Jennie Kim - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Jennie Kim
Pediatric emergency medicine practice, 2018
The Wound Closure Classification stratifies types of wounds to help guide strategies for closure.
Emergency medicine practice, 2018
Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) predicts the presence of pericardial or intr... more Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) predicts the presence of pericardial or intra-abdominal injury after penetrating or blunt trauma.
Background: There has been a recent widespread performance of and publication on robotic ventral ... more Background: There has been a recent widespread performance of and publication on robotic ventral hernia repair (RVHR). A national database study demonstrated decreased hospital stay with RVHR compared to laparoscopic repair (LVHR). However, no randomized controlled trial (RCT) has evaluated RVHR. Objective: We hypothesized that RVHR compared to LVHR is associated with fewer days in the hospital 90-days post-operative. Methods: In this blinded, multicenter RCT, patients scheduled to undergo elective VHR were randomized to RVHR or LVHR and stratified by surgeon. Primary outcome was days in hospital within 90-days post-operative. Secondary outcomes included emergency room visits, operating room time, wound complications, hernia recurrence, reoperation, quality of life (QOL), and costs from the healthcare system perspective. Outcomes were assessed through frequentist (negative binomial, generalized linear or logistic regression) and Bayesian analyses. Results: A total of 124 patients were enrolled and randomized: 65 underwent RVHR and 59 LVHR. Patients from both groups were similar at baseline. Ninety-day follow-up was completed in 123 patients (99.2%). There was no difference in days in hospital between the two groups (median 0 vs 0 days; RR=0.90 [95%CI=0.37-2.19]; p=0.822). On secondary outcomes, no differences were noted in emergency room visits, wound complications, hernia recurrence, or reoperation. However, RVHR had longer operative duration (141 vs 77 minutes; coefficient=62.89 [95%CI=45.75-80.01]; p=<0.001) and increased healthcare costs ($15,864 vs $12,954; RR=1.21 [95%CI=1.07-1.38]; p=0.004). In addition, RVHR had clinically important differences in enterotomies (3% vs 0%; p=0.996) and less median improvement in early post-operative QOL (3 vs 15, p=0.060). On Bayesian analysis, RVHR had a 78% probability of being associated with more enterotomies while LVHR had a 97% probability of having greater improvement in early post-operative QOL. Conclusion: Both RVHR and LVHR have similar 90-day postoperative hospital stays. However, RVHR increased operative duration, healthcare costs, and risk of enterotomy while LVHR had a greater improvement of patient QOL.
Emergency medicine practice, 2018
The Bastion Classification criteria stratify explosionrelated lower limb injuries into 5 categori... more The Bastion Classification criteria stratify explosionrelated lower limb injuries into 5 categories to guide treatment.
Emergency medicine practice, 2018
The Blast Lung Injury Severity Score stratifies primary blast lung injuries into 3 categories to ... more The Blast Lung Injury Severity Score stratifies primary blast lung injuries into 3 categories to guide ventilator treatment.
Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy, 2021
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are abundant in solid tumors where they exhibit immunosuppres... more Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are abundant in solid tumors where they exhibit immunosuppressive and pro-tumorigenic functions. Inhibition of TAM proliferation and survival through CSF1R blockade has been widely explored as a cancer immunotherapy. To further define mechanisms regulating CSF1R-targeted therapies, we systematically evaluated the effect of anti-CSF1R treatment on tumor growth and tumor microenvironment (TME) inflammation across multiple murine models. Despite substantial macrophage depletion, anti-CSF1R had minimal effects on the anti-tumor immune response in mice bearing established tumors. In contrast, anti-CSF1R treatment concurrent with tumor implantation resulted in more robust tumor growth inhibition and evidence of enhanced anti-tumor immunity. Our findings suggest only minor contributions of CSF1R-dependent TAMs to the inflammatory state of the TME in established tumors, that immune landscape heterogeneity across different tumor models can influence anti-C...
