The risk of child and adolescent overweight is related to types of food consumed

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background/Aims</p> <p>To investigate the association between the risk of overweight and the consumption of food groups in children and adolescents.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We studied 1764 healthy children and adolescents (age 6-19y) attending 16 Seventh-Day Adventist schools and 13 public schools using a 106-item non-quantitative food frequency questionnaire from the late 1980 Child-Adolescent Blood Pressure Study. Logistic regression models were used to compute the risk of overweight according to consumption of grains, nuts, vegetables, fruits, meats/fish/eggs, dairy, and, low nutrient-dense foods (LNDF).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The frequency of consumption of grains, nuts, vegetables and LNDF were inversely related to the risk of being overweight and dairy increased the risk. Specifically, the odds ratio (95% CI) for children in the highest quartile or tertile of consumption compared with the lowest quartile or tertile were as follows: grains 0.59(0.41-0.83); nuts 0.60(0.43-0.85); vegetables 0.67(0.48-0.94); LNDF 0.43(0.29-0.63); and, dairy 1.36(0.97, 1.92).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The regular intake of specific plant foods may prevent overweight among children and adolescents.</p

Mobility, Balance and Falls in Persons with Multiple Sclerosis

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of information concerning the relation between objective measures of gait and balance and fall history in persons with MS (PwMS). This investigation assessed the relation between demographic, clinical, mobility and balance metrics and falls history in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). METHODS: 52 ambulatory persons with MS (PwMS) participated in the investigation. All persons provided demographic information including fall history over the last 12 months. Disease status was assessed with Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Walking speed, coordination, endurance and postural control were quantified with a multidimensional mobility battery. RESULTS: Over 51% of the participants fell in the previous year with 79% of these people being suffering recurrent falls. Overall, fallers were older, had a greater prevalence of assistive devices use, worse disability, decreased walking endurance, and greater postural sway velocity with eyes closed compared to non-fallers. Additionally, fallers had greater impairment in cerebellar, sensory, pyramidal, and bladder/bowel subscales of the EDSS. CONCLUSIONS: The current observations suggest that PwMS who are older, more disabled, utilize an assistive device, have decreased walking coordination and endurance and have diminished balance have fallen in the previous year. This suggests that individuals who meet these criteria need to be carefully monitored for future falls. Future research is needed to determine a prospective model of falls specific to PwMS. Additionally, the utility of interventions aimed at reducing falls and fall risk in PwMS needs to be established

Involvement of TSC genes and differential expression of other members of the mTOR signaling pathway in oral squamous cell carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite extensive research, the five-year survival rate of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients has not improved. Effective treatment of OSCC requires the identification of molecular targets and signaling pathways to design appropriate therapeutic strategies. Several genes from the mTOR signaling pathway are known to be dysregulated in a wide spectrum of cancers. However, not much is known about the involvement of this pathway in tumorigenesis of OSCC. We therefore investigated the role of the tumor suppressor genes, <it>TSC1 </it>and <it>TSC2</it>, and other members of this pathway in tumorigenesis of OSCC.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Expression of genes at the RNA and protein levels was examined by semi-quantitative RT-PCR and western blot analyses, respectively. Loss of heterozygosity was studied using matched blood and tumor DNA samples and microsatellite markers from the <it>TSC1</it>, <it>TSC2 </it>and <it>PTEN </it>candidate regions. The effect of promoter methylation on TSC gene expression was studied by treating cells with methyltransferase inhibitor 5-azacytidine. Methylation status of the <it>TSC2 </it>promoter in tissue samples was examined by combined bisulfite restriction analysis (COBRA).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed downregulation of <it>TSC1</it>, <it>TSC2</it>, <it>EIF4EBP1 </it>and <it>PTEN</it>, and upregulation of <it>PIK3C2A</it>, <it>AKT1</it>, <it>PDPK1</it>, <it>RHEB</it>, <it>FRAP1</it>, <it>RPS6KB1</it>, <it>EIF4E </it>and <it>RPS6 </it>in tumors. A similar observation was made for AKT1 and RPS6KB1 expression in tumors at the protein level. Investigation of the mechanism of downregulation of TSC genes identified LOH in 36.96% and 39.13% of the tumors at the TSC1 and TSC2 loci, respectively. No mutation was found in TSC genes. A low LOH rate of 13% was observed at the PTEN locus. Treatment of an OSCC cell line with the methyltransferase inhibitor 5-azacytidine showed a significant increase in the expression of TSC genes, suggesting methylation of their promoters. However, the 5-azacytidine treatment of non-OSCC HeLa cells showed a significant increase in the expression of the <it>TSC2 </it>gene only. In order to confirm the results in patient tumor samples, the methylation status of the <it>TSC2 </it>gene promoter was examined by COBRA. The results suggested promoter hypermethylation as an important mechanism for its downregulation. No correlation was found between the presence or absence of LOH at the TSC1 and TSC2 loci in 50 primary tumors to their clinicopathological variables such as age, sex, T classification, stage, grade, histology, tobacco habits and lymph node metastasis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study suggests the involvement of TSC genes and other members of the mTOR signaling pathway in the pathogenesis of OSCC. LOH and promoter methylation are two important mechanisms for downregulation of TSC genes. We suggest that known inhibitors of this pathway could be evaluated for the treatment of OSCC.</p

