Drosophila melanogaster has well-characterized genetics that is amenable to manipulation. A cluster of cells in ovaries, the border cell, migrates collectively during development. Border cell clusters are useful in understanding collective cell migration in vivo and important in the study of development and disease progression.
Cytokine and steroid hormone signaling pathways are important for the regulation of border cell migration. Based on previous data, we hypothesized that the ferritin complex, a target of steroid hormone signaling, modulates migration. Ferritin is an iron storage complex made of heavy and light chains.
Preliminary results indicate that lowering ferritin gene expression results in defective migration. We are characterizing the spatiotemporal expression of ferritin genes. Additionally, we are mining genomic data for transcription factor binding sites that regulate ferritin expression.
In the ferritin gene loci, we identified putative binding sites for both known and new transcriptional regulators. Next, we will overexpress ferritin subunits in the border cell cluster to assay any effects on migration. This work may suggest conserved roles for ferritin in other migratory cell types. The current study investigated the association between positive affect PA and resting heart rate RHR in a racially diverse sample of younger adults.
Most prior research focused on adverse psychosocial correlates of cardiovascular CV health. However, it is critical to assess psychosocial factors that may be beneficial in achieving more ideal CV functioning. RHR is recognized as a predictor of future CV disease. Participants completed the item PA subscale from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, which assesses positive emotional states. We conducted multiple linear regression modeling in SPSS v Notably, sensitivity analyses including self-reported rumination and discrimination did not attenuate this relationship.
