Publications

R/S was not significantly associated with type 2 diabetes, but its role in other chronic conditions may be important.

Introduction: The plant-based portfolio dietary pattern includes recognized cholesterol-lowering foods shown to improve several cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in clinical trials. Epidemiological evidence on the association between longer-term adherence to the portfolio dietary pattern and CVD risk remains more limited. Objective: To examine whether the portfolio dietary pattern is associated with the risk of total CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD, including myocardial infarction and fatal coronary deaths), and stroke. Methods: Participants included 73,925 women in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) (1984-2014), 92,354 women in the NHS2 (1991-2017) and 43,970 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) (1986-2016) without CVD and cancer at baseline. Diet was assessed using validated food frequency questionnaires at baseline and every four years using a portfolio diet score (PDS) which positively ranks plant protein (soy & pulses), nuts, viscous fiber sources, phytosterols (mg/day) and plant monounsaturated fat sources, and negatively ranks foods high in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol. Cox proportional hazards regressions were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusted for covariates. Results: During up to 30 years of follow-up, 16,917 incident CVD cases, including 10,666 CHD cases and 6,473 stroke cases, were documented. After multivariable adjustment of lifestyle and other dietary factors, comparing the highest to the lowest quintile, participants with a higher PDS had a lower risk of total CVD (pooled HR: 0.84; 95% CI: 0.80-0.89, P trend<0.001), CHD (pooled HR: 0.82; 95% CI: 0.76-0.87, P trend<0.001) and stroke (pooled HR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.81-0.97, P trend=0.001). In addition, a 25-percentile higher PDS was associated with a lower risk of total CVD (pooled HR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.88-0.93), CHD (pooled HR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.86-0.92) and stroke (pooled HR: 0.93; 95% CI: 0.89-0.97). Results remained largely consistent across sensitivity and subgroup analyses. Conclusions: Greater adherence to the portfolio dietary pattern was consistently associated with lower risk of CVD, including CHD and stroke, in three large prospective cohorts of U.S. men and women.

No abstract is provided for this article.

Summary Ali Khan A, Rodriguez A, Kaakinen M, Pouta A, Hartikainen A‐L, Jarvelin M‐R. Does in utero exposure to synthetic glucocorticoids influence birthweight, head circumference and birth length? A systematic review of current evidence in humans. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 2010. Synthetic glucocorticoids are the mainstay treatment for stimulating lung maturation in threatened preterm delivery. Animal studies suggest that in utero exposure to glucocorticoids leads to a reduction in birth size. Smaller birthweight has been associated with higher risk of many chronic diseases. Therefore, the authors undertook a systematic review of human studies examining the association between synthetic glucocorticoid treatment and birth size. Medline, EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane, Google scholar and Institute of Life Science databases were searched for studies published between 1978 and 2009 investigating the association between synthetic glucocorticoids and birthweight, head circumference, birth length and ponderal index. All studies controlling for gestational age were examined. Seventeen studies were included in the analysis. Nine out of 17 studies reported a reduction in birthweight (range 12–332 g), five of nine a reduction of head circumference (range 0.31–1.02 cm) and two of four a reduction of 0.8 cm in birth length. Despite methodological inconsistencies and limitations that impede clear conclusions, the evidence suggests an association between in utero exposure to synthetic glucocorticoids and reduced birth size.

<p>The impact of carbohydrate quality, measured by the carbohydrate quality index (CQI), on gut microbiota and health has been scarcely investigated. The aim of this study was to cross-sectionally and longitudinally explore the relationships between CQI, fecal microbiota, and cardiometabolic risk factors in an elderly Mediterranean population at high cardiovascular risk. At baseline and 1-year, CQI was assessed from food frequency questionnaires data, cardiometabolic risk factors were measured, and fecal microbiota profiled from 16S sequencing. Multivariable-adjusted linear regression models were fitted to assess the associations between tertiles of baseline CQI, fecal microbiota, and cardiometabolic risk factors at baseline, and between tertiles of 1-year change in CQI, 1-year change in fecal microbiota and cardiometabolic risk factors. Cross-sectionally, higher CQI was positively associated with Shannon alpha diversity index, and abundance of genera <em>Faecalibacterium</em> and <em>Christensenellaceae</em> R7 group, and negatively associated with the abundance of <em>Odoribacter</em>, and uncultured <em>Rhodospirillales</em> genera. Some of these genera were associated with higher glycated hemoglobin and lower body mass index. In addition, we observed a positive association between CQI, and some pathways related with the metabolism of butyrate precursors and plants-origin molecules. Longitudinally, 1-year improvement in CQI was associated with a concurrent increase in the abundance of genera <em>Butyrivibrio</em>. Increased abundance of this genera was associated with 1-year improvement in insulin status. These observations suggest that a better quality of carbohydrate intake is associated with improved metabolic health, and this improvement could be modulated by greater alpha diversity and abundance of specific genera linked to beneficial metabolic outcomes.</p>

