EDIBLE WHEAT GLUTEN FILMS: DEVELOPMENT, MECHANICAL AND BARRIER PROPERTIES AND APPLICATION TO STRAWBERRIES ( Fragaria Ananassa)

Filmes de glúten de trigo foram preparados em diferentes valores de pH e concentrações de glúten, etanol e glicerol. Seus efeitos sobre permeabilidade ao vapor de água e oxigênio, solubilidade em água, força de tensão e porcentagem de elongação foram avaliados usando-se a Metodologia de Superfície de Resposta. Menor permeabilidade ao oxigênio foi observada em menores concentrações de glicerol, glúten e etanol. As propriedades mecânicas foram principalmente afetadas pelas concentrações de glúten e glicerol e o filme mais resistente foi obtido quando maior concentração de glúten e menor de glicerol foram utilizadas. Coberturas de glúten de trigo aplicadas em morangos frescos reduziram as perdas de firmeza e de peso durante a estocagem em comparação com controle não revestido. Abstract Films from wheat gluten were prepared with different pH values and concentrations of gluten, ethanol and glycerol. Their effects on oxygen and water vapor permeabilities, water solubility, tensile strength and percent elongation at break were evaluated using Response Surface Methodology. The lowest oxygen permeability would be expected at low concentrations of glycerol, gluten and ethanol. The mechanical properties were mainly affected by gluten and glycerol concentrations and the most resistant film was obtained at high gluten and low glycerol concentrations. Wheat gluten coating applied to fresh strawberries reduced weight and firmness losses during storage as compared to uncoated controls

The Effect of a Femoral Fracture Sustained before Skeletal Maturity on Bone Mineral Density: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study

Peer reviewe

Body surface area and glucose tolerance - The smaller the person, the greater the 2-hour plasma glucose

Background: The oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is standardized globally with a uniform glucose load of 75 g to all adults irrespective of body size. An inverse association between body height and 2-hour postload plasma glucose (2hPG) has been demonstrated. Our aim was to evaluate the relationship between body surface area (BSA) and plasma glucose values during an OGTT.Methods: An OGTT was performed on 2659 individuals at increased cardiovascular risk aged between 45 and 70 years of age, who had not previously been diagnosed with diabetes or cardiovascular disease. Their BSA was calculated according to the Mosteller formula. Study subjects were divided into five BSA levels corresponding to 12.5, 25, 25, 25, and 12.5% of the total distribution.Findings: When adjusted for age, sex, waist circumference, alcohol intake, current smoking, and leisure-time physical activity, BSA level showed an inverse linear relationship with the 2hPG in all categories of glucose tolerance (p for linearity Interpretation: Body size has a considerable impact on the findings from a standardized OGTT. Smaller persons are more likely to be diagnosed as glucose intolerant than relatively larger sized individuals.Research in context: Evidence before this study. We searched PubMed using the MeSH terms "glucose tolerance test", "body surface area", "body height", "body size", "glucose tolerance", "insulin resistance", "blood glucose" and "diabetes mellitus" on March 10, 2019 without language restrictions. We also used Cited Reference Search in Web of Science for relevant articles. The oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is standardized globally with a uniform glucose load of 75 g to all adults irrespective of body size. An inverse association between body height and 2-hour postload plasma glucose (2hPG) has been demonstrated. Several studies have shown that 2hPG predicts all-cause mortality better than elevated fasting glucose. However, body height or body surface area are not usually adjusted in epidemiological studies. It is well known that short adult stature is a risk factor for cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.Added value of this study. This is the first study to assess the relationship of body surface area and 2hPG in a typical primary care population at increased cardiovascular risk. Body surface area has a considerable impact on the result of a standardized OGTT. Smaller individuals are more likely to be diagnosed as glucose intolerant than relatively larger sized individuals.Implications of all the available evidence. There is a possibility that the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes made by an OGTT is a false positive result in a relatively small individual, and a false negative result in a relatively larger individual. Association of 2hPG concentrations and mortality may be influenced by body size as confounding factor. Given that the OGTT is a time and effort consuming test both for patients and laboratory personnel, validity of the OGTT for different body sizes should be reconsidered. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.</div

