Prenatal Growth and CKD in Older Adults: Longitudinal Findings From the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study, 1924-1944

1. Download high-res image (371KB)
2. Download full-size image

     

Birth Weight and Perceived Stress Reactivity in Older Age

Stress reactivity is a disposition that underlies individual differences in stress responses, thereby affecting vulnerability for the development of disease. Besides genetic and early postnatal environmental factors, stress reactivity has been shown to be influenced by an adverse prenatal developmental environment, but it is unclear if such effects persist into older age. We tested associations between fetal growth and perceived stress reactivity in 421 participants from the Hertfordshire Cohort at age 66–75 years. Regression analysis showed a U‐shaped association between birth weight and perceived stress reactivity with increased levels of stress reactivity at the lower and upper end of the birth weight distribution. These effects were stable after adjustment for markers of early adversity and recent adversity and chronic stress. Although the effects were small, they are consistent with findings from studies in younger cohorts, and demonstrate that such effects can persist into older age. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Historical continuity in the methodology of modern medical science: Leonardo leads the way

Early modern medical science did not arise ex nihilo, but was the culmination of a long history stretching back through the Renaissance, the Middle Ages, Byzantium and Roman times, into Greek Antiquity. The long interval between Aristotle and Galen and Harvey and Descartes was punctuated by outstanding visionaries, including Leonardo, the ultimate Renaissance man. His attitude and mindset were based on Aristotelian pursuit of empirical fact and rational thought. He declared himself to be a “man without letters” to underscore his disdain for those whose culture was only mnemonics and philosophical inferences from authoritative books. Leonardo read the Book of Nature with the immense curiosity of the pioneering scientist, ushering in the methodology of modern medical science with help from forerunners. He left no publications, but extensive personal Notebooks: on his scientific research, hydrodynamics, physiological anatomy, etc. Apparently, numerous successors availed themselves of his methodologies and insights, albeit without attribution. In his Notebooks, disordered and fragmentary, Leonardo manifests the exactitude of the engineer and scientist, the spontaneous freshness of one speaking of what he has at heart and that he knows well. His style is unrefined, but intensely personal, rich with emotion and, sometimes, poetic. Leonardo, the visionary anatomist, strived consistently not merely to imitate nature by depicting body structures, but to perceive through analysis and simulations the intimate physiologic processes; i.e., the biomechanics underlying the workings of all bodily organs and components, even the mysterious beating heart. It is fitting to regard him as the first modern medical scientist.     

Light Environment Influences Developmental Programming of the Metabolic and Visual Systems in Mice

PurposeLight is a salient cue that can influence neurodevelopment and the immune system. Light exposure out of sync with the endogenous clock causes circadian disruption and chronic disease. Environmental light exposure may contribute to developmental programming of metabolic and neurological systems but has been largely overlooked in Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) research. Here, we investigated whether developmental light exposure altered programming of visual and metabolic systems.MethodsPregnant mice and pups were exposed to control light (12:12 light:dark) or weekly light cycle inversions (circadian disruption [CD]) until weaning, after which male and female offspring were housed in control light and longitudinally measured to evaluate differences in growth (weight), glucose tolerance, visual function (optomotor response), and retinal function (electroretinogram), with and without high fat diet (HFD) challenge. Retinal microglia and macrophages were quantified by positive Iba1 and CD11b immunofluorescence.ResultsCD exposure caused impaired visual function and increased retinal immune cell expression in adult offspring. When challenged with HFD, CD offspring also exhibited altered retinal function and sex-specific impairments in glucose tolerance.ConclusionsOverall, these findings suggest that the light environment contributes to developmental programming of the metabolic and visual systems, potentially promoting a pro-inflammatory milieu in the retina and increasing the risk of visual disease later in life.     

