The proliferative B-13 pancreatic cell line is unique in its ability to generate functional hepatocyte-like (B-13/H) cells in response to exposure to glucocorticoid. In these studies, quantitatively ...comparable hepatic levels of liver-specific and liver-enriched transcription factor and hepatocyte defining mRNA transcripts were expressed after 10-14 days continuous treatment with glucocorticoid. This conversion in phenotype was associated with increased Gr-α mRNA expression and translation of a functional N-terminally truncated variant protein that localized to the nucleus in B-13/H cells. A short (6 hours) pulse exposure to glucocorticoid was also sufficient to transiently activate the Gr and irreversibly drive near identical conversion to B-13/H cells. Examination of epigenetic-related mechanisms demonstrated that B-13 DNA was rapidly methylated and de-methylated over the initial 2 days in response to both continuous or pulse exposure with glucocorticoid. DNA methylation and glucocorticoid-dependent conversion to an hepatic B-13/H phenotype was blocked by the methylation inhibitor, 5-azacytidine. Conversion to an hepatic B-13/H phenotype was also blocked by histone deacetylase inhibitors. Previous experiments have identified N-terminal Sgk1 variant proteins as pivotal to the mechanism(s) associated with pancreatic-hepatic differentiation. Both continuous and pulse exposure to DEX was sufficient to result in a near-similar robust transcriptional increase in Sgk1c mRNA expression from undetectable levels in B-13 cells. Notably, expression of Sgk1c mRNA remained constitutive 14 days later; including after pulse exposure to glucocorticoid and this induction was inhibited by 5-azacytidine or by histone deacetylase inhibitors. These data therefore suggest that exposing B-13 cells to glucocorticoid results in a Gr-dependent pulse in DNA methylation and likely other epigenetic changes such as histone modifications that leads to constitutive expression of Sgk1c and irreversible reprogramming of B-13 cells into B-13/H cells. Understanding and application of these mechanism(s) may enhance the functionality of stem cell-derived hepatocytes generated in vitro.
The micronutrients folate and selenium may modulate DNA methylation patterns by affecting intracellular levels of the methyl donor S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) and/or the product of methylation ...reactions S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH). WI-38 fibroblasts and FHC colon epithelial cells were cultured in the presence of two forms of folate or four forms of selenium at physiologically-relevant doses, and their effects on LINE-1 methylation, gene-specific CpG island (CGI) methylation and intracellular SAM:SAH were determined. At physiologically-relevant doses the forms of folate or selenium had no effect on LINE-1 or CGI methylation, nor on intracellular SAM:SAH. However the commercial cell culture media used for the selenium studies, containing supra-physiological concentrations of folic acid, induced LINE-1 hypomethylation, CGI hypermethylation and decreased intracellular SAM:SAH in both cell lines. We conclude that the exposure of normal human cells to supra-physiological folic acid concentrations present in commercial cell culture media perturbs the intracellular SAM:SAH ratio and induces aberrant DNA methylation.
This essay offers a metacritical reading of the discourses surrounding Haitian author Marie Chauvet (1916–1973). I argue that paying attention to the naming (how she is described), claiming (how ...scholars and authors define their investment in her work), and framing (how her work is analyzed by scholars) of Chauvet reveals a dominant discourse that influences our study of the author. Taking a feminist approach to the interpretations of her work, I argue that ultimately these Chauvet narratives reveal more about anxieties surrounding gender than they do about her body of work.
...simply experiencing pregnancy as a Black woman poses a higher risk for maternal death (Burke, 2020; Howell, 2018). Evidence-based literature supports that social determinants of health such as low ...socioeconomic status, low levels of educational attainment and limited access to healthcare as contributing factors to health disparities. ...research unearths that non-Black providers' racial biases, specifically in pain perception, are also associated with racial biases in pain treatment and management resulting in negative maternal health outcomes for Black patient populations (Gillette-Pierce et al., 2022; Hoffman et al., 2016; Saluja & Bryant, 2021). ...this myth was a foundational tenet upon which the field of gynaecology was developed—Black women were routinely the unanaesthetized test subjects of novel gynaecological surgical interventions performed by physicians in the 19th century (Chinn et al., 2021; Gillette-Pierce et al., 2022).