Early Brain Activity Relates to Subsequent Brain Growth in Premature Infants

Recent experimental studies have shown that early brain activity is crucial for neuronal survival and the development of brain networks; however, it has been challenging to assess its role in the developing human brain. We employed serial quantitative magnetic resonance imaging to measure the rate of growth in circumscribed brain tissues from preterm to term age, and compared it with measures of electroencephalographic (EEG) activity during the first postnatal days by 2 different methods. EEG metrics of functional activity were computed: EEG signal peak-to-peak amplitude and the occurrence of developmentally important spontaneous activity transients (SATs). We found that an increased brain activity in the first postnatal days correlates with a faster growth of brain structures during subsequent months until term age. Total brain volume, and in particular subcortical gray matter volume, grew faster in babies with less cortical electrical quiescence and with more SAT events. The present findings are compatible with the idea that (1) early cortical network activity is important for brain growth, and that (2) objective measures may be devised to follow early human brain activity in a biologically reasoned way in future research as well as during intensive care treatmen

Asymptomatic Right Atrial Thrombosis After Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treatment

Right atrial thrombosis is a rare, but potentially serious complication of acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment. We conducted a retrospective multicenter study to assess the incidence, treatment, and outcome of asymptomatic right atrial thrombosis detected at routine echocardiography of children after acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Eleven (2.7%, 95% confidence interval, 1.4-4.9) of 406 patients had asymptomatic right atrial thrombosis, ranging from 10 to 25 mm at detection. Three patients were treated with anticoagulation. None of the thromboses affected cardiac function, and they showed neither sign of progress nor spontaneous or treatment-related regress at follow-up.Peer reviewe

Comprehensive biomarker profiling of hypertension in 36 985 Finnish individuals

Objective: Previous studies on the association between metabolic biomarkers and hypertension have been limited by small sample sizes, low number of studied biomarkers, and cross-sectional study design. In the largest study to date, we assess the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between high-abundance serum biomarkers and blood pressure (BP). Methods: We studied cross-sectional (N = 36 985; age 50.5 +/- 14.2; 53.1% women) and longitudinal (N = 4197; age 49.4 +/- 11.8, 55.3% women) population samples of Finnish individuals. We included 53 serum biomarkers and other detailed lipoprotein subclass measures in our analyses. We studied the associations between serum biomarkers and BP using both conventional statistical methods and a machine learning algorithm (gradient boosting) while adjusting for clinical risk factors. Results: Fifty-one of 53 serum biomarkers were cross-sectionally related to BP (adjusted P < 0.05 for all). Conventional linear regression modeling demonstrated that LDL cholesterol, remnant cholesterol, apolipoprotein B, and acetate were positively, and HDL particle size was negatively, associated with SBP change over time (adjusted P < 0.05 for all). Adding serum biomarkers (cross-sectional root-mean-square error: 16.27 mmHg; longitudinal: 17.61 mmHg) in the model with clinical measures (cross-sectional: 16.70 mmHg; longitudinal 18.52 mmHg) improved the machine learning model fit. Glucose, albumin, triglycerides in LDL, glycerol, VLDL particle size, and acetoacetate had the highest importance scores in models related to current or future BP. Conclusion: Our results suggest that serum lipids, and particularly LDL-derived and VLDL-derived cholesterol measures, and glucose metabolism abnormalities are associated with hypertension onset. Use of serum metabolite determination could improve identification of individuals at high risk of developing hypertension.Peer reviewe

A plasma metabolite score of three eicosanoids predicts incident type 2 diabetes : a prospective study in three independent cohorts

