Shapes The Impact Of Environmental Temperature On Transcriptomic Profile Of Different Adipose Tissue Depots In Male Mice., Augusto Schneider, Berta Victoria, Maria Isabel Schiavon Cousen, Yimin Fang, Samuel Mcfadden, Justin Darcy, Adam Gesing, Erin R Hascup, Kevin N Hascup, Andrzej Bartke, Michal M Masternak

Articles

Growth hormone receptor knockout (GHRKO) mice are smaller, long living, and have an increased metabolic rate compared with normal (N) littermates. However, it is known that thermoneutral conditions (30-32°C) elicit metabolic adaptations in mice, increasing the metabolic rate. Therefore, we hypothesized that environmental temperature would affect the expression profile of different adipose tissue depots in GHRKO mice. For this, N (n = 12) and GHRKO (n = 11) male mice were maintained at 23 or 30°C from weaning until 11 months of age. RNA sequencing from adipose tissue depots (epididymal-eWAT, perirenal-pWAT, subcutaneous-sWAT, and brown fat-BAT) was performed. Thermoneutrality increased body …

Psychological Resilience And Cognitive Function Among Older Military Veterans., Justin T Mcdaniel, Erin R Hascup, Kevin N Hascup, Mehul Trivedi, Harvey Henson, Robert Rados, Mary York, David L Albright, Taryn Weatherly, Kaitlyn Frick

Articles

The purpose of this study was to explore the association between psychological resilience and cognitive function in military veterans. We obtained public-use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) for this cross-sectional study of military veterans aged 52 to 101 years (n = 150). We estimated a multivariable linear regression model in which cognitive function served as the dependent variable and psychological resilience served as the independent variable. After controlling for demographics, health conditions, and health behaviors, veterans who had higher psychological resilience scores had better cognitive function (b = 0.22, p = 0.03). Our findings suggest that psychological …

Assessing Sex-Specific Circadian, Metabolic, And Cognitive Phenotypes In The Aβpp/Ps1 And Appnl-F/Nl-F Models Of Alzheimer's Disease., Jesse Britz, Emmanuel Ojo, Asmita Dhukhwa, Takashi Saito, Takaomi C Saido, Erin R Hascup, Kevin N Hascup, Shelley A Tischkau

Articles

BACKGROUND: Circadian disruption has long been recognized as a symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, emerging data suggests that circadian dysfunction occurs early on in disease development, potentially preceding any noticeable cognitive deficits.

OBJECTIVE: This study compares the onset of AD in male and female wild type (C57BL6/J), transgenic (AβPP/PS1), and knock-in (APPNL-F/NL-F) AD mouse models from the period of plaque initiation (6 months) through 12 months.

METHODS: Rhythmic daily activity patterns, glucose sensitivity, cognitive function (Morris water maze, MWM), and AD pathology (plaques formation) were assessed. A comparison was made across sexes.

RESULTS: Sex-dependent hyperactivity in AβPP/PS1 mice was …

Corticothalamic Projections Deliver Enhanced Responses To Medial Geniculate Body As A Function Of The Temporal Reliability Of The Stimulus, Srinivasa P Kommajosyula, Edward L Bartlett, Rui Cai, Lynne Ling, Donald M Caspary

Articles

Ageing and challenging signal-in-noise conditions are known to engage the use of cortical resources to help maintain speech understanding. Extensive corticothalamic projections are thought to provide attentional, mnemonic and cognitive-related inputs in support of sensory inferior colliculus (IC) inputs to the medial geniculate body (MGB). Here we show that a decrease in modulation depth, a temporally less distinct periodic acoustic signal, leads to a jittered ascending temporal code, changing MGB unit responses from adapting responses to responses showing repetition enhancement, posited to aid identification of important communication and environmental sounds. Young-adult male Fischer Brown Norway rats, injected with the inhibitory …

Growth Hormone And Aging: New Findings., Andrzej Bartke, Erin Hascup, Kevin Hascup, Michal M Masternak

Articles

Complex relationships between growth hormone (GH) signaling and mammalian aging continue to attract attention of many investigators. Recent results include evidence that the impact of GH on genome maintenance (DNA damage and repair) is drastically different in normal as compared to cancer cells, consistent with GH promoting aging and cancer progression. Impact of GH on DNA methylation was studied as a possible mechanism linking actions of GH during early life to the trajectory of aging. Animals with reduced or enhanced GH signaling and novel animals with adipocyte-specific deletion of GH receptors were used to elucidate the effects of GH on …

