Social Exclusion and Depression among undergraduate students: the mediating roles of rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy.

Nowadays, depression has been a prominent mental health problem throughout the world. A common but negative social experience, social exclusion (also known as ostracism) is a great risk factor for individuals' health and adaptation. Undergraduate students are in a development period of challenges and transitions, so they are vulnerable to suffering from depression and negative social experiences. Against this background, the present study aimed to examine the association between social exclusion and undergraduate students' depression as well as the underlying mechanism - the mediating roles of rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy. Seven hundred sixty-two undergraduate students were recruited to participate in this study, who were asked to complete a set of questionnaires measuring social exclusion, depression, rejection sensitivity, and social self-efficacy. After controlling for gender, social exclusion was positively associated with undergraduate students' depression. And rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy could significantly mediate this relation through three mediating paths - the separate mediating effects of rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy, as well as the serial mediating effect of rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy. These results could not only deepen our understanding of this theme, but also have several practical implications for the intervention of depression, for example, relevant social skill training and cognitive therapy could be adopted to intervene the rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy.

[The effect of osthole on lipopolysaccharide-induced macrophages polarization and inflammatory reaction].

PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of Osthole (OST) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced macrophage polarization and inflammatory reaction. METHODS: The effect of different concentrations of OST on proliferative activity of RAW264.7 macrophages was examined by CCK-8 method; the effect of OST at different concentrations (6.25, 12.5 and 25 µmol/L) on macrophage polarization and inflammation was investigated by using intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) detection kit (DCFH-DA), immunofluorescence staining, q-PCR and flow cytometry. The effects of OST on macrophage polarization and inflammatory responses were investigated by immunoblotting of proteins. Graphpad prism 8.0 software package was used for statistical analysis of the data. RESULTS: CCK-8 results showed that OST was not significantly cytotoxic to RAW264.7 at less than 25 µmol/L, immunofluorescence and q-PCR results showed that OST at 6.25, 12.5 and 25 µmol/L inhibited the expression of inflammatory factors in M1 macrophages, and iNOS, TNF-α, CCR7 were reduced in a concentration-dependent manner, and effectively upregulated the expression of M2 inflammatory factors IL-10, Arg-1 and CD206. Flow cytometry showed that OST effectively inhibited the expression of LPS-induced M1 marker CD86 in macrophages. CONCLUSIONS: OST can regulate lipopolysaccharide-induced M1 macrophages polarization and reduce inflammatory reaction.

NFKB1 gene rs28362491 polymorphism is associated with the susceptibility of acute coronary syndrome.

The acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a complex disease where genetic and environmental factors are involved. NF-κB, a central regulator of inflammation, is involved in various inflammatory diseases. The aim of the present study was to explore the association between NFKB1 gene rs28362491 (-94ATTGins/del) polymorphism and ACS. A total of 778 ACS patients and 1112 healthy subjects were included in our study. The TaqMan SNP genotyping assays was used to analyze the rs28362491 polymorphism. The lesion extent of coronary artery was assessed by Gensini Score and lesion vessel number in ACS patients. For total and males, the frequencies of the mutant DD genotype and D allele were significantly higher in ACS patients than that in control subjects (total: DD genotype: 18.0 vs 14.1%, P=0.009, D allele: 43.0 vs 37.9%, P=0.002, males: DD genotype: 20.6 vs 15.3%, P=0.042, D allele: 44.2 vs 38.8%, P=0.013). After multivariate logistic regression analysis, we found that individuals with mutant DD genotype had 1.329-fold higher risk of ACS compared with individuals with ID and II genotypes. Moreover, ACS patients with DD genotype were worse stenosis of coronary artery compared with patients carrying II or ID genotype. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that the mutant DD genotype of NFKB1 gene was associated with the risk and severity of ACS in Han population in Xinjiang, northwest of China.