International Journal of Obesity, 2020
Critical Care Medicine, 2020
International Journal of Obesity, 2019
Background Our sense of taste is critical in defining our food choices and habits. Located primar... more Background Our sense of taste is critical in defining our food choices and habits. Located primarily in our tongue, taste buds are small assemblies of constantly renewing sensory cells, tasked with evaluating oral stimuli before the food we eat is consumed. Methods Using both mice and a free-living human population, we tracked taste papilla abundancy with weight gain, to test for deficiencies in the taste system of obese mice and humans with increased adiposity. Results Mice fed a high-fat diet for 8 weeks expressed markers for all subtypes of taste cells at a lower level than chow-fed counterparts. This came alongside the loss of markers for taste cell proliferation (Ki-67) and development (β-catenin), as well as lower fungiform papillae density, consistent with earlier results showing lower circumvallate taste bud abundance in obese mice. Likewise, in a population of college students tracked through 4 years of college attendance, the change in density of fungiform papillae, which house taste buds in the anterior tongue, was negatively correlated with change in neck circumference, a marker of adiposity. Conclusions These results highlight changes in taste during weight gain as a potentially important consideration in the study of obesity.
The journal of trauma and acute care surgery, Jan 25, 2018
Screening for blunt cerebrovascular injuries (BCVI) in asymptomatic high-risk patients has become... more Screening for blunt cerebrovascular injuries (BCVI) in asymptomatic high-risk patients has become routine. To date, the length of this asymptomatic period has not been defined. Determining the time to stroke could impact therapy including earlier initiation of antithrombotics in multiply injured patients. The purpose of this study is to determine the time to stroke in patients with a BCVI-related stroke. We hypothesized the majority of patients suffer stroke between 24-72 hours after injury. Patients with a BCVI-related stroke from January 2007-January 2017 from 37 trauma centers were reviewed. During the 10-year study, 492 patients suffered a BCVI-related stroke; the majority were men (61%) with a median age of 39 and ISS of 29. Stroke was present at admission in 182 (37%) patients and occurred during an IR procedure in 6 patients. In the remaining 304 patients, stroke was identified a median of 48 hours after admission; 53 hours in the 144 patients identified by neurologic symptom...
BMC cancer, Jan 15, 2014
NKG2D (natural killer group 2, member D) is thought to play an important role in mediating the ac... more NKG2D (natural killer group 2, member D) is thought to play an important role in mediating the activation of anticancer immune response. Expression of NKG2D ligands (NKG2DLs) is pronounced in malignancies and the heterogeneity of NKG2DL expression remains unclear. Here, we investigate the expression and clinical significance of NKG2DLs in cervical cancer. Immunohistochemical analyses of MICA/B, ULBP1, ULBP2, ULBP3, RAET1E, and RAET1G were performed using tissue microarray analysis of 200 cervical cancers, 327 high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasias (CINs), 99 low-grade CINs, and 541 matched nonadjacent normal cervical epithelial tissues and compared the data with clinicopathologic variables, including the survival of cervical cancer patients. MICA/B, ULBP1, and RAET1E expression was higher in cervical cancer than in low-grade CIN (p<0.001, p=0.012, p=0.013, respectively) and normal cervix (all p<0.001). Among these markers, expression of ULBP1 was significantly differen...
Talanta, 2014
Using the role of p-iodophenol in enzyme assay, enhanced 1,1 0-oxalyldiimidazole chemiluminescent... more Using the role of p-iodophenol in enzyme assay, enhanced 1,1 0-oxalyldiimidazole chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassays (ODI-CLEIAs) were developed to consecutively quantify trace levels of triple tumor markers, such as alpha fetoprotein (AFP), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and prostate specific antigen (PSA) in a sample. Due to the high sensitivity of enhanced ODI-CLEIAs, it was possible to fix the incubation times (1) to capture a tumor marker with two antibodies, which are primary antibody immobilized on the surface of polystyrene strip-well and detection antibody-conjugated horseradish peroxidase (HRP), and (2) to form resorufin with the addition of substrates (e.g., Amplex Red, H 2 O 2) in order to quantify triple markers in human serum. Enhanced ODI-CLEIAs capable of consecutively and rapidly quantifying triple markers with the same incubation time were more sensitive than conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) capable of separately and slowly quantifying them with different incubation times. In addition, accuracy, precision, and recovery of enhanced ODI CLEIAs in the presence of p-iodophenol were acceptable within statistical error range.
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 2002
Thought finds a greater difficulty in dealing with our grasp of group events (than with perceivin... more Thought finds a greater difficulty in dealing with our grasp of group events (than with perceiving individuals), despite the fact that we act as members of groups and deal with others in terms of their group membership. A prominent reason for this difficulty is that human groups, ...
