11 research outputs found
Baseline dietary patterns of children enrolled in an urban family weight management study: associations with demographic characteristics
Beliefs concerning death, dying, and hastening death among older, functionally impaired Dutch adults: a one-year longitudinal study.
OBJECTIVES: Population surveys have documented increasing public support for euthanasia and assisted suicide but have not focused on the population of chronically ill older persons, obtained detailed sociocultural or health status information, or performed repeat assessments. This study seeks to describe the views of functionally-impaired Dutch elders on death, dying, and hastened death and to relate these to sociocultural and health status. DESIGN: One-year prospective epidemiologic survey. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling participants in the longitudinal component of the Groningen Longitudinal Aging Study were assessed at home by interview and questionnaire in 1994 (n = 632) and again in 1995 (n = 575). MEASUREMENTS: Independent variables were sociocultural characteristics (eg, age, sex, income, education, religious affiliation, strength of religious belief), physical health status (number of chronic medical conditions, functional impairments), and mental health status (life satisfaction, self-efficacy, anxiety, depression, and neuroticism). Dependent variables were preoccupation with and fear of death, fears of the dying process, and attitudes toward hastened death. RESULTS: Low and stable rates of preoccupation with death and fear of death were found. Occasional but not persistent fears about the dying process were common. Fears of death and dying were most closely related to health status, especially mental health status. Views concerning hastening death were most strongly related to sociocultural variables, especially religious belief and affiliation. There was little change over the 1-year follow-up, with a trend toward less fears of death and dying and less support for hastened death. Significant changes in fears of death and dying and attitudes toward hastened death were not seen even in the 25% of subjects with the greatest deterioration in activities of daily living or greatest increase in anxiety and depression during the 1-year follow-up. CONCLUSION: Beliefs about death, dying, and hastened death are stable over 1-year follow-up. Fears of death and dying are most strongly related to mental health in this community sample. Attitudes about hastening death are primarily related to religious belief and secondarily to mental health. Mental health factors may determine the distress associated with the prospect of death and dying, whereas religion may dictate the actions considered proper when dying
Beliefs Concerning Death, Dying, and Hastening Death Among Older, Functionally Impaired Dutch Adults: A One-Year Longitudinal Study
Glucocorticoid Induction of the Glaucoma Gene MYOC in Human and Monkey Trabecular Meshwork Cells and Tissues
PURPOSE. To examine the intracellular and extracellular expression
of myocilin in the human and primate trabecular meshwork
(TM) in the presence and absence of glucocorticoids.
METHODS. Myocilin expression was examined in cultured human
TM cells by Northern blot analysis and myocilin antibody–
mediated immunoprecipitation. Myocilin expression was quantified
using high-resolution two-dimensional polyacrylamide
gel electrophoresis of radiolabeled proteins from human TM
cells, TM tissue explants, and perfused human anterior segments
cultured with and without dexamethasone (DEX) for 14
to 21 days, as well as TM tissue from pigtailed monkeys treated
orally for 1 year with cortisone acetate. Immunofluorescence
with anti-myocilin antibodies was used to localize cellular and
extracellular expression of myocilin in cultured human TM
cells.
RESULTS. Glucocorticoid treatment caused a significant induction
of myocilin mRNA, a tetrad of cell-associated proteins, and
8 to 20 secreted proteins (molecular mass [Mr] 56 and 59 kDa
and isoelectric point [pI] 5.2 and 5.3) in some, but not all the
cultured human TM cells and explanted tissues. Western immunoblot
analysis using anti-myocilin peptide antibodies identified
these proteins as encoded by the MYOC gene. There was
significant induction of the myocilin proteins in three perfusion-
cultured human eyes, in which DEX-induced elevated intraocular
pressure developed. Monkeys treated 1 year with
cortisol acetate showed steroid glaucoma-like morphologic
changes in the TM that correlated with the induction of myocilin
in the TM. Immunofluorescence analysis of cultured TM
cells localized myocilin intracellularly in discrete perinuclear
and cytoplasmic vesicular deposits as well as extracellularly on
the cell surface associated with the extracellular matrix. In
several DEX-treated TM cell lines, there were significant levels
of myocilin secreted into the media. Enzymatic deglycosylation
of proteins in the TM media converted the higher molecular
weight isoforms of myocilin (;57 kDa) to the lower molecular
weight isoforms (;55 kDa).
CONCLUSIONS. Although the function of myocilin is unknown,
induction of these TM proteins was found in eyes in which
glucocorticoid-induced ocular hypertension developed. Therefore,
myocilin may play an important pathogenic role in ocular
hypertension in addition to its role in certain forms of POAG.
(Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2001;42:1769–1780