Association and substitution analyses of dietary sugars, starch and fiber for indices of body fat and cardiometabolic risk- a NoHoW sub-study.

Purpose: To examine the associations and substitutions of dietary sugars [extrinsic (free) or intrinsic (non-free)] as well as dietary starch and fiber intakes for indices of body fat and cardiometabolic health.

Methods: Dietary intake was assessed at multiple times using multi-day 24-hour recalls over 18-months for indices of body fat (body fat %, waist circumference, BMI, and weight change) (n = 1066) and at baseline and 12 months for cardiometabolic outcomes (LDL, HDL, HbA1c) (n = 736). Bayesian modeling was applied to analyze the probabilistic impact of dietary carbohydrate components using credible intervals for association and substitution analyses with repeated measures random effects modeling.

Characterisation of the effect of day length, and associated differences in dietary intake, on the gut microbiota of Soay sheep.

Differences in the rumen bacterial community have been previously reported for Soay sheep housed under different day length conditions. This study extends this previous investigation to other organs of the digestive tract, as well as the analysis of ciliated protozoa and anaerobic fungi. The detectable concentrations of ciliated protozoa and anaerobic fungi decreased with increased day length in both the rumen and large colon, unlike those of bacteria where no effect was observed.

Cardiovascular benefits of lycopene: fantasy or reality?

Epidemiological evidence indicates that high consumption of tomatoes and tomato-based products reduces the risk of chronic diseases such as CVD and cancer. Such potential benefits are often ascribed to high concentrations of lycopene present in tomato products. Mainly from the results of in vitro studies, potential biological mechanisms by which carotenoids could protect against heart disease and cancer have been suggested.

Vitamin D and diabetic nephropathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: There has been a long history documenting the use of different vitamin D derivatives as therapy for renal diseases. However, to our knowledge, there is no comprehensive assessment of the relation between vitamin D deficiency and risk for diabetic nephropathy (DN). Additionally, the effect of vitamin D supplementation on DN is still unclear.

The symbiotic intestinal ciliates and the evolution of their hosts.

The evolution of sophisticated differentiations of the gastro-intestinal tract enabled herbivorous mammals to digest dietary cellulose and hemicellulose with the aid of a complex anaerobic microbiota. Distinctive symbiotic ciliates, which are unique to this habitat, are the largest representatives of this microbial community. Analyses of a total of 484 different 18S rRNA genes show that extremely complex, but related ciliate communities can occur in the rumen of cattle, sheep, goats and red deer (301 sequences).

Measuring the difference between actual and reported food intakes in the context of energy balance under laboratory conditions.

To date, no study has directly and simultaneously measured the discrepancy between what people actually eat and what they report eating under observation in the context of energy balance (EB). The present study aimed to objectively measure the 'extent' and 'nature' of misreporting of dietary intakes under conditions in which EB and feeding behaviour were continuously monitored. For this purpose, a total of fifty-nine adults were recruited for 12 d, involving two 3 d overt phases and two 3 d covert phases of food intake measurement in a randomised cross-over design.

The effects of high-intensity exercise on neural responses to images of food.

Background: Acute bouts of high-intensity exercise modulate peripheral appetite regulating hormones to transiently suppress hunger. However, the effects of physical activity on central appetite regulation have yet to be fully investigated.

Objective: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare neural responses to visual food stimuli after intense exercise and rest.

An evaluation of the IDEEA™ activity monitor for estimating energy expenditure.

Objective estimates of activity patterns and energy expenditure (EE) are important for the measurement of energy balance. The Intelligent Device for Energy Expenditure and Activity (IDEEA) can estimate EE from the thirty-five postures and activities it can identify and record. The present study evaluated the IDEEA system's estimation of EE using whole-body indirect calorimetry over 24 h, and in free-living subjects using doubly-labelled water (DLW) over 14 d.

Doubly labelled water: Multi-point and two-point methods in pre-school children.

Objective: We compared the multi-sample and two-sample methods for measuring total energy expenditure (TEE) using doubly labelled water (DLW) in pre-school children to establish whether taking multiple samples provides any advantage in free-living conditions.

