Nutritional supplements improve cardiovascular risk factors in overweight and obese patients: A Bayesian network meta-analysis

BackgroundOverweight and obesity are considered as one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). At present, many studies have proved that multiple nutritional supplements play an active role in metabolic diseases. However, the comparative efficacy of different nutritional supplements in improving indicators of cardiometabolic risk in obese and overweight patients is uncertain.MethodsCochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched for the period from January 1990 to March 2022. A random-effect model was built in the Bayesian network meta-analysis. The surface under the cumulative ranking analysis (SUCRA) and clustering rank analysis was performed for ranking the effects.ResultsThe study included 65 RCTs with 4,241 patients. In terms of glucose control, probiotic was more conductive to improve FBG (MD: −0.90; 95%CrI: −1.41 to −0.38), FINS (MD: −2.05; 95%CrI: −4.27 to −0.02), HOMA-IR (MD: −2.59; 95%CI −3.42 to −1.76). Probiotic (MD: −11.15, 95%CrI −22.16 to −1.26), omega-3 (MD: −9.45; 95%CrI: −20.69 to −0.93), VD (MD: −17.86; 95%CrI: −35.53 to −0.27), and probiotic +omega-3 (MD: 5.24; 95%CrI: 0.78 to 9.63) were beneficial to the improvement of TGs, TC and HDL-C, respectively. The SUCRA revealed that probiotic might be the best intervention to reduce FBG, FINS, HOMA-IR; Simultaneously, α-lipoic acid, VD, and probiotic + omega-3 might be the best intervention to improve TGs, TC, and HDL-C, respectively. Cluster-rank results revealed probiotic had the best comprehensive improvement effect on glucose metabolism, and probiotic + omega-3 may have a better comprehensive improvement effect on lipid metabolism (cluster-rank value for FBG and FINS: 3290.50 and for TGs and HDL-C: 2117.61).ConclusionNutritional supplementation is effective on CVD risk factors in overweight and obese patients. Probiotic supplementation might be the best intervention for blood glucose control; VD, probiotic + omega-3 have a better impact on improving lipid metabolism. Further studies are required to verify the current findings

Resveratrol reduces the inflammatory response in adipose tissue and improves adipose insulin signaling in high-fat diet-fed mice

Background Obesity-induced glucose metabolism disorder is associated with chronic, low-grade, systemic inflammation and is considered a risk factor for diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Resveratrol (RES), a natural anti-inflammatory compound, is observed to improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in obese rodents and humans. This study aimed to test the effects of RES administration on insulin signaling and the inflammatory response in visceral white adipose tissue (WAT) caused by a high-fat diet (HFD) in mice. Methods A total of 40 wild-type C57BL/6 male mice were divided into four groups (10 in each group): the standard chow diet (STD) group was fed a STD; the HFD group was fed a HFD; and the HFD-RES/L and HFD-RES/H groups were fed a HFD plus RES (200 and 400 mg/kg/day, respectively). The L and H in RES/L and RES/H stand for low and high, respectively. Glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, circulating inflammatory biomarkers and lipid profile were determined. Quantitative PCR and Western blot were used to determine the expression of CC-chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2), other inflammation markers, glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4), insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) and pAkt/Akt and to assess targets of interest involving glucose metabolism and inflammation in visceral WAT. Results HFD increased the levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and proinflammatory cytokines in serum, decreased the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level in serum, and induced insulin resistance and WAT inflammation in mice. However, RES treatment alleviated insulin resistance, increased the expressions of pAkt, GLUT4 and IRS-1 in WAT, and decreased serum proinflammatory cytokine levels, macrophage infiltration and CCR2 expression in WAT. Conclusion Our results indicated that WAT CCR2 may play a vital role in macrophage infiltration and the inflammatory response during the development of insulin resistance in HFD-induced obesity. These data suggested that administration of RES offers protection against abnormal glucose metabolism and inflammatory adaptations in visceral WAT in mice with HFD-induced obesity

BMI, waist circumference reference values for Chinese school-aged children and adolescents

Background: Childhood obesity has become one of the most serious public health challenges in the 21st century in most developing countries. The percentile curve tool is useful for monitoring and screening obesity at population level, however, in China, no official recommendations on childhood body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) reference percentiles have been made in practice. Aims: to construct the percentile reference values for BMI and WC, and then to calculate the prevalence of overall and abdominal obesity for Chinese children and adolescents. Methods: A total of 5062 anthropometric records for children and adolescents aged from 7 to 18 years (2679 boys and 2383 girls) were included for analysis. The participants were recruited as part of the national representative “China Health and Nutrition Survey” (CHNS). Age, gender, weight, height, and WC were assessed. Smoothed BMI and WC percentile curves and values for the 3rd, 5th, 10th, 15th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 85th, 90th, 95th and 97th percentiles were constructed by using the Lambda-Mu-Sigma (LMS) method. The prevalence estimates of the overall and abdominal obesity were calculated by using the cut-offs from our CHNS study and the previous “Chinese National Survey on Students’ Constitution and Health” (CNSSCH) study, respectively. The difference between prevalence estimates was tested by a McNemar test, and the agreement between these prevalence estimates was calculated by using the Cohen’s kappa coefficient. Results: The prevalence values of overall obesity based on the cut-offs from CHNS and CNSSCH studies were at an almost perfect agreement level in boys (κ = 0.93). However, among girls, the overall obesity prevalence differed between the studies (p < 0.001) and the agreement was weaker (κ = 0.76). The abdominal obesity prevalence estimates were significant different according to the two systems both in boys and girls, although the agreement reached to 0.88, which represented an almost perfect agreement level. Conclusions: This study provided new BMI and WC percentile curves and reference values for Chinese children and adolescents aged 7–18 years, which can be adopted in future researches. Large longitudinal study is still needed to reveal the childhood growth pattern and validate the inconsistence between different percentile studies

