Prenatal nutrition and the risk of adult obesity: Long-term effects of nutrition on epigenetic mechanisms regulating gene expression

Solid epidemiological evidence indicates that part of the risk of obesity in adulthood could be programmed during prenatal development by the quality of maternal nutrition. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms involved are mostly unknown, which hinders our capacity to develop effective intervention policies. Here, we discuss the hypothesis that mechanisms underlying prenatal programming of adult risk are epigenetic and sensitive to environmental cues such as nutrition. While the information encoded in DNA is essentially stable, regulatory epigenetic mechanisms include reversible, covalent modifications of DNA and chromatin, such as methylation, acetylation etc. It is known that dietary availability of methyl donors has an impact on the patterns of gene expression by affecting DNA methylation at regulatory regions, a likely basis for reprogramming developmental plasticity. The Agouti and Axin-fused genes, as well as the embryonic growth factor IGF2/H19 locus are examples of diet-induced modulation of phenotypic traits by affecting methylation of gene-regulatory regions. Recent work has evidenced an unsuspected role for chromatin as metabolic sensor. Chromatin is susceptible to a number of post-translational modifications that modulate gene expression, among them the GlcNAcylation of histone proteins and other epigenetic regulators. Intracellular levels of the precursor molecule UDP-GlcNAc, and hence the degree of global chromatin GlcNAcylation, depend on the energetic state of the cell, making GlcNAcylation a functional link between nutrition and regulation of gene expression. Dietary interference with these regulatory mechanisms could effectively counteract the early-life programming of adult risk.This research was supported by a grant (2FD097-0297-CO2-01) from Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER); by a scholarship for PhD training from a national program to prepare university professors (FPU), Ministry of Education of Spain (AP2010-3198); and also partially supported by FEDER [CB06/02/0029] and Red Investigación Cardiovascular, HERACLES [RD12/0042]), and AGAUR (2014 SGR 240) and (2014 SGR 0334). The CIBERESP and CIBEROBN are initiatives of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spai

A multiple sample immunoblotting system (MSIS) for the intrinsic detection of antinuclear autoantibodies

A multiple sample immunoblotting system (MSIS) is described. The MSIS permits the detection and classification of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) according to the pattern of antigenic polypeptides recognized in four different extracts: calf thymus whole tissue, nuclear extract, and two ammonium sulphate fractions of the nuclear extract. The procedure permits the classification of anti-RNP, anti-SS/B and anti-Sm, and the detection of new ANAs in sera from SLE patients. The reaction patterns presented are specific and ambiguous, and make the use of validated control sera unnecessary.E.N. and M.B. are recipients of fellowships from C.S.I.C., and N.D. from Fondo de Investigaciones sanitarias. This work was supported by grants from CAICYT, Fundación M. Francisca de Roviralta and Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias.Peer Reviewe

Impact of diet on cardiometabolic health in children and adolescents

The manifestation of cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, and particularly obesity begins in children and adolescents, with deleterious effects for cardiometabolic health at adulthood. Although the impact of diet on cardiovascular risk factors has been studied extensively in adults, showing that their cardiometabolic health is strongly lifestyle-dependent, less is known about this impact in children and adolescents. In particular, little is known about the relationship between their dietary patterns, especially when derived a posteriori, and cardiovascular risk. An adverse association of cardiovascular health and increased intake of sodium, saturated fat, meat, fast food and soft drinks has been reported in this population. In contrast, vitamin D, fiber, mono-and poly-unsaturated fatty acids, dairy, fruits and vegetables were positively linked to cardiovascular health. The aim of this review was to summarize current epidemiological and experimental evidence on the impact of nutrients, foods, and dietary pattern on cardiometabolic health in children and adolescents. A comprehensive review of the literature available in English and related to diet and cardiometabolic health in this population was undertaken via the electronic databases PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Medline

Impact of diet on cardiometabolic health in children and adolescents.

