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Two brief intervention studies tested whether teaching students to mentally contrast a desired future with its present reality resulted in better academic performance than teaching students to only think about the desired future. German elementary school children ( N  = 49; Study 1) and US middle school children ( N   =  63; Study 2) from low-income neighborhoods who were taught mental contrasting achieved comparatively higher scores in learning foreign language vocabulary words after 2 weeks or 4 days, respectively. Results have implications for research on the self-regulation of commitment to solve assigned tasks in classroom settings, and for increasing academic performance in school children in low-income areas.

While mental contrasting of positive future and negative reality promotes commitment to feasible goals, it has not been tested whether it also promotes the choice of suitable means. In two studies we examined the effects of mental contrasting (Oettingen, 2000) on seeking and giving help as means to an end. For college-age students, mental contrasting about attaining academic help led to expectancy-dependent commitment to seek help (Study 1), while for critical care nurses, mental contrasting about helping patients' relatives led to expectancy-dependent commitment to give help (Study 2). Results speak to two neglected topics: The self-regulation of selecting means to goals and the self-regulation of helping relations. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Though common sense suggests that positive thinking shelters people from depression, the four studies reported here showed that this intuition needs to be qualified: Positive thinking in the form of fantasies about the future did indeed relate to decreased symptoms of depression when measured concurrently; however, positive fantasies predicted more depressive symptoms when measured longitudinally. The pattern of results was observed for different indicators of fantasies and depression, in adults and in schoolchildren, and for periods of up to 7 months (Studies 1–4). In college students, low academic success partially mediated the predictive relation between positive fantasies and symptoms of depression (Study 4). Results add to existing research on the problematic effects of positive fantasies on performance by suggesting that indulging in positive fantasies predicts problems in mental health.

Background Adipokines, e.g. TNFα, IL-6 and leptin increase insulin resistance, and consequent hyperinsulinaemia influences breast cancer progression. Beside its mitogenic effects, insulin may influence adipokine production from adipocyte stromal cells and paracrine enhancement of breast cancer cell growth. In contrast, adiponectin, another adipokine is protective against breast cancer cell proliferation and insulin resistance. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity has been found decreased in visceral adipose tissue of insulin-resistant patients. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) link systemic inflammation to high fat diet-induced insulin resistance. Modulation of LPS-induced adipokine production by metformin and AMPK activation might represent an alternative way to treat both, insulin resistance and breast cancer. Methods Human preadipocytes obtained from surgical biopsies were expanded and differentiated in vitro into adipocytes, and incubated with siRNA targeting AMPKalpha1 (72 h), LPS (24 h, 100 μg/ml) and/or metformin (24 h, 1 mM) followed by mRNA extraction and analyses. Additionally, the supernatant of preadipocytes or derived-adipocytes in culture for 24 h was used as conditioned media to evaluate MCF-7 breast cancer cell proliferation. Results Conditioned media from preadipocyte-derived adipocytes, but not from undifferentiated preadipocytes, increased MCF-7 cell proliferation (p < 0.01). Induction of IL-6 mRNA by LPS was reduced by metformin (p < 0.01), while the LPS-induced mRNA expression of the naturally occurring anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin 1 receptor antagonist was increased (p < 0.01). Silencing of AMPKalpha1 enhanced LPS-induced IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA expression (p < 0.05). Conclusions Adipocyte-secreted factors enhance breast cancer cell proliferation, while AMPK and metformin improve the LPS-induced adipokine imbalance. Possibly, AMPK activation may provide a new way not only to improve the obesity-related adipokine profile and insulin resistance, but also to prevent obesity-related breast cancer development and progression.

