86 research outputs found
The Role of Dietary Carbohydrates in Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes (GDM) is hyperglycemia that is recognized for the first time during
pregnancy. GDM is associated with a wide range of short- and long-term adverse health consequences
for both mother and offspring. It is a complex disease with a multifactorial etiology, with disturbances
in glucose, lipid, inflammation and gut microbiota. Consequently, its management is complex,
requiring patients to self-manage their diet, lifestyle and self-care behaviors in combination with use
of insulin. In addition to nutritional recommendations for all pregnant women, special attention
to dietary carbohydrate (CHO) amount and type on glucose levels is especially important in GDM.
Dietary CHO are diverse, ranging from simple sugars to longer-chain oligo- and poly- saccharides
which have diverse effects on blood glucose, microbial fermentation and bowel function. Studies
have established that dietary CHO amount and type can impact maternal glucose and nutritional
recommendations advise women with GDM to limit total intake or choose complex and low glycemic
CHO. However, robust maternal and infant benefits are not consistently shown. Novel approaches
which help women with GDM adhere to dietary recommendations such as diabetes-specific meal
replacements (which provide a defined and complete nutritional composition with slowly-digested
CHO) and continuous glucose monitors (which provide unlimited monitoring of maternal glycemic
fluctuations) have shown benefits on both maternal and neonatal outcomes. Continued research is
needed to understand and develop tools to facilitate patient adherence to treatment goals, individualize
interventions and improve outcomes
Beneficial Effects of Bovine Milk Exosomes in Metabolic Interorgan Cross-Talk
Extracellular vesicles are membrane-enclosed secreted vesicles involved in cell-to-cell
communication processes, identified in virtually all body fluids. Among extracellular vesicles,
exosomes have gained increasing attention in recent years as they have unique biological origins
and deliver different cargos, such as nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids, which might mediate various
health processes. In particular, milk-derived exosomes are proposed as bioactive compounds of breast
milk, which have been reported to resist gastric digestion and reach systemic circulation, thus being
bioavailable after oral intake. In the present manuscript, we critically discuss the available evidence
on the health benefits attributed to milk exosomes, and we provide an outlook for the potential
future uses of these compounds. The use of milk exosomes as bioactive ingredients represents a
novel avenue to explore in the context of human nutrition, and they might exert important beneficial
effects at multiple levels, including but not limited to intestinal health, bone and muscle metabolism,
immunity, modulation of the microbiota, growth, and development
A Rat Immobilization Model Based on Cage Volume Reduction: A Physiological Model for Bed Rest?
Bed rest has been an established treatment in the past prescribed for critically illness or convalescing patients, in order to preserve their body metabolic resource, to prevent serious complications and to support their rapid path to recovery. However, it has been reported that prolonged bed rest can have detrimental consequences that may delay or prevent the recovery from clinical illness. In order to study disuse-induced changes in muscle and bone, as observed during prolonged bed rest in humans, an innovative new model of muscle disuse for rodents is presented. Basically, the animals are confined to a reduced space designed to restrict their locomotion movements and allow them to drink and eat easily, without generating physical stress. The animals were immobilized for either 7, 14, or 28 days. The immobilization procedure induced a significant decrease of food intake, both at 14 and 28 days of immobilization. The reduced food intake was not a consequence of a stress condition induced by the model since plasma corticosterone levels –an indicator of a stress response– were not altered following the immobilization period. The animals showed a significant decrease in soleus muscle mass, grip force and cross-sectional area (a measure of fiber size), together with a decrease in bone mineral density. The present model may potentially serve to investigate the effects of bed-rest in pathological states characterized by a catabolic condition, such as diabetes or cancer
Programming Skeletal Muscle Metabolic Flexibility in Offspring of Male Rats in Response to Maternal Consumption of Slow Digesting Carbohydrates during Pregnancy
Skeletal muscle plays a relevant role in metabolic flexibility and fuel usage and the
associated muscle metabolic inflexibility due to high-fat diets contributing to obesity and type 2
diabetes. Previous research from our group indicates that a high-fat and rapid-digesting carbohydrate
diet during pregnancy promotes an excessive adipogenesis and also increases the risk of non-alcoholic
