Building Collaboratives with Southern Rural African American Churches through the Integration of the Interorganizational Collaborative Framework

The rural Black church often plays an important role in the lives of many African Americans and frequently functions as an informal helping network in meeting emergency service needs for this group. This article provides a review of the constructs of the Bailey and McNalley-Koney Interorganizational Community-Based Collaborative Framework. Additionally, this paper explores action-oriented measures for integrating constructs into practice to build interorganizational collaboratives with southern rural African American churches

Beneficial effects of caffeic acid phenethyl ester in a rat model of vascular injury

1. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), an active component of propolis, was able to reduce neointimal formation in a model of endothelial injury of rat carotid artery (balloon angioplasty). Furthermore, we investigated the relationship between neointima formation and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation and we correlated NF-κB activation to the expression of inducible isoform of cyclo-oxygenase (COX-2) in injured carotids. 2. In control group a significant proliferation of neointima was observed 14 days after balloon angioplasty, which was correlated to an increase of NF-κB/DNA binding activity as well as p50/p65 nuclear levels compared to those observed in the carotids from sham-operated rats. Furthermore, NF-κB activation was correlated to increased COX-2, but not β-actin, protein expression. 3. Treatment of rats for 14 days with CAPE (3, 10, 30 mg kg(−1)) caused a significant inhibition of all the parameters assayed, except β-actin protein expression. 4. These results indicate that treatment with CAPE may lead to a reduction of neointima formation by inhibiting NF-κB activation and suggest that this agent may have therapeutic relevance for the prevention of human restenosis