The association between serum folate and gestational diabetes mellitus: a large retrospective cohort study in Chinese population.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between folate levels and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) risk during the whole pregnancy. DESIGN: In this retrospective cohort study of pregnant women, serum folate levels were measured before 24 gestational weeks (GW). GDM was diagnosed between 24th and 28th GW based on the criteria of the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups. General linear models were performed to examine the association of serum folate with plasma glucose (i.e. linear regressions) and risk of GDM (i.e. log-binomial regressions) after controlling for confounders. Restricted cubic spline regression was conducted to test the dosage-response relationship between serum folate and the risk of GDM. SETTING: A sigle, urban hospital in Shanghai, China. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 42 478 women who received antenatal care from April 2013 to March 2017 were included. RESULTS: Consistent positive associations were observed between serum folate and plasma glucose levels (fasting, 1-h, 2-h). The adjusted relative risks (RR) and 95 % CI of GDM across serum folate quartiles were 1·00 (reference), 1·15 (95 % CI (1·04, 1·26)), 1·40 (95 % CI (1·27, 1·54)) and 1·54 (95 % CI (1·40, 1·69)), respectively (P-for-trend < 0·001). The positive association between serum folate and GDM remained when stratified by vitamin B12 (adequate v. deficient groups) and the GW of serum folate measurement (≤13 GW v. >13 GWs). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study may provide important evidence for the public health and clinical guidelines of pregnancy folate supplementation in terms of GDM prevention.

Health belief model based evaluation of school health education programme for injury prevention among high school students in the community context.

BACKGROUND: Although multifaceted community-based programmes have been widely developed, there remains a paucity of evaluation of the effectiveness of multifaceted injury prevention programmes implemented in different settings in the community context. This study was to provide information for the evaluation of community-based health education programmes of injury prevention among high school students. METHODS: The pre-intervention survey was conducted in November 2009. Health belief model (HBM) based health education for injury prevention started in January 2010 and stopped in the end of 2011 among high school students in the community context in Shanghai, China. A post-intervention survey was conducted six weeks after the completion of intervention. Injury-related health belief indicators were captured by a short questionnaire before and after the intervention. Health belief scores were calculated and compared using the simple sum score (SSS) method and the confirmatory factor analysis weighted score (CFAWS) method, respectively. RESULTS: The average reliability coefficient for the questionnaire was 0.89. The factor structure of HBM was given and the data fit HBM in the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) very well. The result of CFA showed that Perceived Benefits of Taking Action (BEN) and Perceived Seriousness (SER) had the greatest impact on the health belief, Perceived Susceptibility (SUS) and Cues to Action (CTA) were the second and third most important components of HBM respectively. Barriers to Taking Action (BAR) had no notable impact on HBM. The standardized path coefficient was only 0.35, with only a small impact on CTA. The health belief score was significantly higher after intervention (p < 0.001), which was similar in the CFAWS method and in the SSS method. However, the 95% confidential interval in the CFAWS method was narrower than that in the SSS method. CONCLUSIONS: The results of CFA provide further empirical support for the HBM in injury intervention. The CFAWS method can be used to calculate the health belief scores and evaluate the injury related intervention. The community-based school health education might improve injury-related health belief among high school students; however, this preliminary observation needs to be confirmed in further research.

Prenatal exposure to fine particulate matter and fetal growth: a cohort study from a velocity perspective.

BACKGROUND: Reduced growth velocity before birth increases the risk of adverse health outcomes in adult life. However, until recently, there has been a lack of studies demonstrating the impact of prenatal PM2.5 exposure on fetal growth velocity. METHODS: The current study was embedded in a previous cohort built between January 1, 2014, and April 30, 2015, in Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, China, in 6129 eligible singleton pregnancies. The PM2.5 concentration was estimated by an inverse distance weighted method according to the residential addresses of the participants. Repeated fetal biometry measurements, including head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC), femur length (FL), and biparietal diameter (BPD), were measured through ultrasound between 14 and 41 gestational weeks. A principal component analysis through conditional expectation for sparse longitudinal data was used to estimate the corresponding velocities. RESULTS: A total of 22782 ultrasound measurements were conducted among 6129 participants with a median of 2 and a maximum of 9 measurements. With each 10 µg/m3 increase in cumulative PM2.5 exposure, the velocity of HC, AC FL and BPD decreased by 0.12 mm/week, 0.17 mm/week, 0.02 mm/week and 0.02 mm/week, respectively, on average. The results of the Generalized Functional Concurrent Model showed that the velocity decreased significantly with PM2.5 exposure between 22 and 32 gestational weeks, which might be the potential sensitive exposure window. CONCLUSIONS: There are negative associations between prenatal exposure to PM2.5 and fetal growth velocity, and the late second trimester and early third trimester might be the potential sensitive window.

Treadmill pre-training suppresses the release of glutamate resulting from cerebral ischemia in rats.

This study was designed to investigate the neuroprotective effect of treadmill pre-training against the over-release of glutamate resulting from cerebral ischemia. Sprague-Dawley rats underwent 2 weeks of treadmill run-training before cerebral ischemia was performed by middle cerebral artery occlusion. The level of glutamate in brain extracellular fluid was detected before, during and after ischemia/reperfusion. The expression of metabotropic glutamate receptor-1 (mGluR1) mRNA in striatum was examined after ischemia for 80 min and reperfusion for 240 min. Neurological defect score and brain infarction volumes were measured. The treadmill pre-training significantly suppressed the release of glutamate, and reduced the expression of mGluR1 mRNA at 59% (P < 0.01) and 62% (P < 0.05), respectively, as compared with the ischemia group. The neurological defect score and infarction volume were significantly improved by 75% (P < 0.01) and 74% (P < 0.01), respectively, in the pre-training group, as compared to the ischemia group. Treadmill pre-training has a significant neuroprotective function against ischemia/reperfusion injury, by suppressing glutamate release resulting from cerebral ischemia, and this effect may be mediated by downregulation of mGluR1.

siRNA directed against Annexin II receptor inhibits HeLa cell proliferation, migration and invasion and induces apoptosis via suppressing ERK1/2 and Akt signaling pathways.

