OR-032 Effects of Protein Supplement Timing during 4-Week Resistance Training on Muscle Hypertrophy in Males

Objective Nutrient timing is a new system of exercise nutrition that can help improve strength and lean body mass in a short time and does not require a change in exercise plan and energy intake. The concept of nutrient timing began to be used to solve problems such as the stagnation of muscle strength growth in high-protein diets, high quality proteins to gain weight and strength, but to obtain and utilize nutrient supplements at the right time to maximize muscle growth. Therefore, it is necessary to supplement the appropriate nutrients at different times. At present, some studies have found that the type and protein supplementation timing have some influence on the resistance training of high-level athletes. Protein supplementation before or after exercise plays a positive role in improving sports performance, recovery after exercise, muscle hypertrophy and muscle strength improvement. Due to the different types, dosage and time of protein supplementation, there are still some differences. It is still necessary to study the effect of nutrient timing of whey protein and the CEUS on the morphological indices of the rectus femoris. Therefore, by observing the thickness, circumference and area of the rectus femoris, we observed the effect of different nutrient timing and lower limb strength training on the shape of rectus femoris in healthy male youth. It is suggested that the different timing and dosage produce different effects and provide scientific suggestions for the later strength training and whey protein supplementation. Methods A total of 32 healthy male students participated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Subjects were randomly divided into four groups, the control group (Group A), the pre-exercise supplementary group (Group B), the after-exercise supplementary group (Group C) and both pre-exercise and after-exercise supplementary group (Group D), which were supplemented by: two bottles of placebo before and after the training in Group A. two bottles of whey protein water before training and two bottles of placebo after training in Group B. two bottles of placebo before training and two bottles of whey protein water after training in Group C. two bottles of whey protein water before and after training in Group D. the bottles of supplements before training should be supplemented half an hour before the start of training, and the bottles of supplements after training should be supplemented within half an hour after training. Each bottle of whey protein water was 350ml which contained 15g whey protein. The training method was 70% 1RM for barbell squat, 4 sets of 10 times, each set rest for 60s. Three training sessions were conducted each week, and the training lasted for four weeks. During this period, in order to deal with the training effect, at the end of the second week, we performed a maximum squat strength test to adjust the training intensity for the following two weeks. The body composition test used GE lunar IDXA, a dual-energy X-ray scanning method and the indexes were body weight, muscle mass and FFM. The CEUS used GE Vivid 7 holographic Color Doppler Ultrasound Diagnostic system. The test sites of CEUS were in the anterior superior iliac crest and the upper margin of the patella 1/4, and the indexes were the thickness of the femoral rectus femoris, the circumference of the rectus femoris, and the cross-sectional area of the femoral rectus femoris. Tests were performed before and after 4-week resistance training. After the intervention, the variance of paired sample t test and One Way ANOVA were used to test the significance of each group. Results According to the change of the body composition, compared with the control group (Group A), the FFM of Group B, Group C and Group D were decreased, but there were no significant differences (p>0.05). The muscle mass of Group C increased from 54.53±4.64 kg to 58.54±5.82 kg, and muscle mass of Group D increased from 55.74±4.09 kg to 58.75±4.74 kg, compared to group A, Group C and Group D had significant increase in muscle mass (p<0.05). Body composition is mainly composed of adipose tissue and lean tissue, the body composition is influenced by the acquired factors, resistance training will also decrease the FFM and the increase the lean weight. Combined with 4-week resistance training with protein supplementation, we can see that the FFM in Group B, Group C and Group D declined a lot, which may be related to protein supplementation. The muscle mass of Group C and Group D were significantly improved, it was indicated that after resistance training, protein supplementation can improve muscle mass, but there was no differences between Group C and Group D, which indicates that the increase of protein supplementation has little effect on the increase of muscle mass, which may be due to the increase of protein supplement, the amount of muscle synthesis will increase, but the amount of decomposition will increase, too. In addition, the changes in the synthesis and decomposition, resulting in little change in muscle mass. About the morphological changes of rectus femoris in dominant leg, compared with the control group (Group A), the thickness of the rectus femoris (changed from 12.55±3.94 mm to 16.71±3.04 mm), the circumference of the rectus femoris (changed from 8.38±1.98 cm to 10.08±1.79 cm), the cross-sectional area of the rectus femoris (changed from 3.64±1.91 cm2 to 5.43±1.61 cm2) in Group C and the thickness of the rectus femoris (changed from 14.12±2.33 mm to 15.91±2.10 mm) in Group D were significantly increased (P<0.05). The thickness of the rectus femoris, the circumference of the rectus femoris, the cross-sectional area of the rectus femoris in Group B and the circumference of the rectus femoris and the cross-sectional area of the rectus femoris in Group D were also increased, but there were no significant changes (p>0.05). About the morphological changes of rectus femoris in non-dominant leg, compared with the control group (Group A), the thickness of the rectus femoris (changed from 13.54±3.82 mm to 16.77±3.37 mm), the cross-sectional area of the rectus femoris (changed from 4.07±2.11 cm2 to 5.42±1.86 cm2) in Group C and the thickness of the rectus femoris (changed from 13.46±2.91 mm to 16.39±1.24 mm) in Group D were significantly increased (P<0.05). The thickness of the rectus femoris, the circumference of the rectus femoris, the cross-sectional area of the rectus femoris in Group B, the circumference of the rectus femoris in Group C and the circumference of the rectus femoris and the cross-sectional area of the rectus femoris in Group D were also increased, but there were no significant changes (p>0.05). It could be seen from the results that the thickness, circumference and cross-sectional area of rectus femoris in Group C and Group D had a significant increase, and the change in Group B was not significant, indicating that after resistance training, protein supplementation will have better effects, more conducive to promoting the synthesis of muscle protein, so that the morphology of muscle was more obvious. From the comparison between Group C and Group D, we can see that the morphology of the rectus femoris in Group C has a significant change, although there were significant changes in the thickness of the rectus femoris in Group D, there was no significant increase in the circumference and cross-sectional area of the rectus femoris, which showed that the increase of protein supplementation had little effect on the morphology of the rectus femoris. This may be related to the synthesis and decomposition rate of the muscle, the increase in protein intake, to some extent, accelerated the rate of muscle synthesis, but the rate of decomposition of the muscle will also be accelerated, the synthesis rate and the rate of decomposition to achieve a positive balance. The rectus femoris of Group D will have a significant increase, but compared to group C, the effects were not obvious. Conclusions For the nutrient timing of the whey protein, taking whey protein after exercise is the better timing to improve the thickness, circumference, cross-sectional area of rectus femoris and the muscle mass by the lower limb resistance training for males. There is a certain effect on the reduction of body FFM, but no significant improvement is found. The increase of whey protein supplementation may have little effect on body composition and muscle hypertrophy

