Effects of physical activity on blood lipids and HbA1c in healthy pregnant women: the FitMum randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: Maternal blood lipid and glucose concentrations during pregnancy affect fetal growth and the risk of pregnancy and delivery complications. We aimed to investigate the effects of physical activity (PA) during pregnancy on maternal blood lipid and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) concentrations. We hypothesized that higher PA was associated with improved lipid profile and glycemic control. METHODS: In a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial, we included 216 pregnant women before week 15+0 and tested the effects of two different PA interventions throughout pregnancy compared to standard care on maternal blood lipid and HbA1c concentrations. Additionally, we investigated the effect of PA per se measured by an activity tracker. Total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglyceride, and HbA1c concentrations were measured at week ≤15+0, 28+0-6, 34+0-6, and at delivery (week 32+1 to 42+0). Effects of the interventions and PA per se were tested using linear mixed effects models and linear regression analyses, respectively. RESULTS: No effects of the PA interventions were detected on maternal lipids or HbA1c during pregnancy. In PA per se analyses, more minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA were associated with less increase in TC (-1.3E-04, p=0.020) and LDL-C (-8.5E-05, p=0.035) as pregnancy progresses. More active kilocalories were associated with less increase in TC (-5.5E-05, p<0.001), HDL-C (-9.5E-06, p=0.024), and LDL-C (-3.2E-05, p=0.005). CONCLUSION: Whilst there were no effects of offering PA interventions, higher PA was associated with reduced increases in total cholesterol, HDL-C, and LDL-C as pregnancy progressed.

Clearance of Sclerostin, Osteocalcin, Fibroblast Growth Factor 23, and Osteoprotegerin by Dialysis.

INTRODUCTION: Fibroblast growth factor (FGF23), sclerostin, osteocalcin, and osteoprotegerin are important factors that control mineral bone metabolism. End-stage renal disease is associated with the pronounced dysregulation of mineral bone metabolism; however, the impact and clearance of mineral bone metabolism factors during dialysis remain largely undescribed. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, 10 chronic hemodialysis patients were treated with hemodialysis for 8 h using a high-flux filter and a dialysate bath of 50% calculated total body water continuously recycled at a rate of 500 mL/min. Plasma and dialysate concentrations of FGF23, sclerostin, osteoprotegerin, and osteocalcin were measured at 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 h permitting the estimation of dialysis clearance. RESULTS: Clearance of FGF23 was 7.7 mL/min, of sclerostin was 7.6 mL/min, of osteoprotegerin was 1.2 mL/min, and of osteocalcin was 19.7 mL/min. Clearance of FGF23 was correlated to sclerostin and osteoprotegerin clearance and also to the ultrafiltration rate. Although, osteocalcin blood concentrations decreased during dialysis, they rebounded within 6 h. Overall, no significant changes in blood concentrations of the measure mineral bone metabolism factors were observed. CONCLUSIONS: The intradialytic clearance of osteocalcin, FGF23, sclerostin, and osteoprotegerin occurs; however, only clearance of FGF23 is directly correlated with the ultrafiltration rate. The effects of dialytic clearance on mineral bone metabolism are, however, uncertain and intradialytic plasma concentrations of the studied substrates remained largely unchanged.

Calprotectin--a marker of mortality in COPD? Results from a prospective cohort study.

Calprotectin comprises more than 45% of the cytosolic content of neutrophil granulocytes. Because pathogenesis, disease activity and disease progression in COPD are believed to be partly dependent of neutrophil driven inflammation we decided to investigate whether plasma level of calprotectin (p-calprotectin) was associated with all-cause mortality in patients with COPD. We measured p-calprotectin in blood samples from 460 patients with moderate to very severe COPD in stable phase. Patients were stratified into three groups according to p-calprotectin level. Outcome measure was all-cause mortality. Analyses were adjusted for factors known to influence mortality using a Cox regression analysis. We found a time dependent correlation between p-calprotectin levels and mortality during the first 5 years of follow-up. Increasing levels of p-calprotectin were associated with concomitant increases in mortality from HR 1.56 (CI 95%: 1.03 -2.38) at calprotectin between 100 -200 ng/ml to HR 2.02 (CI 95%: 1.27-3.19) at calprotectin >200 ng/ml. P-calprotectin could be a useful marker of all-cause mortality in patients suffering from moderate to very severe COPD.

Your mitochondria are what you eat: a high-fat or a high-sucrose diet eliminates metabolic flexibility in isolated mitochondria from rat skeletal muscle.

Extreme diets consisting of either high fat (HF) or high sucrose (HS) may lead to insulin resistance in skeletal muscle, often associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. However, it is not known if these diets alter normal interactions of pyruvate and fatty acid oxidation at the level of the mitochondria. Here, we report that rat muscle mitochondria does show the normal Randle-type fat-carbohydrate interaction seen in vivo. The mechanism behind this metabolic flexibility at the level of the isolated mitochondria is a regulation of the flux-ratio: pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH)/ß-oxidation to suit the actual substrate availability, with the PDH flux as the major point of regulation. We further report that this regulatory mechanism of carbohydrate-fat metabolic interaction surprisingly is lost in mitochondria obtained from animals exposed for 12 weeks to a HF- or a HS diet as compared to rats given a normal chow diet. The mechanism seems to be a loss of the PDH flux decrease seen in controls, when fatty acid is supplied as substrate in addition to pyruvate, and vice versa for the supply of pyruvate as substrate to mitochondria oxidizing fatty acid. Finally, we report that the calculated TCA flux in the isolated mitochondria under these circumstances shows a significant reduction (~50%) after the HF diet and an even larger reduction (~75%) after the HS diet, compared with the chow group. Thus, it appears that obesogenic diets as those applied here have major influence on key metabolic performance of skeletal muscle mitochondria.

