Assessment of the body composition of patients with polycystic ovary syndrome using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the body composition among patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and patients without PCOS. METHODS: A cross-sectional study enrolled patients aged 12-39 years, with body mass index (BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters) at least 18.5 but below 25, who attended the Endocrine Gynecology Clinic of Santa Casa de Sao Paulo School of Medical Sciences, Brazil, between January 1, 2014, and July 31, 2015. Anthropometric measurements, metabolic and androgenic profiles, and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry measurements were compared between patients with PCOS and those without PCOS. RESULTS: In total, 102 eligible patients attended the study clinical during the study period; 43 were excluded owing to not meeting the inclusion criteria or declining to undergo complete study testing, and 15 withdrew from the study. Of the 44 participants, 28 had PCOS and 16 were included in the control group. Serum 17-hydroxyprogesterone concentration (P=0.046), leg-fat (P=0.031), and truncal-fat (P=0.001) were all higher among patients with PCOS. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated increased truncal and leg fat among women with PCOS. The study did not detect any difference in insulin parameters but larger studies could be more suitably powered to investigate this. CLINICALTRIALS.GOV: NCT02467751.

Insights from the Genome Sequence of Acidovorax citrulli M6, a Group I Strain of the Causal Agent of Bacterial Fruit Blotch of Cucurbits.

Acidovorax citrulli is a seedborne bacterium that causes bacterial fruit blotch of cucurbit plants including watermelon and melon. A. citrulli strains can be divided into two major groups based on DNA fingerprint analyses and biochemical properties. Group I strains have been generally isolated from non-watermelon cucurbits, while group II strains are closely associated with watermelon. In the present study, we report the genome sequence of M6, a group I model A. citrulli strain, isolated from melon. We used comparative genome analysis to investigate differences between the genome of strain M6 and the genome of the group II model strain AAC00-1. The draft genome sequence of A. citrulli M6 harbors 139 contigs, with an overall approximate size of 4.85 Mb. The genome of M6 is ∼500 Kb shorter than that of strain AAC00-1. Comparative analysis revealed that this size difference is mainly explained by eight fragments, ranging from ∼35-120 Kb and distributed throughout the AAC00-1 genome, which are absent in the M6 genome. In agreement with this finding, while AAC00-1 was found to possess 532 open reading frames (ORFs) that are absent in strain M6, only 123 ORFs in M6 were absent in AAC00-1. Most of these M6 ORFs are hypothetical proteins and most of them were also detected in two group I strains that were recently sequenced, tw6 and pslb65. Further analyses by PCR assays and coverage analyses with other A. citrulli strains support the notion that some of these fragments or significant portions of them are discriminative between groups I and II strains of A. citrulli. Moreover, GC content, effective number of codon values and cluster of orthologs' analyses indicate that these fragments were introduced into group II strains by horizontal gene transfer events. Our study reports the genome sequence of a model group I strain of A. citrulli, one of the most important pathogens of cucurbits. It also provides the first comprehensive comparison at the genomic level between the two major groups of strains of this pathogen.