Declining extra-pair paternity with laying order associated with initial incubation behavior, but independent of final clutch size in the blue tit

Although functional explanations for female engagement in extra-pair copulation have been studied extensively in birds, little is known about how extra-pair paternity is linked to other fundamental aspects of avian reproduction. However, recent studies indicate that the occurrence of extra-pair offspring may generally decline with laying order, possibly because stimulation by eggs induces incubation, which may suppress female motivation to acquire extra-pair paternity. Here we tested whether experimental inhibition of incubation during the laying phase, induced by the temporary removal of eggs, resulted in increased extra-pair paternity, in concert with a later cessation of laying, in blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus). As expected, experimental females showed a more gradual increase in nocturnal incubation duration over the laying phase and produced larger clutches than controls. Moreover, incubation duration on the night after the first egg was laid predicted how extra-pair paternity declined with laying order, with less incubation being associated with more extra-pair offspring among the earliest eggs in the clutch. However, incubation duration on this first night was unrelated to our experimental treatment and independent of final clutch size. Consequently, the observed decline in extra-pair paternity with laying order was unaffected by our manipulation and larger clutches included proportionally fewer extra-pair offspring. We suggest that female physiological state prior to laying, associated with incubation at the onset of laying, determines motivation to acquire extra-pair paternity independent of final clutch size. This decline in proportion of extra-pair offspring with clutch size may be a general pattern within bird species

Health Journalism Internships: A Social Marketing Strategy to Address Health Disparities

The USA seeks to eliminate health disparities by stimulating the rapid uptake of health-promoting behaviors within disadvantaged communities. A health journalism internship incorporates social marketing strategies to increase communities' access to cancer information, while helping the interns who are recruited from underrepresented communities gain admission to top graduate schools. Interns are taught basic health journalism skills that enable them to create immediate streams of cancer-related press releases for submission to community newspapers. Interns are charged with the social responsibility of continuing this dissemination process throughout their careers. Intermediate outcomes are measured as mediators of distal behavioral change goals

Frequency of nut consumption and mortality risk in the PREDIMED nutrition intervention trial