Energy Metabolism And Aging., Andrzej Bartke, Savannah Brannan, Erin Hascup, Kevin Hascup, Justin Darcy

Articles

Aging is strongly related to energy metabolism, but the underlying processes and mechanisms are complex and incompletely understood. Restricting energy intake and reducing metabolic rate can slow the rate of aging and extend longevity, implying a reciprocal relationship between energy metabolism and life expectancy. However, increased energy expenditure has also been associated with improved health and longer life. In both experimental animals and humans, reduced body temperature has been related to extended longevity. However, recent findings on the function of thermogenic (brown or beige) adipose tissue produced intense interest in increasing the amount of energy expended for thermogenesis to prevent …

Adapting To Remote Library Services During Covid-19., Lydia A. Howes, Lynne Ferrell, Geoffrey S. Pettys, Adam Roloff

Articles

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent Stay At Home order, the Southern Illinois University Medical Library utilized new technologies and implemented new virtual service models in order to improve internal communication, and to continue providing services and resources to patrons remotely. The changes happened quickly, and the librarians faced several challenges during this time, but things went smoothly overall and there were some considerable silver linings. Several of the newly adopted technologies, service models, and virtual resource offerings proved to be extremely effective and their use will continue beyond the duration of the pandemic.

Eye-Tracking As A Window Into Assembled Phonology In Native And Non-Native Reading, Katherine I. Martin, Alan Juffs

Articles

The past 30 years of reading research has confirmed the importance of bottom-up processing. Rather than a psycholinguistic guessing game (Goodman, 1967), reading is dependent on rapid, accurate recognition of written forms. In fluent first language (L1) readers, this is seen in the automatic activation of a word’s phonological form, impacting lexical processing (Perfetti & Bell, 1991; Rayner, Sereno, Lesch & Pollatsek, 1995). Although the influence of phonological form is well established, less clear is the extent to which readers are sensitive to the possible pronunciations of a word (Lesch & Pollatsek, 1998), …

Mammalian Nuclear Trub1, Mitochondrial Trub2, And Cytoplasmic Pus10 Produce Conserved Pseudouridine 55 In Different Sets Of Trna., Shaoni Mukhopadhyay, Manisha Deogharia, Ramesh Gupta

Articles

Most mammalian cytoplasmic tRNAs contain ribothymidine (T) and pseudouridine (Ψ) at positions 54 and 55, respectively. However, some tRNAs contain Ψ at both positions. Several Ψ54-containing tRNAs function as primers in retroviral DNA synthesis. The Ψ54 of these tRNAs is produced by PUS10, which can also synthesize Ψ55. Two other enzymes, TRUB1 and TRUB2, can also produce Ψ55. By nearest-neighbor analyses of tRNAs treated with recombinant proteins and subcellular extracts of wild-type and specific Ψ55 synthase knockdown cells, we determined that while TRUB1, PUS10, and TRUB2 all have tRNA Ψ55 synthase activities, they have different tRNA structural requirements. Moreover, these …

Riluzole Attenuates Glutamatergic Tone And Cognitive Decline In Aβpp/Ps1 Mice., Kevin N Hascup, Caleigh A Findley, Jesse Britz, Nahayo Esperant-Hilaire, Sarah O Broderick, Kristin Delfino, Shelley Tischkau, Andrzej Bartke, Erin R Hascup

Articles

We have previously demonstrated hippocampal hyperglutamatergic signaling occurs prior to plaque accumulation in AβPP/PS1 mice. Here, we evaluate 2-Amino-6-(trifluoromethoxy) benzothiazole (riluzole) as an early intervention strategy for Alzheimer's disease (AD), aimed at restoring glutamate neurotransmission prior to substantial Beta amyloid (Aβ) plaque accumulation and cognitive decline. Male AβPP/PS1 mice, a model of progressive cerebral amyloidosis, were treated with riluzole from 2-6 months of age. Morris water maze, in vivo electrochemistry, and immunofluorescence were performed to assess cognition, glutamatergic neurotransmission, and pathology, respectively, at 12 months. Four months of prodromal riluzole treatment in AβPP/PS1 mice resulted in long-lasting procognitive effects and …