fatty liver disease in the offspring. This effect can be counteracted by diets containing carbohydrates
with similar glycemic load but lower digestion rates. To address the role of the skeletal muscle in
these experimental settings, pregnant rats were fed high-fat diets containing carbohydrates with
similar glycemic load but different digestion rates, a high fat containing rapid-digesting carbohydrates
diet (HF/RD diet) or a high fat containing slow-digesting carbohydrates diet (HF/SD diet). After
weaning, male offspring were fed a standard diet for 3 weeks (weaning) or 10 weeks (adolescence)
and the impact of the maternal HF/RD and HF/SD diets on the metabolism, signaling pathways
and muscle transcriptome was analyzed. The HF/SD offspring displayed better muscle features
compared with the HF/RD group, showing a higher muscle mass, myosin content and differentiation
markers that translated into a greater grip strength. In the HF/SD group, metabolic changes such
as a higher expression of fatty acids (FAT/CD36) and glucose (GLUT4) transporters, an enhanced
glycogen content, as well as changes in regulatory enzymes such as muscle pyruvate kinase and
pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 were found, supporting an increased muscle metabolic flexibility
and improved muscle performance. The analysis of signaling pathways was consistent with a better
insulin sensitivity in the muscle of the HF/SD group.This research was funded by European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013):
project Early Nutrition, under grant agreement no. 289346
Quality More Than Quantity: The Use of Carbohydrates in High-Fat Diets to Tackle Obesity in Growing Rats
This research was supported by funds provided by the Abbott
Laboratories S.A.Childhood obesity prevention is important to avoid obesity and its comorbidities
into adulthood. Although the energy density of food has been considered a main
obesogenic factor, a focus on food quality rather that the quantity of the different
macronutrients is needed. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of changing the
quality of carbohydrates from rapidly to slowly digestible carbohydrates on metabolic
abnormalities and its impact on obesity in growing rats fed a high-fat diet (HFD).
Growing rats were fed on HFD containing carbohydrates with different digestion
rates: a HFD containing rapid-digesting carbohydrates (OBE group) or slow-digesting
carbohydrates (ISR group), for 4 weeks and the effect on the metabolism and signaling
pathways were analyzed in different tissues. Animals from OBE group presented an
overweight/obese phenotype with a higher body weight gain and greater accumulation
of fat in adipose tissue and liver. This state was associated with an increase of HOMA
index, serum diacylglycerols and triacylglycerides, insulin, leptin, and pro-inflammatory
cytokines. In contrast, the change of carbohydrate profile in the diet to one based
on slow digestible prevented the obesity-related adverse effects. In adipose tissue,
GLUT4 was increased and UCPs and PPARg were decreased in ISR group respect
to OBE group. In liver, GLUT2, FAS, and SRBP1 were lower in ISR group than OBE
group. In muscle, an increase of glycogen, GLUT4, AMPK, and Akt were observed in
comparison to OBE group. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the replacement
of rapidly digestible carbohydrates for slowly digestible carbohydrates within a highfat
diet promoted a protective effect against the development of obesity and its
associated comorbidities.Abbott
Laboratories S.A
Intake of slow-digesting carbohydrates is related to changes in the microbiome and its functional pathways in growing rats with obesity induced by diet
Introduction: The main cause of insulin resistance in childhood is obesity,
which contributes to future comorbidities as in adults. Although high-calorie
diets and lack of exercise contribute to metabolic disease development, food
quality rather than the quantity of macronutrients is more important than
food density. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects
of changing the quality of carbohydrates from rapidly to slowly digestible
carbohydrates on the composition of the gut microbiota and the profiles of
the functional pathways in growing rats with obesity due to a high-fat diet
(HFD).
Methods: During the course of 4 weeks, rats growing on an HFD-containing
carbohydrates with different digestive rates were fed either HFD-containing
carbohydrates with a rapid digestion rate (OBE group) or HFD-containing
carbohydrates with a slow digestion rate (OBE-ISR group). A non-obese group
(NOB) was included as a reference, and rats were fed on a rodent standard diet
(AIN93G). An analysis of gut microbiota was conducted using 16S rRNA-based
metagenomics; a linear mixed-effects model (LMM) was used to determine
changes in abundance between baseline and 4 weeks of treatment, and
functional pathways were identified. Gut microbiota composition at bacterial
diversity and relative abundance, at phylum and genus levels, and functional profiles were analyzed by integrating the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG)
database.
Results: The groups showed comparable gut microbiota at baseline.
