Introduction: Depression is regarded as the main cause of individual’s incapacity. One of the component of depression is hopelessness. This study was planned to examine if the digit ratio associates with depression and hopelessness status in the Iranian women. Methods: This cross-sectional study sample included 358 women aged between 20 to 32 years old. The palm side of both hands of individuals was photographed and then the length of index and ring fingers was measured by ImageJ. The Beck’s depression inventory II and Beck’s hopelessness scale (BHS) were used to measure the levels of depression and hopelessness respectively. ANOVA and Student’s t test was applied to compare the study groups in respect to the continuous data. Results: The results showed that the means of 2D:4D ratio of neither right nor left hands were significantly different between the depression study groups. The same insignificant results were derived with hopelessness status too. However, reanalyzing the data, while combination of depression and hopelessness was considered, showed a significantly lower digit ratio of the right hand in the women whit neither depression nor hopelessness (group 1) compared to the women with moderate/severe depression while holding a degree of hopelessness (group 2) (ratio mean for group 1: 0.978 ± 0.003 and for group 2: 0.992 ± 0.005; t = -2.417, P = 0.017). Conclusion: Our data suggested that the 2D:4D ratio of the right hand in the women associates with the severity of depression when accompanied by hopelessness.
ArfGAPs, GTPase-activating proteins for Arf small GTPases, are involved in multiple steps of vesicle formation of various transport pathways. Amphipathic lipid-packing sensor (ALPS) motif was first identified in the C-terminal regions of ArfGAP1 and its yeast homologue Gcs1p as a region that adsorbs preferentially onto highly curved membranes by folding into an amphipathic α-helix (AH). We previously showed that Gcs1p functionally interacted with the phospholipid flippase Cdc50p-Drs2p in the early endosome-to-TGN retrieval pathway. In this study, we performed functional analyses of the C-terminal region of Gcs1p containing ALPS. Hydrophobic cluster analysis suggested that there is another potential AH-forming region downstream of ALPS in Gcs1p. Mutational analysis suggested that the ALPS motif is important for the Gcs1p function in the Golgi-to-ER retrograde pathway, whereas ALPS and the predicted AH region redundantly function in the post-Golgi pathways including the early endosome-to-TGN pathway. Liposome flotation assay indicated that this downstream region preferentially interacted with liposomes of smaller size. The region containing the ALPS motif was also required for the interaction with SNARE proteins including Snc1p and Tlg1p. These results suggest that ALPS and the predicted AH region are involved in the regulation and function of Gcs1p by interacting with membrane phospholipids and vesicle proteins.
Cookwares made from aluminum (Al) are supposed to be a potential source of Al contamination of food. In this study, the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity effects of water boiled in aluminum cookwares on the dividing cells of onion root tip were examined using
Allium cepa
assay. Three used aluminum cookwares from different sources were selected. Distilled water was gently boiled in each pot and then used for growing onions. The cells of root tip were analyzed for mitotic and phase indexes as well as aberrations appeared in the interphase and mitotic phase. One way analysis of variance and post-hoc
Tukey
HSD test were applied for comparison between experimental groups. The results showed that the mitotic index in one of the treated groups increased significantly compared to the control. Also the frequency of prophase in two of treated groups increased significantly compared to that of the control. There was a borderline significant increase in the frequency average of total aberrations from three treated groups compared to that of the control (
p
value = 0.063). Also, a significant increase was observed in the frequency average of disturbed mitosis from three treated groups compared to that of the control (
p
value = 0.04). The findings of this preliminary study supported a possible health hazard of aluminum cookwares. Further investigation with larger sample and food with various compositions is needed to reach a full conclusion about the health effect of aluminum cookwares.
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