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 2002
Q3N. Social influence: What if Tom&#x27;s friends say that they don&#x27;t think ... more Q3N. Social influence: What if Tom&#x27;s friends say that they don&#x27;t think he should hang out with Sally because she&#x27;s a girl. Do you think it&#x27;s okay, then? Q4N. Justification: Why? Q5N. Authority: What if Tom&#x27;s parents say it&#x27;s okay for Tom to not hang out with Sally because ...
The Journal of Popular Culture, 2011
... ''The West Wing As Endorsement of the US Presidency: Expanding the Bounds of Primin... more ... ''The West Wing As Endorsement of the US Presidency: Expanding the Bounds of Priming in Political Communication.'' Journal of Communication 53.3 (2003): 42743. ... ''The West Wing and Depictions of the American Presidency: Expanding the Domains of Framing ...
Journal of Neuroendocrinology, 2003
Although there is evidence that endogenous opioids, and in particular b-endorphin (b-EP), may med... more Although there is evidence that endogenous opioids, and in particular b-endorphin (b-EP), may mediate some of the suppressive effects of hyperprolactinemia on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, there is controversy about the effects of prolactin (PRL) on b-EP and its precursor, proopiomelanocortin (POMC), in the hypothalamus. In this study we have therefore examined the effects of chronic peripheral and intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) infusion of ovine PRL on POMC gene expression and b-EP levels in the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) of castrated male and female rats. Endogenous pituitary and plasma PRL levels were determined by RIA with an antiserum to rat PRL which does not crossreact with oPRL. Suppression of endogenous rPRL levels was used as a confirmation of the biological effectiveness of the infused oPRL. POMC mRNA was measured in the MBH by solution hybridization assay. In the first experiment oPRL (5 mg/ml/h) or vehicle was infused for 2 weeks by osmotic minipump into the right lateral ventricle of ovariectomized rats. The mean plasma concentration of rPRL declined from 3.7±1.0 ng/ml in the controls to 1.4±0.13 ng/ml in the oPRL infused animals (P<0.05); pituitary rPRL content similarly decreased from 39.1±4.6 mg to 20.4±3.7 mg (P<0.02). There was no significant change in the concentration of POMC mRNA or b-EP in the MBH of the oPRL treated animals. In the second experiment oPRL was infused for 1 week into the third ventricle of orchiectomized rats. Again despite a fall in endogenous PRL levels, there was no significant change in POMC or b-EP in the MBH. In the third experiment oPRL was infused subcutaneously into orchiectomized rats for 2 weeks. Mean plasma oPRL levels were 150±7.3 ng/ml after 1 week and 58±7.5 ng/ml after 2 weeks. Pituitary rPRL content was again suppressed in the oPRL treated animals but no change in POMC or b-EP was detected in the MBH. We conclude that oPRL can be infused both peripherally and centrally for up to 2 weeks with resulting suppression of endogenous pituitary PRL content and release. Under these conditions no effects on the concentrations of POMC mRNA or b-EP could be demonstrated in the hypothalamus. These results suggest that either PRL has nongenomic effects on hypothalamic b-EP or that endogenous opioids other than b-EP mediate the suppressive effects of PRL on the HPG axis.
