Positive association between metabolic syndrome and serum uric acid in Wuhan.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The objective was to determine whether serum uric acid concentrations were associated with metabolic syndrome in a population from Wuhan. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: 5,628 subjects (2,838 men, 2,790 women) aged 18-80 years were recruited in Wuhan, China. Biochemical parameters of venous blood were measured by standard methods and metabolic syndrome was defined by Chinese Diabetes Society criteria. Association analysis was performed by logistic regression. RESULTS: 8.2% of the included subjects were confirmed as having metabolic syndrome and 14.4% were confirmed as having hyperuricemia. After multivariable adjustment, logistic regression showed the odds ratios of metabolic syndrome for subjects in the highest quartile of serum uric acid concentration was 2.84 (95% CI: 2.09-3.86) compared with those in the lowest quartile and no gender difference was found. For each component of metabolic syndrome, subjects in the highest quartile of serum uric acid concentrations had increased multivariable odds ratios for high BMI (OR: 3.29, 95% CI: 2.71-3.98), for hypertension (OR: 3.54, 95% CI: 2.93-3.86), for dyslipidemia (OR: 2.49, 95% CI: 1.98-3.14), but not for hyperglycemia (OR: 1.21, 95% CI: 0.87-1.67). CONCLUSIONS: Odd ratio of metabolic syndrome was significantly positively associated with serum uric acid concentration among the present sample of 5,628 subjects in Wuhan.

Positive association between the metabolic syndrome and white blood cell counts in Chinese.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The aim was to investigate the association between peripheral circulating white blood cell count (WBC) and the metabolic syndrome among populations in central China. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: In the present study, 5,278 subjects (2,412 women, 2,866 men) aged 18-75 years were recruited through a health check program in Wuhan, China. Biochemical and haematological parameters were measured by standard methods and the metabolic syndrome diagnosed as defined by the Chinese Diabetes Society criteria for Chinese. RESULTS: Both WBC counts and prevalence of metabolic syndrome were significantly higher in men than in women (p<0.01). Participants in the highest quartile of white blood cell count had significantly higher odds ratio of metabolic syndrome (3.79, 95% CI: 2.64, 5.44), compared with subjects in the lowest quartile. The trend remained significant after adjustment for confounding factors and in further subgroup-analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Metabolic syndrome prevalence was significantly and positively correlated with the total white blood cell count in this Chinese population.

Effect of individual omega-3 fatty acids on the risk of prostate cancer: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.

Epidemiological studies have suggested inconsistent associations between omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) and prostate cancer (PCa) risk. We performed a dose-response meta-analysis of prospective observational studies investigating both dietary intake and circulating n-3 PUFAs and PCa risk. PubMed and EMBASE prior to February 2014 were searched, and 16 publications were eligible. Blood concentration of docosahexaenoic acid, but not alpha-linolenic acid or eicosapentaenoic acid, showed marginal positive association with PCa risk (relative risk for 1% increase in blood docosahexaenoic acid concentration: 1.02; 95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.05; I(2) = 26%; P = 0.05 for linear trend), while dietary docosahexaenoic acid intake showed a non-linear positive association with PCa risk (P < 0.01). Dietary alpha-linolenic acid was inversely associated with PCa risk (relative risk for 0.5 g/day increase in alpha-linolenic acid intake: 0.99; 95% confidence interval, 0.98-1.00; I(2) = 0%; P = 0.04 for linear trend), which was dominated by a single study. Subgroup analyses indicated that blood eicosapentaenoic acid concentration and blood docosahexaenoic acid concentration were positively associated with aggressive PCa risk and nonaggressive PCa risk, respectively. Among studies with nested case-control study designs, a 0.2% increase in blood docosapentaenoic acid concentration was associated with a 3% reduced risk of PCa (relative risk 0.97; 95% confidence interval, 0.94-1.00; I(2) = 44%; P = 0.05 for linear trend). In conclusion, different individual n-3 PUFA exposures may exhibit different or even opposite associations with PCa risk, and more prospective studies, especially those examining dietary n-3 PUFAs and PCa risk stratified by severity of cancer, are needed to confirm the results.

