Search

Background: Previous studies indicated that excessive engagement in digital devices could lead to negative psychological impacts in general population. The present study aimed to determine the effects of electronic screen exposure on depression among women in early pregnancy. Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2021 to June 2022. A total of 665 women in early pregnancy were recruited and the information included socio-demographic characteristics, screen exposure and Patient Health Questionnaire -9 depression scale. Results: Among the women in early pregnancy, the total daily smartphone viewing time was the longest (median [P25-P75], 5 [3-6] hours/day) in the three types of electronic screen exposure. The total daily smartphone viewing time (Z=-2.239, P=0.025), smartphone (Z=-2.494, P=0.013) and television viewing time (Z=-2.640, P=0.008) before nocturnal sleep were significantly associated with depression among women in early pregnancy. The thresholds calculated by receiver operator characteristic curves were 7.5 hours/day, 1.5 hours/day and 1.5 hours/day, respectively. In addition, women with higher scores of smartphone addiction were more susceptible to depression (Z=-6.201, P＜0.001). The top three smartphone usages in women with depression were watching videos (22.0%), listening to music (20.9%) and playing games (16.7%). Conclusions:In conclusion, electronic screen exposure, including screen viewing time, smartphone addiction and problematic smartphone use was associated with depression among women in early pregnancy. Further studies are warranted to verify the conclusions.

Previous studies indicated that excessive screen time was associated with hypertension in children and adolescents. In our hospital, pregnant women tended to spend a lot of time on electronic devices like smartphones. We aimed to explore the relationship between the screen time and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP).A case-control study was conducted from November 2019 to May 2020. A total of 160 women with HDP and 197 healthy controls who gave birth to children in the same hospital were recruited and information was recorded by questionnaires. Multivariate analysis was conducted to assess the effect of screen time on HDP.The results showed that, exposure to electronic screen before nocturnal sleep in cases was significantly longer than that in controls (P = 0.011, odds ratio = 1.50). Smartphones (and/or tablet computers) used only for entertainment also significantly increased the susceptibility to HDP (P 0.001, odds ratio = 2.84). Other related factors were following: work experience during pregnancy (P = 0.034, odds ratio = 0.53), history of diabetes mellitus (P = 0.013, odds ratio = 2.55), history of family hypertension (P 0.001, odds ratio = 3.81), body mass index of pre-pregnancy (25 kg/mIn conclusion, long exposure to electronic screen before nocturnal sleep and the smartphones usage for only entertainment may be associated with the susceptibility to HDP.

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) and its related peptide (PTH-related peptide 1–34) are two of the Food and Drug Administration-approved bone-promoting drugs for age-related osteoporosis. Treatment with PTH stimulates bone formation. However, the molecular mechanisms of PTH-mediated osteoblast differentiation and cell proliferation are still not completely understood. In this study, we showed that PTH induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in osteoblasts through the PKR-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK)-eukaryotic initiation factor 2α (EIF2α)-activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4)-signaling pathway. After separately blocking PERK-EIF2α-ATF4 signaling with two different inhibitors [AMG’44 and integrated stress response inhibitor (ISRIB)] or specific small interfering RNA for PERK and ATF4, the following targets were all downregulated: expression of osteoblast differentiation markers [runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2), alkaline phosphatase (Alp), type I collagen (Col1a1), and osteocalcin (Ocn)], cell proliferation markers (CyclinE, CyclinD, and CDC2), amino acid import (Glyt1), and metabolism-related genes (Asns). Additionally, Alp-positive staining cells, Alp activity, matrix mineralization, Ocn secretion, and cell proliferation indexes were inhibited. Interestingly, we found that salubrinal enhanced PTH-induced osteoblast differentiation and proliferation by maintenance of phosphorylation of EIF2α. Furthermore, we observed that PTH increased the association between heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) and PERK and maintained PERK protein stabilization in the early stages of PTH-induced ER stress. Treatment of MC3T3-E1 cells with geldanamycin, an HSP90 inhibitor, decreased PERK protein expression and inhibited osteoblast differentiation and cell proliferation upon PTH treatment. Taken together, our data demonstrate that PTH regulates osteoblast differentiation and cell proliferation, partly by activating the HSP90-dependent PERK-EIF2α-ATF4 signaling pathway.

Osteoblast uses aerobic glycolysis to meet the metabolic needs in differentiation process. Lactate, the end product of glycolysis, presents in the environment with elevated PTH and osteoblast differentiation. Although previous findings showed that lactate promoted osteoblast differentiation, whether lactate affects PTH-mediated osteoblast differentiation is unclear. To investigate this, pre-osteoblast cell line MC3T3-E1 was treated PTH with or without physiological dose of lactate. Lactate increases ALP positive cell formation, increases ALP activity and expression of differentiation related markers, enriches the CREB transcriptional factor target genes in PTH treated cells. Using inhibitors for MCT-1 reveales that lactate effects are MCT-1 independent. Lactate selectively increases Akt and p38 activation but not Erk1/2 and β-Catenin activation. The inhibitors for Akt and p38 inhibit lactate effects on PTH mediated osteoblast differentiation. Using inhibitors for Gαi signaling of GPR81 further increases Alp mRNA levels in lactate and PTH co-treatment cells. However, with the inhibitors for Gβγ-PLC-PKC signaling, the effect of lactate on PTH mediated osteoblast differentiation is inhibited. Our data demonstrate that lactate activates GPR81-Gβγ-PLC-PKC-Akt signaling to regulate osteoblast differentiation that mediated by PTH treatment.