Evaluation of dietary intake in Danish adults by means of an index based on food-based dietary guidelines

Background: Data on dietary intake and physical activity has been collected from a representative sample of the Danish population from 2003–2008. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to describe the habitual diet in Denmark and to evaluate the overall diet quality using a diet quality index based on the National Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG), which consists of seven guidelines regarding diet and one regarding physical activity. Design: Data from the Danish National Survey of Diet and Physical Activity 2003–2008 (n=3354) were included. The diet quality index was constructed based on five of the seven dietary guidelines. Individuals were categorised according to quartiles of the diet quality index, and food and nutrient intakes were estimated in each of the groups. Results: Macronutrient distribution did not meet recommendations in any of the groups, as energy from total fat and especially saturated fat was too high. A high intake of high-fat milk products, fat on bread and processed meat contributed to a high intake of total fat and saturated fat, and sugar-sweetened soft drinks contributed to a high intake of added sugars in the group below the lowest quartile of the diet quality index. Individuals above in the highest quartile had higher intakes of ‘healthy foods’ such as fish, fruit and vegetables, rye bread, and also a higher consumption of water and wine. Overall, intakes of micronutrients were sufficient in all groups. Conclusions: The diet quality index is a useful tool in assessing food and nutrient intake in individuals with high vs. low degree of compliance towards the dietary guidelines, and provides a valuable tool in future studies investigating variations in dietary intakes with respect to lifestyle, demographic and regional differences in Denmark

Pseudomyxoma peritonei – two novel orthotopic mouse models portray the PMCA-I histopathologic subtype

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) is a rare malignant disease, most commonly originating from appendiceal lesions and characterized by accumulation of mucinous tumor tissue in the peritoneal cavity. Since the disease is infrequent, the task of carrying out studies of treatment efficacy and disease biology in the clinical setting is challenging, warranting the development of relevant <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo </it>PMP models.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Human tumor tissue was implanted in the peritoneal cavity of nude mice to establish two orthotopic models exhibiting noninvasive intraperitoneal growth without metastasis development.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Xenograft tissues have retained essential properties of the original human tumors, such as macro- and microscopic growth patterns, mucin production as well as expression of carcinoembryonal antigen, cytokeratins 20 and 7 and the proliferation marker pKi67. Upon microscopic examination, the human tumors were categorized as the PMCA-I (peritoneal mucinous carcinomatosis of intermediate features) subtype, which was conserved through 14 examined passages in mice, for the first time modeling this particular histopathologic category.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In conclusion, two novel orthotopic models of human PMP have been established that consistently portray a distinct histopathologic subtype and reflect essential human tumor properties. Xenografts can easily and reproducibly be transferred to new generations of mice with acceptable passage periods, rendering the models as attractive tools for further studies of PMP biology and treatment.</p

Engineering a novel self-powering electrochemical biosensor

This paper records the efforts of a multi-disciplinary team of undergraduate students from Glasgow University to collectively design and carry out a 10 week project in Synthetic Biology as part of the international Genetic Engineered Machine competition (iGEM). The aim of the project was to design and build a self-powering electrochemical biosensor called ‘ElectrEcoBlu’. The novelty of this engineered machine lies in coupling a biosensor with a microbial fuel cell to transduce a pollution input into an easily measurable electrical output signal. The device consists of two components; the sensor element which is modular, allowing for customisation to detect a range of input signals as required, and the universal reporter element which is responsible for generating an electrical signal as an output. The genetic components produce pyocyanin, a competitive electron mediator for microbial fuel cells, thus enabling the generation of an electrical current in the presence of target chemical pollutants. The pollutants tested in our implementation were toluene and salicylate. ElectrEcoBlu is expected to drive forward the development of a new generation of biosensors. Our approach exploited a range of state-of-the-art modelling techniques in a unified framework of qualitative, stochastic and continuous approaches to support the design and guide the construction of this novel biological machine. This work shows that integrating engineering techniques with scientific methodologies can provide new insights into genetic regulation and can be considered as a reference framework for the development of biochemical systems in synthetic biology

