Refine
Year of publication
- 2008 (13) (remove)
Keywords
- Stress (3)
- psychotherapy (2)
- stress (2)
- 2D DIGE (1)
- Allmenschlichkeit (1)
- Allmenschlichkeitsgedanke (1)
- Beurteilung (1)
- Bewältigung (1)
- Bipolar Disorder (1)
- Bulimie (1)
- Chromosom 15 (1)
- Chromosom 22 (1)
- Consolidation (1)
- Corticosteroidrezeptor (1)
- Counseling (1)
- Curientologie (1)
- Curienz (1)
- Curienzphilosophie (1)
- DNA-Methylation (1)
- DNA-Polymorphism (1)
- Depression (1)
- Dissonanzreduktion (1)
- Entscheidungsprozess (1)
- Erinnerung (1)
- Essstörung (1)
- Existentielle Psychologie (1)
- FKBP51 (1)
- Feinkartierung (1)
- Fibromyalgie (1)
- Flexibilität (1)
- Forschungskooperation (1)
- Funktionelle NMR-Tomographie (1)
- Gedächtnis (1)
- Geruch (1)
- Glucocorticosteroidrezeptor (1)
- HPA-Achse (1)
- Handlungsstrategie (1)
- Handlungstheorie (1)
- Hemisphärendominanz (1)
- Hirnfunktion (1)
- Hydrocortison (1)
- Immunsystem (1)
- Integrative Therapie (1)
- Interdependenz (1)
- Interdisziplinarität (1)
- Interozeption (1)
- Irreversibilität (1)
- Koerperwahrnehmung (1)
- Kognitive Psychotherapie (1)
- Kognitives Schema (1)
- Konsolidierung (1)
- Kooperation (1)
- Kopplungs- und Mutationsanalysen (1)
- Lebensgeschichte (1)
- Lebenskrise (1)
- Lebensrückblick (1)
- Lernen (1)
- MALDI-TOF MS (1)
- Major Depression (1)
- Makrophage (1)
- Memory (1)
- Menstruationszyklus (1)
- Methylierung (1)
- Monozyt (1)
- Mutation (1)
- Neoreligie (1)
- Nuklearrezeptoren (1)
- Odor (1)
- Philosophische Praxis (1)
- Promoter (1)
- Promotor <Genetik> (1)
- Proteomanalyse (1)
- Psychologische Beratung (1)
- Psychotherapie (1)
- Reactivation (1)
- Reaktivierung (1)
- Religionspsychologie (1)
- Rumination (1)
- Schizophrenie (1)
- Schlaf (1)
- Seelsorge (1)
- Selbstvertrauen (1)
- Sleep (1)
- Sonderforschungsbereich (1)
- Sprachverarbeitung (1)
- Strategie (1)
- Struktur-Lege-Technik (1)
- Therapieerfolg (1)
- Umwertung (1)
- Vagus (1)
- Verhaltensgenetik (1)
- Vertrauen (1)
- Zuversicht (1)
- Zytokin (1)
- action strategy (1)
- alternative Transkriptionsvarianten (1)
- alternative transcription variant (1)
- bulimia (1)
- cognitiv mapping (1)
- cooperation (1)
- corticosteroid receptor (1)
- cortisol (1)
- critical life events (1)
- cytokine (1)
- existential psychology (1)
- fMRI (1)
- fibromyalgia (1)
- fine mapping (1)
- flexibility (1)
- functional specialisation of hemispheres (1)
- glucocorticoid receptor (1)
- hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (1)
- immune system (1)
- intedisciplinarity (1)
- interoception (1)
- interpersonal trust (1)
- irreversibility (1)
- language processing (1)
- life review (1)
- life story (1)
- linkage and mutational analysis (1)
- macrophages (1)
- menstrual cycle (1)
- mental model (1)
- mentale Modelle (1)
- monocytes (1)
- neuroimaging (1)
- nuclear receptor (1)
- optimism (1)
- outcome (1)
- periodic catatonia (1)
- periodische Katatonie (1)
- proteomics (1)
- psychological care (1)
- revaluation (1)
- rumination (1)
- self-efficacy (1)
- vagus (1)
- visceral awareness (1)
- viszerale Empfindung (1)
Institute
- Psychologie (13) (remove)
During the last decade, anatomic and physiological neuroscience research has yielded extensive information on the physiological regulators of short-term satiety, visceral and interoceptive sensation. Distinct neural circuits regulate the elements of food ingestion physiologically. The general aim of the current studies is to elucidate the peripheral neural pathways to the brain in healthy subjects to establish the groundwork for the study of the pathophysiology of bulimia nervosa (BN). We aimed to define the central activation pattern during non-nutritive gastric distension in humans, and aimed to define the cognitive responses to this mechanical gastric distension. We estimated regional cerebral blood flow with 15O-water positron emission tomography during intragastric balloon inflation and deflation in 18 healthy young women of normal weight. The contrast between inflated minus deflated in the exploratory analysis revealed activation in more than 20 brain regions. The analysis confirmed several well known areas in the central nervous system that contribute to visceral processing: the inferior frontal cortex, representing a zone of convergence for food related stimuli; the insula and operculum referred to as "visceral cortex"; the anterior cingulate gyrus (and insula), processing affective information; and the brainstem, a site of vagal relay for visceral afferent stimuli. Brain activation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex was reproducible. This area is well known for higher cognitive processing, especially reward-related stimuli. The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex with the insular regions may provide a link between the affective and rewarding components of eating and disordered eating as observed in BN and binge-eating obesity. Gastric distension caused a significant rapid, reversible, and reproducible increase in the feelings of fullness, sleepiness, and gastric discomfort as well as a significant rapid, reversible, and reproducible decrease in the feeling of hunger. We showed that mechanical activation of the neurocircuitry involved in meal termination led to the described phenomena. The current brain activation studies of non-painful, proximal gastric distension could provide groundwork in the field of abnormal eating behavior by suggesting a link between visceral sensation and abnormal eating patterns. A potential treatment for disordered eating and obesity could alter the conscious and unconscious perception and interoceptive awareness of gastric distension contributing to meal termination.