Consumption of Chinese tea-flavor liquor improves circulating insulin levels without affecting hepatic lipid metabolism-related gene expression in Sprague-Dawley rats.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of two Chinese liquors with quite different nonalcoholic components on insulin sensitivity, tissue polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and hepatic lipid metabolism in SD rats. METHODS: Thirty-three SD rats were randomized into four groups and maintained in each treatment for 10 weeks: Chinese tea-flavor liquor (TFL, n=9), traditional Chinese liquor (TCL, n=8), ethanol control (EC, n=8), and water control (WC, n=8). RESULTS: TFL significantly decreased plasma insulin (P=0.009) and marginally decreased Homeostatic Model Assessment-Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) (P=0.05), compared with WC. Hepatic total and n-6 PUFA compositions were significantly decreased in TFL, TCL, and EC groups compared with WC group (P<0.05). TFL significantly increased kidney n-6 PUFA (P=0.05) and total PUFA (P=0.039), compared with EC group. EC group showed significant higher gene expressions of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and steroid response element-binding protein (1c and 2), while there were no significant differences of these gene expressions in TFL or TCL group compared with WC. CONCLUSIONS: TFL has a beneficial effect on metabolic disorder in relation to improved circulating insulin levels without affecting hepatic lipid metabolism-related gene expressions in rats.

Effects of green tea, black tea, and coffee consumption on the risk of esophageal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.

Epidemiological studies regarding the associations of tea and coffee consumption with esophageal cancer (EC) risk are still inconsistent and this meta-analysis was conducted to examine these associations. PubMed, ISI -Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Chinese VIP database up to October 2011 were searched and manual search for reference lists of relevant studies were conducted. Random effects model was used to pool the odds ratios (OR). Twenty-four case-control and cohort studies with 7376 EC cases were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled OR of EC was 0.77 [95% confidence intervals (95% CI): 0.57, 1.04] for highest vs. non/lowest green tea consumption; but it was statistically significant for case-control studies (OR = 0.70; 95% CI: 0.51, 0.96) and for studies conducted in China (OR = 0.64; 95% CI: 0.44, 0.95). No significant association was observed for the highest vs. non/lowest black tea consumption against EC risk (OR = 1.35; 95% CI: 0.86, 2.11). A borderline significantly inverse association of highest vs. non/lowest coffee consumption against EC risk was found (OR = 0.88; 95% CI: 0.76, 1.01). In conclusion, our data showed that both green tea and coffee consumption, but not black tea consumption, have protective effects on EC.

Marine N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are inversely associated with risk of type 2 diabetes in Asians: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Prospective cohort studies in relation to the associations between n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) were inconsistent. Differences in tissue n-3 PUFA compositions in subjects with and without T2D were also inconsistent in both cohort and case-control studies. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies to examine the associations of fish and n-3 PUFA intake with T2D risk. The differences in tissue n-3 PUFA compositions in subjects with and without T2D were investigated based on cohort and case-control studies. METHODS AND FINDINGS: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Chinese VIP database up to January 2012 was used to identify relevant studies, and reference lists from retrieved studies were reviewed. Two authors independently extracted the data. Random-effects models were used to pool the summary relative risk (RR). Twenty-four studies including 24,509 T2D patients and 545,275 participants were identified. For cohort studies, the summary RR of T2D for the highest vs lowest categories of total fish, marine n-3 PUFA and alpha-linolenic acid intake was 1.07 (95% CI: 0.91, 1.25), 1.07 (95% CI: 0.95, 1.20) and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.81, 1.07), respectively. Subgroup analyses indicated that summary RR (highest vs lowest category) of T2D for fish and marine n-3 PUFA intake was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.81, 0.98) and 0.87 (95% CI: 0.79, 0.96) for Asian populations, and 1.20 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.44) and 1.16 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.28) for Western populations. Asian subjects with T2D had significantly lower tissue compositions of C22:6n-3 (SMD: -1.43; 95% CI: -1.75, -1.12) and total n-3 PUFA (SMD: -1.41; 95% CI: -2.23, -0.59) compared with those without T2D. CONCLUSION: This systematic review and meta-analysis provides evidence that marine n-3 PUFA have beneficial effects on the prevention of T2D in Asian populations.