Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load and Their Association with C-Reactive Protein and Incident Type 2 Diabetes

Objective. To investigate whether the Glycemic Index (GI) or Glycemic Load (GL) of a diet is associated with C-reactive Protein (CRP) and risk of type 2 diabetes in a prospective study. Materials and Methods. Our analysis included 4,366 participants who did not have diabetes at baseline. During follow-up 456 diabetes cases were confirmed. Dietary GI and GL were derived from a food-frequency questionnaire and its association with CRP was examined cross-sectionally using linear regression models. The association of GI and GL with diabetes incidence was examined using Cox proportional hazard models. Results. GL, but not GI, was associated with lnCRP at baseline (bGL = 0.11 per 50 units; P = .01). When comparing the highest to the lowest tertile of GI with respect to diabetes incidence, a Relative Risk (RR) of 0.95 [95%CI 0.75, 1.21] was found after adjustment for lifestyle and nutritional factors. For GL the RR for diabetes incidence was 1.00 [95%CI 0.74, 1.36]. Additional adjustment for CRP did not change RRs. Conclusion. Since GI was not associated with CRP and risk of type 2 diabetes, it is unlikely that a high GI diet induces the previously shown positive association between CRP and risk of type 2 diabetes by increasing CRP concentrations

Eating Fish and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A population-based, prospective follow-up study

Objective: To investigate the relation between total fish, type of fish (lean and fatty), and EPA&DHA intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in a population-based cohort. Research design and methods: The analysis included 4,472 Dutch participants aged =55 years without diabetes at baseline. Dietary intake was assessed with a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Hazard ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were used to examine risk associations adjusted for age, sex, lifestyle, and nutritional factors. Results: After 15 years of follow-up, 463 participants developed type 2 diabetes. Median fish intake, mainly lean fish (81% ), was 10 g/d. Total fish intake was associated positively with risk of type 2 diabetes; the RR was 1.32 (95% CI 1.02, 1.70) in the highest total fish group (=28 g/d) compared with non-fish eaters (p for trend= 0.04). Correspondingly, lean fish intake tended to be associated positively with type 2 diabetes (RR highest group (=23 g/d): 1.30 (95% CI 1.01, 1.68), p for trend= 0.06), but fatty fish was not. No association was observed between EPA&DHA intake and type 2 diabetes (RR highest group (=149.4 mg/d): 1.22 (95% CI 0.97, 1.53)). When additionally adjusted for intake of selenium, cholesterol, and vitamin D this RR decreased to 1.05 (95% CI 0.80, 1.38) (p for trend= 0.77). Conclusion: The findings do not support a beneficial effect of total fish, type of fish, or EPA&DHA intake on the risk of type 2 diabetes. Alternatively, other dietary components, like selenium, and unmeasured contaminants present in fish might explain our result

Charge transport and trapping in Cs-doped poly(dialkoxy-p-phenylene vinylene) light-emitting diodes

Al/Cs/MDMO-PPV/ITO (where MDMO-PPV stands for poly[2-methoxy-5-(3'-7'-dimethyloctyloxy)-1,4phenylene vinylene] and ITO is indium tin oxide) light-emitting diode (LED) structures, made by physical vapor deposition of Cs on the emissive polymer layer, have been characterized by electroluminescence, current-voltage, and admittance spectroscopy. Deposition of Cs is found to improve the balance between electron and hole currents, enhancing the external electroluminescence efficiency from 0.01 cd A-1 for the bare Al cathode to a maximum of 1.3 cd A-1 for a Cs coverage of only 1.5×1014 atoms/cm2. By combining I-V and admittance spectra with model calculations, in which Cs diffusion profiles are explicitly taken into account, this effect could be attributed to a potential drop at the cathode interface due to a Cs-induced electron donor level 0.61 eV below the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital. In addition, the admittance spectra in the hole-dominated regime are shown to result from space-charge-limited conduction combined with charge relaxation in trap levels. This description allows us to directly determine the carrier mobility, even in the presence of traps. In contrast to recent literature, we demonstrate that there is no need to include dispersive transport in the description of the carrier mobility to explain the excess capacitance that is typically observed in admittance spectra of p-conjugated materials

Chronic Consumption of Farmed Salmon Containing Persistent Organic Pollutants Causes Insulin Resistance and Obesity in Mice

Background: Dietary interventions are critical in the prevention of metabolic diseases. Yet, the effects of fatty fish consumption on type 2 diabetes remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a diet containing farmed salmon prevents or contributes to insulin resistance in mice. Methodology/Principal Findings: Adult male C57BL/6J mice were fed control diet (C), a very high-fat diet without or with farmed Atlantic salmon fillet (VHF and VHF/S, respectively), and Western diet without or with farmed Atlantic salmon fillet (WD and WD/S, respectively). Other mice were fed VHF containing farmed salmon fillet with reduced concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (VHF/S-POPs). We assessed body weight gain, fat mass, insulin sensitivity, glucose tolerance, ex vivo muscle glucose uptake, performed histology and immunohistochemistry analysis, and investigated gene and protein expression. In comparison with animals fed VHF and WD, consumption of both VHF/S and WD/S exaggerated insulin resistance, visceral obesity, and glucose intolerance. In addition, the ability of insulin to stimulate Akt phosphorylation and muscle glucose uptake was impaired in mice fed farmed salmon. Relative to VHF/S-fed mice, animals fed VHF/S-POPs had less body burdens of POPs, accumulated less visceral fat, and had reduced mRNA levels of TNFa as well as macrophage infiltration in adipose tissue. VHF/S-POPs-fed mice further exhibited better insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance than mice fed VHF/S. Conclusions/Significance: Our data indicate that intake of farmed salmon fillet contributes to several metabolic disorders linked to type 2 diabetes and obesity, and suggest a role of POPs in these deleterious effects. Overall, these findings may participate to improve nutritional strategies for the prevention and therapy of insulin resistance

Dietary intakes of individual flavanols and flavonols are inversely associated with incident type 2 diabetes in European populations.