The aim of the thesis was to investigate the role of the immune system in fibromyalgia (FM), as part of a dynamic co-regulation between different bodily systems. FM is a chronic musculoskeletal disorder characterized by widespread pain and specific tender points, combined with other symptoms including fatigue, sleep disturbances, morning stiffness and anxiety. The main goal of the work was to identify possible dysregulation of peripheral immune and endocrine parameters in patients with FM compared to matched healthy controls. Moreover, the possible relation between symptom complaints and the specific parameters measured was also evaluated. A first approach was to investigate possible differences between FM patients and controls in the expression of cytokines, as they have been implicated in the occurrence of several of the symptoms associated with FM. Furthermore, adhesion molecules which are involved in cell-to-cell communication and immune cell trafficking were also studied. The latter are known to be regulated by both cytokines and glucocorticoids (GCs) and their expression is often found altered in patients with immune dysregulation. It was expected that subjects with FM would have an increased production of proinflammatory cytokines and/or a reduced antiinflammatory cytokine production and that certain cytokines and/or adhesion molecules would be differently regulated by dexamethasone (DEX). Unstimulated blood was used in the analysis of adhesion molecule expression by flow cytometry while stimulated whole blood cell cultures were used in cytokine flow cytometry assays. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were also cultured and the supernatants collected to determine the concentration of cytokines by biochip protein array. In addition, serum samples were used in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) for quantification of soluble adhesion molecules. L-selectin was found elevated on monocytes and neutrophils of FM patients. A bias toward lower IL-4 levels was observed in FM patients. Based on studies showing differences in glucocorticoid receptor (GR) affinity and disturbances associated with loss of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis resiliency in FM, it was hypothesized whether FM would be associated with abnormalities in glucocorticoid sensitivity. Total plasma cortisol and salivary free cortisol were quantified by ELISA and time-resolved fluorescence immunoassay, respectively. GR sensitivity through DEX inhibition of IL-6, in stimulated whole blood, was evaluated after cytokine quantification by ELISA. The corticosteroid receptors, GR alpha and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), as well as the glucocorticoid-induced leucine zipper (GILZ) and the FK506 binding protein 5 mRNA expression were assessed in PBMCs by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Furthermore, sequencing of RT-PCR products and/or genomic DNA was used for mutational analysis of the corticosteroid receptors. We observed lower basal plasma cortisol levels (borderline statistical significance) and a lower expression of corticosteroid receptors and GILZ in FM patients when compared to healthy controls. The minor allele of the MR single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs5522 was found more often in FM patients than in controls. In addition, female carriers of this SNP seemed to have reduced salivary cortisol responses to a strong psychological stressor (Trier Social Stress Test) compared to non-carriers. FM patient carriers of an MR intronic SNP (rs17484245), before exon 3, were associated with significantly higher scores of depression symptoms compared to patient non-carriers. The thesis includes also a comprehensive analysis of the complexity of GR regulation and the role of alternative mRNA splicing. It focuses on the differential expression of the untranslated GR first exons, their high sequence homology among different species and how genetic determinants, without apparent relevance, may have implications in health and disease. In FM patients, GR exon 1-C expression was found lower and a significant difference was observed when comparing GR 1-C expression between antidepressant-free and patients who had taken antidepressants until two weeks before sample collection. In summary, the study shows a slight disturbance of some components of the innate immune system of FM patients and suggests an enhanced adhesion and possible recruitment of leukocytes to inflammatory sites. The reduced expression of corticosteroid receptors and possibly the reduced MR function may be associated with an impaired function of the HPA axis in these patients. A hyporesponsiveness of the HPA axis under stress or disturbances of the stress response could make these patients more vulnerable to cytokines and inflammation which, compounded by lower antiinflammatory mediators, may sustain some of the symptoms that contribute to the clinical picture of FM.
In this psycho-neuro-endocrine study the molecular basis of different variants of steroid receptors as well as highly conserved non steroidal receptors was investigated. These nuclear receptors (NRs) are important key regulators of a wide variety of different physiological and pathophysiological challenges ranging from inflammation and stress to complex behaviour and disease. NRs control gene transcription in a ligand dependent manner and are embedded in the huge interaction network of the neuroendocrine and immune system. Two receptors, the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and the chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter-transcription factorII (Coup-TFII), both expressed in the immune and nervous system, were investigated regarding possible splice variants and their implication in the control of gene transcription. Both NRs are known to interact and modulate each other- target gene regulation. This study could be shown that both NRs have different splice variants that are expressed in a tissue specific manner. The different 5-´alternative transcript variants of the human GR were in silico identified in other species and evidence for a highly conserved and tightly controlled function was provided. Investigations of the N-terminal transactivation domain of the GR showed a deletion suggesting an altered glucocorticoid-dependent transactivation profile. The newly identified alternative transcript variant of Coup-TFII leads to a DNA binding deficient Coup-TFII isoform that is highly expressed in the brain. This Coup-TFII isoform alters Coup-TFII target gene expression and is suggested to interact with GR via its ligand binding domain resulting in an impaired GR target gene regulation in the nervous system. In this thesis it was demonstrated that NR variants are important for the understanding of the enormous regulatory potential of this receptor family and have to be taken into account for the development of therapeutic strategies for complex diseases such as stress related and neurodegenerative disorders.