Molecular Brain Research, 1996
Opiates have been reported to suppress POMC in the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) but studies ha... more Opiates have been reported to suppress POMC in the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) but studies have been complicated by the fact that acutely, in the rat, opiates stimulate corticosterone and inhibit gonadal steroid release, which could both affect POMC in brain. We have therefore examined POA4 gene expression and peptide levels in the MBH of castrated rats after 10 days of treatment with subcutaneous morphine or placebo pellets and after pellet removal. POMC mRNA was measured by solution hybridization assay and-endorphin (~-EP) and ei-MSH were measured by RIA. In castrated male rats, the mean POMC mRNA concentration in the MBH was 1.67 + 0.11 pg/pg RNA in the control animals and decreased to 1.17~0.11 pg/~g RNA in the morphine-treated animals (0.01). Similarly in castrated, estradiol replaced female rats, the mean POMC mRNA level in the MBH was 1.36 + 0.19 pg/pg RNA and decreased to 0.82 + 0.08 pg/p,g RNA after morphine treatment (P 0.05). &EP levels were not significantly different in either study. When castrated male rats were similarly morphine pelleted and killed either on day 10 or 2 days later after pellet removal, the mean POMC mRNA level again fell from 1.83 A 0.21 in the controls to 1.28 + 0.20 pg/~g RNA after 10 days of morphine; 2 days after pellet removal levels remained suppressed at 0.80 i-0.08 pg/~g RNA (1' < 0.01). In this study the concentrations of &EP and ci-MSH were both noted to decline in the MBH after morphine treatment (P 0.05). When the forms of &EP in the MBH were characterized by HPLC, a decrease in the concentration of &EP was again seen after morphine but no significant differences in the pattern of~-EP processing or in the relative amounts of P-EPI.31compared to &Epl.27 and &Epl.zG we no i morph an T w also no significant effect of 10-6-10-4 M morphine on basal or KC1-stimulated release of~-EP or y3-MSH release from the perifused rat hypothalamus in vitro. We conclude that morphine suppresses PO gene expression in the hypothalamus of chronically treated male and female rats. Persistent changes were also noted during morphine withdrawal. In some cases this was accompanied by a fall in &EP peptide content. These effects were seen in castrated animals with and without sex steroid replacement and are thus independent of the effects of morphine on the pituitary-gonadal axis. These results show that opiate drugs modify endogenous opioid systems in the brain and provide further support for the hypothesis that such changes may contribute to mechanisms of opiate dependence and withdrawal.
American Behavioral Scientist, 2009
This article describes a tendency of news to isolate war policy outcomes from each other and from... more This article describes a tendency of news to isolate war policy outcomes from each other and from strategic goals and official responses. These predictable patterns of press coverage and policy developments are referred to as accountability gaps . We argue that professional norms and commercial pressures overwhelm whatever hesitancy news organizations have to alter their organizational and professional behavioral patterns that lead to predictable reoccurrences of accountability gaps. Habitual deference to White House officials means that positive frames are likely to prevail, regardless of conditions on the ground, while declining attention to the costs of war as they accumulate—and becoming less newsworthy-diminishes the weight of counterframes. As casualties and other consequences of policy in Iraq became routine, their news value diminished. As casualties became routine and other costs of war mounted in ways difficult to convey, official good news frames tended to dominate news n...
Public policy and mass media: the interplay of mass communication and political decision making, Oct 1, 2009
Pediatric emergency medicine practice, 2018
The Wound Closure Classification stratifies types of wounds to help guide strategies for closure.
Emergency medicine practice, 2018
Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) predicts the presence of pericardial or intr... more Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) predicts the presence of pericardial or intra-abdominal injury after penetrating or blunt trauma.
Background: There has been a recent widespread performance of and publication on robotic ventral ... more Background: There has been a recent widespread performance of and publication on robotic ventral hernia repair (RVHR). A national database study demonstrated decreased hospital stay with RVHR compared to laparoscopic repair (LVHR). However, no randomized controlled trial (RCT) has evaluated RVHR. Objective: We hypothesized that RVHR compared to LVHR is associated with fewer days in the hospital 90-days post-operative. Methods: In this blinded, multicenter RCT, patients scheduled to undergo elective VHR were randomized to RVHR or LVHR and stratified by surgeon. Primary outcome was days in hospital within 90-days post-operative. Secondary outcomes included emergency room visits, operating room time, wound complications, hernia recurrence, reoperation, quality of life (QOL), and costs from the healthcare system perspective. Outcomes were assessed through frequentist (negative binomial, generalized linear or logistic regression) and Bayesian analyses. Results: A total of 124 patients were enrolled and randomized: 65 underwent RVHR and 59 LVHR. Patients from both groups were similar at baseline. Ninety-day follow-up was completed in 123 patients (99.2%). There was no difference in days in hospital between the two groups (median 0 vs 0 days; RR=0.90 [95%CI=0.37-2.19]; p=0.822). On secondary outcomes, no differences were noted in emergency room visits, wound complications, hernia recurrence, or reoperation. However, RVHR had longer operative duration (141 vs 77 minutes; coefficient=62.89 [95%CI=45.75-80.01]; p=<0.001) and increased healthcare costs ($15,864 vs $12,954; RR=1.21 [95%CI=1.07-1.38]; p=0.004). In addition, RVHR had clinically important differences in enterotomies (3% vs 0%; p=0.996) and less median improvement in early post-operative QOL (3 vs 15, p=0.060). On Bayesian analysis, RVHR had a 78% probability of being associated with more enterotomies while LVHR had a 97% probability of having greater improvement in early post-operative QOL. Conclusion: Both RVHR and LVHR have similar 90-day postoperative hospital stays. However, RVHR increased operative duration, healthcare costs, and risk of enterotomy while LVHR had a greater improvement of patient QOL.