基于化学计量学的不同产地香附中14种无机元素的含量比较

目的:建立香附药材中无机元素的含量测定方法,并比较不同产地香附中14种无机元素的含量,为该药材质量控制和优质资源开发提供理论基础。方法:采用微波消解法对样品进行处理,再采用电感耦合等离子体质谱(ICP-MS)法测定香附药材中Na、Mg、K、Ca、Mn、Fe、Ni、Cu、Zn、As、Se、Sr、Cd、Pb的含量,运用SPSS 23.0软件对数据进行主成分分析和聚类分析。结果:不同产地香附药材中上述14种无机元素的平均含量依次为168.62、753.71、6938.33、24.31、14.69、197.77、0.60、2.43、26.89、0.21、0.06、5.64、0.05、0.32 mg/kg。主成分分析结果显示,前4个主成分的累计方差贡献率为86.203%,可以反映原始数据的大部分信息;山东、江西、山西、湖北、云南所产香附的无机元素含量综合得分排在前5位。聚类分析结果显示,9个产地样品共聚为5类,呈现出按产区聚类的特点;从无机元素角度分析,华东、华中、华北、西南产区香附的质量优于华南产区样品。结论:香附药材中富含Na、Mg、K、Ca、Mn、Fe、Cu、Zn、Sr等人体必需元素,含有少量Ni、As、Se、Cd、Pb元素;不同产地香附药材无机元素的含量差异与所在地理片区具有相关性。     

Autonomously replicating plasmids carrying theAMA1 region inPenicillium chrysogenum

Plasmid vectors containing theAMA1 sequence transformed with high efficiency and replicated autonomously inPenicillium chrysogenum. The efficiency of transformation ofP. chrysogenum was related to the length of theAMA1 fragment used for constructing the different autonomously replicating plasmids. One of the two palindromic inverted repeats ofAMA1 (the 2.2-kbSalI-HindIII fragment) is sufficient to confer autonomous replication and a high transformation efficiency. Deletion of the 0.6-kb central fragment located between the inverted repeats did not affect either the ability of the plasmids to replicate autonomously or the efficiency of transformation, but did alter the mitotic stability and the plasmid copy number. Deletion of any fragment of the 2.2-kb repeat caused the loss of the ability to replicate autonomously and reduced the transformation efficiency. Most of the transformants retained the original plasmid configuration, as multimers and without reorganization, after several rounds of autonomous replication. TheAMA1 region works as an origin of replication inP. chrysogenum andA. nidulans but not apparently inAcremonium chrysogenum.     

Effect of maternal gestational diabetes on the cardiovascular risk factor profile of infants at 1 year of age

Background and aimOffspring of women with gestational diabetes (GDM) exhibit an adverse cardiovascular risk factor profile by as early as age 5 years. Recently, maternal glycemia has been associated with epigenetic modification of genes on the fetal side of the placenta, including those encoding emerging risk factors (adiponectin, leptin), suggesting that vascular differences may emerge even earlier in life. Thus, we sought to evaluate cardiovascular risk factors and determinants thereof in 1-year-old infants of women with and without GDM.Methods and resultsTraditional (glucose, lipids) and emerging (C-reactive protein (CRP), adiponectin, leptin) risk factors were assessed in pregnancy in 104 women with (n = 36) and without GDM (n = 68), and at age 1-year in their offspring. In pregnancy, women with GDM had higher triglycerides (2.49 vs 2.10 mmol/L, p = 0.04) and CRP (5.3 vs 3.6 mg/L, p = 0.03), and lower adiponectin (7.3 vs 8.5 μg/mL, p = 0.04) than did their peers. At age 1-year, however, there were no differences in cardiovascular risk factors (including adiponectin) between the infants of women with and without GDM. Of note, maternal and infant adiponectin levels were associated in the non-GDM group (r = 0.39, p = 0.001) but not in the GDM group (r = 0.07, p = 0.67). Furthermore, on multiple linear regression analyses, maternal adiponectin emerged as an independent predictor of infant adiponectin in the non-GDM group only (beta = 776.1, p = 0.0065).ConclusionInfants of women with and without GDM have a similar cardiovascular risk factor profile at age 1-year. However, there are differences in their early-life determinants of adiponectin that may be relevant to the subsequent vascular risk of GDM offspring.