A genomic perspective on protein tyrosine phosphatases: gene structure, pseudogenes, and genetic disease linkage.

The protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) are now recognized as critical regulators of signal transduction under normal and pathophysiological conditions. In this analysis we have explored the sequence of the human genome to define the composition of the PTP family. Using public and proprietary sequence databases, we discovered one novel human PTP gene and defined chromosomal loci and exon structure of the additional 37 genes encoding known PTP transcripts. Direct orthologs were present in the mouse genome for all 38 human PTP genes. In addition, we identified 12 PTP pseudogenes unique to humans that have probably contaminated previous bioinformatics analysis of this gene family. PCR amplification and transcript sequencing indicate that some PTP pseudogenes are expressed, but their function (if any) is unknown. Furthermore, we analyzed the enhanced diversity generated by alternative splicing and provide predicted amino acid sequences for four human PTPs that are currently defined by fragments only. Finally, we correlated each PTP locus with genetic disease markers and identified 4 PTPs that map to known susceptibility loci for type 2 diabetes and 19 PTPs that map to regions frequently deleted in human cancers. We have made our analysis available at http://ptp.cshl.edu or http://science.novonordisk.com/ptp and we hope this resource will facilitate the functional characterization of these key enzymes.

Developmental programming by high fructose decreases phosphorylation efficiency in aging offspring brain mitochondria, correlating with enhanced UCP5 expression.

Fructose has recently been observed to affect brain metabolism and cognitive function in adults. Yet, possible late-onset effects by gestational fructose exposure have not been examined. We evaluated mitochondrial function in the brain of aging (15 months) male offspring of Fischer F344 rat dams fed a high-fructose diet (50% energy from fructose) during gestation and lactation. Maternal fructose exposure caused a significantly lower body weight of the offspring throughout life after weaning, while birth weight, litter size, and body fat percentage were unaffected. Isolated brain mitochondria displayed a significantly increased state 3 respiration of 8%, with the substrate combinations malate/pyruvate, malate/pyruvate/succinate, and malate/pyruvate/succinate/rotenone, as well as a significant decrease in the P/O2 ratio, compared with the control. Uncoupling protein 5 (UCP5) protein levels increased in the fructose group compared with the control (P=0.03) and both UCP5 mRNA and protein levels were inversely correlated with the P/O2 ratio (P=0.008 and 0.03, respectively), suggesting that UCP5 may have a role in the observed decreased phosphorylation efficiency. In conclusion, maternal high-fructose diet during gestation and lactation has long-term effects (fetal programming) on brain mitochondrial function in aging rats, which appears to be linked to an increase in UCP5 protein levels.

Interleukin-18 activates skeletal muscle AMPK and reduces weight gain and insulin resistance in mice.

Circulating interleukin (IL)-18 is elevated in obesity, but paradoxically causes hypophagia. We hypothesized that IL-18 may attenuate high-fat diet (HFD)-induced insulin resistance by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). We studied mice with a global deletion of the α-isoform of the IL-18 receptor (IL-18R(-/-)) fed a standard chow or HFD. We next performed gain-of-function experiments in skeletal muscle, in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo. We show that IL-18 is implicated in metabolic homeostasis, inflammation, and insulin resistance via mechanisms involving the activation of AMPK in skeletal muscle. IL-18R(-/-) mice display increased weight gain, ectopic lipid deposition, inflammation, and reduced AMPK signaling in skeletal muscle. Treating myotubes or skeletal muscle strips with IL-18 activated AMPK and increased fat oxidation. Moreover, in vivo electroporation of IL-18 into skeletal muscle activated AMPK and concomitantly inhibited HFD-induced weight gain. In summary, IL-18 enhances AMPK signaling and lipid oxidation in skeletal muscle implicating IL-18 in metabolic homeostasis.

Antioxidant supplementation does not alter endurance training adaptation.

BACKGROUND: There is a considerable commercial market, especially within the sports community, claiming the need for antioxidant supplementation. One argument for antioxidant supplementation in sports is that physical exercise is associated with increased reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) production, which may cause cell damage. However, RONS production may also activate redox-sensitive signaling pathways and transcription factors, which subsequently, may promote training adaptation. PURPOSE: Our aim was to investigate the effects of combined vitamin C and E supplementation to healthy individuals on different measures of exercise performance after endurance training. METHODS: Using a double-blinded placebo-controlled design, moderately trained young men received either oral supplementation with vitamins C and E (n = 11) or placebo (n = 10) before and during 12 wk of supervised, strenuous bicycle exercise training of a frequency of 5 d x wk(-1). Muscle biopsies were obtained before and after training. RESULTS: After the training period, maximal oxygen consumption, maximal power output, and workload at lactate threshold increased markedly (P < 0.01) in both groups. Also, glycogen concentration, citrate synthase, and beta-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity in the muscle were significantly higher in response to training (P < 0.01) in both groups. However, there were no differences between the two groups concerning any of the physiological and metabolic variables measured. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that administration of vitamins C and E to individuals with no previous vitamin deficiencies has no effect on physical adaptations to strenuous endurance training.