Methods: Sixty-five children (32 boys; aged 2-6 years) were recruited from Aberdeen, UK. TEE was measured over 7 and 14 days using the multi-point and two-point methods by DLW.

Differences between human subjects in the composition of the faecal bacterial community and faecal metabolism of linoleic acid.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is formed from linoleic acid (LA; cis-9,cis-12-18:2) by intestinal bacteria. Different CLA isomers have different implications for human health. The aim of this study was to investigate LA metabolism and the CLA isomers formed in two individuals (V1 and V2) with different faecal metabolic characteristics, and to compare fatty acid metabolism with the microbial community composition.

Fetal iron status regulates maternal iron metabolism during pregnancy in the rat.

Iron metabolism during pregnancy is biased toward maintaining the fetal supply, even at the cost of anemia in the mother. The mechanisms regulating this are not well understood. Here, we examine iron deficiency and supplementation on the hierarchy of iron supply and the gene expression of proteins that regulate iron metabolism in the rat.

Mechanism of conjugated linoleic acid and vaccenic acid formation in human faecal suspensions and pure cultures of intestinal bacteria.

Faecal bacteria from four human donors and six species of human intestinal bacteria known to metabolize linoleic acid (LA) were incubated with LA in deuterium oxide-enriched medium to investigate the mechanisms of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and vaccenic acid (VA) formation. The main CLA products in faecal suspensions, rumenic acid (cis-9,trans-11-CLA; RA) and trans-9,trans-11-CLA, were labelled at C-13, as were other 9,11 geometric isomers. Traces of trans-10,cis-12-CLA formed were labelled to a much lower extent.

Competition between the signal sequence and a 3'UTR localisation signal during redirection of beta-globin mRNA to the endoplasmic reticulum: implications for biotechnology.

Secretion of an intracellular protein from a cell factory requires as a first step the redirection of the mRNA for synthesis of the protein on the endoplasmic reticulum. The feasibility of retargeting a mRNA coding for an intracellular protein to the endoplasmic reticulum was investigated using Ltk- fibroblasts stably transfected with gene constructs in which rabbit beta-globin coding region and 5'UTR was linked to albumin signal sequence and different 3'untranslated regions. Globin transcripts with the native globin 3'untranslated region or with the 3'untranslated region of c-myc are present in free/cytoskeletal-bound polysomes.

Strategies for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of metallothionein isoforms by capillary electrophoresis.

Metallothioneins (MT) are a heterogeneous family of proteins coded from multiple linked genes whose individual expression can be readily determined at the transcriptional level by assay of mRNA using specific DNA probes targeted against the untranslated regions. Analysis of translated protein products is more challenging since sequence variation between MT isoforms can be as little as one in 61 amino acids. Separation of these isoforms therefore requires a high resolution technique which can exploit minor differences in charge or hydrophobicity.

Anti-inflammatory implications of the microbial transformation of dietary phenolic compounds.

Due to the success of therapeutic anti-inflammatory compounds to inhibit, retard, and reverse the development of colon cancer, the identification of dietary compounds as chemopreventives is being vigorously pursued. However, an important factor often overlooked is the metabolic transformation of the food-derived compounds in the gut that may affect their bioactivity. Commonly consumed dietary phenolics (esterified ferulic acid and its 5-5'-linked dimer), which have the potential to undergo predominant microbial transformations (de-esterification, hydrogenation, demethylation, dehydroxylation, and dimer cleavage), were incubated with human microbiota.

The effects of feeding rats diets deficient in folic acid and related methyl donors on the blood pressure and glucose tolerance of the offspring.

In humans poor maternal folate status is associated with a decrease in infant birth weight. As low birth weight increases the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease in adults, an inadequate supply of folic acid in the mother's diet may increase the susceptibility of the offspring to disease. We have fed laboratory rats diets deficient in folic acid and the related methyl donors methionine and choline to examine the effects on growth, blood pressure and insulin action in the offspring.

A new tetracycline efflux gene, tet(40), is located in tandem with tet(O/32/O) in a human gut firmicute bacterium and in metagenomic library clones.

