Background Alcohol abuse increases the risk for acute lung injury (ALI). In both experimental models and in clinical studies, chronic alcohol ingestion causes airway oxidative stress and glutathione depletion and increases the expression of transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFβ1), a potent inducer of fibrosis, in the lung. Therefore, we hypothesized that alcohol ingestion could promote aberrant fibrosis following experimental ALI and that treatment with the glutathione precursor s-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) could mitigate these effects. Methods Three month old C57BL/6 mice were fed standard chow ± alcohol (20% v/v) in their drinking water for 8 wks and ± SAMe (4% w/v) during the last 4 wks. ALI was induced by intratracheal instillation of bleomycin (2.5 units/kg) and lungs were assessed histologically at 7 and 14 days for fibrosis, and at 14 days for the expression of extracellular matrix proteins and TGFβ1. Results Alcohol ingestion had no apparent effect on lung inflammation at 7 days, but at 14 days after bleomycin treatment it increased lung tissue collagen deposition, hydroxyproline content, and the release of activated TGFβ1 into the airway. In contrast, SAMe supplementation completely mitigated alcohol-induced priming of these aberrant fibrotic changes through decreased TGFβ1 expression in the lung. In parallel, SAMe decreased alcohol-induced TGFβ1 and Smad3 mRNA expressions by lung fibroblasts in vitro. Conclusion These new experimental findings demonstrate that chronic alcohol ingestion renders the experimental mouse lung susceptible to fibrosis following bleomycin-induced ALI, and that these effects are likely driven by alcohol-mediated oxidative stress and its induction and activation of TGFβ1.

SUMMARYObjective-Approximately half of older patients treated for major depressive disorder (MDD) do not achieve symptomatic remission and functional recovery with first-line pharmacotherapy. This study aims to characterize sociodemographic, clinical, and neuropsychologic correlates of full, partial, and non-response to escitalopram monotherapy of unipolar MDD in later life.Methods-One hundred and seventy-five patients aged 60 and older were assessed at baseline on demographic variables, depression severity, hopelessness, anxiety, cognitive functioning, coexisting medical illness burden, social support, and quality of life (disability). Subjects received 10 mg/d of open-label escitalopram and were divided into full (n =55; 31%), partial (n =75; 42.9%), and non-responder (n =45; 25.7%) groups based on Hamilton depression scores at week 6. Univariate followed by multivariate analyses tested for differences between the three groups.Results-Non-responders to treatment were found to be more severely depressed and anxious at baseline than both full and partial responders, more disabled, and with lower self-esteem than full responders. In general partial responders resembled full responders more than they resembled nonresponders. In multivariate models, more severe anxiety symptoms (both psychological and somatic) and lower self-esteem predicted worse response status at 6 weeks.Conclusion-Among treatment-seeking elderly persons with MDD, higher anxiety symptoms and lower self-esteem predict poorer response after six weeks of escitalopram treatment.

Subjects with schizophrenia show deficits in visual perception that suggest changes predominantly in the magnocellular pathway and/or the dorsal visual stream important for visiospatial perception. We previously found a substantial 25% reduction in neuron number of the primary visual cortex (Brodmann's area 17, BA17) in postmortem tissue from subjects with schizophrenia. Also, many studies have found reduced volume and neuron number of the pulvinar-the large thalamic association nucleus involved in higher-order visual processing. Here, we investigate if the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), the visual relay nucleus of the thalamus, has structural changes in schizophrenia. We used stereological methods based on unbiased principles of sampling (Cavalieri's principle and the optical fractionator) to estimate the total volume and neuron number of the magnoand parovocellular parts of the left LGN in postmortem brains from nine subjects with schizophrenia, seven matched normal comparison subjects and 13 subjects with mood disorders. No significant schizophrenia-related structural differences in volume or neuron number of the left LGN or its major subregions were found, but we did observe a significantly increased total volume of the LGN, and of the parvocellular lamina and interlaminar regions, in the mood group. These findings do not support the hypothesis that subjects with schizophrenia have structural changes in the LGN. Therefore, our previous observation of a schizophrenia-related reduction of the primary visual cortex is probably not secondary to a reduction in the LGN.