Towards Refining Alzheimer's Disease Into Overlapping Subgroups, Erin R. Hascup, Kevin N Hascup

Articles

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive anterograde amnesia, cerebral atrophy, and eventual death. Current treatment has limited efficacy and cannot decelerate the disease progression. Clinical trials targeting the removal of the neuropathological hallmarks of AD, including accu- mulation of amyloid plaques or neurofibrillary tangles, have failed to modify disease progression. Without new or innovative hypotheses, AD is poised to become a public health crisis within this decade. We present an alternative hypothesis—that AD is the result of multiple interrelated causalities. The intention of this manuscript is to initiate a discussion regarding these multiple causalities and …

Alzheimer's Disease: The Link Between Amyloid-Β And Neurovascular Dysfunction., Ernesto Solis, Kevin N Hascup, Erin R Hascup

Articles

While prevailing evidence supports that the amyloid cascade hypothesis is a key component of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, many recent studies indicate that the vascular system is also a major contributor to disease progression. Vascular dysfunction and reduced cerebral blood flow (CBF) occur prior to the accumulation and aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau tangles. Although research has predominantly focused on the cellular processes involved with Aβ-mediated neurodegeneration, effects of Aβ on CBF and neurovascular coupling are becoming more evident. This review will describe AD vascular disturbances as they relate to Aβ, including chronic cerebral hypoperfusion, hypertension, altered …

Lifespan Of Long-Lived Growth Hormone Receptor Knockout Mice Was Not Normalized By Housing At 30°C Since Weaning, Yimin Fang, Samuel Mcfadden, Justin Darcy, Erin R. Hascup, Kevin Hascup, Andrzej Bartke

Articles

Growth hormone receptor knockout (GHRKO) mice are remarkably long-lived and have improved glucose homeostasis along with altered energy metabolism which manifests through decreased respiratory quotient (RQ) and increased oxygen consumption (VO₂ ). Short-term exposure of these animals to increased environmental temperature (eT) at 30°C can normalize their VO₂ and RQ. We hypothesized that increased heat loss in the diminutive GHRKO mice housed at 23°C and the consequent metabolic adjustments to meet the increased energy demand for thermogenesis may promote extension of longevity, and preventing these adjustments by chronic exposure to increased eT will reduce or eliminate their longevity …

Utilizing The 3/27 Conversion Test To Measure The Effects Of Temperature On The Base-Catalyzed Transesterification Of Waste Vegetable Oils Into Fatty Acid Methyl Esters, Blaine M. Heisner

Articles

Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME), used as components of biodiesel, are commonly manufactured using a base-catalyzed transesterification process. In this process, triglycerides are converted into FAME and glycerol by reacting with methanol and sodium hydroxide. Multiple factors can affect the reaction efficiency of the transesterification process, including temperature. Many home-processors of biodiesel fuel encourage the 3/27 Conversion Test as an indicator of acceptable reaction efficiency. This test recognizes the miscibility of FAME and methanol to provide a qualitative result of the transesterification process. The 3/27 Conversion Test can be used to determine if a processing variable affected the composition of …

The Flipped Classroom In Esl Teacher Education: An Example From Call, Yuyen Lee, Katherine I. Martin

Articles

The flipped classroom is one of many technology-enhanced teaching strategies. In this approach, students are responsible for initial learning at home (often via instructional videos) and class time is used for problem-solving and activities to deepen understanding. Although research on and use of the flipped classroom in language education is growing, little work has examined its use in teacher education, particularly for language teachers. To address this gap, this study examined the flipped classroom through the eyes of pre-service language teachers to reveal what hinders them from or encourages them to adopt this approach. Data were collected from students in …

A Culturally Competent Phenotypic Evaluation / Obesity Assessment In African And African American Populations: Pilot Study, Catrina Johnson, Robert Corrucini, Daniel Beque, Wanki Moon, Kola Ajuwon, David A. Lightfoot

