Low adherence of Swiss children to national dietary guidelines.

INTRODUCTION: Dietary guidelines aim to inform people of the types of foods and quantities they should consume each day or week to promote and maintain health. The aim of this study was to describe children's dietary behaviors in terms of adherence to the Swiss Society for Nutrition (SSN) dietary guidelines and possible determinants. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in September 2010 with 568 children aged 6-12 years old living in Ticino Switzerland. Food intake was collected using 7-day food logs. Adherence with the dietary guidelines from the SSN was assessed according to age group. RESULTS: With the exception of fish and cereal/potato intake (adherence rates of 68.5% and 47.9%, respectively), adherence to SSN guidelines was low: 26.9% for meat; 22.7% for eggs; 10.4% for fruit; 9.5% for sweets, snacks & soft drinks; 3.5% for milk & dairy, and 0% for vegetables. Multivariate analysis showed no consistent association between the child or their parent's socio-demographic characteristics and adherence to SSN guidelines. Girls had a higher likelihood of adhering with fruit and meat guidelines: multivariate adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) 1.98 (1.10-3.56) and 1.80 (1.08-2.99), respectively. Children aged 10 to 12 had a lower likelihood of adhering with cereals and potatoes 0.48 (0.29-0.78), and a higher likelihood of adhering with the guideline for eggs 1.78 (1.00-3.15). CONCLUSION: Dietary intake of Ticinese children shows poor adherence with SSN guidelines. Given the lack of specific socio-demographic factors associated with adherence, population-wide interventions to improve dietary intake are necessary

Is it better at home with my family? The effects of people and place on children's eating behavior.

The people and places children eat with can influence food consumption. This study investigates the people and places Swiss school-aged children ate with over a 7-day period and analyses the effects of eating at home with family on food consumption. Children completed a 7-day food diary documenting the foods they consumed, the people with whom they ate, and the place where they ate. Analyses were conducted for all meals and included 9911 meal occasions. Most meals (80.5%) were consumed at home with family. Generalized estimating equations were used to model the effects of the home-family dyad on the child's chance of consuming a certain food while controlling for age, gender and BMI of the child, education, nationality and BMI of the parent. Compared to eating in other dyads (e.g. school-peers or restaurant-family), eating in the home-family dyad was associated with higher consumption of vegetables (+66% and +142% at weekday lunch and dinner and +180% and +67% at weekend lunch and dinner), lower consumption of sweets (-45% and -49% at weekday lunch and dinner; -43% and -49% at weekend lunch and dinner), and fewer soft drinks (-37% and -61% at weekday lunch and dinner; -66% and -78% at weekend lunch and dinner). This study shows the positive influence of eating at home with the family on food consumption in a sample of Swiss children. Interventions and policies that encourage children and parents to eat together at home could serve as effective prevention against a poor diet

Bright expression of CD91 identifies highly activated human dendritic cells that can be expanded by defensins

CD91 is a scavenger receptor expressed by different immune cells and its ligands defensins have been demonstrated to contribute to immune responses against infections and tumors. We previously demonstrated that CD91 is expressed on human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) and that human defensins stimulate in vitro the activation of these cells. In this study, we observed that CD91 is expressed at different levels on two distinct moDC subsets: CD91dim and CD91bright moDCs. Although CD91bright moDCs represented a small proportion of total moDCs, this subset showed higher levels of activation and maturation markers compared to CD91dim moDCs. The frequency of CD91bright moDCs increased by ~50% after in vitro stimulation with recombinant Human Neutrophil Peptide-1 (rHNP-1) and recombinant Human Beta Defensin-1 (rHBD-1), while lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation decreased it by ~35%. Both defensins up-regulated moDC expression of CD80, CD40, CD83 and HLA-DR, although to a lower extent compared with LPS. Notably, upon culture with rHNP-1 and rHBD-1, CD91bright moDCs maintained their higher activation/maturation status, while this was lost upon culture with LPS. Our findings suggest that defensins promote the differentiation into activated CD91bright DCs and may encourage the exploitation of the CD91/defensins axis as a novel therapeutic strategy to potentiate antimicrobial and antitumor immune response

Does additional support provided through e-mail or SMS in a Web-based Social Marketing program improve children's food consumption? A Randomized Controlled Trial.