Implication of a de novo Variant in ciliary rootlet coiledcoil (CROCC) with assimilation of atlas (AOA)

Assimilation of atlas is a rare skeletal malformation causing nerve compression with high risk of fatal. However, the genetic etiology of assimilation of atlas AOA is currently lacking. In this paper, the whole-exome sequencing (WES) analysis was employed to study a Chinese family having a sporadic proband son of assimilation of atlas AOA but other healthy family members. We identified a novel variant in ciliary rootlet coiled-coil gene (NM_014675.5 (CROCC): c.4702C>T (r.4702c>u, p.(Arg1568Cys)). The variant had different genotypes between the proband and healthy family members but with high conservations of “damage” to protein structure based on MutationTaster and SIFT prediction. CROCC gene can be obtained in both healthy (n=220) and non-mutated assimilation of atlas AOA patient samples (n=68) but absented in five sporadic patients with the novel variant. Furthermore, abnormal of cilia was observed after editing the target sequence on CROCC using CRISPR-Cas9. These results suggested that assimilation of atlas AOA might be caused by the mutation of CROCC: c.4702C>T (r.4702c>u, p.(Arg1568Cys)). With strong amino acid conservation and interaction regulation, the variant mutation could cause the signal disorder of skeletal development which may lead to the defective bone formation and finally cause the development of assimilation of atlas AOA

A de novo Variant in CROCC identified in a Chinese family implies the potential association with Atlanto-occipital Fusion (AOF)

Poster presentation for the Physoc 2021 annual conference. Atlanto-occipital fusion (AOF) is a rare skeletal malformation causing nerve compression with high risk of fatal. Its genetic information is currently lacking. Through whole-exome sequencing (WES) on a Chinese family having a sporadic proband son of AOF but other healthy family members, we identified a novel variant (chr1: c.4702C>T: p.R1568C) in ciliary rootlet coiled-coil (CROCC). The variant had different genotypes between the proband and healthy family members but with high conservations of “damage” to protein structure based on MutationTaster and SIFT forecast. CROCC gene can be obtained in both healthy (n=220) and non-mutated AOF patient samples (n=68) but absented in five sporadic patients with the novel variant. Furthermore, abnormal of cilia was observed after editing the target sequence on CROCC using CRISPR-Cas9. These results suggested that AOF might be caused by the mutation of the variant c.4702C>T:p.R1568C in CROCC. With strong amino acid conservation and interaction regulation, the variant mutation could cause the signal disorder of skeletal development which may lead to the defective bone formation and finally cause the development of AOF

Chemical characteristics of cloud water and the impacts on aerosol properties at a subtropical mountain site in Hong Kong SAR

