Physical activity and asthma: A longitudinal and multi-country study

Objective: To investigate the impact of physical activity on asthma in middle-aged adults, in one longitudinal analysis, and one multi-centre cross-sectional analysis. Methods: The Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE) is a population-based postal questionnaire cohort study. Physical activity, height and weight were self-reported in Bergen, Norway, at RHINE II (1999–2001) and all centres at RHINE III (2010–2012). A longitudinal analysis of Bergen data investigated the association of baseline physical activity with follow-up asthma, incident asthma and symptoms, using logistic and zero-inflated Poisson regression (n = 1782). A cross-sectional analysis of all RHINE III centres investigated the association of physical activity with concurrent asthma and symptoms (n = 13,542) using mixed-effects models. Body mass index (BMI) was categorised (<20, 20–24.99, 25–29.99, 30+ kg/m²) and physical activity grouped by amount and frequency of lighter (no sweating/heavy breathing) and vigorous (sweating/heavy breathing) activity. Results: In the Bergen longitudinal analysis, undertaking light activity 3+ times/week at baseline was associated with less follow-up asthma (odds ratio [OR] 0.44, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.22, 0.89), whilst an effect from undertaking vigorous activity 3+ times/week was not detected (OR 1.22, 95% CI 0.44, 2.76). The associations were attenuated with BMI adjustment. In the all-centre cross-sectional analysis an interaction was found, with the association between physical activity and asthma varying across BMI categories. Conclusion: These findings suggest potential longer-term benefit from lighter physical activity, whilst improvement in asthma outcomes from increasing activity intensity was not evident. Additionally, it appears the benefit from physical activity may differ according to BMI.     

Ingesta de flúor a través del consumo de agua de abastecimiento público en la cohorte INMA-Gipuzkoa

Objective

To estimate fluoride intake through consumption of water from the municipal network in pregnant women and their children from the INMA-Gipuzkoa cohort and to compare these intakes with recommended levels. In Euskadi (Spain), fluoridation of drinking water is compulsory in water supplies for more than 30,000 inhabitants.

Parental infertility and semen quality in male offspring: a follow-up study

Jensen et al. (Am J Epidemiol 2007;165:583-90) reported for the first time that men whose mothers had received fertility treatment had poor semen quality. This result could be confounded by the mothers' body mass index. Obesity is a strong predictor of fecundity and could have a programming effect on semen quality through hormonal factors or links to fetal growth. The authors of the current study tried to replicate the finding of Jensen et al. after controlling for maternal body mass index and other covariates using data from a recently conducted, population-based, Danish follow-up study on the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy in 1984-1987 and sons' semen quality, in which the participants were sampled according to levels of maternal smoking during pregnancy. After adjustment, sons of mothers who reported that they had been examined or treated for childlessness (n = 30) had a lower sperm concentration and total sperm count and fewer motile and morphologically normal spermatozoa in comparison with sons of mothers who had not been examined or treated for childlessness (n = 295). None of the differences (except for semen concentration) between the groups reached statistical significance, but the study has limited power. The findings were in the same direction as those reported by Jensen et al. and do not indicate that their results are confounded by maternal body mass index.     

Effect of vitamin A supplementation with BCG vaccine at birth on vitamin A status at 6 wk and 4 mo of age

BACKGROUND: The effect of vitamin A supplementation (VAS) at birth on subsequent vitamin A status has not been studied. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to study the effect of 50,000 IU vitamin A administered with BCG vaccine at birth on vitamin A status in both sexes. DESIGN: Within a randomized placebo-controlled trial of VAS, we obtained blood from 614 children at 6 wk of age and from 369 mother-infant pairs at 4 mo of age. We assessed vitamin A status on the basis of serum retinol-binding protein (RBP) and measured serum C-reactive protein to monitor for concurrent infections. RESULTS: RBP concentrations indicated vitamin A deficiency in 32% of the children at age 6 wk and in 16% at age 4 mo. VAS was not associated with higher RBP concentrations overall or in either sex. However, the effect of VAS varied with maternal education (P for interaction = 0.004): At age 6 wk, VAS was associated with higher (9%; 95% CI: 2, 17%) RBP concentrations in children of noneducated mothers but not in children of educated mothers. Overall, RBP concentrations increased between 6 wk and 4 mo of age. The increase correlated inversely with the number of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccines received in the interval (P = 0.009), particularly in girls (P for interaction = 0.01) and in vitamin A recipients (P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, VAS at birth had no effect on vitamin A status. However VAS may temporarily improve vitamin A status in the subgroup of children of noneducated mothers. In vitamin A recipients, subsequent DTP vaccines affected vitamin A status negatively. The main trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00168597.     

