Sex-specific association of peripheral blood cell indices and inflammatory markers with depressive symptoms in early adolescence.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have reported the correlation of dysregulated blood cell indices and peripheral inflammatory markers with depression in adults but limited studies have examined this correlation in early adolescents. METHODS: This study used data from the Chinese Early Adolescents Cohort Study, which was conducted in Anhui, China. Students' depression symptoms were repeatedly measured using the Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children. Students' blood samples were collected in September 2019 and September 2021. The peripheral blood cell counts and inflammatory marker levels were determined using routine blood tests. Multivariate regression models were used to explore the associations between blood cell indices and adolescent depressive symptoms in both the whole sample and the sex-stratified samples. RESULTS: The white blood cell (WBC) count, neutrophil count (NC), platelet (PLT) count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and systemic immune inflammation index (SII) were positively correlated with the severity of depressive symptoms during follow-up. The mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean hemoglobin (HGB) volume (MCH), and mean corpuscular HGB concentration (MCHC) exhibited a negative temporal correlation with depressive symptoms. Additionally, several sex-specific blood cell markers were correlated with depression. Male adolescents with increased red blood cell (RBC) and female adolescents with decreased HGB levels and upregulated WBC, NC, NLR, and SII levels exhibited severe depressive symptoms at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested the potential usefulness of peripheral blood cell indices in the assessment of depression in early adolescents.

Association Between Child Maltreatment and Aggression in Chinese Early Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Irritability.

Child maltreatment (CM) is a major global public health issue, and a strong association exists between CM and aggression. However, the underlying mechanism of this association has not been understood to date. The objective of this study was to explore the mediating role of irritability in the association between CM and aggression in Chinese early adolescents. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-report questionnaire to evaluate the levels of CM, aggression, and irritability in 5,724 middle school students from the Anhui Province, China. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis of the mediating effect of irritability on the relationship between CM and aggression. We further investigated gender differences in this association using multiple group analyses. CM was positively related to both irritability and aggression, and irritability was positively associated with aggression (p < .01). The mediating effects of irritability between CM and aggression were significant (ß = .107, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.077-0.133, p < .05). Males had a higher indirect effect size of the pathway from CM to aggression via irritability compared with females. Overall, irritability was a crucial mediator in the relationship between CM and aggression in Chinese adolescents, and males were more prone to engage in aggression compared with females through the pathway of irritability. Therefore, early irritability characteristics should be carefully monitored in adolescents, and they should be provided adequate support to acquire critical emotion regulation skills.

Longitudinal correlates of bullying victimization among Chinese early adolescents: A cross-lagged panel network analysis.

BACKGROUND: Bullying victimization is a major public health issue often faced by adolescents. This highlights the need to identify the relevant risk factors to inform intervention. Based on the ecological systems theory and applied cross-lagged panel network analysis, this study explored the longitudinal correlates of bullying victimization among Chinese early adolescents. METHODS: A total of 1686 early adolescents (60.4 % were boys) from the Chinese Early Adolescent Cohort study were included in this study. Bullying victimization and its associated factors were assessed using the self-report questionnaires, which was administered from 2019 (T1), 2021 (T2), and 2022 (T3). The longitudinal relationships between bullying victimization and its correlates were examined using a cross-lagged panel network analysis. RESULTS: 27.0 %, 14.9 %, and 13.2 % of the participants reported being bullied by peers at T1, T2, and T3, respectively. The temporal network suggested that individual-level (sex, depression, and anxiety), family-level (child abuse), school-level (satisfaction with classmates), and social-level (satisfaction with society) factors were associated with bullying victimization. The node with the greatest centrality strength was anxiety. Notably, relationship with teachers and classmates were the unique nodes in the T2 → T3 replication network. LIMITATIONS: The sample is unrepresentative, as it is from only one middle school. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide important insights into bullying victimization prevention and intervention among Chinese early adolescents: 1) highlighting the importance of joint interventions across multiple departments; 2) focusing on the most central factors of bullying victimization; and 3) considering the effect of time when exploring the correlates of bullying victimization.

Involvement in bullying and sleep disorders in Chinese early adolescents.

