Veterinary antibiotic usage in the Netherlands in 2010

The objective of this study is to obtain detailed insight into the exposure of farm animals to antibiotics, by monitoring both sales data at the national level and more specifically data per animal species. The results of the study can be used by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation for policy evaluation. In addition, the usage data might play a role in explaining trends in resistance that have become apparent

Gut-microbiome composition in response to phenylketonuria depends on dietary phenylalanine in BTBR Pah^enu2 mice

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a metabolic disorder caused by a hepatic enzyme deficiency causing high blood and brain levels of the amino acid Phenylalanine (Phe), leading to severe cognitive and psychological deficits that can be prevented, but not completely, by dietary treatment. The behavioral outcome of PKU could be affected by the gut-microbiome-brain axis, as diet is one of the major drivers of the gut microbiome composition. Gut-microbiome alterations have been reported in treated patients with PKU, although the question remains whether this is due to PKU, the dietary treatment, or their interaction. We, therefore, examined the effects of dietary Phe restriction on gut-microbiome composition and relationships with behavioral outcome in mice. Male and female BTBR Pah(enu2) mice received either a control diet (normal protein, “high” Phe), liberalized Phe-restricted (33% natural protein restriction), or severe Phe-restricted (75% natural protein restriction) diet with protein substitutes for 10 weeks (n = 14 per group). Their behavioral performance was examined in an open field test, novel and spatial object location tests, and a balance beam. Fecal samples were collected and sequenced for the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) region. Results indicated that PKU on a high Phe diet reduced Shannon diversity significantly and altered the microbiome composition compared with wild-type animals. Phe-restriction prevented this loss in Shannon diversity but changed community composition even more than the high-Phe diet, depending on the severity of the restriction. Moreover, on a taxonomic level, we observed the highest number of differentially abundant genera in animals that received 75% Phe-restriction. Based on correlation analyses with differentially abundant taxa, the families Entereococacceae, Erysipelotrichaceae, Porphyromonadaceae, and the genus Alloprevotella showed interesting relationships with either plasma Phe levels and/or object memory. According to our results, these bacterial taxa could be good candidates to start examining the microbial metabolic potential and probiotic properties in the context of PKU. We conclude that PKU leads to an altered gut microbiome composition in mice, which is least severe on a liberalized Phe-restricted diet. This may suggest that the current Phe-restricted diet for PKU patients could be optimized by taking dietary effects on the microbiome into account

Energie- en waterbesparing: Hoe zit het met de actiebereidheid van Nederlanders?

Luchtvervuiling, natuuraantasting, en vooral klimaatverandering zijn vrijwel dagelijks voorpaginanieuws. Voor de aanpak ervan kijkt de overheid naar bedrijven, maatschappelijke organisaties en ook burgers. Het afgelopen decennium deden termen als energieke samenleving (Hajer, 2011), participatiesamenleving (Troonrede 2013) en doe-democratie (Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken, 2013) hun intrede. Beleidsmatig krijgt de maatschappelijke betrokkenheid vorm via bijvoorbeeld initiatieven verpakt als Green Deals1 (Gooskens et al, 2016), Klimaattafels en Regionale Energie Strategieën.2 Zo is het volgens de afspraken in het ontwerp Klimaatakkoord (uit eind 2018) de bedoeling dat op termijn 50% van de elektriciteitsproductie in handen is van lokale partijen.3,4 De burger wordt hierin niet alleen meer gezien als consument, afnemer of belastingbetaler, maar als medeverantwoordelijke voor de (duurzame) productie, beheer en opslag van met name elektriciteit. Ook in andere sectoren zoals water, voedsel en transport is deze tendens zichtbaar. Burgers worden uitgedaagd na te denken over de implicaties voor milieu en klimaat bij hun uiteenlopende keuzes rond voedsel (‘een dagje zonder vlees’), manier van reizen (‘vliegschaamte’), verwarmen (‘graadje lager’), koken (‘van het gas af’) tot tuininrichting (‘onttegelen’) en waterbeheer (‘minuutje korter douchen’)

Sex, BMI and age differences in metabolic syndrome:The Dutch Lifelines Cohort Study

Introduction: To evaluate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its individual components within sex-, body mass index (BMI)- and age combined clusters. In addition, we used the age-adjusted blood pressure thresholds to demonstrate the effect on the prevalence of MetS and elevated blood pressure. Subjects and methods: Cross-sectional data from 74,531 Western European participants, aged 18–79 years, were used from the Dutch Lifelines Cohort Study. MetS was defined according to the revised NCEP-ATPIII. Age-adjusted blood pressure thresholds were defined as recommended by the eight reports of the Joint National Committee (≥140/90 mmHg for those aged <60 years, and ≥150/90 mmHg for those aged ≥60 years). Results: 19.2% men and 12.1% women had MetS. MetS prevalence increased with BMI and age. Independent of BMI, abdominal obesity dominated MetS prevalence especially in women, while elevated blood pressure was already highly prevalent among young men. Applying age-adjusted blood pressure thresholds resulted in a 0.2–11.9% prevalence drop in MetS and 6.0–36.3% prevalence drop in elevated blood pressure, within the combined sex, BMI and age clusters. Conclusions: We observed a gender disparity with age and BMI for the prevalence of MetS and, especially, abdominal obesity and elevated blood pressure. The strict threshold level for elevated blood pressure in the revised NCEP-ATPIII, results in an overestimation of MetS prevalence

