Differential impact of low birth weight on PPAR and leptin expression in perirenal fat in male and female lambs

Scientific Abstract 93. Objective: Epidemiological studies have shown that a low birth weight coupled with a rapid postnatal growth rate is associated with an increased adiposity in adult life. We have investigated the impact of low birth weight and gender on the expression of genes that regulate the differentiation (PPARy, RXRa), insulin sensitivity (adiponectin) and lipid metabolism (leptin, LPL, G3PDH) of perirenal adipocytes in lambs at 21d of life. Methods: Lambs were separated into low birth weight (LBW, 4.5kg, n=15) groups. An Insulin RIA and competitive ELISA for leptin were used for plasma analyses. The relative quantity of PPARy, RXRa, leptin, adiponectin, LPL, and G3PDH mRNA in the perirenal fat depot was determined by qRT-PCR, and the mean size of adipocytes was determined using standard image analysis. Results: There was no difference between LBW and ABW lambs in the relative perirenal adipose tissue (PAT) mass at 21d. Plasma insulin concentrations during the first 24h after birth were strongly correlated with size of perirenal adipocytes at 21d (r²=0.57,

Past and projected trends of body mass index and weight status in South Australia:2003 to 2019

OBJECTIVE: Functional data analysis (FDA) is a forecasting approach that, to date, has not been applied to obesity, and that may provide more accurate forecasting analysis to manage uncertainty in public health. This paper uses FDA to provide projections of Body Mass Index (BMI), overweight and obesity in an Australian population through to 2019.  METHODS: Data from the South Australian Monitoring and Surveillance System (January 2003 to December 2012, n=51,618 adults) were collected via telephone interview survey. FDA was conducted in four steps: 1) age-gender specific BMIs for each year were smoothed using a weighted regression; 2) the functional principal components decomposition was applied to estimate the basis functions; 3) an exponential smoothing state space model was used for forecasting the coefficient series; and 4) forecast coefficients were combined with the basis function.  RESULTS: The forecast models suggest that between 2012 and 2019 average BMI will increase from 27.2 kg/m(2) to 28.0 kg/m(2) in males and 26.4 kg/m(2) to 27.6 kg/m(2) in females. The prevalence of obesity is forecast to increase by 6-7 percentage points by 2019 (to 28.7% in males and 29.2% in females).  CONCLUSIONS: Projections identify age-gender groups at greatest risk of obesity over time. The novel approach will be useful to facilitate more accurate planning and policy development

Fetal Leptin Is a Signal of Fat Mass Independent of Maternal Nutrition in Ewes Fed at or above Maintenance Energy Requirements

In adults, circulating leptin concentrations are dependent on body fat content and on current nutritional status. However, the relationships among maternal nutrient intake, fetal adiposity, and circulating leptin concentrations before birth are unknown. We investigated the effects of an increase in nutrient intake in the pregnant ewe on fetal adiposity and plasma leptin concentrations during late gestation. Between 115 and 139–141 days gestation (term = 147 ± 3 days gestation), ewes were fed a diet calculated to provide either maintenance (control, n = 6) or -155% of maintenance requirements (well-fed, n = 8). The fetal fat depots (perirenal and interscapular) were dissected, and the relative proportion of unilocular and multilocular adipocytes in each depot was determined. Maternal plasma glucose and leptin concentrations were significantly increased in well-fed ewes. Fetal plasma glucose concentrations were also higher in the well-fed group (115–139 days gestation: control, 1.65 ± 0.14 mmol/L; well-fed, 2.00 ± 0.14 mmol/L; F = 5.76,

Discursive Social Psychology: From Attitudes to Evaluative Practices

This is an electronic version of an article published in POTTER, J. Discursive social psychology: from attitudes to evaluative practices. European Review of Social Psychology, 9(1), pp. 233 - 266. European Review of Social Psychology is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/aboutThisJournal?journalCode=pers20This chapter reviews the major theoretical and methodological features of discursive social psychology and illustrates the scope and nature of this approach through showing the way it can respecify the social psychology of attitudes. It reviews discourse research on attitude variability; it describes conversation analytic studies on the way evaluations are managed in interaction and shows how our understanding of political oratory can be improved; it discusses the way evaluations are bound up with broader, culturally-defined systems of discourse; it discusses the relation between assessments and factual accounts; and finally it shows how a discursive approach can rework notions of function, consistency, vested interest and emotion