One of the risks of a special issue with US-based editors and with a topic overwhelmingly identified not only with the US but also with affluent white women is that conversations might neglect the ...expertise of scholars focused on Indigeneity and the majority of the world. The diverse scholars who contribute to this roundtable—while by no means covering every region in which #MeToo activism has taken place—decenter the US in exploring #MeToo discourse, and blend discussions of medium in activism, solidarity, and cultural specificity in relation to their own stories.
Occupying the Center Jean-Charles, Régine Michelle
Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism,
11/2018, Volume:
22, Issue:
3
Book Review, Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This essay takes two images of Haitian girls in Christina Sharpe’s
as a point of departure to reflect on the iconography of Haitian suffering. It argues that Sharpe’s claim that the Haitian girl in ...the photo taken in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake “occupies the center of the work” is thrown into question when her work is juxtaposed with literary narratives that feature Haitian girl protagonists, such as Evelyne Trouillot’s
and Laura Wagner’s
These narratives by Trouillot and Wagner actively center Haitian girls while recognizing the dynamics of the wake that Sharpe outlines throughout her study. As such they offer an example of what it means to imagine Haitian girlhood “otherwise.”
While several improvements continue in hospitals involving fall prevention, falls and falls with injury continue to occur all too frequently in hospitals, particularly in elderly patients. This ...Doctor of Nursing project is the implementation of a virtual sitter program (VS) on a medical-surgical unit at a community hospital in northeast Indiana. The patient population for this project includes patients admitted to a medical-surgical unit that are male or female patients over the age of 18 with a history of falls and are considered at high risk for falls. This is an evidence-based new program implementation project with the aim of decreasing falls, falls with injury and the cost of one-one-one (one-to-one) in person bedside sitters. A literature examination supported the positive outcome of implementing a VS to decrease fall and cost. Evaluation of the project includes pre-implementation data regarding falls, falls with injury and cost of one-to-one sitters 6 months pre and 3 months post implementation. Summary of results showed no falls or falls with injuries among any patients who had either a one-to-one or VS post-implementation. The falls per 1000-person days were higher pre-implementation (number of falls = 8) than post-implementation (number of falls = 6) with a fall rate of µ 5.77 and µ 4.17, respectively. A net decrease of 16% in falls post-implementation was shown as compared to pre-implementation. Moreover, while there was one fall with injury pre-implementation in patients who did not have a sitter, the falls per 1000-person days were higher pre-implementation than post-implementation µ 0.67 and 0, respectively. Lastly, the number of hours spent on sitting increased to 2,239 (one-to-one = 576, VS = 1669) from 629 pre-implementation; however, given the lower total cost associated with VS pre- and -post implementation, there was a net decrease in cost of $12,097 dollars from pre-implementation to post- implementation (one-to-one = $15,630 VS = $3,533.00) for sitters. Additionally, there was also a decrease of $9,978 dollars during the post-implementation analysis (one-to-one = $13,511 VS = $3,533) of sitter use.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a mass vaccination campaign that left health systems with little time to prepare. As a large health system, we were asked to deploy 1,000 COVID-19 vaccines in less than ...26 days. We developed a vaccination clinic simulation to be able to accurately model patients coming in and out of our physical vaccination clinic. Rather than a model used once and shelved afterwards, we used it to run our largest clinic but also relied on it to deploy several smaller clinics at various sites thanks to the simulation’s flexibility. In this session, we will demonstrate our simulation through two real-world scenarios and discuss how it can be used to quickly deploy COVID and non-COVID vaccination clinics of all sizes.
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