Fiber Type-Specific Nitric Oxide Protects Oxidative Myofibers against Cachectic Stimuli

Oxidative skeletal muscles are more resistant than glycolytic muscles to cachexia caused by chronic heart failure and other chronic diseases. The molecular mechanism for the protection associated with oxidative phenotype remains elusive. We hypothesized that differences in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO) determine the fiber type susceptibility. Here, we show that intraperitoneal injection of endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) in mice resulted in higher level of ROS and greater expression of muscle-specific E3 ubiqitin ligases, muscle atrophy F-box (MAFbx)/atrogin-1 and muscle RING finger-1 (MuRF1), in glycolytic white vastus lateralis muscle than in oxidative soleus muscle. By contrast, NO production, inducible NO synthase (iNos) and antioxidant gene expression were greatly enhanced in oxidative, but not in glycolytic muscles, suggesting that NO mediates protection against muscle wasting. NO donors enhanced iNos and antioxidant gene expression and blocked cytokine/endotoxin-induced MAFbx/atrogin-1 expression in cultured myoblasts and in skeletal muscle in vivo. Our studies reveal a novel protective mechanism in oxidative myofibers mediated by enhanced iNos and antioxidant gene expression and suggest a significant value of enhanced NO signaling as a new therapeutic strategy for cachexia

Modal Analysis of the Rotor-Journal Bearing System of Rotary Compressor

In the rotary compressor, the rolling piston and the contacted rotor-journal bearing system are basically moving components. Because of the inertia forces and the periodically changing gas force acting on the rolling piston and the rotor, the journal bearing suffers very large loads. It always leads to serious vibration of the rotor-journal bearing system, and the wear of the rotor. Thus, the vibration must be reduced. In this paper, research works of vibration characteristics of the rotor-journal bearing system were carried out to provide evident of optimizing its structure to reduce the vibration. The average values of the natural frequencies and the vibration mode of the rotor-journal bearing system was obtained based on three-dimensional numerical simulations with finite element method using APDL routine. The power spectral density map of the exciting forces on rolling piston was obtained by the Fourier transformation. It could be used to judge whether resonance vibration would happen during working process of the compressor. The analysis results showed that the lateral vibration mode and the torsion vibration mode were the main vibration modes of the rotor-journal bearing system, and the first four orders of the exciting frequencies played a major role on the vibration of the system

Inhibition of Smad signaling is implicated in cleft palate induced by all-trans retinoic acid

The effect of all-trans retinoic acid (atRA) on palatal fusion and the underlying mechanisms were investigated using organ culture. Compared with control group, the atRA-treated group (1 μM and 5 μM) had more medial edge epithelium (ME) remaining within the midline epithelial seam (MES). At 10 μM atRA, the opposing shelves were not in contact at the culture end (72 h). Cell death detection by TUNEL and laminin immunohistochemistry demonstrated that atRA (5 μM) induced apoptosis in mesenchyme and inhibited degradation of basal lamina within MES. Notably, migration and apoptosis of ME cells and degradation of basal lamina within MES markedly represented vehicle control palatal shelves in culture. Additionally, apoptosis was not detected in mesenchyme of control palatal shelves. Immunoblotting analysis revealed that Smad2 and Smad3 were endogenously activated and expression of Smad7 was inhibited during the fusion process. In contrast, atRA treatment abrogated phosphorylation of Smad2 and Smad3 and inducible expression of Smad7 in ME. From these data, it is assumed that inhibition of Smad pathway by atRA in ME may play a critical role in abrogation of the ME cell apoptosis and degradation of the basal laminin, which might contribute to failure of palatal fusion

Intakes of Folate, Vitamin B6, and Vitamin B12 in Relation to All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality: A National Population-Based Cohort

The evidence regarding the intake of dietary folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 in relation to mortality in the general population is limited. This study aimed to examine the relationship between dietary intakes of folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 in relation to all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a large U.S. cohort. This study included a total of 55,569 adults from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and NHANES 1999–2014. Vital data were determined by linking with the National Death Index records through 31 December 2015. Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate the relationships of all-cause and cause-specific mortality with dietary folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 intake. Dietary intakes of folate and vitamin B6 were inversely associated with mortality from all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer for men and with mortality from all-cause and cardiovascular disease for women. In men, the multivariable hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for the highest versus lowest quintiles of folate and vitamin B6 were 0.77 (0.71–0.85) and 0.79 (0.71–0.86) for all-cause mortality, 0.59 (0.48–0.72) and 0.69 (0.56–0.85) for CVD mortality, and 0.68 (0.56–0.84) and 0.73 (0.60–0.90) for cancer mortality, respectively. Among women, the multivariable hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for the highest versus lowest quintiles of folate and vitamin B6 were 0.86 (0.78–0.95) and 0.88 (0.80–0.97) for all-cause mortality and 0.53 (0.41–0.69) and 0.56 (0.44–0.73) for CVD mortality, respectively. No significant associations between dietary vitamin B12 and all-cause and cause-specific mortality were observed. In conclusion, higher dietary intakes of folate and vitamin B6 were significantly associated with lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Our findings suggest that increasing the intake of folate and vitamin B6 may lower the mortality risk among U.S. adults