Contrasting fantasies about the future with reflections on reality that impedes fantasy realization creates a tight link between expectations of success and forming commitments to self-improvement goals. This effect applies to both fantasies about a positive future contrasted with impeding negative reality as well as fantasies about a negative future contrasted with impeding positive reality. In Study 1, with 63 student participants, contrasting positive fantasies about benefiting from a vocational training with negative reflections on reality impeding such benefits led to expectancy-dependent willingness to invest in the training, more so than indulging in the positive future and than dwelling on the negative reality. In Study 2, with 158 high school students from former East Berlin, contrasting negative, xenophobic fantasies about suffering from the influx of immigrants with positive reflections on reality impeding such suffering led to expectancy-dependent tolerance and willingness to integrate the immigrants. Findings are discussed in terms of how mental contrasting facilitates self-improvement and personal development by making people form expectancy-dependent goal commitments to approach positively-perceived as well as negatively-perceived futures.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

The 3rd International Workshop on Insulin & Cancer was held on October 30-31, 2010 at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg/Germany. The topics followed-up the discussions of the previous workshops: possible differences in mitogenicity between natural insulin and genetically engineered insulin derivatives (insulin analogues), as shown by laboratory studies and epidemiologic studies alike; molecular studies on the links between metabolic and mitogenic effects of insulin, and of hyperinsulinaemia in particular; epidemiologic evidence of interferences between insulin and other hormones, particularly sex hormones, and obesity-associated cancer; the involvement of inflammatory cytokines produced by fat tissue in obesity-associated cancer; aspects of drug-design (binding drugs to albumin) and, last but not least, detection and investigation of circulating cancer cells.

In relationships, behaviors aimed at alleviating insecurity often end up increasing it instead. The present research tested whether a self-regulatory technique, mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII), can help people reduce the frequency with which they engage in insecurity-based behaviors. Participants in romantic relationships identified an insecurity-based behavior they wanted to reduce and learned the MCII strategy, a reverse control strategy, or no strategy. One week later, participants in the MCII condition showed a greater reduction in the self-reported frequency of their unwanted behavior compared to participants in the control conditions, as well as a greater increase in relationship commitment from 2 months prior to the intervention.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and second in the cancer-related frequency of mortality. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are involved in tumor invasion and metastasis in various malignancies. MMP-2 and MMP-9 are capable of digesting collagen type IV. Numerous studies have demonstrated an association between increased MMP-2 and -9 expression and tumor progression in various tumors. In this study, the expression and activities of MMP-2 and -9 were assessed in serum probes and tumor tissue from core needle biopsies and radical prostatectomies of 97 patients. MMP-2 and -9 serum expression was analyzed in a subgroup of 31 patients. MMP-9 serum expression was significantly increased in tumor patients and correlated with tumor grade. In contrast, the MMP-9 tissue expression and activity revealed no significant correlations to tumor stage or grade. The MMP-2 activity, however, showed a positive correlation for MMP-2 with tumor stage. Increased activity was predominantly detected in advanced tumor stages. Immunohistochemical analysis of MMP-2 expression demonstrated a positive association with tumor grade in prostatectomy specimens. The relative expression rates in biopsies matched in 65% with those of the prostatectomies. Detection of MMP-2 in core needle biopsies seems not to be a helpful marker for diagnostic purposes.

The 3rd International Workshop on Insulin and Cancer was held on October 30-31, 2010 at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg/Germany. The topics followed-up the discussions of the previous workshops: possible differences in mitogenicity between natural insulin and genetically engineered insulin derivatives (insulin analogues), as shown by laboratory studies and epidemiologic studies alike; molecular studies on the links between metabolic and mitogenic effects of insulin, and of hyperinsulinaemia in particular; epidemiologic evidence of interferences between insulin and other hormones, particularly sex hormones, and obesity-associated cancer; the involvement of inflammatory cytokines produced by fat tissue in obesity-associated cancer; aspects of drug-design (binding drugs to albumin) and, last but not least, detection and investigation of circulating cancer cells.

Estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα) is a key factor in the development of breast cancer in humans. The expression and activity of ERα is regulated by a multitude of intracellular and extracellular signals. Here we show a cross-talk between β-catenin and ERα in human breast cancer cells. Knockdown of β-catenin by RNAi resulted in significant reduction of ERα mRNA and/or protein levels in MCF-7, T-47D, and BT-474 breast cancer cells and in significant reduction of estradiol-induced expression of the ERα target genes pS2 and GREB1. In addition β-catenin silencing resulted in significant decrease of growth of MCF-7 cells both in the absence and presence of estradiol. β-catenin and ERα could not be co-immunoprecipitated by ERα antibodies from lysates of E2-treated or untreated cells suggesting lack of direct physical interaction. It is concluded that β-catenin is a positive regulator of ERα mRNA and protein expression.