ABSTRACT
The association between dietary fat intake during pregnancy and the risk of developing preeclampsia has been examined in many epidemiological studies, but the results remain inconsistent. The aim of this study was to clarify this association in pregnant Chinese women. After conducting 1:1 matching, 440 pairs consisting of pregnant women with preeclampsia and hospital-based, healthy pregnant women matched by gestational week (± 1 week) and age (± 3 years) were recruited. A 79-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire administered during face-to-face interviews was used to estimate the participants' dietary intake of fatty acids. We found that the intakes of arachidonic acid (AA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were inversely associated with the risk of developing preeclampsia. Compared with the lowest quartile intake, the multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of the highest quartile intake were 0.42 (0.26-0.68, p-trend < 0.001) for EPA, 0.52 (0.3-0.83, p-trend = 0.005) for DHA, and 0.41 (0.19-0.88, p-trend = 0.007) for AA. However, we did not observe any significant associations between the intake of total fatty acids, saturated fatty acids, and mono-unsaturated fatty acids and the risk of developing preeclampsia. Our results showed that the dietary intake of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (i.e., EPA, DHA, and AA) may protect pregnant Chinese women against the development of preeclampsia.
Subject(s)
Dietary Fats/adverse effects , Fatty Acids/adverse effects , Pre-Eclampsia/etiology , Adult , Arachidonic Acid/adverse effects , Case-Control Studies , Eicosapentaenoic Acid/adverse effects , Female , Humans , Pregnancy , Risk Factors , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Baicalein is a flavonoid isolated from the roots of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi. This study aimed to ascertain the effects and potential underlying mechanisms of baicalein in d-galactose (d-gal)-induced aging rat model by integration of behavior examination, biochemical detection, and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomic approach. Our findings suggest that baicalein significantly attenuated memory decline in d-gal-induced aging model, as manifested by increasing recognition index in novel object recognition test, shortening latency time, and increasing platform crossings in Morris water maze test. Baicalein significantly inhibited the releases of inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide, interleukin-6, interleukin-1 beta, and tumor necrosis factor-α in d-gal-induced aging model. Metabolomic study revealed that 10 endogenous metabolites in cerebral cortex were considered as potential biomarkers of baicalein for its protective effect. Further metabolic pathway analysis showed that the metabolic alterations were associated with alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, inositol phosphate metabolism, and energy metabolism. These data indicate that baicalein improves learning and memory dysfunction in d-gal-induced aging rats. This might be achieved through attenuation of inflammation and metabolic dysfunction.
Subject(s)
Aging/metabolism , Flavanones/therapeutic use , Inflammation/drug therapy , Inflammation/metabolism , Aging/pathology , Animals , Behavior, Animal/drug effects , Body Weight/drug effects , Cerebral Cortex/drug effects , Cerebral Cortex/metabolism , Cerebral Cortex/pathology , Discriminant Analysis , Feeding Behavior/drug effects , Flavanones/pharmacology , Galactose , Inflammation/blood , Inflammation/pathology , Inflammation Mediators/metabolism , Least-Squares Analysis , Male , Metabolic Networks and Pathways/drug effects , Metabolomics , Multivariate Analysis , Principal Component Analysis , Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy , Rats, Sprague-DawleyABSTRACT
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used to treat tumors for years and has been demonstrated to be effective. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of herbs remain unclear. This study aims to ascertain molecular targets of herbs prolonging survival time of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on network pharmacology, and to establish a research method for accurate treatment of TCM. The survival benefit of TCM treatment with Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) was proved by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis among 288 patients. The correlation between herbs and survival time was performed by bivariate correlation analysis. Network pharmacology method was utilized to construct the active ingredient-target networks of herbs that were responsible for the beneficial effects against HCC. Cox regression analysis showed CHM was an independent favorable prognostic factor. The median survival time was 13 months and the 5-year overall survival rates were 2.61% in the TCM group, while there were 6 months, 0 in the non-TCM group. Correlation analysis demonstrated that 8 herbs closely associated with prognosis. Network pharmacology analysis revealed that the 8 herbs regulated multiple HCC relative genes, among which the genes affected proliferation (KRAS, AKT2, MAPK), metastasis (SRC, MMP), angiogenesis (PTGS2) and apoptosis (CASP3) etc.