Facets of negative affectivity, health behaviour, and risk factors of cardiovascular diseases

Previous research has shown that negative affectivity (NA) and lifestyle associate with CVD/CHD risk factors. In the present thesis the relationships between some key indicators of NA (depressive symptoms, vital exhaustion, hopelessness, and anger expression) and lifestyle factors, body mass index, serum lipids and blood pressure were investigated. All the four studies that constitute this investigation were based on data from the Helsinki Metabolic Syndrome Prevention Trial, which was an uncontrolled preventive trial aimed at improving prevention of metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases by developing a practical method for primary health care. The main idea was to screen and identify men with cardiovascular risk clustering and give them individual counselling based on their risk profile. Evaluation of risk was based on a Risk Index that included five factors: body mass index, total serum cholesterol, blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), smoking habits, and physical inactivity. The participants in the screening were 40-55 year-old-men residing in the north-east Helsinki. Data collection was carried out between May 2001 and June 2004, and all the participants were asked to answer questionnaires dealing with lifestyle factors and psychosocial risk factors. Study nurses from the Helsinki Heart District interviewed all the participants and recorded basic biomedical measurements (e.g. blood pressure, waist circumference, weight). The size of the sample in studies I-IV was 893, 705, 444, and 710, respectively. The findings of this study indicate that depressive symptoms had a consistent statistically significant correlation with adverse lifestyle factors and triglycerides. For cholesterol fractions, path analyses indicated the parallel existence of two main pathways: from depression through the adverse health behaviour to an unfavourable cholesterol fraction balance, and from depression through a direct, probably physiological, link to favourable cholesterol levels.not availabl

Facets of negative affectivity and blood pressure in middle-aged men

Research results suggesting that facets of negative affectivity, i.e. anxiety, anger-hostility, and depression, relate to incident cardiovascular diseases have been steadily increasing. Evidence for depression has been especially extensive. Elevated blood pressure, a major risk factor of cardiovascular diseases, is one probable mediator in this context. The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship of specific key elements of depressive disposition, i.e. depressive symptoms, hopelessness and vital exhaustion, with health behavior and blood pressure. Study sample was comprised of 710 middle-aged men. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing health behavior, depressive symptoms, vital exhaustion and hopelessness. Statistical analyses involved descriptive analyses, correlations and path analysis. Depressive symptoms and vital exhaustion associated with several unfavorable lifestyles such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and inactivity (standardized solution coefficients: 0.10, 0.14, 0.17, accordingly). However, no significant direct associations with blood pressure could be found for depressive symptoms or vital exhaustion. Hopelessness associated only with unhealthy diet (standardized solution coefficient -0.10) Moreover, for hopelessness, results showed a direct but inverse association with systolic blood pressure (standardized solution coefficient -0.08). Results suggest that the previously reported relations of depression and vital exhaustion with blood pressure could be mediated by unfavorable lifestyles. The relation of hopelessness with adverse health behaviors seems to be less significant. Also, the role of hopelessness as a risk factor of elevated blood pressure is not supported by the results of this study

ENTRAPMENT OF FLUORESCENT E. COLI CELLS IN ALGINATE GEL

By this experiment we will demonstrate the possibility to obtain genetically modifiedmicrobial strains that can be used as markers in different studies. The traittransferred in this study is the fluorescence in UV light expressed by a gene isolatedfrom jellyfish. This gene was insered into a plasmid carrying ampiciline resistanceand in the operon for arabinose fermentation. The plasmid was called pGLO. E coliHB101 K-12, ampicillin resistant colonies has been obtained. The colonies on theLB/amp/ara plate fluoresce green under UV light and the transformed colonies cangrow on ampicillin. Transformation efficiency = 362 transformed colonies/ μg DNA.The cells where immobilized by entrapment in alginate gel to study the phenomenoninvolved in cells immobilization. After immobilization in alginate gel, 5x104 cells ofE. coli pGLO / capsule and 1,4 x 105 cells of E. coli HB101/capsule has been found.Fluorescent microscopy revealed the presence of pGLO carrying cells into thecapsules. After cultivation of alginate capsules containing E. coli in LB broth, andfluorescent microscopy of the capsule sections, several observations of thephenomenon involved in continuous fermentation using biocatalysts in has beenmade. These cells grow and migrate to the cortical part of the matrix where they areimmobilized