The manifestation of cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, and particularly obesity begins in children and adolescents, with deleterious effects for cardiometabolic health at adulthood. Although the impact of diet on cardiovascular risk factors has been studied extensively in adults, showing that their cardiometabolic health is strongly lifestyle-dependent, less is known about this impact in children and adolescents. In particular, little is known about the relationship between their dietary patterns, especially when derived a posteriori, and cardiovascular risk. An adverse association of cardiovascular health and increased intake of sodium, saturated fat, meat, fast food and soft drinks has been reported in this population. In contrast, vitamin D, fiber, mono-and poly-unsaturated fatty acids, dairy, fruits and vegetables were positively linked to cardiovascular health.The aim of this review was to summarize current epidemiological and experimental evidence on the impact of nutrients, foods, and dietary pattern on cardiometabolic health in children and adolescents. A comprehensive review of the literature available in English and related to diet and cardiometabolic health in this population was undertaken via the electronic databases PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Medline.This research was supported by a grant (2FD097-0297-CO2-01) from Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER); by a national scholarship from Spain’s Ministry of Education for PhD training to prepare university professors (FPU: AP2010-3198); by portions of grants from Spain’s Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo, Instituto de Salud Carlos III: FEDER [PI11/01900], FEDER [CB06/02/0029] and Red Investigación Cardiovascular, Programa HERACLES [RD12/0042]) and from the Catalan government’s agency that supports university research groups (AGAUR: 2014 SGR 240), and the King Abdullah scholarship program [2014, ID 2631]. The CIBERESP and CIBEROBN networks are an initiative of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

Additional file 1: Table S1. of Impact of diet on cardiometabolic health in children and adolescents

Effect of diet on cardiovascular risk factors in children and adolescents. (DOCX 232 kb

Chronic Kidney Disease is associated with an increase of Intimal Dendritic cells in a comparative autopsy study

Background: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and inflammation are risk factors for atherosclerotic vascular disease (ASVD). In inflammatory conditions, Nuclear Factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B) is frequently activated and it has been detected in human ASVD. In this work, we investigated if the degree of inflammation and of NF-kappa B activation were increased in the aorta of patients with CKD. Methods: This is a case-control pilot study performed on 30 abdominal aorta samples from 10 human autopsies. Cases were patients with CKD and controls patients with normal glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Infiltrating mononuclear cells (S100(+), CD3(+), CD40(+), CD40L(+)) and activation of NF-kappa B were identified by immunohistochemistry. Findings: The number of cells in the intima which showed activated nuclear NF-.B correlated with severity of ASVD lesions (r = 0.56, p = 0.003), with numbers of CD3(+) lymphocytes in adventitia (r = 0.50, p = 0.008), with numbers of CD40(+) cells in the intima (r = 0.59, p = 0.002) or in the adventitia (r = 0.45, p = 0.02), and with numbers of CD40L(+) cells in the intima (r = 0.51, p = 0.011). Increased numbers of S100(+) Intimal Dendritic cells (IDCs) were associated with ASVD (p = 0.03) and CKD (p = 0.01). Conclusions: Number of CD3(+) cells, of CD40(+) cells, of CD40L(+) cells and the degree of NF-kappa B activation were increased in ASVD lesions suggesting a role for the adaptive T cell in the development of ASVD lesions. IDCs were associated both with ASVD and CKD suggesting a role of these cells in the pathogenesis of ASVD in CKD

Datasets for the validation of the 'in vivo' siRNA-silencing of CD40 and for the detection of new markers of aterosclerosis progression in ApoE-deficient mice

Data presented in this Data in Brief article correspond to the article 'in vivo' silencing of CD40 reduces progression of experimental atherogenesis through a NFκB/miR-125b axis and reveals new potential mediators in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis' (M. Hueso, L. De Ramon, E. Navarro, E. Ripoll, J.M. Cruzado, J.M. Grinyo, J. Torras, 2016) [1]. Here, we describe the validation of the silencing of CD40 expression with a specific siRNA in ApoE−/− mouse aortas, and its systemic effects on splenic lymphocytic subpopulations as well as on the infiltration of aortic intima by F4/80+, galectin-3+ macrophages or by NF-κB+ cells. We also show the output of a Gene Ontology and TLDA analysis which allowed the detection of potential mediators of atherosclerosis progression. We provide the scientific community with a set of genes whose expression is increased during atherosclerosis progression but downregulated upon CD40 silencing

Datasets for the validation of the 'in vivo' siRNA-silencing of CD40 and for the detection of new markers of aterosclerosis progression in ApoE-deficient mice

Data presented in this Data in Brief article correspond to the article 'in vivo' silencing of CD40 reduces progression of experimental atherogenesis through a NFκB/miR-125b axis and reveals new potential mediators in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis' (M. Hueso, L. De Ramon, E. Navarro, E. Ripoll, J.M. Cruzado, J.M. Grinyo, J. Torras, 2016) [1]. Here, we describe the validation of the silencing of CD40 expression with a specific siRNA in ApoE−/− mouse aortas, and its systemic effects on splenic lymphocytic subpopulations as well as on the infiltration of aortic intima by F4/80+, galectin-3+ macrophages or by NF-κB+ cells. We also show the output of a Gene Ontology and TLDA analysis which allowed the detection of potential mediators of atherosclerosis progression. We provide the scientific community with a set of genes whose expression is increased during atherosclerosis progression but downregulated upon CD40 silencing