Emergency medicine practice, 2018
The Bastion Classification criteria stratify explosionrelated lower limb injuries into 5 categori... more The Bastion Classification criteria stratify explosionrelated lower limb injuries into 5 categories to guide treatment.
Emergency medicine practice, 2018
The Blast Lung Injury Severity Score stratifies primary blast lung injuries into 3 categories to ... more The Blast Lung Injury Severity Score stratifies primary blast lung injuries into 3 categories to guide ventilator treatment.
Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy, 2021
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are abundant in solid tumors where they exhibit immunosuppres... more Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are abundant in solid tumors where they exhibit immunosuppressive and pro-tumorigenic functions. Inhibition of TAM proliferation and survival through CSF1R blockade has been widely explored as a cancer immunotherapy. To further define mechanisms regulating CSF1R-targeted therapies, we systematically evaluated the effect of anti-CSF1R treatment on tumor growth and tumor microenvironment (TME) inflammation across multiple murine models. Despite substantial macrophage depletion, anti-CSF1R had minimal effects on the anti-tumor immune response in mice bearing established tumors. In contrast, anti-CSF1R treatment concurrent with tumor implantation resulted in more robust tumor growth inhibition and evidence of enhanced anti-tumor immunity. Our findings suggest only minor contributions of CSF1R-dependent TAMs to the inflammatory state of the TME in established tumors, that immune landscape heterogeneity across different tumor models can influence anti-C...
International Journal of Obesity, 2020
Critical Care Medicine, 2020
International Journal of Obesity, 2019
Background Our sense of taste is critical in defining our food choices and habits. Located primar... more Background Our sense of taste is critical in defining our food choices and habits. Located primarily in our tongue, taste buds are small assemblies of constantly renewing sensory cells, tasked with evaluating oral stimuli before the food we eat is consumed. Methods Using both mice and a free-living human population, we tracked taste papilla abundancy with weight gain, to test for deficiencies in the taste system of obese mice and humans with increased adiposity. Results Mice fed a high-fat diet for 8 weeks expressed markers for all subtypes of taste cells at a lower level than chow-fed counterparts. This came alongside the loss of markers for taste cell proliferation (Ki-67) and development (β-catenin), as well as lower fungiform papillae density, consistent with earlier results showing lower circumvallate taste bud abundance in obese mice. Likewise, in a population of college students tracked through 4 years of college attendance, the change in density of fungiform papillae, which house taste buds in the anterior tongue, was negatively correlated with change in neck circumference, a marker of adiposity. Conclusions These results highlight changes in taste during weight gain as a potentially important consideration in the study of obesity.
The journal of trauma and acute care surgery, Jan 25, 2018
Screening for blunt cerebrovascular injuries (BCVI) in asymptomatic high-risk patients has become... more Screening for blunt cerebrovascular injuries (BCVI) in asymptomatic high-risk patients has become routine. To date, the length of this asymptomatic period has not been defined. Determining the time to stroke could impact therapy including earlier initiation of antithrombotics in multiply injured patients. The purpose of this study is to determine the time to stroke in patients with a BCVI-related stroke. We hypothesized the majority of patients suffer stroke between 24-72 hours after injury. Patients with a BCVI-related stroke from January 2007-January 2017 from 37 trauma centers were reviewed. During the 10-year study, 492 patients suffered a BCVI-related stroke; the majority were men (61%) with a median age of 39 and ISS of 29. Stroke was present at admission in 182 (37%) patients and occurred during an IR procedure in 6 patients. In the remaining 304 patients, stroke was identified a median of 48 hours after admission; 53 hours in the 144 patients identified by neurologic symptom...
