The mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase dual leucine zipper-bearing kinase (DLK) acts as a key regulator of keratinocyte terminal differentiation.

In the skin, epithelial cells undergo a terminal differentiation program leading to the formation of the stratum corneum. Although it is expected that the last phases of this process must be tightly regulated since it results in cell death, the signaling pathways involved in this induction remain ill defined. We now report that a single kinase, the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase dual leucine zipper-bearing kinase (DLK), acts in the epidermis to promote the terminal differentiation of human keratinocytes. In support of this notion, we showed that DLK expression was restricted to the granular layer in situ. In addition, cultured keratinocytes infected with a recombinant adenovirus expressing DLK exhibited morphological and biochemical changes, including a suprabasal localization, altered cell shape, compacted cytoplasm, DNA fragmentation, and the up-regulation of filaggrin, that are reminiscent of a terminally differentiated phenotype. Moreover the expression of wild-type DLK in keratinocytes stimulated transglutaminase activity and the consequent formation of the cornified cell envelope, while a kinase-inactive variant of DLK did not. Together these results identify DLK as a signaling molecule implicated in the regulation of keratinocyte terminal differentiation and cornification

Nutrigenetic testing for personalized nutrition : an evaluation of public perceptions, attitudes, and concerns in a population of French Canadians

Background/aims: This study aimed to evaluate attitudes, perceptions and concerns about nutrigenetic testing for personalized nutrition in the general population of the province of Quebec, in Canada. Methods: A total of 1425 individuals from the province of Quebec fully completed a 37 question online survey on nutrigenetics and were included in analyses. Chi-square tests were used to test for associations between categorical variables. Results: The majority of participants (93.3%) considered dietitians as the best professionals to give personalized dietary advice based on nutrigenetic testing. The main reported advantage for nutrigenetic testing was “health” (23.5%), followed by “disease prevention” (22.2%). Among disadvantages, “no disadvantage” (24.4%), followed by “diet restriction” (12.9%) were mostly reported. The two major concerns raised were the accessibility to genetic testing by telemarketing companies and spammers (51.8%), and solicitation by companies using the personal genetic data to sell products (48.6%). Conclusions: French Canadians generally have a positive attitude towards nutrigenetics and find many benefits to its use. They rose up possible confidentiality issues associated with the management or property of genetic test results. However education about confidentiality issues is still considerably needed. These findings overall suggest that the population is interested by a more extensive use of nutrigenetics in health management

Current knowledge and interest of French Canadians regarding nutrigenetics

Objective: The purpose of this study was to draw a global portrait of the current knowledge and interest regarding nutrigenetics in a population of French Canadians from the province of Quebec (Canada). Methods: A total of 2238 residents from the province of Quebec, Canada, were recruited via social networks and from the Laval University employees/students lists to participate to a 37-question online survey on nutrigenetics. Results: Most participants were not familiar with the term “nutrigenetics” (82.7%). Participants with good genetic literacy (26.8%) were less interested in nutrigenetic testing (p<0.0001). The vast majority of participants (90.7%) reported to be willing to follow a personalized diet based on nutrigenetic testing, especially if they came to know themselves as carriers of a polymorphism increasing the risk of certain diseases. Participants had higher interest in testing related to metabolic response to macronutrients (types of sugars, fats and proteins) than to micronutrients or other nutrients related to food intolerance. Conclusions: The attitude of French Canadians about nutrigenetics are very consistent with results from other survey published in the literature. Although few individuals are familiar with nutrigenetics, public’s attitude towards nutrigenetics is globally favourable

The Mixed Lineage Kinase Leucine-Zipper Protein Kinase Exhibits a Differentiation-Associated Localization in Normal Human Skin and Induces Keratinocyte Differentiation upon Overexpression

Leucine-zipper protein kinase/dual leucine zipper bearing kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase-upstream kinase is a recently described protein serine/threonine kinase which belongs to the mixed lineage kinase family. The overall pattern of expression of the leucine-zipper protein kinase/dual leucine zipper bearing kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase-upstream kinase gene in embryonic and adult mouse tissues suggested that this kinase could be involved in the regulation of epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation. In order to get more insights into the potential role of leucine-zipper protein kinase in these cellular processes, we characterized its expression in normal human skin, both at the mRNA and protein levels. In situ hybridization, western blotting, and indirect immunofluorescence studies were conducted to localize leucine-zipper protein kinase on various human skin tissues. This is one of the first reports that leucine-zipper protein kinase has a very precise pattern of expression in human skin epithelia, as both mRNA and protein are restricted to the granular layer of the epidermis and inner root sheath of hair follicles. Detection of leucine-zipper protein kinase protein on skin from various body sites, donors of different ages as well as on reconstructed human skin always reveals that leucine-zipper protein kinase is present only in the very differentiated keratinocytes of epidermis and hair follicles. To determine directly whether leucine-zipper protein kinase exhibits any effect on cell growth and differentiation, keratinocytes were transfected with an expression vector harboring the leucine-zipper protein kinase cDNA. The presence of this construct in keratinocytes results in growth arrest together with a concomitant increase in filaggrin expression. Collectively, our results indicate that leucine-zipper protein kinase plays an active part in cellular processes related to terminal differentiation of epidermal keratinocytes