Controlled Collisions for Multiparticle Entanglement of Optically Trapped Atoms

Entanglement lies at the heart of quantum mechanics and in recent years has been identified as an essential resource for quantum information processing and computation. Creating highly entangled multi-particle states is therefore one of the most challenging goals of modern experimental quantum mechanics, touching fundamental questions as well as practical applications. Here we report on the experimental realization of controlled collisions between individual neighbouring neutral atoms trapped in the periodic potential of an optical lattice. These controlled interactions act as an array of quantum gates between neighbouring atoms in the lattice and their massively parallel operation allows the creation of highly entangled states in a single operational step, independent of the size of the system. In the experiment, we observe a coherent entangling-disentangling evolution in the many-body system depending on the phase shift acquired during the collision between neighbouring atoms. This dynamics is indicative of highly entangled many-body states that present novel opportunities for theory and experiment.Comment: 17 pages, including 5 figures, accepted for publication in Natur

Morbidity and Risk of Subsequent Diagnosis of HIV: A Population Based Case Control Study Identifying Indicator Diseases for HIV Infection

BACKGROUND: Early identification of persons with undiagnosed HIV infection is an important health care issue. We examined associations between diseases diagnosed in hospitals and risk of subsequent HIV diagnosis. METHODS: In this population-based case control study, cases were persons with incident HIV infection diagnosed in Denmark between 1 January 1995 and 1 June 2008. Risk-set sampling was used to identify 19 age- and gender-matched population controls for each HIV case, using the HIV diagnosis date as the index date for both cases and controls. Prior hospital diagnoses obtained from Danish medical databases were first categorized into 22 major disease categories (excluding AIDS-defining diseases except tuberculosis) and then subdivided into 161 subcategories, allowing us to examine specific diseases as potential HIV indicators by conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: The study included 2,036 HIV cases and 35,718 controls. Persons with the following disease categories had a high risk of HIV diagnosis during the subsequent 5-year period: sexually transmitted infections and viral hepatitis (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 12.3, 95% CI: 9.60-15.7), hematological diseases (aOR = 4.28, 3.13-5.85), lower respiratory tract infections (aOR = 3.98, 3.14-5.04)), CNS infections (aOR = 3.44, 1.74-6.80), skin infections (aOR = 3.05, 2.47-3.75), other infections (aOR = 4.64, 3.89-5.54), and substance abuse (aOR = 2.60, 2.06-3.29). Several specific diseases were associated with aORs >20 including syphilis, hepatitis A, non "A" viral hepatitis, herpes zoster, candida infection, endocarditis, thrombocytopenia, and opioid abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Targeted testing for HIV in patients diagnosed with diseases associated with HIV may lead to earlier treatment and thereby reduced morbidity, mortality and HIV transmission

Dilation of the ascending aorta in Turner syndrome - a prospective cardiovascular magnetic resonance study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The risk of aortic dissection is 100-fold increased in Turner syndrome (TS). Unfortunately, risk stratification is inadequate due to a lack of insight into the natural course of the syndrome-associated aortopathy. Therefore, this study aimed to prospectively assess aortic dimensions in TS.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Eighty adult TS patients were examined twice with a mean follow-up of 2.4 ± 0.4 years, and 67 healthy age and gender-matched controls were examined once. Aortic dimensions were measured at nine predefined positions using 3D, non-contrast and free-breathing cardiovascular magnetic resonance. Transthoracic echocardiography and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure were also performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At baseline, aortic diameters (body surface area indexed) were larger at all positions in TS. Aortic dilation was more prevalent at all positions excluding the distal transverse aortic arch. Aortic diameter increased in the aortic sinus, at the sinotubular junction and in the mid-ascending aorta with growth rates of 0.1 - 0.4 mm/year. Aortic diameters at all other positions were unchanged. The bicuspid aortic valve conferred higher aortic sinus growth rates (p < 0.05). No other predictors of aortic growth were identified.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A general aortopathy is present in TS with enlargement of the ascending aorta, which is accelerated in the presence of a bicuspid aortic valve.</p

Pathological and Incidental Findings on Brain MRI in a Single-Center Study of 229 Consecutive Girls with Early or Precocious Puberty

Central precocious puberty may result from organic brain lesions, but is most frequently of idiopathic origin. Clinical or biochemical factors which could predict a pathological brain MRI in girls with CPP have been searched for. With the recent decline in age at pubertal onset among US and European girls, it has been suggested that only girls with CPP below 6 years of age should have brain MRI performed