BMC cancer, Jan 15, 2014
NKG2D (natural killer group 2, member D) is thought to play an important role in mediating the ac... more NKG2D (natural killer group 2, member D) is thought to play an important role in mediating the activation of anticancer immune response. Expression of NKG2D ligands (NKG2DLs) is pronounced in malignancies and the heterogeneity of NKG2DL expression remains unclear. Here, we investigate the expression and clinical significance of NKG2DLs in cervical cancer. Immunohistochemical analyses of MICA/B, ULBP1, ULBP2, ULBP3, RAET1E, and RAET1G were performed using tissue microarray analysis of 200 cervical cancers, 327 high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasias (CINs), 99 low-grade CINs, and 541 matched nonadjacent normal cervical epithelial tissues and compared the data with clinicopathologic variables, including the survival of cervical cancer patients. MICA/B, ULBP1, and RAET1E expression was higher in cervical cancer than in low-grade CIN (p<0.001, p=0.012, p=0.013, respectively) and normal cervix (all p<0.001). Among these markers, expression of ULBP1 was significantly differen...
Talanta, 2014
Using the role of p-iodophenol in enzyme assay, enhanced 1,1 0-oxalyldiimidazole chemiluminescent... more Using the role of p-iodophenol in enzyme assay, enhanced 1,1 0-oxalyldiimidazole chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassays (ODI-CLEIAs) were developed to consecutively quantify trace levels of triple tumor markers, such as alpha fetoprotein (AFP), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and prostate specific antigen (PSA) in a sample. Due to the high sensitivity of enhanced ODI-CLEIAs, it was possible to fix the incubation times (1) to capture a tumor marker with two antibodies, which are primary antibody immobilized on the surface of polystyrene strip-well and detection antibody-conjugated horseradish peroxidase (HRP), and (2) to form resorufin with the addition of substrates (e.g., Amplex Red, H 2 O 2) in order to quantify triple markers in human serum. Enhanced ODI-CLEIAs capable of consecutively and rapidly quantifying triple markers with the same incubation time were more sensitive than conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) capable of separately and slowly quantifying them with different incubation times. In addition, accuracy, precision, and recovery of enhanced ODI CLEIAs in the presence of p-iodophenol were acceptable within statistical error range.
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 2002
Thought finds a greater difficulty in dealing with our grasp of group events (than with perceivin... more Thought finds a greater difficulty in dealing with our grasp of group events (than with perceiving individuals), despite the fact that we act as members of groups and deal with others in terms of their group membership. A prominent reason for this difficulty is that human groups, ...
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 2002
Q3N. Social influence: What if Tom&#x27;s friends say that they don&#x27;t think ... more Q3N. Social influence: What if Tom&#x27;s friends say that they don&#x27;t think he should hang out with Sally because she&#x27;s a girl. Do you think it&#x27;s okay, then? Q4N. Justification: Why? Q5N. Authority: What if Tom&#x27;s parents say it&#x27;s okay for Tom to not hang out with Sally because ...
The Journal of Popular Culture, 2011
... ''The West Wing As Endorsement of the US Presidency: Expanding the Bounds of Primin... more ... ''The West Wing As Endorsement of the US Presidency: Expanding the Bounds of Priming in Political Communication.'' Journal of Communication 53.3 (2003): 42743. ... ''The West Wing and Depictions of the American Presidency: Expanding the Domains of Framing ...
Journal of Neuroendocrinology, 2003
Although there is evidence that endogenous opioids, and in particular b-endorphin (b-EP), may med... more Although there is evidence that endogenous opioids, and in particular b-endorphin (b-EP), may mediate some of the suppressive effects of hyperprolactinemia on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, there is controversy about the effects of prolactin (PRL) on b-EP and its precursor, proopiomelanocortin (POMC), in the hypothalamus. In this study we have therefore examined the effects of chronic peripheral and intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) infusion of ovine PRL on POMC gene expression and b-EP levels in the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) of castrated male and female rats. Endogenous pituitary and plasma PRL levels were determined by RIA with an antiserum to rat PRL which does not crossreact with oPRL. Suppression of endogenous rPRL levels was used as a confirmation of the biological effectiveness of the infused oPRL. POMC mRNA was measured in the MBH by solution hybridization assay. In the first experiment oPRL (5 mg/ml/h) or vehicle was infused for 2 weeks by osmotic minipump into the right lateral ventricle of ovariectomized rats. The mean plasma concentration of rPRL declined from 3.7±1.0 ng/ml in the controls to 1.4±0.13 ng/ml in the oPRL infused animals (P<0.05); pituitary rPRL content similarly decreased from 39.1±4.6 mg to 20.4±3.7 mg (P<0.02). There was no significant change in the concentration of POMC mRNA or b-EP in the MBH of the oPRL treated animals. In the second experiment oPRL was infused for 1 week into the third ventricle of orchiectomized rats. Again despite a fall in endogenous PRL levels, there was no significant change in POMC or b-EP in the MBH. In the third experiment oPRL was infused subcutaneously into orchiectomized rats for 2 weeks. Mean plasma oPRL levels were 150±7.3 ng/ml after 1 week and 58±7.5 ng/ml after 2 weeks. Pituitary rPRL content was again suppressed in the oPRL treated animals but no change in POMC or b-EP was detected in the MBH. We conclude that oPRL can be infused both peripherally and centrally for up to 2 weeks with resulting suppression of endogenous pituitary PRL content and release. Under these conditions no effects on the concentrations of POMC mRNA or b-EP could be demonstrated in the hypothalamus. These results suggest that either PRL has nongenomic effects on hypothalamic b-EP or that endogenous opioids other than b-EP mediate the suppressive effects of PRL on the HPG axis.
