No abstract

This study investigated the role of perceived parental psychological control and warmth in college students' friendship quality and use of relational aggression with peers. College students (N ¼ 237) completed self-report measures assessing their relational aggression, friendship quality, and parents' perceived use of psychological control and warmth. As predicted, college students' relational aggression partially mediated the relation between perceived parental psychological control and friendship quality. Moderation analyses indicated that perceived parental warmth exacerbated the negative effects of perceived parental psychological control on college students' relational aggression and friendship quality. Thus, perceived parental psychological control is associated with students' elevated relational aggression and poor friendship quality, especially when parents are viewed as warm as accepting.

Recent association studies indicate several genes highly expressed by microglia influence Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk, which suggests microglial function contributes to this disease. Here, we evaluated how one component of microglial function, cytokine release, affects AD-related phenomena. First, we used a 3-hour lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment to activate mouse BV2 microglial cells. Next, we removed the LPS-containing medium, added LPS-free medium, and after 6 hours collected the medium conditioned by the activated BV2 microglial cells. We then exposed human neuronal SH-SY5Y cells to the conditioned medium for 24 hours. At the end of the 24-hour exposure, we assessed amyloid precursor protein (AβPP), tau, apolipoprotein E (ApoE), and lipid status. The amount of AβPP was unaffected, although a slight decrease in soluble AβPPα suggested a subtle reduction in AβPP non-amyloidogenic processing occurred. Tau mRNA increased, but total and phosphorylated tau levels were unchanged. ApoE mRNA increased, while ApoE protein levels were lower. Per cell lipid droplet number decreased and lipid oxidation increased. These results show cytokine release by activated microglial cells can influence specific AD-relevant physiologies and pathologies.