Assessments of the Extent to which Health‐Care Providers Involve Patients in Decision Making: A Systematic Review of Studies Using the OPTION Instrument

Background: We have no clear overview of the extent to which health-care providers involve patients in the decision-making process during consultations. The Observing Patient Involvement in Decision Making instrument (OPTION) was designed to assess this. Objective: To systematically review studies that used the OPTION instrument to observe the extent to which health-care providers involve patients in decision making across a range of clinical contexts, including different health professions and lengths of consultation. We conducted online literature searches in multiple databases (2001-12) and gathered further data through networking

Approaches to considering sex and gender in continuous professional development for health and social care professionals : an emerging paradigm

Consideration of sex and gender in research and clinical practice is necessary to redress health inequities and reduce knowledge gaps. As all health professionals must maintain and update their skills throughout their career, developing innovative continuing professional education programs that integrate sex and gender issues holds great promise for reducing these gaps. This article proposes new approaches to partnership, team development, pedagogical theory, content development, evaluation and data management that will advance the integration of sex and gender in continuing professional development (CPD). Our perspectives build on an intersectoral and interprofessional research team that includes several perspectives, including those of CPD, health systems, knowledge translation and sex and gender

The development of perceptual averaging: learning what to do, not just how to do it

The mature visual system condenses complex scenes into simple summary statistics (e.g., average size, location, orientation, etc.). However, children, often perform poorly on perceptual averaging tasks. Children's difficulties are typically thought to represent the suboptimal implementation of an adult-like strategy. This paper examines another possibility: that children actually make decisions in a qualitatively different way to adults (optimal implementation of a non-ideal strategy). Ninety children (6-7, 8-9, 10-11 years) and 30 adults were asked to locate the middle of randomly generated dot-clouds. Nine plausible decision strategies were formulated, and each was fitted to observers' trial-by-trial response data (Reverse Correlation). When the number of visual elements was low (N < 6), children used a qualitatively different decision strategy from adults: appearing to "join up the dots" and locate the gravitational center of the enclosing shape. Given denser displays, both children and adults used an ideal strategy of arithmetically averaging individual points. Accounting for this difference in decision strategy explained 29% of children's lower precision. These findings suggest that children are not simply suboptimal at performing adult-like computations, but may at times use sensible, but qualitatively different strategies to make perceptual judgments. Learning which strategy is best in which circumstance might be an important driving factor of perceptual development

Active Zone Protein Bassoon Co-Localizes with Presynaptic Calcium Channel, Modifies Channel Function, and Recovers from Aging Related Loss by Exercise

The P/Q-type voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCCs) are essential for synaptic transmission at adult mammalian neuromuscular junctions (NMJs); however, the subsynaptic location of VDCCs relative to active zones in rodent NMJs, and the functional modification of VDCCs by the interaction with active zone protein Bassoon remain unknown. Here, we show that P/Q-type VDCCs distribute in a punctate pattern within the NMJ presynaptic terminals and align in three dimensions with Bassoon. This distribution pattern of P/Q-type VDCCs and Bassoon in NMJs is consistent with our previous study demonstrating the binding of VDCCs and Bassoon. In addition, we now show that the interaction between P/Q-type VDCCs and Bassoon significantly suppressed the inactivation property of P/Q-type VDCCs, suggesting that the Ca2+ influx may be augmented by Bassoon for efficient synaptic transmission at NMJs. However, presynaptic Bassoon level was significantly attenuated in aged rat NMJs, which suggests an attenuation of VDCC function due to a lack of this interaction between VDCC and Bassoon. Importantly, the decreased Bassoon level in aged NMJs was ameliorated by isometric strength training of muscles for two months. The training increased Bassoon immunoreactivity in NMJs without affecting synapse size. These results demonstrated that the P/Q-type VDCCs preferentially accumulate at NMJ active zones and play essential role in synaptic transmission in conjunction with the active zone protein Bassoon. This molecular mechanism becomes impaired by aging, which suggests altered synaptic function in aged NMJs. However, Bassoon level in aged NMJs can be improved by muscle exercise

Self-Construal Priming Modulates Ensemble Perception of Multiple-Face Identities.

This study explored the modulatory role of independent/interdependent self-construal on ensemble perception. Two experiments were conducted to study the effect of self-construal on ensemble coding of multiple-face identities (Experiment 1) and dot size (Experiment 2) separately. Before the implicit ensemble perception task, participants in both experiments were either primed with independent or interdependent self-construal via a well-validated pronoun circle task, in which they were exposed to either singular ("I," "me," and "my") or plural ("We," "us," and "our") pronouns in essays. The results showed that interdependent self-construal (vs. independent self-construal) featured as global processing and emphasizing interconnectedness with others enhanced the ensemble coding of high-level features (e.g., identity in Experiment 1) but not of low-level features (e.g., size in Experiment 2). To the best of our knowledge, this study was the first to investigate the role of self-construal on ensemble representations. In sum, the results of the current study supported the domain-specific mechanism of ensemble perception on one hand, and extended the effect of self-construal on single face recognition to multiple face recognition on the other hand