The FAN Social Marketing program was developed to improve dietary and physical activity habits of families with children in Ticino, Switzerland. The aim of this study was to examine if the effects of the program on children's food intake differed by intervention group. Effects of the FAN program were tested through a Randomized Controlled Trial. The program lasted 8 weeks, during which participants received tailored communication about nutrition and physical activity. Families were randomly allocated to one of three groups, where the parent received the intervention by the Web (G1), Web + e-mail (G2) or Web + SMS (G3). Children in all groups received tailored print letters by post. Children's food consumption was assessed at baseline and immediate post intervention using a 7-day food diary. Generalized linear mixed models with child as a random effect and with time, treatment group, and the time by treatment interaction as fixed effects were used to test the impact of the intervention. Analyses were conducted with a sample of 608 children. After participating in FAN the marginal means of daily consumption of fruit changed from 0.95 to 1.12 in G1, from 0.82 to 0.94 in G2, and from 0.93 to 1.18 in G3. The margins of the daily consumption of sweets decreased in each group (1.67 to 1.56 in G1, 1.71 to 1.49 in G2, and 1.72 to 1.62 in G3). The change in vegetable consumption observed from pre to post intervention in G3 (from 1.13 to 1.21) was significantly different from that observed in G1 (from 1.21 to 1.17). A well-designed Web-based Social Marketing intervention complemented with print letters can help improve children's consumption of water, fruit, soft drinks, and sweets. The use of SMS to support greater behavior change, in addition to Web-based communication, resulted only in a small significant positive change for vegetables, while the use of e-mail in addition to Web did not result in any significant difference. The trial was retrospectively registered in the ISRCTN registry (ID ISRCTN48730279 )

Aerobic training and angiogenesis activation in patients with stable chronic heart failure: a preliminary report.

The pathophysiology of chronic heart failure (CHF) involves multiple hystologic and molecular alterations. To determine the effects of physical training on circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), angiogenesis (angiogenin, angiopoietin-1 and -2, VEGF, Tie-2, SDF-1α) and inflammation (IL-6, CRP), we compared data obtained from 11 CHF pts before and after 3 months aerobic exercise training, to those from 10 non trained CHF pts (CHF-C group, age 64 + 2 years, NYHA 2). At the end of the study, EPCs count and AP-2 serum levels significantly increased in the CHF-TR group. These preliminary data suggest a significant effect of even a short program of physical training on angiogenic activation and endothelial dysfunction

Circulating endothelial progenitor cells are increased in patients with classic Kaposi’s Sarcoma

Accumulating evidence indicates that tumor angiogenesis is supported by the mobilization and incorporation of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), highly proliferative elements derived from the bone marrow. EPCs have been detected at increased frequency in the circulation of patients with different types of cancer. Circulating EPCs have never been quantified in patients with Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS), an angioproliferative malignancy characterized by typical spindle-shaped tumor cells of endothelial origin. In this study, we analyzed the number of EPCs in the peripheral blood of 29 patients with classic KS (cKS) compared with 27 matched healthy controls. EPCs were measured by flow cytometry on fresh blood samples at a single time point. The number of circulating EPCs was significantly higher in cKS patients than controls. EPC count did not correlate with the plasmatic levels of the main proangiogenic factors possibly involved in EPC proliferation and mobilization, thus suggesting that the increased number of EPCs in cKS patients may rather be related to direct or indirect effects of viral environment sustained by HHV-8, the causative agent for KS. The increase of EPCs was significantly more pronounced in cKS patients with slowly evolving than rapidly evolving disease, likely reflecting a localization of EPCs within the lesions during the active phases of KS. Overall, this study demonstrates that EPCs are increased in the peripheral blood of cKS patients and may suggest that changes in the number of circulating EPCs may predict disease progression and may therefore be proposed as a biomarker in the follow-up of KS patients

Development of personalized thrombogenesis and thrombin generation assays to assess endothelial dysfunction in cardiovascular diseases

The study of endothelial dysfunction (ED) is crucial to identify the pathogenetic mechanism(s) and provide indications for patient management in cardiovascular diseases. It is currently hindered by the limited availability of patient-specific primary endothelial cells (ECs). Endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) represent an optimal non-invasive tool to overcome this issue. Therefore, we investigated the use of ECFCs as a substrate in thrombogenesis and thrombin generation assay (TGA) to assess ED. Both assays were set up on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and then tested on ECFCs obtained from healthy donors. To prove the ability of the assays to detect endothelial activation, ECs stimulated with TNFα were compared with unstimulated ECs. EC activation was confirmed by the upregulation of VCAM-1 and Tissue Factor expression. Both assays discriminated between unstimulated and activated HUVECs and ECFCs, as significantly higher platelet deposition and fibrin formation in thrombogenesis assay, and thrombin generation in TGA, were observed when TNFα-activated ECs were used as a substrate. The amount of fibrin and thrombin measured in the two assays were directly correlated. Our results support the combined use of a thrombogenesis assay and TGA performed on patient-derived ECFCs to provide a personalized global assessment of ED relevant to the patient’s hemostatic profile