THICK AND AT RISK Asia Dukes, Cecile N.Yancu, Ph.D. Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Work adukes113@rams.wssu.edu, yancuc@wssu.edu PURPOSE: This study examines the association between body self-image of young adult African American females and risky sexual behavior. Based on current research African American adolescents who are dissatisfied with their body are less likely to use condoms for fear of abandonment by their partner. What remains unclear is the relationship between self-perception as thick or skinny, poor body self-image and risky sexual behaviors among African American young adult females. METHODS: A systematic review identified studies of risky sexual behavior and body self-image among young African American adults. Databases searched included Google scholar, ProQuest and Ebsco, between 2009 to present. Keywords specified were condom use, body image, risky sexual behaviors, African American, thick and skinny. To cast as broad a net as possible no other filters were used. Results: From twenty-six papers, six studies met the inclusion criteria. An additional eight studies addressed risky sex without specifying African Americans. No studies discussed the idea of thick or skinny among young African Americans. CONCLUSION: We know that female adolescents with poor body self-image are more likely to participate in risky sexual behavior, however we are unaware if this trend continues as African American young adult females grow older. Additionally the idea that poor body self-image is associated with being bigger may be a flawed assumption because not every culture views being bigger as a negative thing. In light of this gap in the research the next step will be to develop a study that assesses the association between body self-image of African American young female adults and risky sexual behavior that includes an understanding of the thick versus skinny phenomenon.
GROWTH INHIBITORY EFFECTS OF DIALLYL DISULFIDE IN A BRCA1/ P53-DEFICIENT MOUSE MAMMARY TUMOR CELL LINE E.C. Evans, B. Justice, and S.T. Dance-Barnes. Department of Life Sciences; eevans110@rams.wssu.edu; dancest@wssu.edu Many chemotherapeutic agents have been used to treat breast cancer, with varied outcomes depending on the specific subtype of breast cancer. To date, various laboratories have identified five distinctive subtypes of breast tumors, with one being particularly aggressive, basal-like breast tumors (BBT). The focus of this work is to characterize mouse mammary tumors that mimic human BBT in order to develop improved therapies that are specific for this tumor subtype. We have utilized a mouse mammary tumor cell line (K14TRT) that our lab cultured from a “humanized� mouse model that has been shown to better mimic in mice the genetic alterations seen with BBT formation by using gene knock-out technology. In this study we investigate the effects of Diallyl disulfide (DADS), a component of garlic, on apoptosis in the K14TRT cell line. It is our hypothesis that DADS, which has been previously shown to induce apoptosis and inhibit proliferation in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, would have a comparable affect in the K14TRT cells. K14TRT cells were treated for 24 h with doses of DADS ranging from 25-75mM. DADS appeared to induce apoptosis when viewed microscopically for morphological variations, which included condensed nuclear chromatin. This apoptotic event appeared to be dose dependent as demonstrated by trypan blue exclusion, when comparing the DADS treated to the untreated K14TRT cells. We also further validated apoptosis being due to DADS treatment by confirming DNA fragmentation and a caspase-3 assay in the K14TRT harvested cells. Additionally, we investigated DADS ability to inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis by utilization of a BrdU cell proliferation assay. Apoptosis in this model was further substantiated by acridine orange and ethidium bromide staining. This study provides evidence that DADS does induce apoptosis in basal-like mammary tumor cells, and could possibly be used as a chemotherapeutic in targeting this specific subtype of breast cancer.
Funding provided in part by WSSU PDC Research Award and WSSU RIP Award
12