To investigate the cloud water chemistry and the effects of cloud processing on aerosol properties, comprehensive field observations of cloud water, aerosols, and gasphase species were conducted at a mountaintop site in Hong Kong SAR in October and November 2016. The chemical composition of cloud water including water-soluble ions, dissolved organic matter (DOM), carbonyl compounds (refer to aldehydes and acetone), carboxylic acids, and trace metals was quantified. The measured cloud water was very acidic with a mean pH of 3.63, as the ammonium (174 μeq L-1) was insufficient for neutralizing the dominant sulfate (231 μeq L-1) and nitrate (160 μeq L-1). Substantial DOM (9.3 mgC L-1) was found in cloud water, with carbonyl compounds and carboxylic acids accounting for 18% and 6% in carbon molar concentrations, respectively. Different from previous observations, concentrations of methylglyoxal (19.1 μM; μM is equal to μmol L-1) and glyoxal (6.72 μM) were higher than that of formaldehyde (1.59 μM). The partitioning of carbonyls between cloud water and the gas phase was also investigated. The measured aqueous fractions of dicarbonyls were comparable to the theoretical estimations, while significant aqueous-phase supersaturation was found for less soluble monocarbonyls. Both organics and sulfate were significantly produced in cloud water, and the aqueous formation of organics was more enhanced by photochemistry and under less acidic conditions. Moreover, elevated sulfate and organics were measured in the cloudprocessed aerosols, and they were expected to contribute largely to the increase in droplet-mode aerosol mass fraction. This study demonstrates the significant role of clouds in altering the chemical compositions and physical properties of aerosols via scavenging and aqueous chemical processing, providing valuable information about gas-cloud-aerosol interactions in subtropical and coastal regions. © 2020 Author(s). This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

Phenotypic and functional alteration of CD45+ immune cells in the decidua of preeclampsia patients analyzed by mass cytometry (CyTOF)

Preeclampsia (PE) is a severe placenta-related pregnancy disease that has been associated with maternal systemic inflammation and immune system disorders. However, the distribution and functional changes in immune cells of the maternal–placental interface have not been well characterized. Herein, cytometry by time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CyTOF) was used to investigate the immune atlas at the decidua, which was obtained from four PE patients and four healthy controls. Six superclusters were identified, namely, T cells, B cells, natural killer (NK) cells, monocytes, granulocytes, and others. B cells were significantly decreased in the PE group, among which the reduction in CD27+CD38+ regulatory B cell (Breg)-like cells may stimulate immune activation in PE. The significantly increased migration of B cells could be linked to the significantly overexpressed chemokine C-X-C receptor 5 (CXCR5) in the PE group, which may result in the production of excessive autoantibodies and the pathogenesis of PE. A subset of T cells, CD11c+CD8+ T cells, was significantly decreased in PE and might lead to sustained immune activation in PE patients. NK cells were ultimately separated into four subsets. The significant reduction in a novel subset of NK cells (CD56-CD49a-CD38+) in PE might have led to the failure to suppress inflammation at the maternal–fetal interface during PE progression. Moreover, the expression levels of functional markers were significantly altered in the PE group, which also inferred that shifts in the decidual immune state contributed to the development of PE and might serve as potential treatment targets. This is a worthy attempt to elaborate the differences in the phenotype and function of CD45+ immune cells in the decidua between PE and healthy pregnancies by CyTOF, which contributes to understand the pathogenesis of PE, and the altered cell subsets and markers may inspire the immune modulatory therapy for PE

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Multidifferential study of identified charged hadron distributions in ZZ-tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at s=\sqrt{s}=13 TeV

Jet fragmentation functions are measured for the first time in proton-proton collisions for charged pions, kaons, and protons within jets recoiling against a $Z$ boson. The charged-hadron distributions are studied longitudinally and transversely to the jet direction for jets with transverse momentum 20 $< p_{\textrm{T}} < 100$ GeV and in the pseudorapidity range $2.5 < \eta < 4$. The data sample was collected with the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.64 fb$^{-1}$. Triple differential distributions as a function of the hadron longitudinal momentum fraction, hadron transverse momentum, and jet transverse momentum are also measured for the first time. This helps constrain transverse-momentum-dependent fragmentation functions. Differences in the shapes and magnitudes of the measured distributions for the different hadron species provide insights into the hadronization process for jets predominantly initiated by light quarks.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-013.html (LHCb public pages

Study of the B−→Λc+Λˉc−K−B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-} decay

The decay $B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-}$ is studied in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment. In the $\Lambda_{c}^+ K^{-}$ system, the $\Xi_{c}(2930)^{0}$ state observed at the BaBar and Belle experiments is resolved into two narrower states, $\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}$ and $\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}$, whose masses and widths are measured to be $$m(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = 2924.5 \pm 0.4 \pm 1.1 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ m(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = 2938.5 \pm 0.9 \pm 2.3 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = \phantom{000}4.8 \pm 0.9 \pm 1.5 \,\mathrm{MeV},\\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = \phantom{00}11.0 \pm 1.9 \pm 7.5 \,\mathrm{MeV},$$ where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The results are consistent with a previous LHCb measurement using a prompt $\Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-}$ sample. Evidence of a new $\Xi_{c}(2880)^{0}$ state is found with a local significance of $3.8\,\sigma$, whose mass and width are measured to be $2881.8 \pm 3.1 \pm 8.5\,\mathrm{MeV}$ and $12.4 \pm 5.3 \pm 5.8 \,\mathrm{MeV}$, respectively. In addition, evidence of a new decay mode $\Xi_{c}(2790)^{0} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-}$ is found with a significance of $3.7\,\sigma$. The relative branching fraction of $B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-}$ with respect to the $B^{-} \to D^{+} D^{-} K^{-}$ decay is measured to be $2.36 \pm 0.11 \pm 0.22 \pm 0.25$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third originates from the branching fractions of charm hadron decays.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-028.html (LHCb public pages