Dietary flavanols and flavonols, flavonoid subclasses, have been recently associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Europe. Even within the same subclass, flavonoids may differ considerably in bioavailability and bioactivity. We aimed to examine the association between individual flavanol and flavonol intakes and risk of developing T2D across European countries. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-InterAct case-cohort study was conducted in 8 European countries across 26 study centers with 340,234 participants contributing 3.99 million person-years of follow-up, among whom 12,403 incident T2D cases were ascertained and a center-stratified subcohort of 16,154 individuals was defined. We estimated flavonoid intake at baseline from validated dietary questionnaires using a database developed from Phenol-Explorer and USDA databases. We used country-specific Prentice-weighted Cox regression models and random-effects meta-analysis methods to estimate HRs. Among the flavanol subclass, we observed significant inverse trends between intakes of all individual flavan-3-ol monomers and risk of T2D in multivariable models (all P-trend < 0.05). We also observed significant trends for the intakes of proanthocyanidin dimers (HR for the highest vs. the lowest quintile: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.71, 0.92; P-trend = 0.003) and trimers (HR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.80, 1.04; P-trend = 0.07) but not for proanthocyanidins with a greater polymerization degree. Among the flavonol subclass, myricetin (HR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.64, 0.93; P-trend = 0.001) was associated with a lower incidence of T2D. This large and heterogeneous European study showed inverse associations between all individual flavan-3-ol monomers, proanthocyanidins with a low polymerization degree, and the flavonol myricetin and incident T2D. These results suggest that individual flavonoids have different roles in the etiology of T2D.The EPIC-InterAct Study was supported by the European Union (Integrated Project LSHM-CT-2006-037197 in the Framework Programme 6 of the European Community). In addition, InterAct investigators acknowledge funding from the following agencies: R.Z.-R. was supported by a postdoctoral program Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS; no. CD09/00133) from the Spanish Ministry of Science; R.Z.-R. and C.A.G. were supported by the Health Research Fund (FIS) of the Spanish Ministry of Health (RTICC DR06/0020/0091); core support from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit is acknowledged for program MC_UU_12015/1 and MC_UU_12015/5; Y.T.v.d.S. was supported by NL Agency grant IGE05012 and an Incentive Grant from the Board of the UMC Utrecht (Netherlands); A.M.W.S. and D.L.v.d.A. were supported by the Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare, and Sports, Netherlands Cancer Registry, LK Research Funds, Dutch Prevention Funds, Dutch ZON, World Cancer Research Fund, and Statistics Netherlands; T.J.K. and K.-T.K. were supported by Cancer Research UK; G.F., M.T., and F.P. were supported by Ligue contre le Cancer, Institut Gustave Roussy, Mutuelle Générale de l’Education Nationale, INSERM; G.M. was supported by Ministero della Salute Regione Toscana Progetto Integrato Oncologia–PIO; P.W.F. was supported by the Swedish Research Council, Novo Nordisk, the Swedish Heart Lung Foundation, and the Swedish Diabetes Association; L.B., K.O., N.R., and A.T. were supported by the Danish Cancer Society; V.K. and T.K. were supported by Deutsche Krebshilfe; A.M. was supported by Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro; M.L.R. was supported by the Asturias Regional Government; M.G., P.A., E.M.-M., and M.J.T. were supported by the Health Research Fund of the Spanish Ministry of Health, CIBER Epidemiology and Public Health (Spain); M.J.T. was supported by the Murcia Regional Government; and R.T. was supported by AIRE-ONLUS Ragusa, AVIS-Ragusa, the Sicilian Regional Government.This is the final published version distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which can also be found on the publisher's website at: http://jn.nutrition.org/content/144/3/335.ful

Bordetella pertussis-infected innate immune cells drive the anti-pertussis response of human airway epithelium

Pertussis is a severe respiratory tract infection caused by Bordetella pertussis. This bacterium infects the ciliated epithelium of the human airways. We investigated the epithelial cell response to B. pertussis infection in primary human airway epithelium (HAE) differentiated at air-liquid interface. Infection of the HAE cells mimicked several hallmarks of B. pertussis infection such as reduced epithelial barrier integrity and abrogation of mucociliary transport. Our data suggests mild immunological activation of HAE by B. pertussis indicated by secretion of IL-6 and CXCL8 and the enrichment of genes involved in bacterial recognition and innate immune processes. We identified IL-1β and IFNγ, present in conditioned media derived from B. pertussis-infected macrophage and NK cells, as essential immunological factors for inducing robust chemokine secretion by HAE in response to B. pertussis. In transwell migration assays, the chemokine-containing supernatants derived from this HAE induced monocyte migration. Our data suggests that the airway epithelium on its own has a limited immunological response to B. pertussis and that for a broad immune response communication with local innate immune cells is necessary. This highlights the importance of intercellular communication in the defense against B. pertussis infection and may assist in the rational design of improved pertussis vaccines