Flavonoid intakes inversely associate with COPD in smokers

Introduction: Higher flavonoid intakes are beneficially associated with pulmonary function parameters; however, their association with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is unknown. This study aimed to examine associations between intakes of 1) total flavonoids, 2) flavonoid subclasses and 3) major flavonoid compounds with incident COPD in participants from the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health study. Methods: This prospective cohort included 55 413 men and women without COPD, aged 50-65 years at recruitment. Habitual flavonoid intakes at baseline were estimated from a food frequency questionnaire using Phenol-Explorer. Danish nationwide registers were used to identify incident cases of COPD. Associations were modelled using restricted cubic splines within Cox proportional hazards models. Results: During 23 years of follow-up, 5557 participants were diagnosed with COPD. Of these, 4013 were current smokers, 1062 were former smokers and 482 were never-smokers. After multivariable adjustments, participants with the highest total flavonoid intakes had a 20 % lower risk of COPD than those with the lowest intakes (quintile 5 versus quintile 1: HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.74-0.87); a 6-22 % lower risk was observed for each flavonoid subclass. The inverse association between total flavonoid intake and COPD was present in both men and women but only in current smokers (HR 0.77, 95 % CI 0.70-0.84) and former smokers (HR 0.82, 95 % CI 0.69-0.97), not never-smokers. Furthermore, higher flavonoid intakes appeared to lessen, but not negate, the higher risk of COPD associated with smoking intensity. Conclusion: Dietary flavonoids may be important for partially mitigating the risk of smoking-related COPD. However, smoking cessation should remain the highest priority

Using Polarized Spectroscopy to Investigate Order in Thin-Films of Ionic Self-Assembled Materials Based on Azo-Dyes

Three series of ionic self-assembled materials based on anionic azo-dyes and cationic benzalkonium surfactants were synthesized and thin films were prepared by spin-casting. These thin films appear isotropic when investigated with polarized optical microscopy, although they are highly anisotropic. Here, three series of homologous materials were studied to rationalize this observation. Investigating thin films of ordered molecular materials relies to a large extent on advanced experimental methods and large research infrastructure. A statement that in particular is true for thin films with nanoscopic order, where X-ray reflectometry, X-ray and neutron scattering, electron microscopy and atom force microscopy (AFM) has to be used to elucidate film morphology and the underlying molecular structure. Here, the thin films were investigated using AFM, optical microscopy and polarized absorption spectroscopy. It was shown that by using numerical method for treating the polarized absorption spectroscopy data, the molecular structure can be elucidated. Further, it was shown that polarized optical spectroscopy is a general tool that allows determination of the molecular order in thin films. Finally, it was found that full control of thermal history and rigorous control of the ionic self-assembly conditions are required to reproducibly make these materials of high nanoscopic order. Similarly, the conditions for spin-casting are shown to be determining for the overall thin film morphology, while molecular order is maintained