社会工作:博士. 莎拉·基朔, 学生, make surprising discoveries about social interaction 和 health

尤蒂卡社区
尤蒂卡的故事
社会工作:博士. 莎拉·基朔, 学生, make surprising discoveries about social interaction 和 health

Dr. 莎拉·基朔，生物学副教授

在进行实际研究和在科学会议上发言之间, involving our 学生 in this research project provides irreplaceable opportunities for experiential learning, while also contributing to a new scientific underst和ing of how social interaction contributes to an individual's overall health.
Dr. 莎拉·基朔

无论你是否感染过COVID-19, 大流行很可能对你的健康产生了影响. 封锁的几个月, 压力和恐惧, 和 the disruption to our daily routines have affected us in ways that even the world’s top scientists have only just begun to explore.

这项研究的一个重要部分是:社会孤立对生育率的影响. 这就是利记sbo的一个研究小组正在研究的问题. Using female mice 和 studying the physiological differences between mice kept in isolation 和 social housing, 研究团队, 由生物学副教授莎拉·基朔领导, has made some surprising discoveries that may help lead to a new underst和ing of how social interaction impacts hormones, 生殖功能, 整体健康.

问:这个研究项目是如何开始的?

莎拉·基朔: 我在2021年春季和我的动物生理学学生一起开始了这个研究项目, 从那时起, we have had two other semesters’ worth of 学生 working on the project (Fall 2021 和 Fall 2022). 还有那些拿了, 或正在修生物课324, we also have other 学生 working on this project as independent research (not part of the course). 总的来说，我们有40多名学生从事这项研究!

This research being conducted in collaboration with many 学生和 two of my faculty colleagues, 生物学教授Terri Provost和生物学杰出教授Adam Pack. What makes this research most impressive is that the majority of 学生 working on the project are doing so as part of the BIO 324 Animal Physiology laboratory course. 换句话说, 学生 are conducting real research within one of the classes they take for their major (生物学专业 or 动物行为学专业).

Q: Your research is all about social isolation 和 its effect on physical 和 mental health. 为什么要探讨这个话题，是什么让它与现在特别相关?

SK: I have a background in studying how reduced social contact influences both the brain 和 behavior, 和 I started this particular research project with my Animal Physiology 学生 because I was thinking about the social distancing measures employed during the COVID-19 p和emic. 回想一下大流行早期的情况, social distancing 和 stay-at-home work orders were central to the public health strategy used to reduce the transmission of COVID. These are effective measures for controlling the spread of COVID; however, 社交距离也会导致孤立和孤独的体验增加, 哪些会对一个人的健康产生负面影响. 尽管有这样的理解, 关于社会隔离对雌性动物的影响，人们知之甚少, 尤其是女性健康. 我们正在用老鼠来填补这一空白, 因为老鼠是群居动物, 和 because we can experimentally alter the social environment of a mouse by placing a mouse into a cage alone or in a social group with other mice.

问:你关注女性健康的哪些具体方面?

SK: 我们在这个框架内开展了许多项目. One of our major research goals is to investigate how social isolation affects female reproductive health, 包括生殖周期, 生殖激素, 卵巢的结构, 以及后代的产生. Another group of projects is investigating how social isolation affects energy balance 和 metabolism in females, 包括食物消耗量, 蔗糖的偏好, 代谢率, 血糖, 消化系统健康. 最后, I also have 学生 working on projects investigating how social isolation affects anxiety 和 memory.

Q: It's impressive that undergraduate 学生 are working on research at this level!

SK: 这是正确的. 这是学生们在会议上发表的高质量研究, 包括一个国际科学会议, 实验生物学, 将于2022年4月在费城和一个地区会议上举行, 发育生物学纽约, 2022年11月. 在进行实际研究和在科学会议上发言之间, involving our 生物学和动物行为学生 in this social isolation research project provides our 学生 with irreplaceable opportunities for experiential learning, while also contributing to a new scientific underst和ing of how social interaction contributes to an individual's overall health. 非常令人兴奋!

奇怪的发现

Students Nathan Rice, 24岁和 Lexi Lumley, 24岁 conduct research in labcoats 和 blue gloves.

Dr. 莎拉·基朔和 her 学生 began their experiments expecting to discover that social isolation, 就像其他情绪压力源一样, 会对雌性小鼠的生育能力产生负面影响吗. 他们最初的研究结果表明情况恰恰相反. 研究生 Nathan Rice, 24岁 和 Lexi Lumley, 24岁 are busy exploring why that is—和 what it may tell us about female reproductive health in general.

Q: How did you discover that social isolation had this kind of fertility-enhancing impact on female mice?

内森大米: We examined the ovaries of two groups of mice — one group that was kept in isolation 和 one that was not — 和 looked at the cross section of the ovaries 和 determined follicle density. 我们没有看到卵巢卵泡数量的变化, 而是横截面直径的变化. 这可能是因为与社会隔离的老鼠的卵泡直径更大, 这说明她们的生育能力更强. What we typically see with a stress response is a down regulation of hypothalamic gonadal hormones which would decrease fertility, 但这在这里没有发生.

莱克斯广告: 另外, 在我们的初步研究中, we found that the mice that were housed individually had larger litters than the mice that were housed in groups, suggesting that social isolation may instead be triggering a mechanism that would upregulate the production of luteinizing hormone 和 follicle-stimulating hormone, 负责排卵和卵子质量的荷尔蒙.

问:为什么这类研究很重要?

NR: 这是我们不太了解的生殖功能领域, 所以去探索这个, 尤其是在雌性模式生物中, 真的很独特. 再加上观察到的结果和我们预期的不一样. Our results could indicate that the current paradigm may not be telling the full story of how this emotional stressor is regulating hormonal function.

问:这个项目对你个人来说意味着什么?

NR: 通过这项研究，我学到了很多关于科学是如何工作的——它需要多长时间, 有多少次事情不像你想的那样发展, 意外是如何发生的. Doing this work has helped me underst和 how science is always subject to change if 和 when evidence comes up that doesn’t support what the present idea is. 科学是可塑的. It's much less of a body of knowledge 和 much more of a tool we use to better underst和 the world. 这就是科学研究过程中有趣和令人振奋的部分, 能参与其中真是太棒了.

LL: This research has helped inform my future career goals by allowing me to explore various stressors 和 other aspects of physiology outside of the neuroscience research I conduct. 它给了我撰写研究提案的宝贵经验, 设计实验组, 解释结果. 在十一月初, I presented a poster of our research on how social isolation impacts litter size in mice at 发育生物学纽约, 在伊萨卡学院举办. 这项工作也教会了我如何灵活地进行研究, 因为不是所有的事情都是完美的, 作为一名科学家，适应能力是一项重要的技能.