Many processes involve the movement of a disordered collection of small particles (e.g., powders, grain, dust, and granular foods). These particles move chaotically, interact randomly among themselves, and gain electrical charge by contact electrification. Understanding the mechanisms of contact electrification of multiple interacting particles has been challenging, in part due to the complex movement and interactions of the particles. To examine the processes contributing to contact electrification at the level of single particles, a system was constructed in which an array of millimeter-sized polymeric beads of different materials were agitated on a dish. The dish was filled almost completely with beads, such that beads did not exchange positions. At the same time, during agitation, there was sufficient space for collisions with neighboring beads. The charge of the beads was measured individually after agitation. Results of systematic variations in the organization and composition of the interacting beads showed that three mechanisms determined the steady-state charge of the beads: (i) contact electrification (charging of beads of different materials), (ii) contact de-electrification (discharging of beads of the same charge polarity to the atmosphere), and (iii) a long-range influence across beads not in contact with one another (occurring, plausibly, by diffusion of charge from a bead with a higher charge to a bead with a lower charge of the same polarity).

We have developed a new assay in which two mesoscale particles are caused to collide using two independently controlled optical tweezers. This assay involves the measurement of the adhesion probability following a collision. Since the relative orientation, impact parameter (i.e., distance of closest approach), and collision velocity of the particles, as well as the components of the solution, are all under the user's control, this assay can mimic a wide range of biologically relevant collisions. We illustrate the utility of our assay by evaluating the adhesion probability of a single erythrocyte (red blood cell) to an influenza virus-coated microsphere, in the presence of sialic acid-bearing inhibitors of adhesion. This probability as a function of inhibitor concentration yields a measure of the effectiveness of the inhibitor for blocking viral adhesion. Most of the inhibition constants obtained using the tweezers agree well with those obtained from other techniques, although the inhibition constants for the best of the inhibitors were beyond the limited resolution of conventional assays. They were readily evaluated using our tweezers-based assay, however, and prove to be the most potent inhibitors of adhesion between influenza virus and erythrocytes ever measured. Further studies are underway to investigate the effect of collision velocity on the adhesion probability, with the eventual goal of understanding the various mechanisms of inhibition (direct competition for viral binding sites versus steric stabilization). Analysis of these data also provide evidence that the density of binding sites may be a crucial parameter in the application of this assay and polymeric inhibition in general.

Background Recent studies have indicated that low back pain (LBP) is common already in adolescence, but only few studies have evaluated the factors that determine LBP-related health care use at this age. Methods The study population included 1987 adolescents aged 18 from the Oulu Back Study, a subcohort of the 1986 Northern Finland Birth Cohort. We used logistic regression to evaluate whether enabling resources, need factors, personal health habits or psychological problems are associated with seeking health care for LBP, among adolescents reporting LBP during the last year. Results Of the 1987 respondents, 50% of the females and 42% of the males reported having had LBP during the previous year. Of the 921 respondents with LBP, 89 (16%) females, and 59 (16%) males had consulted a health care professional. In both genders, pain intensity was strongly associated with seeking care [visual analogue scale (VAS) 8–10 vs. VAS 0–3; males: OR 16.6, 95% CI 3.8–72.5, females: OR 18.8 95% CI 6.3–56.1]. In addition, LBP-related daily activity limitations (impairment index 4–6 vs. 0 OR 15.7 95% CI 1.7–142.5) were associated with care seeking among males. Student status was also associated with care seeking among males (OR 2.34 95% CI 1.02–5.36). Conclusions Approximately one out of six adolescents with LBP seeks medical care. Intensity of pain and daily activity limitations appear to be the main determinants of seeking care for LBP in adolescence.