Harsh, unpredictable childhood environments are associated with inferior frontal gyrus connectivity and binge eating tendencies in late adolescents.

Harsh, unpredictable childhood environments (HUCE) are associated with obesity older in life, but knowledge of how HUCE affect binge eating tendencies is lacking. Five hundred and one late adolescents aged 16-22 were recruited to finish resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, behavioral measures including retrospective recall of childhood environmental harshness and unpredictability, binge eating tendencies and demographics. Three hundred and seventy-six of participants further completed the computerized visual probe task designed to evaluate attentional engagement towards high and low calorie food. As right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was the key nodes that related to both early life adversity and binge eating tendencies, it was treated as the interest region in the dynamic functional connectivity analyses. Results found that HUCE are associated with significant but modest decreases in connectivity of right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG)- bilateral medial frontal gyrus, right IFG - bilateral inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and right IFG - left superior frontal gyrus connectivity, as well as attentional engagement to high-calorie food and binge eating tendencies. A machine-learning method named linear support vector regression (SVR) and leave one out cross-validation (LOOCV) procedure used to examine the robustness of the brain-behavior relationship further confirm the findings. Mediation analyses suggested that right IFG - left IPL connectivity mediates the association of HUCE and binge eating tendencies. Findings suggest right IFG - left IPL connectivity may serve as a crucial neurobiological underpinning of HUCE to regulate binge eating behaviors. As such, these results contribute to a novel perspective and hypotheses in elucidating developmental neuro-mechanisms related to binge eating.

The role of aspirin dose and initiation time in the prevention of preeclampsia and corresponding complications: a meta-analysis of RCTs.

PURPOSE: To investigate the role of different dosages and initial times of aspirin in preeclampsia prevention. METHODS: This meta-analysis was performed based on randomized-control trials (RCTs). RCTs of women assigned to receive low-dose aspirin, placebo, or no treatment were included. Preeclampsia and corresponding complications were pooled for analysis. All studies were retrieved from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane and Web of Science. RESULTS: A total of 46 studies were obtained in this meta-analysis, which consisted of 24,028 participants. When women at ≤ 16 gestational weeks started treatment with a dosage of < 100 mg/day aspirin, there was a significant reduction in the incidence of preeclampsia (RR = 0.75; 95% CI 0.58-0.98; P = 0.03), while in the subgroup receiving ≥ 100 mg/day aspirin, the result was RR = 0.71 (95% CI 0.53-0.95; P = 0.02). When aspirin was initiated at > 16 weeks, with a dosage of < 100 mg/day aspirin, there was a lesser preventive effect (RR = 0.80; 95% Cl 0.64-1.00; P = 0.05), and there was no significance in the subgroup receiving ≥ 100 mg/day aspirin (RR = 0.76; 95% Cl 0.45-1.31; P = 0.32). Furthermore, aspirin was revealed to have a protective effect on reducing preterm delivery, but there was an increased risk of postpartum hemorrhage. No significant result was obtained for fetal loss. CONCLUSION: The results of this meta-analysis suggest that high-risk pregnant women can prevent preeclampsia or preterm delivery by taking low-dose aspirin; the most efficient period is ≤ 16 weeks of gestation, and the best dose is ≥ 100 mg.

Support from a Best Friend Makes People Eat Less under Stress: Evidence from Two Experiments.

When experiencing acute stress, individuals often turn to eating for comfort, as it provides a sense of satiety and satisfaction that can temporarily alleviate the stressful condition. However, this may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease. In this study, we conducted two behavioral experiments to investigate the effectiveness of social support in reducing stress-induced overeating and the mediative role of negative affect and self-efficacy (Experiment 1), as well as the role of reward sensitivity (Experiment 2). Acute stress was induced using a speech preparation task and then participants were asked to regulate their emotions and cognition, either alone or with the help of pictures and supportive sentences provided by a best friend or stranger. Participants in Experiment 1 then completed the food choice task, and participants in Experiment 2 completed the food incentive delay task and the bogus tasting task. The results of both experiments consistently showed that participants who received support from their friends reported lower levels of perceived stress, chose fewer food portions, and consumed fewer snacks during acute stress, compared to the other three groups. Further mediation analysis using the process macro revealed that the differential influence of social support on the choice of high-calorie foods was due to decreased negative affect and increased self-efficacy. This study provides valuable insights for the development of therapeutic interventions for clinical eating disorders.

Associations of harsh, unpredictable environment, amygdala connectivity and overeating for children.

OBJECTIVE: In harsh and unpredictable environments, individuals tend to engage in activities that yield immediate rewards as delayed benefits can be unavailable. Substantial evidence suggests that a harsh and unpredictable childhood environment is associated with overeating. However, the neuromechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate amygdala connectivity in relation to environmental harshness and unpredictability (EHU) from an evolutionary perspective and examine their relationship with overeating in children. METHODS: Eighty-five children aged 8 to 12 years were scanned using a magnetic resonance imaging machine to assess resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the two subregions of the amygdala (i.e., centromedial amygdala [CMA]; basolateral amygdala [BLA]). Self-reports of EHU and parental reports of overeating, including food responsiveness and enjoyment of food, were obtained cross-sectionally. Furthermore, findings indicated that children completed high- and low-calorie food portion choice tasks in the absence of hunger at 12 months of follow-up. RESULTS: EHU was positively associated with parental reports of overeating, including food responsiveness and enjoyment, as well as children's selection of high-calorie food portion sizes. Moreover, static RSFC analyses revealed that EHU was negatively associated with bilateral BLA-left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) connectivity, while dynamic RSFC analyses found that EHU was negatively associated with right CMA, left inferior parietal lobule, and right CMA-right precuneus connectivity. Particularly, the left BLA-left IFG connectivity mediated the association between EHU and parental reports of food responsiveness. CONCLUSION: EHU was negatively associated with amygdala connectivity, which is implicated in the intrinsic processing of emotional regulation. Furthermore, deficits in emotional regulation resulted in increased energy intake. These insights provide a new perspective for understanding the developmental neuromechanisms underlying obesity.

Adsorption of Cu(II) by Poly-γ-glutamate/Apatite Nanoparticles.

Poly-γ-glutamate/apatite (PGA-AP) nanoparticles were prepared by chemical coprecipitation method in the presence of various concentrations of poly-γ-glutamate (γ-PGA). Powder X-ray diffraction pattern and energy-dispersive spectroscopy revealed that the main crystal phase of PGA-AP was hydroxyapatite. The immobilization of γ-PGA on PGA-AP was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and the relative amount of γ-PGA incorporation into PGA-AP was determined by thermal gravimetric analysis. Dynamic light scattering measurements indicated that the particle size of PGA-AP nanoparticles increased remarkably with the decrease of γ-PGA content. The adsorption of aqueous Cu(II) onto the PGA-AP nanoparticles was investigated in batch experiments with varying contact time, solution pH and temperature. Results illustrated that the adsorption of Cu(II) was very rapid during the initial adsorption period. The adsorption capacity of PGA-AP nanoparticles for Cu(II) was increased with the increase in the γ-PGA content, solution pH and temperature. At a pH of 6 and 60 °C, a higher equilibrium adsorption capacity of about 74.80 mg/g was obtained. The kinetic studies indicated that Cu(II) adsorption onto PGA-AP nanoparticles obeyed well the pseudo-second order model. The Langmuir isotherm model was fitted well to the adsorption equilibrium data. The results indicated that the adsorption behavior of PGA-AP nanoparticles for Cu(II) was mainly a monolayer chemical adsorption process. The maximum adsorption capacity of PGA-AP nanoparticles was estimated to be 78.99 mg/g.