Articles

BMI, a ratio of weight over height, is a culturally-biased tool imposed upon the scientific, academic and medical communities as an errant measure of obesity across ethnic - ity. Body Mass Index (BMI) relates mass (g) to a relative fat distribution with regards to height. Its genesis is from the actuarially derived and ethnically exclusive height and weight tables that promote the fictional notion of inter-eth - nic ideal weights that would be later adopted by the Na - tional Institutes of Health (NIH) as a competent measure of adiposity. Best practice, movement towards individualized medicine and deployment of effective …

Food Preferences Survey In African Americans And West Africans: A Cultural Exploration Of Agreement And Divergence In Attitudes In Food Environments And Food Responses, Catrina Johnson, Robert Corrichini, Daniel Becque, Wanki Moon, Kola Ajuwon, David A. Lightfoot

Articles

African Americans, currently over-represented among low SES groups, have been found to be among the most at risk groups for obesity and type 2 diabetes. Phenotypic expression, such as obesity, result from the combined effect of genetic inheritance and environmental influences. Environmental dynamics interact with individuals on micro, meso and ecto levels (Bronfrenbrenner, 1989), are diverse and cultural (Vygotsky, 1993) and are learned by individuals through modeling and observation (Bandura, 1989). Environmental factors such as parental influence and modeling, availability and accessibility of produce, sweetened drinks and fast foods, can contribute to or minimize the onset of obesity and type …

Analysis Of Human Mitochondrial Dna Content By Southern Blotting And Nonradioactive Probe Hybridization., Joel H Wheeler, Carolyn K J Young, Matthew J Young

Articles

A single cell can contain several thousand copies of the mitochondrial DNA genome or mtDNA. Tools for assessing mtDNA content are necessary for clinical and toxicological research, as mtDNA depletion is linked to genetic disease and drug toxicity. For instance, mtDNA depletion syndromes are typically fatal childhood disorders that are characterized by severe declines in mtDNA content in affected tissues. Mitochondrial toxicity and mtDNA depletion have also been reported in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients treated with certain nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. Further, cell culture studies have demonstrated that exposure to oxidative stress stimulates mtDNA degradation. Here we outline a Southern …

Ly379268 Does Not Have Long-Term Procognitive Effects Nor Attenuate Glutamatergic Signaling In Aβpp/Ps1 Mice., Kevin N Hascup, Jesse Britz, Caleigh Findley, Shelley Tischkau, Erin R. Hascup

Articles

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Genetic Biodiversity Of Several Traits Using Ssr Markers In Rice (Oryza Sativa L.), Mahmoud Fazaa, Nensreen Nazmy Bassouony, Walaa Essa Essa, David A Lightfoot A. Lightfoot

Articles

Eight primers (RM 315, RM 318, RM 166, RM 302, RM 201, RM 234, RM 526 and RM 144) revealed different levels of polymorphism to tag the related traits of interest as tolerant to abiotic stress, resistant to biotic stress and yield-related traits. Two primers (RM 190 and RM 278) were monomorphic. The percentage of the polymorphism was nearly 80 %. The size of detected fragments ranged from 105–325 bp. A total of 186 bands were scored from the amplification products with the ten SSR primers. Genetic diversity analyses were conducted on the basis of the scores with 176 unique …

Absorption Wavebands For Discriminating Oxidation Time Of Engine Oil As Detected By Ft-Ir Spectroscopy, Ali Mazin Abdul-Munaim, Torrey Holland, Poopalasingam Sivakumar, Dennis G. Watson

Articles

Fourier Transform-Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was used to analyze gasoline engine oil (SAE 5W20) samples that were exposed to seven different oxidation times (0 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, 96 h, 120 h, and 144 h) to determine the best wavenumbers and wavenumber ranges for the discrimination of the oxidation times. The thermal oxidation process generated oil samples with varying total base number (TBN) levels. Each wavenumber (400–3900 cm􀀀1) and wavenumber ranges identified from the literature and this study were statistically analyzed to determine which wavenumbers and wavenumber ranges could discriminate among all oxidation times. Linear regression was used …

Cover Crops And Landscape Position Effects On Nitrogen Dynamics In Plant-Soil-Water Pools, Gurbir Singh, Karl Williard, Jon Schoonover, Kelly Nelson, Gurpreet Kaur

