Diet quality in late midlife is associated with faster walking speed in later life in women, but not men: findings from a prospective British birth cohort

Healthy diet has been linked to better age-related physical functioning, but evidence on the relationship of overall diet quality in late midlife and clinically relevant measures of physical functioning in later life is limited. Research on potential sex differences in this relationship is scarce. The aim was to investigate the prospective association between overall diet quality, as assessed by the Healthy Eating Index-2015 at age 60-64y and measures of walking speed seven years later, among men and women from the Insight46, a neuroscience sub-study of the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development. Diet was assessed at age 60-64y using five-day food diaries, from which total HEI-2015 was calculated. At age 69-71y, walking speed was estimated during four 10-meter walks at self-selected pace, using inertial measurement units. Multivariable linear regression models with sex as modifier, controlling for age, follow-up, lifestyle, health, social variables and physical performance were used. The final sample was 164 women and 167 men (n=331). Women had higher HEI-2015 scores and slower walking speed than men. A 10 point increase in HEI-2015 was associated with faster walking speed seven years later among women (B: 0.024, 95% CI: 0.006, 0.043), but not men. The association remained significant in the multivariable model (B: 0.021, 95% CI: 0.003, 0.040). In women in late midlife higher diet quality is associated with faster walking speed. A healthy diet in late midlife is likely to contribute towards better age-related physical capability and sex differences are likely to affect this relationship

Diet quality in late midlife is associated with faster walking speed in later life in women, but not men

Healthy diet has been linked to better age-related physical functioning, but evidence on the relationship of overall diet quality in late midlife and clinically relevant measures of physical functioning in later life is limited. Research on potential sex differences in this relationship is scarce. The aim was to investigate the prospective association between overall diet quality, as assessed by the Healthy Eating Index-2015 at age 60-64y and measures of walking speed seven years later, among men and women from the Insight46, a neuroscience sub-study of the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development. Diet was assessed at age 60-64y using five-day food diaries, from which total HEI-2015 was calculated. At age 69-71y, walking speed was estimated during four 10-meter walks at self-selected pace, using inertial measurement units. Multivariable linear regression models with sex as modifier, controlling for age, follow-up, lifestyle, health, social variables and physical performance were used. The final sample was 164 women and 167 men (n=331). Women had higher HEI-2015 scores and slower walking speed than men. A 10 point increase in HEI-2015 was associated with faster walking speed seven years later among women (B: 0.024, 95% CI: 0.006, 0.043), but not men. The association remained significant in the multivariable model (B: 0.021, 95% CI: 0.003, 0.040). In women in late midlife higher diet quality is associated with faster walking speed. A healthy diet in late midlife is likely to contribute towards better age-related physical capability and sex differences are likely to affect this relationship

Cell-scale degradation of peritumoural extracellular matrix fibre network and its role within tissue-scale cancer invasion

Local cancer invasion of tissue is a complex, multiscale process which plays an essential role in tumour progression. Occurring over many different temporal and spatial scales, the first stage of invasion is the secretion of matrix degrading enzymes (MDEs) by the cancer cells that consequently degrade the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). This process is vital for creating space in which the cancer cells can progress and it is driven by the activities of specific matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). In this paper, we consider the key role of two MMPs by developing further the novel two-part multiscale model introduced in [33] to better relate at micro-scale the two micro-scale activities that were considered there, namely, the micro-dynamics concerning the continuous rearrangement of the naturally oriented ECM fibres within the bulk of the tumour and MDEs proteolytic micro-dynamics that take place in an appropriate cell-scale neighbourhood of the tumour boundary. Focussing primarily on the activities of the membrane-tethered MT1-MMP and the soluble MMP-2 with the fibrous ECM phase, in this work we investigate the MT1-MMP/MMP-2 cascade and its overall effect on tumour progression. To that end, we will propose a new multiscale modelling framework by considering the degradation of the ECM fibres not only to take place at macro-scale in the bulk of the tumour but also explicitly in the micro-scale neighbourhood of the tumour interface as a consequence of the interactions with molecular fluxes of MDEs that exercise their spatial dynamics at the invasive edge of the tumour

Non-Rigid Multi-Frame registration of cell nuclei in live cell fluorescence microscopy image data

The analysis of the motion of subcellular particles in live cell microscopy images is essential for understanding biological processes within cells. For accurate quantification of the particle motion, compensation of the motion and deformation of the cell nucleus is required. We introduce a non-rigid multi-frame registration approach for live cell fluorescence microscopy image data. Compared to existing approaches using pairwise registration, our approach exploits information from multiple consecutive images simultaneously to improve the registration accuracy. We present three intensity-based variants of the multi-frame registration approach and we investigate two different temporal weighting schemes. The approach has been successfully applied to synthetic and live cell microscopy image sequences, and an experimental comparison with non-rigid pairwise registration has been carried out

Herpesviral Replication Compartments Move and Coalesce at Nuclear Speckles to Enhance Export of Viral Late mRNA

The role of the intranuclear movement of chromatin in gene expression is not well understood. Herpes simplex virus forms replication compartments (RCs) in infected cell nuclei as sites of viral DNA replication and late gene transcription. These structures develop from small compartments that grow in size, move and coalesce. Quantitative analysis of RC trajectories, derived from 4D images, show that most RCs move by directed motion. Directed movement is impaired in the presence of actin and myosin inhibitors as well as a transcription inhibitor. In addition, RCs coalesce at and reorganize nuclear speckles. Lastly, distinct effects of actin and myosin inhibitors on viral gene expression suggest that RC movement is not required for transcription but rather, movement results in the bridging of transcriptionally active RCs with nuclear speckles to form structures that enhance export of viral late mRNAs