From Caution to College: The Effects on Veterans with Self- Reported Trauma Symptoms Sharing their Experiences with the Campus Community

Over 900,000 veterans are using benefits for higher education today; the vast majority of them served in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). Over 25% of GWOT service members that have been treated by the Veterans Affairs (VA) are reported to have symptoms of posttraumatic stress or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTS/PTSD). PTS/PTSD negatively impacts student veterans’ abilities to navigate stressful environments such as college and university settings. The Veterans Embracing Transition (VET) Connect Program at San José State University (SJSU) is designed to connect veterans with non-veterans as peer educators. Five of the 13 VET Connect peer educators (38.5%) who were interviewed reported having symptoms of PTSD. Through their service as peer educators on and off campus, these participants demonstrated signs of healthy coping effects through sharing experiences and educating non-veterans of the struggles related to military culture, service, combat, and loss. This study was conducted in collaboration with Sophia Alcala. We worked on independent research questions and observations using data derived from the same larger study simultaneously under the supervision of Dr. Klaw

Supplement 1: Characterization of the AWARE 40 wide-field-of-view visible imager

Supplemental document Originally published in Optica on 20 December 2015 (optica-2-12-1086

Perinatal Exposure to a High-Fat Diet Is Associated with Reduced Hepatic Sympathetic Innervation in One-Year Old Male Japanese Macaques

<div><p>Our group recently demonstrated that maternal high-fat diet (HFD) consumption is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, increased apoptosis, and changes in gluconeogenic gene expression and chromatin structure in fetal nonhuman primate (NHP) liver. However, little is known about the long-term effects that a HFD has on hepatic nervous system development in offspring, a system that plays an important role in regulating hepatic metabolism. Utilizing immunohistochemistry and Real-Time PCR, we quantified sympathetic nerve fiber density, apoptosis, inflammation, and other autonomic components in the livers of fetal and one-year old Japanese macaques chronically exposed to a HFD. We found that HFD exposure <em>in-utero</em> and throughout the postnatal period (HFD/HFD), when compared to animals receiving a CTR diet for the same developmental period (CTR/CTR), is associated with a 1.7 fold decrease in periportal sympathetic innervation, a 5 fold decrease in parenchymal sympathetic innervation, and a 2.5 fold increase in hepatic apoptosis in the livers of one-year old male animals. Additionally, we observed an increase in hepatic inflammation and a decrease in a key component of the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway in one-year old HFD/HFD offspring. Taken together, these findings reinforce the impact that continuous exposure to a HFD has in the development of long-term hepatic pathologies in offspring and highlights a potential neuroanatomical basis for hepatic metabolic dysfunction.</p> </div

Peripheral Nervous System mRNA expression in Juvenile Macaque Liver.¹

1<p>All values are means ± SEMs and are expressed as relative fold compared to CTR/CTR. (n = 7−10 for CTR/CTR, n = 8−10 for HFD/HFD).</p>2<p>Overall significance as determined by Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test.</p

Quantification of the density of TH nerve fibers between CTR/CTR and HFD/HFD diet groups in the juvenile macaque liver.

<p>(A,C and E) Quantification of TH nerve fibers in the periportal region. (B,D and F) Quantification of TH nerve fibers in the hepatic parenchyma. TH immunofluorescence was acquired in each region by laser scanning confocal microscopy. The volume of TH immunoreactive fibers was normalized to the volume of hepatic tissue in each image. Data are expressed as the median normalized density for each juvenile diet group. (A-B) No differences were observed in the density of sympathetic innervation in juvenile liver between diet groups. CTR/CTR; n = 12, HFD/HFD; n = 9. (C-D) Quantification of the density of TH nerve fibers between CTR/CTR and HFD/HFD diet groups in the female juvenile macaque liver. A nonsignificant trend for higher sympathetic innervation was observed in the female juvenile liver between diet groups. CTR/CTR; n = 5, HFD/HFD; n = 4. (E-F) Quantification of the density of TH nerve fibers between CTR/CTR and HFD/HFD diet groups in the male juvenile macaque liver. Significantly reduced sympathetic innervation was observed between diet groups in both portal (E) and parenchymal regions (F) in the male juvenile liver. CTR/CTR; n = 7, HFD/HFD; n = 5. (* = <i>p</i><0.05, ** = <i>p</i><0.01). (G-J) Representative images of TH immunoreactivity in the portal region for CTR/CTR (G) and HFD/HFD (H) males. Representative images of TH immunoreactivity in the hepatic parenchyma for CTR/CTR (I) and HFD/HFD (J) males. Scale bar = 20 µm.</p

Hepatic sympathetic innervation in the one-year old juvenile macaque.

<p>(A-B) Representative image of TH immunoreactive nerve fibers in the portal region (A) and parenchyma (B) in juvenile liver. Scale bar = 20 µm. (C-E) Colocalization of NPY and TH immunoreactivity in the hepatic parenchyma of a one-year old juvenile macaque. (C) NPY immunoreactive fibers in the hepatic parenchyma. (D) TH immunoreactive fibers in the hepatic parenchyma. (E) Overlay of C and D demonstrates that TH and NPY are sympathetic in origin and are tightly colocalized in the juvenile macaque liver. Scale bar = 8 µm.</p

Dexamethasone Chemotherapy Does Not Disrupt Orexin Signaling

<div><p>Background</p><p>Steroid-induced sleep disturbance is a common and highly distressing morbidity for children receiving steroid chemotherapy for the treatment of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Sleep disturbance can negatively impact overall quality of life, neurodevelopment, memory consolidation, and wound healing. Hypothalamic orexin neurons are influential wake-promoting neurons, and disturbances in orexin signaling leads to abnormal sleep behavior. A new class of drug, the orexin receptor antagonists, could be an intriguing option for sleep disorders caused by increased orexinergic output. Our aim was to examine the impact of ALL treatment doses of corticosteroids on the orexin system in rodents and in children undergoing treatment for childhood ALL.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We administered repeated injections of dexamethasone to rodents and measured responsive orexin neural activity compared to controls. In children with newly diagnosed standard risk B-cell ALL receiving dexamethasone therapy per Children’s Oncology Group (COG) induction therapy from 2014–2016, we collected pre- and during-steroids matched CSF samples and measured the impact of steroids on CSF orexin concentration.</p><p>Results</p><p>In both rodents, all markers orexin signaling, including orexin neural output and orexin receptor expression, were preserved in the setting of dexamethasone. Additionally, we did not detect a difference in pre- and during-dexamethasone CSF orexin concentrations in children receiving dexamethasone.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Our results demonstrate that rodent and human orexin physiology is largely preserved in the setting of high dose dexamethasone. The data obtained in our experimental model fail to demonstrate a causative role for disruption of the orexin pathway in steroid-induced sleep disturbance.</p></div

Summary of Significant Results in Fetal and Juvenile Liver.

1<p>PERIPORTAL.</p>2<p>PARENCHYMA.</p>3<p>Grant <i>et al.</i> PLoS One. 2011 Feb 25;6(2): e17261.</p>4<p>McCurdy <i>et al.</i> J Clin Invest. 2009 Feb;119(2): 323–35.</p>5<p>NPYY1R Significantly Decreased vs. HFD.</p