Commitment to physical activity and anxiety about physique among college women.

This study involved a comparison of scores on the Commitment to Physical Activity Scale and the Social Physique Anxiety Scale by 258 women athletes, kinesiology majors, and a control group. Mean commitment to physical activity of the control group was significantly lower than the means of the other groups; the mean on anxiety about social physique was significantly higher.

Reactivation of silenced, virally transduced genes by inhibitors of histone deacetylase.

Retroviral and adeno-associated viral sequences can dramatically silence transgene expression in mice. We now report that this repression also occurs in stably infected HeLa cells when the cells are grown without selection. Expression of a transduced lacZ gene (rAAV/CMVlacZ) is silenced in greater than 90% of cells after 60 days in culture. Surprisingly, high-level expression can be reactivated by treating the cells with sodium butyrate or trichostatin A but not with 5-azacytidine. When cell clones with integrated copies of rAAV/CMVlacZ were isolated, lacZ expression was silenced in 80% of the clones; however, lacZ expression was reactivated in all of the silenced clones by treatment with butyrate or trichostatin A. The two drugs also reactivated a silenced globin gene construct (rAAV/HS2alphabetaAS3) in stably infected K562 cells. Trichostatin A is a specific inhibitor of histone deacetylase; therefore, we propose that hyperacetylation of histones after drug treatment changes the structure of chromatin on integrated viral sequences and relieves repression of transduced genes. The reactivation of silenced, transduced genes has implications for gene therapy. Efficient viral gene transfer followed by drug treatment to relieve suppression may provide a powerful combination for treatment of various genetic and infectious diseases.

Personal incentives for exercise and body esteem: a canonical correlation analysis.

Two hundred twelve women and 93 men enrolled in physical education courses were administered the Personal Incentives for Exercise Questionnaire and the Body Esteem Scale. Canonical correlation was conducted. For women, it was determined that personal incentives for exercise have modest predictive power for the weight concern and physical conditioning dimensions of body esteem and very little predictive power for the sexual attractiveness dimension; the body esteem variates have slight predictive power for the competition and weight management dimensions of investment in exercise. For men, it was determined that personal incentives for exercise have modest predictive power for the physical conditioning dimension of body esteem, slight predictive power for physical attractiveness, and none for upper body strength; the body esteem variate has modest predictive power for the weight management dimension of incentives for exercise and slight predictive power for appearance and affiliation.

Retroviral vector sequences inhibit human beta-globin gene expression in transgenic mice.

The DNase I hypersensitive site 5' HS2 of the human beta-globin locus control region confers position-independent, high-level expression on the human beta-globin gene in transgenic mice. When a 5' HS2 beta-globin construct is flanked by retroviral vector sequences derived from Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus (MoMLV), expression of the beta-globin gene is severely inhibited. Apparently, one or more elements within the MoMLV genome is capable of repressing transcription of the human beta-globin gene in transgenic mice. A construct lacking the retroviral enhancer also fails to express the beta-globin gene, indicating that this region of the virus is not essential for repression. Further analysis may permit the identification of specific viral sequences that inhibit gene expression; these sequences could then be deleted or mutated to produce improved viral vectors.

Recombinant human hemoglobins designed for gene therapy of sickle cell disease.

Two human hemoglobins designed to inhibit the polymerization of sickle hemoglobin (Hb S; alpha 2 beta S2) have been produced. Mutations that disrupt the ability of Hb S to form polymers were introduced into the normal human beta-globin gene by site-specific mutagenesis. These mutations affect the axial and lateral contacts in the sickle fiber. The recombinant hemoglobin designated anti-sickling hemoglobin 1 (Hb AS1) contains the mutations beta 22 glutamic acid to alanine and beta 80 asparagine to lysine. Hb AS2 has the same beta 22 glutamic acid to alanine mutation combined with beta 87 threonine to glutamine. Human alpha- and beta AS-globin genes were separately fused downstream of beta-globin locus control region sequences and these constructs were coinjected into fertilized mouse eggs. Transgenic mouse lines that synthesize high levels of each anti-sickling hemoglobin were established and anti-sickling hemoglobins were purified from hemolysates and characterized. Both AS hemoglobins bind oxygen cooperatively and the oxygen affinities of these molecules are in the normal range. Delay time experiments demonstrate that Hb AS2 is a potent inhibitor of Hb S polymerization; therefore, locus control region beta AS2-globin gene constructs may be suitable for future gene therapy of sickle cell disease.

Analysis of course type, gender, and personal incentives to exercise.

206 women and 88 men enrolled in classes requiring different amounts of physical activity were administered the Personal Incentives for Exercise Questionnaire. A two-way multivariate analysis of variance, with course type and gender as the categorical independent variables and 10 subscale scores representing incentives to exercise as the multivariate dependent variables, was completed. Canonical discriminant analysis was used to identify which of the incentives is most useful in discriminating among participants in active and less active classes or between men and women. For main effects, analysis indicated an over-all significant difference for both course type and gender. Men scored higher than women on activity and on competition, for example, while women scored higher on appearance and weight management.

Analysis of body esteem of female collegiate athletes.

Scores on three subscales of the Body Esteem Scale were analyzed for the effect of group participation on body esteem. Intercollegiate women athletes from three sports (basketball, n = 9; volleyball, n = 10; and softball, n = 12) and a control group of 34 women who did not participate in athletics were respondents. Scores on Weight Concern and Physical Condition significantly discriminated between the groups. On Weight Concern the mean of the control group was significantly lower than those of the athletic groups. On Physical Condition the control group mean was significantly lower than that of the basketball group. Other comparisons were not significant.

Body esteem and enrollment in classes with different levels of physical activity.

Differences in self-reported scores on the Body Esteem Scale were recorded for college women and men who participated in classes requiring differing amounts of physical activity. Scores for 116 women and 38 men were compared to scores for 99 college women and 60 college men enrolled in classes requiring vigorous or little physical activity, respectively. The correlation between participation and body esteem was also examined. The Body Esteem Scale was given to the subjects during the first and last weeks of one semester. Multivariate analysis of variance of scores indicated significant differences initially among the two groups of women on three subscales, Sexual Attractiveness, Weight Control, and Physical Condition, while mean over-all scores for body esteem were higher for women in the vigorous activity group than in the comparison group. No significant differences were found at the later testing. For men, no significant differences were obtained at either testing.

Cognitive and somatic state anxiety and self-confidence in cheerleading competition.

77 cheerleaders participating in a national collegiate championship competition were administered the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 immediately prior to performance. Significant correlations were found between cognitive and somatic state anxiety, a finding consistent with previous research. Negative correlations were found between both cognitive and somatic anxiety and self-confidence, also as previously reported. Canonical discriminant analysis indicated that significant discrimination between the teams could be accomplished by a combination of the state-anxiety variables. Both groups, 36 men and 41 women, differed significantly from normative scores on the somatic subscale.

Analysis of the effect of competitive trait anxiety on performance in Taekwondo competition.

This study examined the effect of competitive trait anxiety on performance in open- (sparring) and closed- (forms) skills in Taekwondo. 58 subjects responded to the Sports Competition Anxiety Test immediately prior to competition. Subjects were categorized into groups showing high, medium, and low competitive anxiety to assess whether differences on the variables of sparring and forms were significantly related with scores on competition anxiety, age, or gender after adjusting for the covariate of years of competition. Multivariate analysis of covariance showed no significant differences between subjects and the normative samples on competitive anxiety scores except for boys, whose scores were significantly higher than those of a normative sample of male youth athletes.