Serum vascular adhesion protein-1 is up-regulated in hyperglycemia and is associated with incident diabetes negatively.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) can enhance tissue glucose uptake in cell studies and normalize hyperglycemia in animal studies. However, serum VAP-1 concentration (sVAP-1) is higher in subjects with diabetes in cross-sectional studies. In this cohort study, we test our hypothesis that sVAP-1 is increased in prediabetes to counteract hyperglycemia and is associated with incident diabetes negatively. SUBJECTS/METHODS: From 2006 to 2012, 600 subjects without diabetes from Taiwan Lifestyle Study were included and followed regularly. Diabetes was diagnosed if FPG ≥ 126 mg/dL (7 mmol/L), 2-h plasma glucose (2hPG) during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) ≥ 200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L), or hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) ≥ 6.5%, or if the subject received anti-diabetic medications. Abdominal fat areas were measured by abdominal computed tomography and sVAP-1 was analyzed by ELISA. RESULTS: sVAP-1 was higher in subjects with prediabetes (p < 0.05) and increased during an OGTT (p < 0.001). Fasting sVAP-1 was associated with the response of sVAP-1 during an OGTT (p < 0.001). Besides, sVAP-1 was associated negatively with body mass index (BMI, r = -0.1449, p = 0.003), waist circumference (r = -0.1425, p = 0.004), abdominal visceral (r = -0.1457, p = 0.003), and subcutaneous (r = -0.1025, p = 0.035) fat areas, and serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) concentration (r = -0.2035, p < 0.0001), and positively with plasma adiponectin concentration (r = 0.2086, p < 0.0001), adjusted for age and gender. After 4.7 ± 2.6 years, 73 subjects (12.2%) developed incident diabetes. High sVAP-1 predicted a lower incidence of diabetes, adjusted for age, gender, BMI, family history of diabetes, HbA1c, HOMA2-%B and HOMA2-IR (HR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.50-0.88, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: sVAP-1 is increased in response to hyperglycemia. It is associated with obesity and serum hsCRP concentration negatively, and plasma adiponectin concentration positively. Besides, a high sVAP-1 is associated with a lower incidence of diabetes in human.

Constructing an active health and safety performance questionnaire in the food manufacturing industry.

To design a comprehensive health and safety management performance system, extant literature on the health and safety performance indicators of and management systems for the application of occupational health and safety management systems was reviewed; additionally, the provisions of occupational health and safety laws were examined with a total of three main categories, including 28 active safety and health management performance categories. In the present study, health and safety management performance was evaluated by food manufacturing industry employees. An active performance evaluation questionnaire was developed by adopting the Delphi method to seek professional and expert opinion. With food manufacturing workers as participants, an in-depth discussion was conducted regarding the status of active health and safety performance indicators. Six active health and safety performance indicators were determined: emergency response; change management; procurement management; communication; prevention management; security behavior. These performance indicators have not been sufficiently implemented and require improvement.

The Impact of Gastric Atrophy on the Incidence of Diabetes.

Gastric atrophy results in lower plasma ghrelin, higher gastrin secretion, a change in gut microbiota, and altered dietary nutrient absorption, which may be associated with the incidence of diabetes. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is a major cause of gastric atrophy and is associated with diabetes in some reports. Since there is no study which investigates the impact of gastric atrophy on diabetes, we conduct a prospective cohort study to examine the relationship between H. pylori infection, gastric atrophy, and incident diabetes. In this study, subjects with gastric atrophy had a lower risk of incident diabetes, compared to those without gastric atrophy. The extent of gastric atrophy, measured by serum pepsinogen (PG) I/II ratio, was correlated with age, H. pylori IgG titer, HOMA2-IR, and HOMA2%B. When gastric atrophy is more extensive, presented as a lower serum PG I/II ratio, the risk of incident diabetes is lower. On the other hand, there was no significant association between H. pylori infection and the incidence of diabetes. In conclusion, the presence and the extent of gastric atrophy, but not H. pylori infection, are associated with incident diabetes. Further studies are needed to investigate the detailed mechanisms and the potential applications of the findings to guide diabetes screening and treatment strategies.

Physical activity and memory complaints in middle-age Americans: results from the MIDUS study.

Work-related physical activity (PA; WRPA), household PA (HPA), and leisure-time PA(LTPA) are the 3 important PA domains for most people, but their relationships with cognition functions have not been thoroughly examined, especially the subjective memory complaints (SMCs). We used a data set from the 2005 midlife development in the United States (MIDUS) survey for community-dwelling adults aged 35 to 64 years (mean age = 51.01) to examine the relationship between these 3 PA domains (and 3 levels under the domains) with SMCs (N = 1044). The moderate levels of HPA and LTPA are significantly but oppositely linked to SMCs, with the adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals of .864 and .764-.978 for HPA and 1.130 and 1.010-1.264 for LTPA, respectively. Neither vigorous or low PA level nor domains of WRPA link to SMCs. The interaction terms were not found to be associated with sex and age. Future works and limitations were also discussed.