BackgroundProspective studies in non-Mediterranean populations have consistently related increasing nut consumption to lower coronary heart disease mortality. A small protective effect on all-cause and cancer mortality has also been suggested. To examine the association between frequency of nut consumption and mortality in individuals at high cardiovascular risk from Spain, a Mediterranean country with a relatively high average nut intake per person.MethodsWe evaluated 7,216 men and women aged 55 to 80 years randomized to 1 of 3 interventions (Mediterranean diets supplemented with nuts or olive oil and control diet) in the PREDIMED (‘PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea’) study. Nut consumption was assessed at baseline and mortality was ascertained by medical records and linkage to the National Death Index. Multivariable-adjusted Cox regression and multivariable analyses with generalized estimating equation models were used to assess the association between yearly repeated measurements of nut consumption and mortality.ResultsDuring a median follow-up of 4.8 years, 323 total deaths, 81 cardiovascular deaths and 130 cancer deaths occurred. Nut consumption was associated with a significantly reduced risk of all-cause mortality (P for trend 3 servings/week (32% of the cohort) had a 39% lower mortality risk (hazard ratio (HR) 0.61; 95% CI 0.45 to 0.83). A similar protective effect against cardiovascular and cancer mortality was observed. Participants allocated to the Mediterranean diet with nuts group who consumed nuts >3 servings/week at baseline had the lowest total mortality risk (HR 0.37; 95% CI 0.22 to 0.66).ConclusionsIncreased frequency of nut consumption was associated with a significantly reduced risk of mortality in a Mediterranean population at high cardiovascular risk.Please see related commentary: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/11/165.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov. International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN): 35739639. Registration date: 5 October 2005

Nanoscale structure of amyloid-β plaques in Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract Soluble amyloid-β (Aβ) is considered to be a critical component in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Evidence suggests that these non-fibrillar Aβ assemblies are implicated in synaptic dysfunction, neurodegeneration and cell death. However, characterization of these species comes mainly from studies in cellular or animal models, and there is little data in intact human samples due to the lack of adequate optical microscopic resolution to study these small structures. Here, to achieve super-resolution in all three dimensions, we applied Array Tomography (AT) and Stimulated Emission Depletion microscopy (STED), to characterize in postmortem human brain tissue non-fibrillar Aβ structures in amyloid plaques of cases with autosomal dominant and sporadic AD. Ultrathin sections scanned with super-resolution STED microscopy allowed the detection of small Aβ structures of the order of 100 nm. We reconstructed a whole human amyloid plaque and established that plaques are formed by a dense core of higher order Aβ species (~0.022 µm3) and a peripheral halo of smaller Aβ structures (~0.003 µm3). This work highlights the potential of AT-STED for human neuropathological studies

Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 (nu ITS2 rRNA) Sequence-Structure Phylogenetics: Towards an Automated Reconstruction of the Green Algal Tree of Life

L). Some have advocated the use of the nuclear-encoded, internal transcribed spacer two (ITS2) as an alternative to the traditional chloroplast markers. However, the ITS2 is broadly perceived to be insufficiently conserved or to be confounded by introgression or biparental inheritance patterns, precluding its broad use in phylogenetic reconstruction or as a DNA barcode. A growing body of evidence has shown that simultaneous analysis of nucleotide data with secondary structure information can overcome at least some of the limitations of ITS2. The goal of this investigation was to assess the feasibility of an automated, sequence-structure approach for analysis of IT2 data from a large sampling of phylum Chlorophyta.Sequences and secondary structures from 591 chlorophycean, 741 trebouxiophycean and 938 ulvophycean algae, all obtained from the ITS2 Database, were aligned using a sequence structure-specific scoring matrix. Phylogenetic relationships were reconstructed by Profile Neighbor-Joining coupled with a sequence structure-specific, general time reversible substitution model. Results from analyses of the ITS2 data were robust at multiple nodes and showed considerable congruence with results from published phylogenetic analyses.Our observations on the power of automated, sequence-structure analyses of ITS2 to reconstruct phylum-level phylogenies of the green algae validate this approach to assessing diversity for large sets of chlorophytan taxa. Moreover, our results indicate that objections to the use of ITS2 for DNA barcoding should be weighed against the utility of an automated, data analysis approach with demonstrated power to reconstruct evolutionary patterns for highly divergent lineages