Association between KISS1 rs5780218 promoter polymorphism and onset of growth hormone secreting pituitary adenoma

Objectives

This study analyzed the KISS1 c.-145delA (rs5780218) promoter polymorphism in a cohort of patients with growth hormone secreting pituitary adenoma (somatotropinoma) and controls, to investigate its role in the incidence of acromegaly and to assess patient/tumor characteristics.Material and methods rs5780218 allelic and genotypic distributions were compared between 49 somatotropinoma patients and 167 healthy controls. rs5780218 was also assessed in relation to patient characteristics and tumor aggressiveness, as characterized by tumor invasion and resistance to conventional therapy. The relationship between KISS1 mRNA expression and the rs5780218 genotype was also assessed in available pituitary tumor samples.

SNP may modify the effect of vitamin A supplementation at birth on cytokine production in a whole blood culture assay

Within a neonatal vitamin A supplementation (VAS) trial, we investigated the effect of VAS on TNF-α, IL-10, IL-5 and IL-13 production after lipopolysaccharide, purified protein derivative (PPD) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and phytohaemagglutinin stimulation using a whole blood culture protocol. We found that VAS recipients had lower unstimulated TNF-α concentrations than placebo recipients. In the present paper, we investigated whether the SNP TNF-α -?308, TNF-α -?238, IL-10 -?592, IL-10 -?1082 and toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)+896 modified the effect of VAS on cytokine production. DNA and cytokine concentrations were available from 291 children. We found a significant interaction between TNF-α -?308 genotype and VAS for the unstimulated TNF-α production (Pinteraction?=?0·04); among G homozygotes, TNF-α concentrations were significantly lower after VAS compared with placebo, whereas for A carriers, VAS did not appear to have any effect. For TNF-α -?238, there was a tendency towards an increase in PPD-stimulated TNF-α production after VAS for the G homozygotes, but the opposite tendency for A allele carriers (Pinteraction?=?0·07). Stratification by sex revealed a significant VAS-genotype interaction for boys for TNF-α -?238. There was a borderline-significant three-way interaction (P?=?0·05) between sex, VAS and TLR4+896 genotype. Although the present study had very limited representation of the genetic variation with potential for modification of the response to VAS, it adds to the efforts of untangling the diverse effects and impact of VAS.     

Phthalates and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid in human amniotic fluid: temporal trends and timing of amniocentesis in pregnancy

Background: Measures of prenatal environmental exposures are important, and amniotic fluid levels may directly reflect fetal exposures during hypothesized windows of vulnerability.Objectives: We aimed to detect various phthalate metabolites and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in human amniotic fluid, to study temporal exposure trends, and to estimate potential associations with gestational week of amniocentesis and maternal age and parity at amniocentesis.Methods: We studied 300 randomly selected second-trimester amniotic fluid samples from a Danish pregnancy-screening biobank covering 1980 through 1996. We used only samples from male offspring pregnancies. We assayed the environmental pollutants by liquid chromatography/triple quadrupole mass spectrometry and analyzed data using generalized linear regression models.Results: We detected the di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) metabolite mono(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate (5cx-MEPP) at a median concentration of 0.27 ng/mL [interquartile range (IQR): 0.20–0.37 ng/mL], the diisononyl phthalate (DiNP) metabolite mono(4-methyl-7-carboxyheptyl) phthalate (7cx-MMeHP) at 0.07 ng/mL (IQR: 0.05–0.11 ng/mL), and PFOS at 1.1 ng/mL (IQR: 0.66–1.60 ng/mL). An increase of 1 calendar year was associated with 3.5% lower [95% confidence interval (CI): –4.8%, –2.1%] 5cx-MEPP levels and with 7.1% higher (95% CI: 5.3%, 9.0%) 7cx-MMeHP levels. For each later gestational week of amniocentesis, 5cx-MEPP was 9.9% higher (95% CI: 4.8%, 15.2%), 7cx-MMeHP was 8.6% higher (95: CI: 2.7%, 14.9%), and PFOS was 9.4% higher (95: CI: 3.3%, 15.9%). We observed no associations with maternal age or parity.Conclusions: Measured metabolite levels appeared to parallel decreasing DEHP exposure and increasing DiNP exposure during the study period. The environmental pollutant levels were positively associated with later gestational age at amniocentesis during pregnancy weeks 12–22.