Correlations of blood and brain biochemistry in phenylketonuria: results from the Pah-enu2 PKU mouse

Background: In phenylketonuria (PKU), treatment monitoring is based on frequent blood phenylalanine (Phe) measurements, as this is the predictor of neurocognitive and behavioural outcome by reflecting brain Phe con-centrations and brain biochemical changes. Despite clinical studies describing the relevance of blood Phe to out-come in PKU patients, blood Phe does not explain the variance in neurocognitive and behavioural outcome completely. Methods: In a PKU mouse model we investigated 1) the relationship between plasma Phe and brain biochemistry (Brain Phe and monoaminergic neurotransmitter concentrations), and 2) whether blood non-Phe Large Neutral Amino Acids (LNAA) would be of additional value to blood Phe concentrations to explain brain biochemistry. To this purpose, we assessed blood amino acid concentrations and brain Phe as well as monoaminergic neuro -transmitter levels in in 114 Pah-Enu2 mice on both B6 and BTBR backgrounds using (multiple) linear regression analyses. Results: Plasma Phe concentrations were strongly correlated to brain Phe concentrations, significantly negatively correlated to brain serotonin and norepinephrine concentrations and only weakly correlated to brain dopamine concentrations. From all blood markers, Phe showed the strongest correlation to brain biochemistry in PKU mice. Including non-Phe LNAA concentrations to the multiple regression model, in addition to plasma Phe, did not help explain brain biochemistry. Conclusion: This study showed that blood Phe is still the best amino acid predictor of brain biochemistry in PKU. Nevertheless, neurocognitive and behavioural outcome cannot fully be explained by blood or brain Phe concen-trations, necessitating a search for other additional parameters. Take-home message: Blood Phe is still the best amino acid predictor of brain biochemistry in PKU. Nevertheless, neurocognitive and behavioural outcome cannot fully be explained by blood or brain Phe concentrations, neces-sitating a search for other additional parameters. (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier Inc.Education and Child Studie

Genome-wide analysis of macrosatellite repeat copy number variation in worldwide populations: Evidence for differences and commonalities in size distributions and size restrictions

Background: Macrosatellite repeats (MSRs), usually spanning hundreds of kilobases of genomic DNA, comprise a significant proportion of the human genome. Because of their highly polymorphic nature, MSRs represent an extreme example of copy number variation, but their structure and function is largely understudied. Here, we describe a detailed study of six autosomal and two X chromosomal MSRs among 270 HapMap individuals from Central Europe, Asia and Africa. Copy number variation, stability and genetic heterogeneity of the autosomal macrosatellite repeats RS447 (chromosome 4p), MSR5p (5p), FLJ40296 (13q), RNU2 (17q) and D4Z4 (4q and 10q) and X chromosomal DXZ4 and CT47 were investigated. Results: Repeat array size distribution analysis shows that all of these MSRs are highly polymorphic with the most genetic variation among Africans and the least among Asians. A mitotic mutation rate of 0.4-2.2% was observed, exceeding meiotic mutation rates and possibly explaining the large size variability found for these MSRs. By means of a novel Bayesian approach, statistical support for a distinct multimodal rather than a uniform allele size distribution was detected in seven out of eight MSRs, with evidence for equidistant intervals between the modes. Conclusions: The multimodal distributions with evidence for equidistant intervals, in combination with the observation of MSR-specific constraints on minimum array size, suggest that MSRs are limited in their configurations and that deviations thereof may cause disease, as is the case for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. However, at present we cannot exclude that there are mechanistic constraints for MSRs that are not directly disease-related. This study represents the first comprehensive study of MSRs in different human populations by applying novel statistical methods and identifies commonalities and differences in their organization and function in the human genome

Health-Related Quality of Life in Relation to Obesity Grade, Type 2 Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Inflammation

Health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) may be compromised in obese individuals, depending on the presence of other complications. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of obesity-related conditions on HR-QoL. These conditions are i) grade of obesity with and without type 2 diabetes (T2D), ii) metabolic syndrome (MetS), and iii) level of inflammation.From the Dutch LifeLines Cohort Study we included 13,686 obese individuals, aged 18-80 years. HR-QoL was measured with the RAND 36-Item Health Survey which encompasses eight health domains. We calculated the percentage of obese individuals with poor HR-QoL, i.e. those scoring below the domain and sex specific cut-off value derived from the normal weight population. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the probability of having poor domain scores according to the conditions under study.Higher grades of obesity and the additional presence of T2D were associated with lower HR-QoL, particularly in the domains physical functioning (men: odds ratios (ORs) 1.48-11.34, P<0.005, and women: ORs 1.66-5.05, P<0.001) and general health (men: ORs 1.44-3.07, P<0.005, and women: ORs 1.36-3.73, P<0.001). A higher percentage of obese individuals with MetS had a poor HR-QoL than those without MetS. Furthermore, we observed a linear trend between inflammation and the percentage of obese individuals with poor scores on the HR-QoL domains. Individuals with MetS were more likely to have poor scores in the domains general health, vitality, social functioning and role limitations due to emotional problems. Obese women with increased inflammation levels were more likely to have poor scores on all domains except role limitations due to emotional problems and mental health.The impact of obesity on an individual's quality of life is enhanced by grade of obesity, T2D, MetS and inflammation and are mainly related to reduced physical health. The mental well-being is less often impaired