Accelerated pre-senile systemic amyloidosis in PACAP knockout mice - a protective role of PACAP in age-related degenerative processes.

Dysregulation of neuropeptides may play an important role in aging-induced impairments. Among them, pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a potent cytoprotective peptide that provides an endogenous control against a variety of tissue-damaging stimuli. We hypothesized that the progressive decline of PACAP throughout life and the well-known general cytoprotective effects of PACAP lead to age-related pathophysiological changes in PACAP deficiency, supported by the increased vulnerability to various stressors of animals partially or totally lacking PACAP. Using young and aging CD1 PACAP knockout (KO) and wild type (WT) mice, we demonstrated pre-senile amyloidosis in young PACAP KO animals and showed that senile amyloidosis appeared accelerated, more generalized, more severe, and affected more individuals. Histopathology showed age-related systemic amyloidosis with mainly kidney, spleen, liver, skin, thyroid, intestinal, tracheal, and esophageal involvement. Mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis, reconfirmed with immunohistochemistry, revealed that apolipoprotein-AIV was the main amyloid protein in the deposits together with several accompanying proteins. Although the local amyloidogenic protein expression was disturbed in KO animals, no difference was found in laboratory lipid parameters, suggesting a complex pathway leading to increased age-related degeneration with amyloid deposits in the absence of PACAP. In spite of no marked inflammatory histological changes or blood test parameters, we detected a disturbed cytokine profile that possibly creates a pro-inflammatory milieu favoring amyloid deposition. In summary, here we describe accelerated systemic senile amyloidosis in PACAP gene-deficient mice, which might indicate an early aging phenomenon in this mouse strain. Thus, PACAP KO mice could serve as a model of accelerated aging with human relevance. © 2018 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

Validation of a Kazakhstani Version of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form.

Positive mental health and well-being are significant dimensions of health, employment, and educational outcomes. Research on positive mental health and well-being requires measurement instruments in native languages for use in local contexts and target populations. This study examines the psychometric properties of the Kazakhstani version of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF), a brief self-report instrument measuring emotional, social, and psychological well-being. The sample included 664 University students (425 females) purposefully selected in three higher education institutions in South, East, and Central Kazakhstan. Their average age was 20.25 and ranged from 18 to 43. Participants completed a Kazakhstani version of the MHC-SF online. Statistical analyses to evaluate the structural validity, reliability, and measurement invariance of the Kazakhstani version of the MHC-SF were performed. The results confirmed the superiority of the bifactor model (i.e., three separated factors of well-being plus a general factor of well-being) over the alternatives. However, most of the reliable variance was attributable to the general well-being factor. Subscale scores were unreliable, explaining very low variance beyond that explained by the general factor. The findings demonstrated the measurement invariance of the MHC-SF across gender and age. Overall, these findings support the use of the Kazakhstani version of the MHC-SF to examine a general factor of well-being and the measurement invariance of the instrument across gender and age groups. However, the results advise against the interpretation of the subscale scores as unequivocal indicators of emotional, social, and psychological well-being.

Mental Health and Well-Being of University Students: A Bibliometric Mapping of the Literature.

The purpose of this study is to map the literature on mental health and well-being of university students using metadata extracted from 5,561 journal articles indexed in the Web of Science database for the period 1975-2020. More specifically, this study uses bibliometric procedures to describe and visually represent the available literature on mental health and well-being in university students in terms of the growth trajectory, productivity, social structure, intellectual structure, and conceptual structure of the field over 45 years. Key findings of the study are that research on mental health and well-being in university students: (a) has experienced a steady growth over the last decades, especially since 2010; (b) is disseminated in a wide range of journals, mainly in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and education research; (c) is published by scholars with diverse geographical background, although more than half of the publications are produced in the United States; (d) lies on a fragmented research community composed by multiple research groups with little interactions between them; (e) is relatively interdisciplinary and emerges from the convergence of research conducted in the behavioral and biomedical sciences; (f) tends to emphasize pathogenic approaches to mental health (i.e., mental illness); and (g) has mainly addressed seven research topics over the last 45 years: positive mental health, mental disorders, substance abuse, counseling, stigma, stress, and mental health measurement. The findings are discussed, and the implications for the future development of the field are highlighted.