Mechanotransduction, the conversion of mechanical stimuli into electrical signals, is a fundamental process underlying essential physiological functions such as touch and pain sensing, hearing, and proprioception. Although the mechanisms for some of these functions have been identified, the molecules essential to the sense of pain have remained elusive. Here we report identification of TACAN (Tmem120A), an ion channel involved in sensing mechanical pain. TACAN is expressed in a subset of nociceptors, and its heterologous expression increases mechanically evoked currents in cell lines. Purification and reconstitution of TACAN in synthetic lipids generates a functional ion channel. Finally, a nociceptor-specific inducible knockout of TACAN decreases the mechanosensitivity of nociceptors and reduces behavioral responses to painful mechanical stimuli but not to thermal or touch stimuli. We propose that TACAN is an ion channel that contributes to sensing mechanical pain.

BackgroundPostnatal depression seems to be a universal condition with similar rates in different countries. However, anthropologists question the cross-cultural equivalence of depression, particularly at a life stage so influenced by cultural factors.AimsTo develop a qualitative method to explore whether postnatal depression is universally recognised, attributed and described and to enquire into people's perceptions of remedies and services for morbid states of unhappiness within the context of local services.MethodThe study took place in 15 centres in 11 countries and drew on three groups of informants: focus groups with new mothers, interview swith fathers and grandmothers, and interviews with health professionals. Textual analysis of these three groups was conducted separately in each centre and emergent themes compared across centres.ResultsAll centres described morbid unhappiness after childbirth comparable to postnatal depression but not all saw this as an illness remediable by health interventions.ConclusionsAlthough the findings of this study support the universality of a morbid state of unhappiness following childbirth, they also support concerns about the cross-cultural equivalence of postnatal depression as an illness requiring the intervention of health professionals; this has implications for future research.

Two motives for alcohol consumption have been emphasized in the etiological and the reasonsfor-drinking literature: (a) people drink alcohol to cope with stress, and (b) people drink alcohol because of social influences. There is support for both of these hypotheses, but the results are usually modest and most authors agree that more complex theories of alcohol consumption are needed. This study examined the interactional effects of reasons for drinking alcohol and situational factors on alcohol consumption. Standardized telephone interviews were conducted with 781 randomly selected Michigan drinkers. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that gender, friends' alcohol consumption, coping, and social motives for drinking were significant predictors of study participants' alcohol consumption. As predicted, there was a significant interaction between drinking to cope with stress and perceived stress, and there was also a significant interaction between drinking for social reasons and friends' alcohol consumption. Similarities and differences in the results for women, men, Blacks, and Whites are described. Individuals' expressed reasons for drinking alcoholSince the 1950's, researchers have examined people's self-reported reasons for drinking alcohol (Cahalan, Cisin, & Crossley, 1969;Cooper, Russell, & George, 1988;Farber, Khavari, & Douglass, 1980;Johnson, Schwitters, Wilson, Nagoshi, & McClearn, 1985;Novacek, Raskin, & Hogan, 1991;Straus & Bacon, 1953). People do not have complete understanding of the nexus of physiological, psychological, social, and environmental factors that influence their behavior (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). Nonetheless, self-reports of motives for drinking alcohol provide insight into people's psychological state and have empirically been related to consumption levels (Cahalan et al., 1969;Cooper et al., 1988;Farber et al., 1980). Most authors have focused on general samples of the adult population or college students, rather than alcoholics or identified problem drinkers. The majority of these studies have focused on the factor structure of individuals' motives for drinking, as well as determining if some types of motives are more strongly related than others to heavy alcohol consumption.Requests for reprints should be sent to: Antonia Abbey, PhD, Department of Community Medicine, Wayne State University, 4201 St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 48201. Cahalan et al. (1969) found that social reasons were more commonly given for drinking alcohol, but that heavy drinkers chose more coping reasons than did infrequent drinkers. Many researchers have found that drinking alcohol to cope with problems is more likely to lead to abusive drinking than is social drinking (Cahalan et al., 1969;Cooper et al., 1988;Farber et al., 1980;Johnson et al., 1985). There is also evidence, however, that social motives for consuming alcohol can lead to heavy drinking (Brennan, Walfish, & AuBuchon, 1986;Ratliff & Burkhart, 1984). For example, Brennan et al. (1986), in their review of the longitudinal liter...

Airway remodeling, including subepithelial fibrosis, is a characteristic feature of asthma and likely contributes to the pathogenesis of airway hyperresponsiveness. We examined expression of genes related to airway wall fibrosis in a model of chronic allergen-induced airway dysfunction using laser capture microdissection and quantitative real-time PCR. BALB/c mice were sensitized and subjected to chronic ovalbumin exposure over a 12-wk period, after which they were rested and then harvested 2 and 8 wk after the last exposure. Chronic allergen-exposed mice had significantly increased indices of airway remodeling and airway hyperreactivity at all time points, although no difference in expression of fibrosis-related genes was found when mRNA extracted from whole lung was examined. In contrast, fibrosis-related gene expression was significantly upregulated in mRNA obtained from microdissected bronchial wall at 2 wk after chronic allergen exposure. In addition, when bronchial wall epithelium and smooth muscle were separately microdissected, gene expression of transforming growth factor-beta1 and plasminogen activating inhibitor-1 were significantly upregulated only in the airway epithelium. These data suggest that transforming growth factor-beta1 and other profibrotic mediators produced by airway wall, and specifically, airway epithelium, play an important role in the pathophysiology of airway remodeling.

The present investigation was designed to gain a better understanding of the psychosocial factors that predict reasons for drinking alcohol and how these drinking motives differentially relate to alcohol consumption. Four distinct reasons for drinking alcohol scales were established through factor analysis: drink to cope, drink to be sociable, drink to enhance social confidence, and drink for enjoyment. Multiple regression analyses showed that 1) each reason for drinking was predicted by a somewhat different set of demographic and psychosocial variables, and 2) the reasons for drinking, in turn, differentially predicted multiple indicators of quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption. Theoretical implications of the study results and suggestions for future research are discussed.