Health and Political Engagement

This title is published in Open Access with the support of the University of Helsinki.Social scientists have only recently begun to explore the link between health and political engagement. Understanding this relationship is vitally important from both a scholarly and a policy-making perspective. This book is the first to offer a comprehensive account of health and political engagement. Using both individual-level and country-level data drawn from the European Social Survey, World Values Survey and new Finnish survey data, it provides an extensive analysis of how health and political engagement are connected. It measures the impact of various health factors on a wide range of forms of political engagement and attitudes and helps shed light on the mechanisms behind the interaction between health and political engagement. This text is of key interest scholars, students and policy-makers in health, politics, and democracy, and more broadly in the social and health and medical sciences

Explaining the migrant–native vote gap under open-list proportional representation

Migrant candidates tend to win fewer preference votes compared to native candidates across electoral systems. We focus on two general explanations for the observed migrant–native vote gap: (1) disproportionate amounts of electorally valuable resources and (2) an electoral penalty whereby migrant candidates who hold similar resources as native candidates are treated differently by the voters. Three types of resources are included as independent variables: personal, social, and contextual. We analyse candidate survey data from the 2017 Finnish municipal elections and apply the twofold Kitagawa–Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method. The results show that group differences in the distribution of political capital, length of residence, and size of the municipality are associated with the vote gap, as well as the inability of migrant candidates to capitalise on campaign support from people in their immediate social environment.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Health and Political Engagement

Peer reviewe

Lipid synthesis and secretion in HepG2 cells is not affected by ACTH

Apolipoprotein B (apoB) containing lipoproteins, i.e. VLDL, LDL and Lp(a), are consequently lowered by ACTH treatment in humans. This is also seen as reduced plasma apoB by 20-30% and total cholesterol by 30-40%, mostly accounted for by a decrease in LDL-cholesterol. Studies in hepatic cell line (HepG2) cells showed that apoB mRNA expression is reduced in response to ACTH incubation and is followed by a reduced apoB secretion, which may hypothesize that ACTH lowering apoB containing lipoproteins in humans may be mediated by the inhibition of hepatic apoB synthesis. This was recently confirmed in vivo in a human postprandial study, where ACTH reduced transient apoB48 elevation from the small intestine, however, the exogenic lipid turnover seemed unimpaired. In the present study we investigated if lipid synthesis and/or secretion in HepG2 cells were also affected by pharmacological levels of ACTH to accompany the reduced apoB output. HepG2 cells were incubated with radiolabelled precursors ([14C]acetate and [3H]glycerol) either before or during ACTH stimuli. Cellular and secreted lipids were extracted with chloroform:methanol and separated by the thin layer chromatography (TLC), and [14C]labelled cholesterol and cholesteryl ester and [3H]labelled triglycerides and phospholipids were quantitated by the liquid scintillation counting. It demonstrated that ACTH administration did not result in any significant change in neither synthesis nor secretion of the studied lipids, this regardless of presence or absence of oleic acid, which is known to stabilize apoB and enhance apoB production. The present study suggests that ACTH lowers plasma lipids in humans mainly mediated by the inhibition of apoB synthesis and did not via the reduced lipid synthesis

Polarisoituuko politiikka Suomessa? Puolueiden äänestäjäkuntien arvosiirtymät 2003–2019

Non peer reviewe

Ehdokkaiden menestys vaaleissa

Non peer reviewe

Voting for a woman : ideology and gendered candidate choice in Finland

This study contributes to the literature on gendered candidate choice by investigating how voters’ ideological positions on both the socioeconomic left–right and the cultural GAL–TAN dimensions are associated with support for women candidates, and how these associations play out among women and men voters. The study is situated in the open-list proportional electoral system (OLPR) of Finland, where voters are obliged to cast a vote for a single candidate from a large selection of nominees and where women have a strong presence in the political sphere. We use unique data on voters’ self-reported candidate choice from two Finnish post-election studies in 2011 and 2019. The results show that a majority of both men and women voters tend to engage in same-gender voting, meaning that women voters are more inclined to cast a vote for women candidate than men voters are. We further show that the two ideological dimensions have different connections for men and women voters. While women voters’ propensity to support women candidates is connected to their position on the left–right dimension, but not to the GAL–TAN dimension, the opposite holds for men voters.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

TO901317 regulating apolipoprotein M expression mediates via the farnesoid X receptor pathway in Caco-2 cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Apolipoprotein M (apoM) may have potential antiatherosclerotic properties. It has been reported that apoM expression could be regulated by many intracellar and extracellar factors. In the present study we further investigated regulation of apoM expression in Caco-2 cells stimulated by a liver X receptor (LXR) agonist, TO901317.</p> <p>Materials and methods</p> <p>Caco-2 cells were cultured in the presence of either TO901317, farnesoid X receptor (FXR) antagonist guggulsterone or TO901317 together with guggulsterone at different concentrations for 24 hrs. The mRNA levels of ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1), apoA1, apoM, liver receptor homologue-1 (LRH-1) and short heterodimer partner 1 (SHP1) were determined by real-time RT-PCR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>When Caco-2 cell cultured with TO901317 alone, the mRNA levels of ABCA1, apoA1, apoM, LRH-1 and SHP1 were significantly increased with dose-dependent manners (<it>p </it>< 0.05), whereas when the cells cultured with guggulsterone alone, the mRNA levels of apoM, SHP1 and LRH-1 (<it>p </it>< 0.05) were strongly inhibited. Moreover, guggulsterone could abolish the TO901317 enhanced mRNA levels of apoA1 apoM, SHP1 and LRH-1.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The present study demonstrated that LXR agonist TO901317 induced apoM expression in Caco-2 cells might be mediated via the LXR/FXR pathway.</p

Expression and localization of apolipoprotein M in human colorectal tissues

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It has been well documented that apolipoprotein M (apoM) is principally expressed in the liver and kidney. However we found that there was weak apoM expression in other tissues or organs too, which could not be ignored. In the present study, we therefore examined apoM expression in human colorectal tissues including cancer tissues, cancer adjacent normal tissues, polyp tissues and normal mucosa as well as inflammatory mucosa.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Tissue samples were collected from patients who underwent surgical resection or endoscopic examination. ApoM mRNA levels were determined by the real-time RT-PCR and apoM protein mass were examined by the immunohistochemistry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>ApoM protein can be detected in all colorectal tissues. However, apoM protein mass were significantly lower in the cancer tissues than its matched adjacent normal tissues, polyp tissues, normal mucosa and inflammatory mucosa. In parallel, apoM mRNA levels in the colorectal cancer tissues (0.0536 ± 0.0131) were also significantly lower than those in their adjacent normal tissues (0.1907 ± 0.0563) (<it>P </it>= 0.033). Interestingly, apoM mRNA levels in colorectal cancer tissues were statistic significant higher in the patients with lymph node metastasis than the patients without lymph node metastasis (<it>P </it>= 0.008). Patients under Dukes' C and D stages had much higher apoM mRNA levels than patients under Dukes' A and B stages (<it>P </it>= 0.034).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It is concluded that apoM could also be expressed in human colorectal tissues besides liver and kidney. ApoM mRNA levels in the colorectal cancer tissues were significantly increased in the patients with lymph node metastasis. Whether increased apoM expression in the patients with lymph node metastasis being related to patients' prognosis and the physiopathological importance of apoM expression in colorectal tissues need further investigation.</p