Background: School bullying may cause sleep disorders in early adolescents. Here, we determined the relationship between school bullying (considering all the features of bullying involvement) and sleep disorders, which are the common problems in Chinese early adolescents. Materials and methods: We conducted a questionnaire survey among 5,724 middle school students from Xuancheng, Hefei, and Huaibei cities in Anhui province, China. The self-report questionnaires included the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. We used latent class analysis to identify the potential subgroups of bullying behavior. Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association between school bullying and sleep disorders. Results: Active participants in bullying interactions, including the bullies and victims, reported higher levels of sleep disorders compared with the non-active participants [Bully: physical (aOR = 2.62), verbal (aOR = 1.73), relational (aOR = 1.80), and cyber (aOR = 2.08); Victim: physical (aOR = 2.42), verbal (aOR = 2.59), relational (aOR = 2.61), and cyber (aOR = 2.81)]. A dose-response relationship was observed between the number of school bullying types and sleep disorders. In the context of bullying roles, bully-victims had the highest risk of reporting sleep disorders (aOR = 3.07, 95% CI: 2.55-3.69). We identified four potential categories of school bullying behaviors: low involvement in bullying, verbal and relational victims, medium bully-victims, and high bully-victims, and the highest frequency of sleep disorders was observed in the high bully-victims group (aOR = 4.12, 95% CI: 2.94-5.76). Conclusion: Our findings indicate a positive correlation between bullying roles and sleep disorders in early adolescents. Therefore, targeted intervention for sleep disorders should include an evaluation of bullying experiences.

Comparative de novo transcriptomics and untargeted metabolomic analyses elucidate complicated mechanisms regulating celery (Apium graveolens L.) responses to selenium stimuli.

Presently, concern regarding the effects of selenium (Se) on the environment and organisms worldwide is increasing. Too much Se in the soil is harmful to plants. In this study, Illumina RNA sequencing and the untargeted metabolome of control and Se-treated celery seedlings were analyzed. In total, 297,911,046 clean reads were obtained and assembled into 150,218 transcripts (50,876 unigenes). A total of 36,287 unigenes were annotated using different databases. Additionally, 8,907 differentially expressed genes, including 5,319 up- and 3,588 downregulated genes, were identified between mock and Se-treated plants. "Phenylpropanoid biosynthesis" was the most enriched KEGG pathway. A total of 24 sulfur and selenocompound metabolic unigenes were differentially expressed. Furthermore, 1,774 metabolites and 237 significant differentially accumulated metabolites were identified using the untargeted metabolomic approach. We conducted correlation analyses of enriched KEGG pathways of differentially expressed genes and accumulated metabolites. Our findings suggested that candidate genes and metabolites involved in important biological pathways may regulate Se tolerance in celery. The results increase our understanding of the molecular mechanism responsible for celery's adaptation to Se stress.

Comparative proteomic analysis of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) seedlings under selenium stress.

Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element for human and animal health. Se fertilizer has been used to increase the Se content in crops to meet the Se requirements in humans and animals. To address the challenge of Se poisoning in plants, the mechanisms underlying Se-induced stress in plants must be understood. Here, to elucidate the effects of Se stress on the protein levels in pepper, we used an integrated approach involving tandem mass tag labeling, high performance liquid chromatography fractionation, and mass spectrometry-based analysis. A total of 4,693 proteins were identified, 3,938 of which yielded quantitative information. Among them, the expression of 172 proteins was up-regulated, and the expression of 28 proteins was down-regulated in the Se/mock treatment comparison. According to the above data, we performed a systematic bioinformatics analysis of all identified proteins and differentially expressed proteins (DEPs). The DEPs were most strongly associated with the terms "metabolic process," "posttranslational modification, protein turnover, chaperones," and "protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum" according to Gene Ontology, eukaryotic orthologous groups classification, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis, respectively. Furthermore, several heat shock proteins were identified as DEPs. These results provide insights that may facilitate further studies on the pepper proteome expressed downstream of the Se stress response. Our data revealed that the responses of pepper to Se stress involve various pathways.

De Novo Transcriptome Assembly and Characterization of the Synthesis Genes of Bioactive Constituents in Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench.

Abelmoschus esculentus (okra or lady's fingers) is a vegetable with high nutritional value, as well as having certain medicinal effects. It is widely used as food, in the food industry, and in herbal medicinal products, but also as an ornamental, in animal feed, and in other commercial sectors. Okra is rich in bioactive compounds, such as flavonoids, polysaccharides, polyphenols, caffeine, and pectin. In the present study, the concentrations of total flavonoids and polysaccharides in five organs of okra were determined and compared. Transcriptome sequencing was used to explore the biosynthesis pathways associated with the active constituents in okra. Transcriptome sequencing of five organs (roots, stem, leaves, flowers, and fruits) of okra enabled us to obtain 293,971 unigenes, of which 232,490 were annotated. Unigenes related to the enzymes involved in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway or in fructose and mannose metabolism were identified, based on Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis. All of the transcriptional datasets were uploaded to Sequence Read Archive (SRA). In summary, our comprehensive analysis provides important information at the molecular level about the flavonoid and polysaccharide biosynthesis pathways in okra.