At the end of the treatment, animals from the ISR group exhibited
differences at the phylum levels by decreasing the diversity of Fisher’s
index and Firmicutes (newly named as Bacillota), and increasing the Pielou’s
evenness and Bacteroidetes (newly named as Bacteroidota); at the genus
level by increasing Alistipes, Bifidobacterium, Bacteroides, Butyricimonas,
Lachnoclostridium, Flavonifractor, Ruminiclostridium 5, and Faecalibaculum
and decreasing Muribaculum, Blautia, and Ruminiclostridium 9. Remarkably,
relative abundances of genera Tyzzerella and Angelakisella were higher in
the OBE group compared to NOB and OBE-ISR groups. In addition, some
microbiota carbohydrate metabolism pathways such as glycolysis, glucuronic
acid degradation, pentose phosphate pathway, methanogenesis, and fatty
acid biosynthesis exhibited increased activity in the OBE-ISR group after the
treatment. Higher levels of acetate and propionate were found in the feces of
the ISR group compared with the NOB and OBE groups.
Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that replacing rapidly
digestible carbohydrates with slowly digestible carbohydrates within an HFD
improve the composition of the gut microbiota. Consequently, metabolic
disturbances associated with obesity may be prevented.Abbott Laboratories S.A"Fundacion Ramon Areces", Madrid, Spai
A rat immobilization model based on cage volume reduction: a physiological model for bed rest?
Bed rest has been an established treatment in the past prescribed for critically illness or convalescing patients, in order to preserve their body metabolic resource, to prevent serious complications and to support their rapid path to recovery. However, it has been reported that prolonged bed rest can have detrimental consequences that may delay or prevent the recovery from clinical illness. In order to study disuse-induced changes in muscle and bone, as observed during prolonged bed rest in humans, an innovative new model of muscle disuse for rodents is presented. Basically, the animals are confined to a reduced space designed to restrict their locomotion movements and allow them to drink and eat easily, without generating physical stress. The animals were immobilized for either 7, 14, or 28 days. The immobilization procedure induced a significant decrease of food intake, both at 14 and 28 days of immobilization. The reduced food intake was not a consequence of a stress condition induced by the model since plasma corticosterone levels-an indicator of a stress response- were not altered following the immobilization period. The animals showed a significant decrease in soleus muscle mass, grip force and cross-sectional area (a measure of fiber size), together with a decrease in bone mineral density. The present model may potentially serve to investigate the effects of bed-rest in pathological states characterized by a catabolic condition, such as diabetes or cancer
Deep Sea Sedimentation
This article offers an overview of the main sedimentary systems defining the geomorphology of deep sea environments from low to high latitudes. Mass-transport deposits, turbidite systems, contourites, volcaniclastic aprons, glacial trough mouth systems, carbonate mounds and other bathyal systems, such as pelagites, hemipelagites, mid-ocean channels and polymetallic mineral deposits, are presented with special attention to their morphology, sediments, processes and controlling factors. The integration of the main systems on the continental margins and adjacent abyssal plains in the North Atlantic and westernmost Mediterranean allows to characterize different sedimentation models.En prens
Estudios sefardíes dedicados a la memoria de Iacob M. Hassán (ź"l)
Elena Romero y Aitor García Moreno son los editores de este volumen.[EN] This work aims to honour Iacob. M. Hassán, who set up, promoted, and for decades maintained, the CSIC's School of Sephardic studies (Escuela de Estudios Sefardíes) in Madrid. It comprises a collection of articles on the Jews in the medieval Spanish kingdoms, along with other articles on a wide variety of language issues, and the study and publication of literary works produced or handed down by the Sephardim of the Balkans and Morocco between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries, such as biblical commentaries and lexicons, liturgical poetry, rabbinic literature, biographies, folk tales, popular folk songs, ballads, and modern songs ... These studies also include an article by Iacob. M. Hassán published here for the first time in the form of a facsimile of his original typed manuscript. The work is preceded by a foreword and an unpublished text of one of his lectures, which contains a wealth of autobiographical information, as well as his views on the vicissitudes of Sephardic Studies as an academic discipline.[ES] Con esta obra se quiere honrar al creador, impulsor y mantenedor durante decenios de la llamada Escuela de Estudios Sefardíes del CSIC (Madrid). Se recogen en ella artículos relativos a los judíos en los reinos hispanos medievales, y otros dedicados a muy variados temas de lengua, y al estudio y edición de obras literarias producidas o transmitidas por los sefardíes de los Balcanes y de Marruecos entre el siglo XVI y el XX: comentarios y léxicos bíblicos, poesía litúrgica, literatura rabínica, biografías, cuentos tradicionales, coplas, romances, cancionero moderno, etc., etc. Entre los estudios se incluye además, como primicia, un artículo mecanografiado de Iacob. M. Hassán que se publica por primera vez en edición facsímil. La obra va precedida de un Prólogo y del texto inédito de una de sus conferencias, en la que aporta numerosos datos autobiográficos, así como su visión sobre los avatares de los Estudios Sefardíes como disciplina académica
- …