Family cohesion and the loneliness of adolescents from temporarily disconnected families due to economic migration

The paper reports the results of a comparative analysis of the two groups students coming from temporarily disconnected families due to foreign work parents (TDF, n = 68; male = 30, female = 38) and teenagers with the same social environment (NDF, n = 179, male = 89, female = 90), but without the experience of separation time (N= 247). The subject of the analysis was: the cohesion of a family from the perspective of the evaluated adolescent and three factors of psychological loneliness: social loneliness (sense of social marginalization and isolation), emotional loneliness (solitude) and existential loneliness (sense of self-alienation). The Loneliness Scale (SBS) was used based on an original concept of multidimensional sense of loneliness. The questionnaire for the survey of family cohesion (KSR) were used too. The age (12-14 and 15-17), gender, family structure and the family lifestyle were controlled. Obtained results revealed significantly lower cohesion and significantly higher existential loneliness in group of teenagers from temporarily disconnected families (TDF). Not confirmed the supposition that made in earlier studies of temporarily disconnected families due to economic migration, that these teenagers suffer from a sense of emotional loneliness There has also confirmed the belief that the level of family cohesion and a sense of loneliness in adolescents is associated with atypical organization of family life associated with the duration of migration of parent/parents, frequency of contact with family members working abroad: mothers, fathers or broth parents, the duration of stays at hom

Multiancestry association study identifies new asthma risk loci that colocalize with immune-cell enhancer marks.

We examined common variation in asthma risk by conducting a meta-analysis of worldwide asthma genome-wide association studies (23,948 asthma cases, 118,538 controls) of individuals from ethnically diverse populations. We identified five new asthma loci, found two new associations at two known asthma loci, established asthma associations at two loci previously implicated in the comorbidity of asthma plus hay fever, and confirmed nine known loci. Investigation of pleiotropy showed large overlaps in genetic variants with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The enrichment in enhancer marks at asthma risk loci, especially in immune cells, suggested a major role of these loci in the regulation of immunologically related mechanisms

STAT5 proteins are involved in down-regulation of iron regulatory protein 1 gene expression by nitric oxide

RNA-binding activity of IRP1 (iron regulatory protein 1) is regulated by the insertion/extrusion of a [4Fe-4S] cluster into/from the IRP1 molecule. NO (nitic oxide), whose ability to activate IRP1 by removing its [4Fe-4S] cluster is well known, has also been shown to down-regulate expression of the IRP1 gene. In the present study, we examine whether this regulation occurs at the transcriptional level. Analysis of the mouse IRP1 promoter sequence revealed two conserved putative binding sites for transcription factor(s) regulated by NO and/or changes in intracellular iron level: Sp1 (promoter-selective transcription factor 1) and MTF1 (metal transcription factor 1), plus GAS (interferon-γ-activated sequence), a binding site for STAT (signal transducer and activator of transcription) proteins. In order to define the functional activity of these sequences, reporter constructs were generated through the insertion of overlapping fragments of the mouse IRP1 promoter upstream of the luciferase gene. Transient expression assays following transfection of HuH7 cells with these plasmids revealed that while both the Sp1 and GAS sequences are involved in basal transcriptional activity of the IRP1 promoter, the role of the latter is predominant. Analysis of protein binding to these sequences in EMSAs (electrophoretic mobility-shift assays) using nuclear extracts from mouse RAW 264.7 macrophages stimulated to synthesize NO showed a significant decrease in the formation of Sp1–DNA and STAT–DNA complexes, compared with controls. We have also demonstrated that the GAS sequence is involved in NO-dependent down-regulation of IRP1 transcription. Further analysis revealed that levels of STAT5a and STAT5b in the nucleus and cytosol of NO-producing macrophages are substantially lower than in control cells. These findings provide evidence that STAT5 proteins play a role in NO-mediated down-regulation of IRP1 gene expression