Articles

Nitrogen dynamics and water quality benefits deriving from the use of cover crops (CCs) are mostly incurred from plot-scale studies without incorporating large-scale variability that is induced by landscape positions. Our understanding of how topography affects the N response in CC systems is limited. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of topography (shoulder, backslope, and footslope) and CCs (cereal rye, Secale cereale L. and hairy vetch, Vicia villosa L.) on nitrogen (N) uptake, soil inorganic N content (nitrate-N, NO3-N and total N, TN), and N leaching in watersheds that were planted with or without CCs. The …

Terahertz Time Domain Spectroscopy To Detect Oxidation Levels Of Diesel Engine Oil, Ali Mazin Abdul-Munaim, Jan Ornik, Martin Koch, Dennis G. Watson

Articles

Diesel engine oil was subjected to thermal oxidization (TO) for six periods of time (0 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, 96 h, and 120 h) and was subsequently characterized by terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The THz refractive index generally increased with oxidation time. The measurement method illustrated the potential of THz-TDS when a fixed setup with a single cuvette is used. A future miniaturized setup installed in an engine would be an example of a fixed setup. For the refractive index, there were highly significant differences among the oxidation times across most of the 0.3–1.7 THz range.

Combination Of Gold Nanoparticles With Low-Let Irradiation: An Approach To Enhance Dna Dsb Induction In Ht29 Colorectal Cancer Stem-Like Cells, Mahdi Abbasian, Zahra Arab-Bafrani, Azam Baharlouei, David Lightfoot

Articles

Purpose

High-linear energy transfer (high LET) irradiation has significant cytotoxic effects on different cancerous stem-like cells (CSLCs) such as colorectal CSLCs. A review of the literature has indicated that the presence of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) enables low-LET irradiation to produce highly non-homogeneous dose distributions like high-LET irradiation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the radioresponsiveness of HT29 colorectal CSLCs under low-LET irradiation (X-ray) and in the presence of GNPs.

Methods

Radioresponsiveness was evaluated using the ϒ-H2AX foci formation assay, the clonogenic assay, the cell cycle progression assay and analyses of radiobiological parameters.

Results

In the presence of GNPs, …

Influence Of Sample Mixing Techniques On Engine Oil Contamination Analysis By Infrared Spectroscopy, Torrey Holland, Ali Mazin Abdul-Munaim, Dennis G. Watson, Poopalasingham Sivakumar

Articles

For the most reliable and reproducible results for calibration or general testing purposes of two immiscible liquids, such as water in engine oil, good emulsification is vital. This study explores the impact of emulsion quality on the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy calibration standards for measuring water contamination in used or in-service engine oil, in an attempt to strengthen the specific guidelines of ASTM International standards for sample preparation. By using different emulsification techniques and readily available laboratory equipment, this work is an attempt to establish the ideal sample preparation technique for reliability, repeatability, and reproducibility for FT-IR analysis while …

Cost-Effective, Time-Efficient Passenger Rail System For The Eastern United States, James A. Mathias, Dal Hyung Kim

Articles

A program was developed using a genetic algorithm and automated lookup features to design an efficient passenger rail system for the eastern-half of the United States connecting large cities, metropolitan populations greater than two million, with overnight rail service. The results of the program predicted a passenger starting at the farthest point of the system boards the train at 16:02 on average and arrives at a different point of the system at 07:57 on average the following day, assuming the train travels an average speed of 70 mph. The design used actual distances by train track where possible. The system …

Diet-Induced Insulin Resistance Elevates Hippocampal Glutamate As Well As Vglut1 And Gfap Expression In Aβpp/Ps1 Mice., Erin R Hascup, Sarah O Broderick, Mary K Russell, Yimin Fang, Andrzej Bartke, Heather A Boger, Kevin N Hascup

Articles

The symptomologies of Alzheimer's disease (AD) develop over decades suggesting modifiable lifestyle factors may contribute to disease pathogenesis. In humans, hyperinsulinemia associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus increases the risk for developing AD and both diseases share similar age-related etiologies including amyloidogenesis. Since we have demonstrated that soluble Aβ₄₂ elicits glutamate release, we wanted to understand how diet-induced insulin resistance alters hippocampal glutamate dynamics, which are important for memory formation and consolidation. Eight to twelve-week-old C57BL/6J and AβPP/PS1 mice were placed on either a low-fat diet or high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 months. A HFD led to significant weight …