The association between prepregnancy dietary fatty acids and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: A prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Epidemiologic studies have examined the association between dietary fatty acids and type 2 diabetes risk in general populations. Evidence regarding their associations with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) risk remains limited. This study aimed to evaluate prepregnancy fatty acids intake in relation to GDM risk. METHODS: 3,725 pregnant women from the Xi'an Birth Cohort Study who were free of previous GDM or pre-existing chronic diseases were included. Dietary intake of total fat and individual fatty acids (including saturated fatty acids [SFA], monounsaturated fatty acids [MUFA], polyunsaturated fatty acids [PUFA], and trans fatty acids) during the year preceding pregnancy was assessed by a validated food-frequency questionnaire before 16 weeks of gestation. GDM was confirmed based on the 75-g oral glucose tolerance test. Log-binomial or modified Poisson regression models were applied to estimate the relative risks (RRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (95%CIs) of GDM for fatty acids intake. Generalized linear regression was adopted for blood glucose levels with fatty acids intake. RESULTS: 644 (17.3 %) incident GDM cases were confirmed in our study. Participants in the highest intake of total fat substituting for carbohydrates had a 33 % reduced risk of GDM than those in the lowest intake (RR:0.67; 95%CI:0.55,0.81). For individual fatty acids, only PUFA intake was associated with a lower risk of GDM, with RR comparing extreme tertiles of 0.61 (95%CI:0.49,0.76). Each 2 % increase in energy from total fat and PUFA replacing carbohydrates decreased the risk of GDM by 6 % (95%CI:3 %,9 %) and 15 % (95%CI:9 %,21 %), respectively. Similar inverse associations with intake of total fat and PUFA were observed for blood glucose levels. Further analyses of SFA substitution showed that replacement of 2 % energy from SFA with PUFA and MUFA was associated with 26 % (RR:0.74; 95%CI:0.62,0.88) and 30 % (RR:0.70; 95%CI:0.50, 0.98) decreased risk of GDM, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Greater intake of total fat and PUFA before pregnancy was associated with lower risk of GDM when replacing carbohydrates. Substitution SFA with PUFA and MUFA was also inversely associated with GDM risk. These findings support the important role of optimal dietary fatty acids composition in the prevention of GDM.

Dysregulation of Transcription Profile of Selenoprotein in Patients with Kashin-Beck Disease and Its Effect on Se Deficiency-Induced Chondrocyte Apoptosis.

Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) is a chronic, degenerative osteoarthropathy related to selenium (Se) deficiency. Se participates in the synthesis of selenoprotein in the form of selenocysteine. In total, 25 selenoproteins, encoded by 25 genes, are currently found in humans; however, the effects of selenoprotein genes on chondrocyte apoptosis, particularly in apoptosis-related genes, remain poorly elucidated. Therefore, in the current study, the expression of selenoprotein genes and apoptosis-related genes were determined by RT-qPCR in patients and chondrocytes and the correlations between them were analyzed using Pearson and Spearman's rank correlation, and the chondrocyte apoptosis rate was detected by Annexin V-FITC/PI. The results showed that the mRNA levels of 17 selenoprotein genes were downregulated, whereas two genes were upregulated in patients with KBD. The BAX/BCL2 ratio and the mRNA levels of BAX and P53 were increased, but the mRNA levels of BCL2 and NF-κB p65 were decreased in patients with KBD. The mRNA levels of GPX2, GPX3, DIO1, TXNRD1, TXNRD3, and SPS2 were most closely associated with apoptosis-related genes in patients with KBD. Moreover, in the Se deficiency group, the mRNA levels of GPX3, DIO1, and TXNRD1 were downregulated and GPX activity was decreased, but the late apoptosis rate, the mRNA levels of BAX and P53, and the BAX/BCL2 ratio were increased; the opposite trend was observed in the Se supplement group. Collectively, these results indicate that selenoprotein transcription profile is dysregulated in patients with KBD. Furthermore, the expression of GPX3, DIO1, and TXNRD1 genes might be involved in the development of chondrocyte apoptosis by affecting antioxidant capacity.

The study of GPX3 methylation in patients with Kashin-Beck Disease and its mechanism in chondrocyte apoptosis.

OBJECTIVE: Selenium deficiency is a risk factor for Kashin-Beck Disease (KBD), an endemic osteoarthropathy. Although promoter hypermethylation of glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPX3) (a selenoprotein) has been identified in several cancers, little is known about promoter methylation and expression of GPX3 and their relation to selenium in KBD. The present study was thus conducted to investigate this research question. METHODS: Methylation and expressions of GPX3 in whole blood drawn from 288 KBD patients and 362 healthy controls and in chondrocyte cell line were evaluated using methylation-specific PCR and qRT-PCR, respectively. The protein levels of PI3K/Akt/c-fos signaling in the whole blood and chondrocyte cell line were determined with Western blotting. Chondrocytes apoptosis were detected by Hoechst 33342 and Annexin V-FITC/PI staining. RESULTS: GPX3 methylation was increased, GPX3 mRNA was decreased, and protein levels in the PI3K/Akt/c-fos signaling pathway were up-regulated in the whole blood collected from KBD patients as compared with healthy controls. Similar results were obtained for chondrocytes injured by oxidative stress. There was a significant, decreasing trend in GPX3 expression across groups of unmethylation, partial methylation, and complete methylation for GPX3, in sequence. Compared with unmethylation group, protein levels in PI3K/Akt/c-fos pathway were enhanced in partial and complete methylation groups. Treatment of chondrocytes with sodium selenite resulted in reduced methylation and increased expression of GPX3 as well as down-regulated level of PI3K/Akt/c-fos proteins. CONCLUSIONS: The methylation and expression of GPX3 and expression of PI3K/Akt/c-fos pathway are altered in KBD and these changes are reversible by selenium supplementation.

Chromatographic fingerprint combined with content of asperosaponin VI and antioxidant activity for quality evaluation of wine-fried Dipsaci Radix.

Dipsaci Radix, the dry root of Dipsacusasper Wall. ex Henry, is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). A novel comprehensive method was proposed for quality evaluation of wine-fried Dipsaci Radix by an integrated data including three aspects of information: high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint, asperosaponin VI content and antioxidant activity (AA). Various indicators including fingerprint similarity, asperosaponin VI content and AA were respectively employed for quality assessment of processed Dipsaci Radix samples. Results showed that considerable differences existed in quality of processed samples with different processing conditions according to three indicators. Among the factors affecting quality of wine-fried Dipsaci Radix, heating temperature was the most influential factor based on analysis of variance (ANOVA), and should be cautiously controlled. The three evaluation indicators respectively used for optimization of processing technology suggested different optimal conditions of wine-frying. Therefore, a combined indicator based on three evaluation indicators was used for determination of optimal processing condition. Multivariate statistical methods such as Hierarchical Clustering Analysis (HCA) and Principal Components Analysis (PCA) were both employed to classify the processed samples for quality evaluation. To more comprehensively evaluate the quality of wine-fried Dipsaci Radix, HPLC fingerprint combined with content of asperosaponin VI and AA may be a reasonable and practical approach.