Daily physical activity and macronutrient distribution of low-calorie diets jointly affect body fat reduction in obese women.

Inadequate dietary patterns and sedentary lifestyles are believed to be important factors in predisposing people to obesity. This study analyzed the potential interaction between habitual physical activity and the carbohydrate (CHO)-fat distribution in 2 hypocaloric diets and the impact of such interplay on body composition changes. Forty healthy obese women, 20–50 years old, were randomly assigned to a high- or low-CHO energy-restricted diet, which was low or high in fat, respectively, during 10 weeks. Baseline and final measurements were performed to assess dietary habits, resting metabolic rate, and body composition changes. Physical activity was measured with a triaxial accelerometer and with a questionnaire. There were no significant differences in anthropometric and metabolic variables between both dietary groups at baseline. However, there was a positive correlation between total free-living physical activity and arm muscle preservation after 10 weeks (r = 0.371; p = 0.024). Interestingly, an interaction between macronutrient (CHO–fat distribution) intake and physical activity was found, since less-active subjects with a high-CHO–low-fat diet showed a greater fat loss than those more active with a lower-CHO–high-fat diet, whereas more-active subjects with a high-CHO–low-fat diet showed a smaller fat loss than those receiving a low-CHO–high-fat diet. Physical activity and the macronutrient content of energyrestricted diets, when designed to promote body fat mass reduction, should be considered together to better predict the outcome

Distinct roles for strigolactones in cyst nematode parasitism of Arabidopsis roots

Phytohormones play an essential role in different stages of plant-nematode interactions. Strigolactones (SLs) are a novel class of plant hormones which play an important role in plant development. Furthermore, certain soil-inhabiting organisms exploit this plant molecule as allelochemical. However, whether SLs play a role in plant parasitism by nematodes is as yet unknown. This prompted us to investigate the potential role of SLs in different stages of the nematode life cycle using the beet cyst nematode Heterodera schachtii and Arabidopsis as a model system. We analyzed the effect of SLs on cyst nematode hatching, host attraction and invasion, and the establishment of a feeding relation upon infection of the SL deficient mutant max4-1 and the SL signaling mutant max2-1. In addition, infection assays were performed under phosphate shortage to enhance SL production and in the presence of the synthetic SL analog GR24. From this study, we can conclude that SLs do not contribute to cyst nematode hatching at the levels tested but that they do play a role in host attraction and subsequent invasion in a MAX2 dependent manner. Furthermore, we observed that increased levels of exogenous and endogenous SLs change the root invasion zone. Upon root infection, cyst nematode development was enhanced in both the max2-1 and max4-1 mutants due to the formation of enlarged feeding cells. These data provide evidence for distinct roles of SLs during cyst nematode parasitism of plant roots

The trans-activation domain of the sporulation response regulator Spo0A revealed by X-ray crystallography

Sporulation in Bacillus involves the induction of scores of genes in a temporally and spatially co-ordinated programme of cell development. Its initiation is under the control of an expanded two-component signal transduction system termed a phosphorelay. The master control element in the decision to sporulate is the response regulator, Spo0A, which comprises a receiver or phosphoacceptor domain and an effector or transcription activation domain. The receiver domain of Spo0A shares sequence similarity with numerous response regulators, and its structure has been determined in phosphorylated and unphosphorylated forms. However, the effector domain (C-Spo0A) has no detectable sequence similarity to any other protein, and this lack of structural information is an obstacle to understanding how DNA binding and transcription activation are controlled by phosphorylation in Spo0A. Here, we report the crystal structure of C-Spo0A from Bacillus stearothermophilus revealing a single alpha -helical domain comprising six alpha -helices in an unprecedented fold. The structure contains a helix-turn-helix as part of a three alpha -helical bundle reminiscent of the catabolite gene activator protein (CAP), suggesting a mechanism for DNA binding. The residues implicated in forming the sigma (A)-activating region clearly cluster in a flexible segment of the polypeptide on the opposite side of the structure from that predicted to interact with DNA. The structural results are discussed in the context of the rich array of existing mutational data

Orbital Polarons in the Metal-Insulator Transition of Manganites

The metal-insulator transition in manganites is strongly influenced by the concentration of holes present in the system. Based upon an orbitally degenerate Mott-Hubbard model we analyze two possible localization scenarios to account for this doping dependence: First, we rule out that the transition is initiated by a disorder-order crossover in the orbital sector, showing that its effect on charge mobility is only small. Second, we introduce the idea of orbital polarons originating from a strong polarization of orbitals in the vicinity of holes. Considering this direct coupling between charge and orbital degree of freedom in addition to lattice effects we are able to explain well the phase diagram of manganites for low and intermediate hole concentrations

Utility of recombinant human TSH stimulation test in the follow-up of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer depending on basal thyroglobulin results

Background: Thyroglobulin (Tg) is fundamental for differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) monitoring. Tg detection can be enhanced using recombinant human thyroidstimulating hormone (TSH) (rhTSH). This study is aimed to evaluate the use of the rhTSH stimulation test when using a high-sensitivity Tg assay. Methods: We retrospectively studied 181 rhTSH tests from 114 patients with DTC and negative for antithyroglobulin antibodies (anti-TgAb). Image studies were performed in all cases. Serum Tg and anti-TgAb were measured using specific immunoassays. Results: rhTSH stimulation in patients with basal serum Tg (b-Tg) concentrations lower than 0.2 ng/mL always resulted in rhTSH-stimulated serum Tg (s-Tg) concentrations lower than 1.0 ng/mL and negative structural disease. In patients with bTg concentration between 0.2 and 1.0 ng/mL, s-Tg detected one patient (1/30) who showed biochemical incomplete response. Patients with negative images had lower s-Tg than thosewith nonspecific or abnormal findings (p<0.05).Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of the s-Tg to detect altered images showed an area under the curve of 0.763 (p<0.05).With an s-Tg cutoff of 0.85 ng/mL, the sensitivity was 100%, decreasing to 96.15% with an s-Tg cutoff of 2 ng/mL. Conclusions: Patients with DTC with b-Tg concentrations equal or higher than 0.2 ng/mL can benefit from the rhTSH stimulation test

Fetal phthalates and bisphenols and childhood lipid and glucose metabolism. A population-based prospective cohort study

Background and aims: Fetal exposure to endocrine disruptors such as phthalates and bisphenols may lead to developmental metabolic adaptations. We examined associations of maternal phthalate and bisphenol urine concentrations during pregnancy with lipids, insulin, and glucose concentrations at school age. Methods: In a population-based, prospective cohort study among 757 mother–child pairs, we measured maternal phthalate and bisphenol urine concentrations in first, second and third trimester of pregnancy. We measured non-fasting lipids, glucose and insulin blood concentrations of their children at a mean age of 9.7 (standard deviation 0.2) years. Analyses were performed for boys and girls separately. Results: An interquartile range (IQR) higher natural log transformed third trimester maternal urine phthalic acid concentration was associated with a 0.20 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.07–0.34) standard deviation score (SDS) higher triglycerides concentration among boys. Maternal bisphenol urine concentrations were not associated with non-fasting lipid concentrations during childhood. An IQR higher natural log transformed second trimester maternal high molecular weight phthalates (HMWP) and di-2-ethylhexylphthalate (DEHP) urine concentration were associated with a 0.19 (95% CI 0.31–0.07) respectively 0.18 (95% CI 0.31–0.06) SDS lower glucose concentration among boys. An IQR higher natural log transfor