Subacute exposure of rats by metal oxide nanoparticles through the airways: general toxicity and neuro-functional effects

In order to create an animal model of human inhalational exposure by industrial trAct metal fumes, nanoparticulate metal oxides (MnO2 , CdO2 , PbO) were synthesized and instilled into the trachea of rats 5 times a week for 6 weeks (metal doses per kg b.w.: 2.63 and 5.26 mg Mn; 0.04 and 0.4 mg Cd; 2 and 4 mg Pb). At the end, the rats’ body weight gain during the treatment was determined, the animals had an open field session to investigate their spontaneous motility, and finally spontaneous and stimulus-evoked cortical activity was recorded in urethane anaesthesia. Mn caused decrease of open field ambulation and rearing, Cd had no effect, whereas Pb caused decreased rearing and increased ambulation. Spontaneous cortical activity was shifted to higher frequencies with each metal. Cortical evoked potentials had lengthened latency, mainly with Mn and Cd; and increased frequency dependence with Cd and Pb but hardly with Mn. The effects proved indirectly that the metal content of the nanoparticles had access form the airways to the CNS. Our method seems suitable for modelling human nervous system damage due to inhaled nanoparticles

Genetic variants of VDR and CYP2R1 affect BMI independently of serum vitamin D concentrations

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D metabolism and obesity have been linked by several studies, however the reason for this association is unclear. Our objective was to investigate potential correlations between genetic variants in key enzymes of vitamin D metabolism and the body mass index on a representative and random sample of Hungarian adults. METHODS: Altogether 462 severely vitamin D deficient individuals were studied at the end of winter in order to decrease environmental and maximize any relevant genetic effect. Furthermore, participants with lifestyle factors known to affect vitamin D homeostasis were also excluded. We selected 23 target SNPs in five genes that encode key proteins of vitamin D metabolism (NADSYN1, GC, CYP24A1, CYP2R1, VDR). RESULTS: Variants in 2 genetic polymorphisms; rs2853564 (VDR) and rs11023374 (CYP2R1) showed a significant association with participants' BMI. These associations survived further adjustment for total-, free-, or bioactive-25(OH) vitamin D levels, although the variance explained by these 2 SNPS in BMI heterogeneity was only 3.2%. CONCLUSION: Our results show two novel examples of the relationship between genetics of vitamin D and BMI, highlighting the potential role of vitamin D hormone in the physiology of obesity

Generation of nearly nondiffracting Bessel beams with a Fabry–Perot interferometer

A new concept for generating zero-order Bessel beams was studied theoretically. The spatial intensity distribution was calculated numerically using a wave optics model. Approximate analytical expressions were derived to describe the radial intensity distribution in planes perpendicular to the optical axis of an imaging lens.Texas InstrumentsNational Science FoundationOTKA Foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Science

Prevalence and determinants of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes in Hungary based on the nationally representative cross-sectional H-UNCOVER study

AIMS: To estimate prevalence of diagnosed (dDM) and undiagnosed diabetes (uDM) in Hungary and investigate determinants of uDM. METHODS: Data was obtained from the nationally representative H-UNCOVER study. As laboratory measurements were available for 11/19 Hungarian counties, n = 5,974/17,787 people were eligible. After exclusions, 5,673 (representing 4,976,097 people) were included. dDM was defined by self-reporting, while uDM as negative self-reporting and elevated fasting glucose (≥7 mmol/l) and/or HbA1c (≥48 mmol/mol). Logistic regression for complex samples was used to calculate comparisons between dDM and uDM adjusted for age and BMI. RESULTS: Diabetes prevalence was 12.0 %/11.9 % (women/men, 95 %CI:10.7-13.4 %/10.7-13.2 %), while 2.2 %/2.8 % (1.7-2.8 %/2.2-3.6 %) of women/men were uDM. While the proportion of uDM vs. dDM was similar for women ≥ 40, men in their forties had the highest odds for uDM. Neither unemployment (women/men OR:0.58 [0.14-2.45]/0.50 [0.13-1.92]), nor education level (tertiary vs. primary; women/men OR: 1.16 [0.53-2.56]/ 0.53 [0.24-1.18]) were associated with uDM. The risk of uDM was lower in both sexes with chronic morbidities. CONCLUSIONS: We report higher prevalence of diabetes and undiagnosed diabetes than previous Hungarian estimates. The finding that socioeconomic factors are not associated to uDM suggests that universal health care could provide equitable access to diabetes diagnosis

Genetic and environmental determinants of bone quality: a cross‑sectional analysis of the Hungarian Twin Registry

There is abundant evidence that bone mineral content is highly heritable, while the heritability of bone quality (i.e. trabecular bone score [TBS] and quantitative ultrasound index [QUI]) is rarely investigated. We aimed to disentangle the role of genetic, shared and unique environmental factors on TBS and QUI among Hungarian twins. Our study includes 82 twin (48 monozygotic, 33 same-sex dizygotic) pairs from the Hungarian Twin Registry. TBS was determined by DXA, QUI by calcaneal bone ultrasound. To estimate the genetic and environmental effects, we utilized ACE-variance decomposition. For the unadjusted model of TBS, an AE model provided the best fit with > 80% additive genetic heritability. Adjustment for age, sex, BMI and smoking status improved model fit with 48.0% of total variance explained by independent variables. Furthermore, there was a strong dominant genetic effect (73.7%). In contrast, unadjusted and adjusted models for QUI showed an AE structure. Adjustments improved model fit and 25.7% of the total variance was explained by independent variables. Altogether 70–90% of the variance in QUI was related to additive genetic influences. We found a strong genetic heritability of bone quality in unadjusted models. Half of the variance of TBS was explained by age, sex and BMI. Furthermore, the adjusted model suggested that the genetic component of TBS could be dominant or an epistasis could be present. In contrast, independent variables explained only a quarter of the variance of QUI and the additive heritability explained more than half of all the variance