Molecular Brain Research, 1996
Opiates have been reported to suppress POMC in the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) but studies ha... more Opiates have been reported to suppress POMC in the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) but studies have been complicated by the fact that acutely, in the rat, opiates stimulate corticosterone and inhibit gonadal steroid release, which could both affect POMC in brain. We have therefore examined POA4 gene expression and peptide levels in the MBH of castrated rats after 10 days of treatment with subcutaneous morphine or placebo pellets and after pellet removal. POMC mRNA was measured by solution hybridization assay and-endorphin (~-EP) and ei-MSH were measured by RIA. In castrated male rats, the mean POMC mRNA concentration in the MBH was 1.67 + 0.11 pg/pg RNA in the control animals and decreased to 1.17~0.11 pg/~g RNA in the morphine-treated animals (0.01). Similarly in castrated, estradiol replaced female rats, the mean POMC mRNA level in the MBH was 1.36 + 0.19 pg/pg RNA and decreased to 0.82 + 0.08 pg/p,g RNA after morphine treatment (P 0.05). &EP levels were not significantly different in either study. When castrated male rats were similarly morphine pelleted and killed either on day 10 or 2 days later after pellet removal, the mean POMC mRNA level again fell from 1.83 A 0.21 in the controls to 1.28 + 0.20 pg/~g RNA after 10 days of morphine; 2 days after pellet removal levels remained suppressed at 0.80 i-0.08 pg/~g RNA (1' < 0.01). In this study the concentrations of &EP and ci-MSH were both noted to decline in the MBH after morphine treatment (P 0.05). When the forms of &EP in the MBH were characterized by HPLC, a decrease in the concentration of &EP was again seen after morphine but no significant differences in the pattern of~-EP processing or in the relative amounts of P-EPI.31compared to &Epl.27 and &Epl.zG we no i morph an T w also no significant effect of 10-6-10-4 M morphine on basal or KC1-stimulated release of~-EP or y3-MSH release from the perifused rat hypothalamus in vitro. We conclude that morphine suppresses PO gene expression in the hypothalamus of chronically treated male and female rats. Persistent changes were also noted during morphine withdrawal. In some cases this was accompanied by a fall in &EP peptide content. These effects were seen in castrated animals with and without sex steroid replacement and are thus independent of the effects of morphine on the pituitary-gonadal axis. These results show that opiate drugs modify endogenous opioid systems in the brain and provide further support for the hypothesis that such changes may contribute to mechanisms of opiate dependence and withdrawal.
American Behavioral Scientist, 2009
This article describes a tendency of news to isolate war policy outcomes from each other and from... more This article describes a tendency of news to isolate war policy outcomes from each other and from strategic goals and official responses. These predictable patterns of press coverage and policy developments are referred to as accountability gaps . We argue that professional norms and commercial pressures overwhelm whatever hesitancy news organizations have to alter their organizational and professional behavioral patterns that lead to predictable reoccurrences of accountability gaps. Habitual deference to White House officials means that positive frames are likely to prevail, regardless of conditions on the ground, while declining attention to the costs of war as they accumulate—and becoming less newsworthy-diminishes the weight of counterframes. As casualties and other consequences of policy in Iraq became routine, their news value diminished. As casualties became routine and other costs of war mounted in ways difficult to convey, official good news frames tended to dominate news n...
Public policy and mass media: the interplay of mass communication and political decision making, Oct 1, 2009