What motivates public collaborators to become and stay involved in health research?

BACKGROUND: People with lived experience of health and illness are increasingly being involved in research. Knowing what creates interest in becoming involved in health research may help identify appropriate ways of facilitating meaningful involvement. The study aimed to investigate why people became public collaborators in health research and what helped sustain their commitment to staying involved. METHODS: Semistructured individual qualitative interviews were conducted with 11 Norwegian public collaborators recruited from patient organisations. To enhance the quality and relevance of this study, three public collaborators were involved in framing the study and in the data analysis. One of them is a coauthor of this paper. The interviews were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis, and two themes were generated. RESULTS: The first theme, 'research as a vehicle to impact' showed how interest in becoming involved in research was founded on the possibility of impacting healthcare through research. Other inspiring factors were how they appraised the relevance of the research, in addition to the public collaborators' own sense of moral duty to advocate for research related to their own as well as others, illnesses or diseases. The second theme, ''Acknowledgement and accessibility', framed how the participants perceived appreciation of experiential knowledge as crucial for maintaining motivation in their role as public collaborators. Other promoters of sustained involvement presented were training for both public collaborators and researchers, adequate allowance as a means for visualising and valuing PPI, and accessible language. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes to the understanding of how to facilitate meaningful and sustainable PPI, which requires a safe space for collaboration and attention to accessibility. Facilitating meaningful involvement may, in turn, increase the potential impact and sustainability of PPI.

It has been more common to involve people with lived experiences of health and illness to work with researchers as members of their teams. There is a general assumption that involvement may increase the relevance and impact of research, prompting research funders to require an outline of involvement strategies to obtain research funding. Understanding why people become involved in research may be helpful to improve how researchers and people with lived experience can work together in a good way. In this qualitative study, we interviewed 11 people with experience from involvement, based on their experiential knowledge as patients or next-of-kin, in health research. Three public collaborators were involved in the analysis workshops, and the interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Two themes were developed. The first theme, 'Research as a vehicle to impact' showed how interest in involvement was triggered by the possibility of impacting health care services through research. The second theme, 'Acknowledgement and accessibility', framed the value of appreciation of experiential knowledge, besides the importance of making the research arena accessible for the public in terms of training, payment, and comprehensible language. Meaningful PPI creates a foundation for sustainable recruitment of public collaborators and raises the chances for PPI to have an impact.

S100A4 expression in xenograft tumors of human carcinoma cell lines is induced by the tumor microenvironment.

Increased expression of the invasion- and metastasis-associated protein S100A4 is found in many types of cancer, but the regulation of S100A4 expression is poorly understood. The microenvironment surrounding tumors has a significant effect on tumor progression, and in the present study, we investigated the role of the microenvironment in the expression of S100A4. Tumors of three different human carcinoma cell lines were established in the tongue or skin of mice, and S100A4 expression was assessed by quantitative RT-PCR, Western blotting, and immunohistochemical analysis in tumors and stromal tissue and in cancer cells grown in vitro. Tongue tumors of the oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line HSC-4 showed a pronounced increase in S100A4 expression during tumor growth, whereas only a minor increase was detected in skin tumors of the same cell line. The S100A4 expression correlated with the methylation status of cytosine-guanine sites in the first intron of the gene. For all cell lines, S100A4 expression in the tumor stroma was related to the presence of inflammatory cells rather than to the level of S100A4 in the tumor cells.

Dysregulation of matrix metalloproteinases and their tissue inhibitors by S100A4.

The S100A4 protein as well as the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) are associated with diseases such as arthritis and cancer. This mini review focuses on in vitro and in vivo studies indicating S100A4 involvement in regulation of MMPs and TIMPs, and the biological and pathobiological consequences of this regulation.

Pharmacological characterization of the ATP-dependent low K(m) guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) transporter in human erythrocytes.

The efflux pump for cGMP has been shown to be an ATP-energized multiorganic anion transporter. The present study was performed to extend the knowledge of the pharmacological characteristics of this efflux pump. Inside-out vesicles prepared from fresh blood were incubated with [3H]-cGMP (1 microM) with or without various concentrations of competitors for 120min at 37 degrees. The tested compounds could be divided in four groups: one with high affinity (K(i) < 5 microM), a second with moderate affinity (K(i): 5-50 microM), a third with low affinity (K(i): 0.1-5mM) and the fourth with extremely low or no affinity at all. With the mean K(i)-values given in parenthesis, the high affinity group consisted of mifepristone (0.2 microM), zaprinast (0.35 microM), dipyridamole (0.35 microM), estradiol 3-beta-glucuronide (0.42 microM), genistein (0.43 microM), estradiol 17-beta-glucuronide (0.47 microM), onapristone (1.3 microM), progesterone (1.7 microM) and sildenafil (3.6 microM). The inhibitors with medium affinity were estradiol (8 microM), sulfinpyrazone (13 microM), daunorubicin (23 microM), megestrol acetate (26 microM), doxorubicin (28 microM), 6-thioguanine (28 microM) and 6-thioguanosine-5'-monophosphate (32 microM). The low affinity group comprised 6-TIMP (220 microM), 6-methylmercaptopurine (MMP) (220 microM), vincristine (270 microM), medroxyprogesterone (680 microM), para-aminohippurate (PAH) (1.9mM) and taurocholate (2.2mM). No or minimal effect was seen in the presence of 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP), methotrexate, 9-(2-phosphonylmethoxyethyl)adenine and mitoxantrone. The cGMP transporter had a unique pharmacological profile, different from that of MRP1, but with some characteristics in common with MRP4 and MRP5.