The bacterium Clostridium saccharolyticum K10, isolated from a fecal sample obtained from a healthy donor who had received long-term tetracycline therapy, was found to carry three tetracycline resistance genes: tet(W) and the mosaic tet(O/32/O), both conferring ribosome protection-type resistance, and a novel, closely linked efflux-type resistance gene designated tet(40). tet(40) encodes a predicted membrane-associated protein with 42% amino acid identity to tetA(P). Tetracycline did not accumulate in Escherichia coli cells expressing the Tet(40) efflux protein, and resistance to tetracycline was reduced when cells were incubated with an efflux pump inhibitor.

Models and mechanisms of energy balance regulation in the young.

The proportion of the child and adolescent population that is in appropriate energy balance is declining throughout the developed world, and childhood obesity is a particular problem in the UK relative to other northern European countries. Assessment of the underlying causes of obesity, and the different routes to its development, may assist in the definition of successful intervention strategies. The network of peripheral and central (brain) regulatory systems that underlie energy balance and body weight and composition can, for the most part, only be approached experimentally through the study of appropriate laboratory animal models.

The species composition of the human intestinal microbiota differs between particle-associated and liquid phase communities.

Many of the substrates available as energy sources for microorganisms in the human colon, including dietary plant fibre and secreted mucin, are insoluble. It seems likely that such insoluble substrates support a specialized microbiota, and in order to test this hypothesis, faecal samples from four healthy subjects were fractionated into insoluble (washed particulate) and liquid fractions. Analysis of 1252 PCR-amplified 16S rRNA sequences revealed a significantly lower percentage of Bacteroidetes (P = 0.

Proposal of a neotype strain (A1-86) for Eubacterium rectale. Request for an opinion.

Eubacterium rectale is one of the most abundant bacterial species recovered from human faeces. E. rectale (Hauduroy et al.

Proteomics as a tool for the modelling of biological processes and biomarker development in nutrition research.

Nutrition research has slowly started to adopt the proteomics techniques to measure changes in the protein complement of a biological system. This enables modelling of biological processes in response to dietary interventions, as well as the elucidation of novel biomarkers for health or disease that are sensitive to such interventions. There are limited studies on the effect of micronutrients on the proteome, so this review concentrates rather more on dietary intervention studies that have used proteomics (mainly classical 2D gel electrophoresis combined with mass spectrometry) to elucidate changes in pathways that relate to glucose and fatty acid metabolism, oxidative stress, anti-oxidant defence mechanisms and redox status.

The response of human colonocytes to folate deficiency in vitro: functional and proteomic analyses.

Low folate intake is associated with colon cancer. We combined a proteomics and biochemical approach to identify proteins and pathways affected by folate deficiency in human colonocytes. Folate differentially altered activity and expression of proteins involved in proliferation [e.

Effect of inulin on the human gut microbiota: stimulation of Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii.

Prebiotics are food ingredients that improve health by modulating the colonic microbiota. The bifidogenic effect of the prebiotic inulin is well established; however, it remains unclear which species of Bifidobacterium are stimulated in vivo and whether bacterial groups other than lactic acid bacteria are affected by inulin consumption. Changes in the faecal microbiota composition were examined by real-time PCR in twelve human volunteers after ingestion of inulin (10 g/d) for a 16-d period in comparison with a control period without any supplement intake.

Serial measurement of uterine blood flow from mid to late gestation in growth restricted pregnancies induced by overnourishing adolescent sheep dams.

Uterine blood flow (UtBF) is a major regulator of transplacental fetal nutrient supply. The aim was to serially measure uterine blood flow from mid to late pregnancy in a paradigm of relatively late onset placental and fetal growth restriction. Singleton bearing adolescent dams was fed high (H) or control (C) nutrient intakes to induce putatively compromised or normal pregnancies, respectively.

Polymorphisms of the FTO gene are associated with variation in energy intake, but not energy expenditure.

The FTO gene has significant polymorphic variation associated with obesity, but its function is unknown. We screened a population of 150 whites (103F/47M) resident in NE Scotland, United Kingdom, for variants of the FTO gene and linked these to phenotypic variation in their energy expenditure (basal metabolic rate (BMR) and maximal oxygen consumption VO(2)max) and energy intake. There was no significant association between the FTO genotype and BMR or VO(2)max.