Annexin II receptor (AXIIR) was originally identified as a cell surface receptor for Annexin II and was shown to be involved in the development and progression of multiple cancers, but little was known about its role in cervical cancer. The aim of our study was to investigate the role and the plausible molecular mechanism of AXIIR in regulating apoptosis, invasion and migration of cervical cancer cells. siRNA targeting AXIIR was chemical synthesized and transfected into HeLa cells which with non-specific siRNA tranfection used as a negative control. Cell proliferation, cell migration, cell invasion and cell apoptosis assay were measured by CCK-8, wound healing assay, Transwell invasion assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Tumor-related protein and signaling pathway were also measured by real-time quantitative PCR and western blot assay to investigate the molecular mechanism of AXIIR involved in regulating HeLa cells. Our data showed that AXIIR siRNA significantly inhibited HeLa cell viability and induced cell apoptosis by increases in Caspase-3/-8/-9 mRNA and protein expression, and inhibit HeLa cell migration and invasion by decreased MMP-2/-9 mRNA and protein expression. AXIIR siRNA could also significantly down-regulate Akt, p-Akt, ERK1/2 and p-ERK1/2 expression. In conclusion, AXIIR is of great importance for regulatingcell viability, migration, invasion and apoptosis in vitro. The molecular mechanism of AXIIR might be the activation of PI3K/Akt and ERK1/2 signaling pathway, indicating a critical regulator function of AXIIR in tumorigenic responses of cervical cancer.

A randomized trial of multiple interventions for childhood obesity in China.

INTRODUCTION: Family- and school-based interventions for childhood obesity have been widely applied; however, the prevalence of childhood obesity remains high. The purpose of this RCT is to evaluate the effectiveness of a family-individual-school-based comprehensive intervention model. DESIGN: Cluster RCT. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Fourteen primary schools were selected from 26 primary schools in a district of Shanghai, China, and then randomly divided into intervention and control groups with seven schools in each. The trial started with first-grade students. A total of 1,287 students in the intervention group and 1,159 in the control group were studied overall. INTERVENTION: The baseline study was conducted in January 2011, and family-individual-school-based interventions started in March 2011 and ended in December 2013 for intervention group students. Three follow-up studies were conducted in January 2012, January 2013, and January 2014. Data analysis was conducted in March 2014. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Students' weight and height were measured. The prevalence of obesity/overweight and BMI z-scores were calculated and analyzed using a generalized estimating equation approach. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of overweight/obesity declined from 28.92% in 2011 to 24.77% in 2014, with a difference of 4.15% in the intervention group compared with a 0.03% decline (from 30.71% to 30.68%) in the control group. The intervention group had significantly lower odds of developing obesity or overweight and had decreased average BMI z-scores compared with the control group, especially for obese or overweight students. CONCLUSIONS: The family-individual-school-based comprehensive intervention model is effective for controlling childhood obesity and overweight.

Highly sensitive chemiluminescence technology for protein detection using aptamer-based rolling circle amplification platform.

A robust, selective and highly sensitive chemiluminescent (CL) platform for protein assay was presented in this paper. This novel CL approach utilized rolling circle amplification (RCA) as a signal enhancement technique and the 96-well plate as the immobilization and separation carrier. Typically, the antibody immobilized on the surface of 96-well plate was sandwiched with the protein target and the aptamer-primer sequence. This aptamer-primer sequence was then employed as the primer of RCA. Based on this design, a number of the biotinylated probes and streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase (SA-HRP) were captured on the plate, and the CL signal was amplified. In summary, our results demonstrated a robust biosensor with a detection limit of 10 fM that is easy to be established and utilized, and devoid of light source. Therefore, this new technique will broaden the perspective for future development of DNA-based biosensors for the detection of other protein biomarkers related to clinical diseases, by taking advantages of high sensitivity and selectivity.

Pre-ischemic treadmill training affects glutamate and gamma aminobutyric acid levels in the striatal dialysate of a rat model of cerebral ischemia.

AIMS: Treadmill training has been shown to improve function in animal models and patients with cerebral ischemia. However, the neurochemical effects of this intervention on the ischemic brain have not been well studied. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of pre-ischemic treadmill training on the release of glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) from the striatum in a rat middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model. MAIN METHODS: Rats were divided into five groups: sham control without MCAO, and 0, 1, 2 and 4 weeks pre-ischemic treadmill training. After training, cerebral ischemia was induced by MCAO for 120 min, followed by reperfusion. Microdialysis was used to collect dialysates from the striatum immediately before ischemia, and at 40, 80 and 120 min after ischemia, as well as at 40, 80, 120, 160, 200 and 240 min after reperfusion. KEY FINDINGS: Pre-ischemic treadmill training decreased glutamate release and increased GABA release during the acute phase of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion. Treadmill training for at least 2 weeks produced statistically significant changes in GABA/glutamate release. SIGNIFICANCE: The present study suggests that treadmill training inhibits the excessive release of glutamate, by stimulating GABA release during the acute phase of cerebral ischemia. This may be one of the important mechanisms to protect the striatal neurons from ischemic damage.