Introduction Peptide markers of inflammation have been associated with the development of type 2 diabetes. The role of upstream, lipid-derived mediators of inflammation such as eicosanoids, remains less clear. The aim of this study was to examine whether eicosanoids are associated with incident type 2 diabetes. Research design & methods In the FINRISK (Finnish Cardiovascular Risk Study) 2002 study, a population-based sample of Finnish men and women aged 25-74 years, we used directed, non-targeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify 545 eicosanoids and related oxylipins in the participants' plasma samples (n=8292). We used multivariable-adjusted Cox regression to examine associations between eicosanoids and incident type 2 diabetes. The significant independent findings were replicated in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS, n=2886) and Dietary, Lifestyle and Genetic determinants of Obesity and Metabolic syndrome (DILGOM) 2007 (n=3905). Together, these three cohorts had 1070 cases of incident type 2 diabetes. Results In the FINRISK 2002 cohort, 76 eicosanoids were associated individually with incident type 2 diabetes. We identified three eicosanoids independently associated with incident type 2 diabetes using stepwise Cox regression with forward selection and a Bonferroni-corrected inclusion threshold. A three-eicosanoid risk score produced an HR of 1.56 (95% CI 1.41 to 1.72) per 1 SD increment for risk of incident diabetes. The HR for comparing the top quartile with the lowest was 2.80 (95% CI 2.53 to 3.07). In the replication analyses, the three-eicosanoid risk score was significant in FHS (HR 1.24 (95% CI 1.10 to 1.39, p Conclusions Plasma eicosanoid profiles predict incident type 2 diabetes and the clearest signals replicate in three independent cohorts. Our findings give new information on the biology underlying type 2 diabetes and suggest opportunities for early identification of people at risk.Peer reviewe

Association Between the Gut Microbiota and Blood Pressure in a Population Cohort of 6953 Individuals

Background Several small-scale animal studies have suggested that gut microbiota and blood pressure (BP) are linked. However, results from human studies remain scarce and conflicting. We wanted to elucidate the multivariable-adjusted association between gut metagenome and BP in a large, representative, well-phenotyped population sample. We performed a focused analysis to examine the previously reported inverse associations between sodium intake and Lactobacillus abundance and between Lactobacillus abundance and BP. Methods and Results We studied a population sample of 6953 Finns aged 25 to 74 years (mean age, 49.212.9 years; 54.9% women). The participants underwent a health examination, which included BP measurement, stool collection, and 24-hour urine sampling (N=829). Gut microbiota was analyzed using shallow shotgun metagenome sequencing. In age- and sex-adjusted models, the alpha (within-sample) and beta (between-sample) diversities of taxonomic composition were strongly related to BP indexes (P diversity was only associated with diastolic BP (P=0.032). However, we observed significant, mainly positive, associations between BP indexes and 45 microbial genera (P Conclusions Although the associations between overall gut taxonomic composition and BP are weak, individuals with hypertension demonstrate changes in several genera. We demonstrate strong negative associations of certain Lactobacillus species with sodium intake and BP, highlighting the need for experimental studies.Peer reviewe

A loss of c-kit expression is associated with an advanced stage and poor prognosis in breast cancer

To evaluate the c-kit expression in breast cancer, 217 invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast were immunohistochemically stained for c-kit protein. The c-kit expression was positive in 59 (27%) of 217 tumours, while the c-kit expression was negative in 158 (73%) of 217 tumours. There was a significant correlation between a negative expression of the c-kit protein and lymph node metastasis (P<0.0001), and the incidence of a negative expression of the c-kit protein increased as the number of the metastatic lymph nodes increased (P=0.0003). The c-kit expression did not significantly correlate with the tumour size, nuclear grade, oestrogen receptor status, MIB-1 counts and p53 protein expression. A univariate analysis indicated the patients with the negative c-kit expression to have a worse disease-free survival (DFS) than those with the positive c-kit expression (P=0.0041), while a multivariate analysis determined lymph node metastases and the MIB-1 counts to be independently significant factors for DFS. In conclusion, a loss of the c-kit expression was found in about three-fourth of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast and was associated with lymph node metastases. The prognostic implications of the c-kit expression seem to be due to fact that a loss of the c-kit expression is associated with an advanced stage of breast cancer