Glucose Mediated-Regulation on Suclg1, Pdk1, and Pdk4 Expression

Overview

Over the last few decades, society has been facing a growing pandemic — diabetes. Diabetes is of major concern due to the types of health complications that result, involving greater risk for obesity, heart disease, and even stroke. Of these conditions, this study will focus specifically on diabetic cardiomyopathy, a disorder in the heart of diabetic patients that can result in heart failure. Of the many genes that play a role in energy regulation in diabetes, this study focuses on identifying a potential correlation between Suclg1, Pdk1, and Pdk4 expression and diabetic cardiomyopathy in mice tissue. Three cohorts were studied: mice that received streptozotocin (STZ), mice with cardiac-restricted GLUT 4 expression (mG4H), and untreated mice (VEH). The first two cohorts are hyperglycemic models that study when glucose uptake is increased and decreased. Both a qRT-PCR and a WesternBlot analysis were performed to determine changes in gene and protein expression of these three genes. The slight downregulation of Suclg1 suggests that deficiency in this gene decreases activity of an enzyme in the TCA cycle, attenuating ATP production. On the other hand, Pdk1 seems to be involved with issues with glucotoxicity and Pdk4 seems to be expressed when cells receive little to no glucose. Specifically, this study is the precursor for many future studies. Ultimately, it opens up further avenues in developing gene-specific therapeutics and potentially the role epigenetics play. Glowing Gumballs: Can Gumballs Be Used as an Additive to Reduce Paints Flammability? Julian Vilardi Wetumpka High School, Wetumpka, AL Purpose: To see if gumballs from sweet gum trees can be used as an additive in paint to reduce flammability. Hypothesis: If I create a mixture of 20% gumballs, then the flammability will be lowered more than if there was 10% gumball ratio or no gumballs at all. Procedure: 1. Collect the gumballs and acorns. 2. Cut the gumballs in quarters. 3. Remove the cupules of the acorn. 4. Put the gumballs into a blender and allow them to blend for 2 minutes, or until they are fine dust. Put the acorns into a blender and allow them to blend for 2 minutes, or until they are fine dust. 5. Set aside 24 cups. 6. Place the gumball and acorn dust into their proper cups. 7. Label 31 paint sticks. 8. Take a medicine measuring cup for each paint stick and create the mixtures for them. 9. Paint the bottom 2 inches of each stick with their proper mixtures. 10. Separate the sticks into groups based on the material painted on. 11. Allow them to dry for 2 hours. 12. One at a time, take a paint stick and place in in the fire. Start a stopwatch. Once the part of the paint stick with the mixture is completely burnt up, stop the timer. Record the time. Results: The 20% gumball ratio for every single mixture caused the flammability to lower, making the sticks take longer to burn. The rest of the results were inconsistent. Conclusion: My hypothesis was correct; the 20% gumball mixtures caused the flammability to lower. ARIZONA

Competition history

• JSHS 2022 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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