Investigation of the Antihypertrophic and Antifibrotic Effects of Losartan in a Rat Model of Radiation-Induced Heart Disease

Radiation-induced heart disease (RIHD) is a potential late side-effect of thoracic radiotherapy resulting in left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and fibrosis due to a complex pathomechanism leading to heart failure. Angiotensin-II receptor blockers (ARBs), including losartan, are frequently used to control heart failure of various etiologies. Preclinical evidence is lacking on the anti-remodeling effects of ARBs in RIHD, while the results of clinical studies are controversial. We aimed at investigating the effects of losartan in a rat model of RIHD. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were studied in three groups: (1) control, (2) radiotherapy (RT) only, (3) RT treated with losartan (per os 10 mg/kg/day), and were followed for 1, 3, or 15 weeks. At 15 weeks post-irradiation, losartan alleviated the echocardiographic and histological signs of LVH and fibrosis and reduced the overexpression of chymase, connective tissue growth factor, and transforming growth factor-beta in the myocardium measured by qPCR; likewise, the level of the SMAD2/3 protein determined by Western blot decreased. In both RT groups, the pro-survival phospho-AKT/AKT and the phospho-ERK1,2/ERK1,2 ratios were increased at week 15. The antiremodeling effects of losartan seem to be associated with the repression of chymase and several elements of the TGF-beta/SMAD signaling pathway in our RIHD model.Peer reviewe

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI <18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For schoolaged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI <2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI >2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesit

Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions

Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries ( N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings.</p

Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries (N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings

Gendered Self-Views across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries (N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings

sj-docx-1-spp-10.1177_19485506221129687 – Supplemental material for Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-spp-10.1177_19485506221129687 for Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models by Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka, Jennifer K. Bosson, Paweł Jurek, Tomasz Besta, Michał Olech, Joseph A. Vandello, Michael Bender, Justine Dandy, Vera Hoorens, Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti, Eric Mankowski, Satu Venäläinen, Sami Abuhamdeh, Collins Badu Agyemang, Gülçin Akbaş, Nihan Albayrak-Aydemir, Soline Ammirati, Joel Anderson, Gulnaz Anjum, Amarina Ariyanto, John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta, Mujeeba Ashraf, Aistė Bakaitytė, Maja Becker, Chiara Bertolli, Dashamir Bërxulli, Deborah L. Best, Chongzeng Bi, Katharina Block, Mandy Boehnke, Renata Bongiorno, Janine Bosak, Annalisa Casini, Qingwei Chen, Peilian Chi, Vera Cubela Adoric, Serena Daalmans, Soledad de Lemus, Sandesh Dhakal, Nikolay Dvorianchikov, Sonoko Egami, Edgardo Etchezahar, Carla Sofia Esteves, Laura Froehlich, Efrain Garcia-Sanchez, Alin Gavreliuc, Dana Gavreliuc, Ángel Gomez, Francesca Guizzo, Sylvie Graf, Hedy Greijdanus, Ani Grigoryan, Joanna Grzymała-Moszczyńska, Keltouma Guerch, Marie Gustafsson Sendén, Miriam-Linnea Hale, Hannah Hämer, Mika Hirai, Lam Hoang Duc, Martina Hřebíčková, Paul B. Hutchings, Dorthe Høj Jensen, Serdar Karabati, Kaltrina Kelmendi, Gabriella Kengyel, Narine Khachatryan, Rawan Ghazzawi, Mary Kinahan, Teri A. Kirby, Monika Kovacs, Desiree Kozlowski, Vladislav Krivoshchekov, Kuba Kryś, Clara Kulich, Tai Kurosawa, Nhan Thi Lac An, Javier Labarthe-Carrara, Mary Anne Lauri, Ioana Latu, Abiodun Musbau Lawal, Junyi Li, Jana Lindner, Anna Lindqvist, Angela T. Maitner, Elena Makarova, Ana Makashvili, Shera Malayeri, Sadia Malik, Tiziana Mancini, Claudia Manzi, Silvia Mari, Sarah E. Martiny, Claude-Hélène Mayer, Vladimir Mihić, Jasna MiloševićĐorđević, Eva Moreno-Bella, Silvia Moscatelli, Andrew Bryan Moynihan, Dominique Muller, Erita Narhetali, Félix Neto, Kimberly A. Noels, Boglárka Nyúl, Emma C. O’Connor, Danielle P. Ochoa, Sachiko Ohno, Sulaiman Olanrewaju Adebayo, Randall Osborne, Maria Giuseppina Pacilli, Jorge Palacio, Snigdha Patnaik, Vassilis Pavlopoulos, Pablo Pérez de León, Ivana Piterová, Juliana Barreiros Porto, Angelica Puzio, Joanna Pyrkosz-Pacyna, Erico Rentería Pérez, Emma Renström, Tiphaine Rousseaux, Michelle K. Ryan, Saba Safdar, Mario Sainz, Marco Salvati, Adil Samekin, Simon Schindler, A. Timur Sevincer, Masoumeh Seydi, Debra Shepherd, Sara Sherbaji, Toni Schmader, Cláudia Simão, Rosita Sobhie, Jurand Sobiecki, Lucille De Souza, Emma Sarter, Dijana Sulejmanović, Katie E. Sullivan, Mariko Tatsumi, Lucy Tavitian-Elmadjian, Suparna Jain Thakur, Quang Thi Mong Chi, Beatriz Torre, Ana Torres, Claudio V. Torres, Beril Türkoğlu, Joaquín Ungaretti, Timothy Valshtein, Colette Van Laar, Jolanda van der Noll, Vadym Vasiutynskyi, Christin-Melanie Vauclair, Neharika Vohra, Marta Walentynowicz, Colleen Ward, Anna Włodarczyk, Yaping Yang, Vincent Yzerbyt, Valeska Zanello, Antonella Ludmila Zapata-Calvente, Magdalena Zawisza, Rita Žukauskienė and Magdalena Żadkowska in Social Psychological and Personality Science</p