Why do physicians prescribe dialysis? A prospective questionnaire study

Funding Information: This study was supported by an unrestricted grant 14CECPDEU1001 from Baxter Healthcare International. Baxter Novum is the result of a grant from Baxter Healthcare Corporation to Division of Renal Medicine and Baxter Novum, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, to support research activities at Karolinska Institutet to promote the understanding and treatment of renal disease. Bengt Lindholm is employed by Baxter Healthcare Corporation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Heaf et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Copyright: Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Introduction.The incidence of unplanned dialysis initiation (DI) with consequent increased comorbidity, mortality and reduced modality choice remains high, but the optimal timing of dialysis initiation (DI) remains controversial, and there is a lack of studies of specific reasons for DI. We investigated why and when physicians prescribe dialysis and hypothesized that physician motivation for DI is an independent factor which may have clinical consequences. Methods In the Peridialysis study, an ongoing multicenter prospective study assessing the causes and timing of DI and consequences of unplanned dialysis, physicians in 11 hospitals were asked to describe their primary, secondary and further reasons for prescribing DI. The stated reasons for DI were analyzed in relation to clinical and biochemical data at DI, and characteristics of physicians. Results In 446 patients (median age 67 years; 38% females; diabetes 25.6%), DI was prescribed by 84 doctors who stated 23 different primary reasons for DI. The primary indication was clinical in 63% and biochemical in 37%; 23% started for life-threatening conditions. Reduced renal function accounted for only 19% of primary reasons for DI but was a primary or contributing reason in 69%. The eGFR at DI was 7.2 ±3.4 ml/min/1.73 m2, but varied according to comorbidity and cause of DI. Patients with cachexia, anorexia and pulmonary stasis (34% with heart failure) had the highest eGFR (8.2–9.8 ml/min/1.73 m2), and those with edema, “low GFR”, and acidosis, the lowest (4.6–6.1 ml/min/1.73 m2). Patients with multiple comorbidity including diabetes started at a high eGFR (8.7 ml/min/1.73 m2). Physician experience played a role in dialysis prescription. Non-specialists were more likely to prescribe dialysis for life-threatening conditions, while older and more experienced physicians were more likely to start dialysis for clinical reasons, and at a lower eGFR. Female doctors started dialysis at a higher eGFR than males (8.0 vs. 7.1 ml/min/1.73 m2). Conclusions DI was prescribed mainly based on clinical reasons in accordance with current recommendations while low renal function accounted for only 19% of primary reasons for DI. There are considerable differences in physicians´ stated motivations for DI, related to their age, clinical experience and interpretation of biochemical variables. These differences may be an independent factor in the clinical treatment of patients, with consequences for the risk of unplanned DI.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Genome wide association study identifies KCNMA1 contributing to human obesity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent genome-wide association (GWA) analyses have identified common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with obesity. However, the reported genetic variation in obesity explains only a minor fraction of the total genetic variation expected to be present in the population. Thus many genetic variants controlling obesity remain to be identified. The aim of this study was to use GWA followed by multiple stepwise validations to identify additional genes associated with obesity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We performed a GWA analysis in 164 morbidly obese subjects (BMI:body mass index > 40 kg/m²) and 163 Swedish subjects (> 45 years) who had always been lean. The 700 SNPs displaying the strongest association with obesity in the GWA were analyzed in a second cohort comprising 460 morbidly obese subjects and 247 consistently lean Swedish adults. 23 SNPs remained significantly associated with obesity (nominal <it>P</it>< 0.05) and were in a step-wise manner followed up in five additional cohorts from Sweden, France, and Germany together comprising 4214 obese and 5417 lean or population-based control individuals. Three samples, n = 4133, were used to investigate the population-based associations with BMI. Gene expression in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue in relation to obesity was investigated for14 adults.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Potassium channel, calcium activated, large conductance, subfamily M, alpha member <it>(KCNMA1) </it>rs2116830*G and <it>BDNF </it>rs988712*G were associated with obesity in five of six investigated case-control cohorts. In meta-analysis of 4838 obese and 5827 control subjects we obtained genome-wide significant allelic association with obesity for <it>KCNMA1 </it>rs2116830*G with <it>P </it>= 2.82 × 10^-10and an odds ratio (OR) based on cases vs controls of 1.26 [95% C.I. 1.12-1.41] and for <it>BDNF </it>rs988712*G with <it>P </it>= 5.2 × 10^-17and an OR of 1.36 [95% C.I. 1.20-1.55]. <it>KCNMA1 </it>rs2116830*G was not associated with BMI in the population-based samples. Adipose tissue (<it>P </it>= 0.0001) and fat cell (<it>P </it>= 0.04) expression of <it>KCNMA1 </it>was increased in obesity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We have identified <it>KCNMA1 </it>as a new susceptibility locus for obesity, and confirmed the association of the <it>BDNF </it>locus at the genome-wide significant level.</p