Connections between the human gut microbiome and gestational diabetes mellitus.

The human gut microbiome can modulate metabolic health and affect insulin resistance, and it may play an important role in the etiology of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Here, we compared the gut microbial composition of 43 GDM patients and 81 healthy pregnant women via whole-metagenome shotgun sequencing of their fecal samples, collected at 21-29 weeks, to explore associations between GDM and the composition of microbial taxonomic units and functional genes. A metagenome-wide association study identified 154 837 genes, which clustered into 129 metagenome linkage groups (MLGs) for species description, with significant relative abundance differences between the 2 cohorts. Parabacteroides distasonis, Klebsiella variicola, etc., were enriched in GDM patients, whereas Methanobrevibacter smithii, Alistipes spp., Bifidobacterium spp., and Eubacterium spp. were enriched in controls. The ratios of the gross abundances of GDM-enriched MLGs to control-enriched MLGs were positively correlated with blood glucose levels. A random forest model shows that fecal MLGs have excellent discriminatory power to predict GDM status. Our study discovered novel relationships between the gut microbiome and GDM status and suggests that changes in microbial composition may potentially be used to identify individuals at risk for GDM.

Validity and Reproducibility of a Dietary Questionnaire for Consumption Frequencies of Foods during Pregnancy in the Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study (BIGCS).

This study aimed to examine the reproducibility and validity of a new food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) used in a birth cohort study to estimate the usual consumption frequencies of foods during pregnancy. The reference measure was the average of three inconsecutive 24 h diet recalls (24 HR) administrated between two FFQs, and the reproducibility was measured by repeating the first FFQ (FFQ1) approximately eight weeks later (FFQ2). A total of 210 pregnant women from the Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study (BIGCS) with full data were included in the analysis. The Spearman's correlation coefficients of FFQ1 and FFQ2 ranged from 0.33 to 0.71. The intraclass correlation coefficients of the two FFQs ranged from 0.22 to 0.71. The Spearman's correlation coefficients of the 24 HR and FFQ2 ranged from 0.23 to 0.62. Cross-classification analysis showed 65.1% of participants were classified into same and contiguous quintiles, while only 3.2% were misclassified into the distant quintiles. Bland-Altman methods showed good agreement for most food groups across the range of frequencies between FFQ1 and FFQ2. Our findings indicated that the reproducibility and validity of the FFQ used in BIGCS for assessing the usual consumption frequencies of foods during pregnancy were acceptable.

Maternal dietary patterns and gestational diabetes mellitus: a large prospective cohort study in China.

Few studies have explored the relationship between dietary patterns and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Evidence from non-Western areas is particularly lacking. In the present study, we aimed to examine the associations between dietary patterns and the risk of GDM in a Chinese population. A total of 3063 pregnant Chinese women from an ongoing prospective cohort study were included. Data on dietary intake were collected using a FFQ at 24-27 weeks of gestation. GDM was diagnosed using a 75 g, 2 h oral glucose tolerance test. Dietary patterns were determined by principal components factor analysis. A log-binomial regression model was used to examine the associations between dietary pattern and the risk of GDM. The analysis identified four dietary patterns: vegetable pattern; protein-rich pattern; prudent pattern; sweets and seafood pattern. Multivariate analysis showed that the highest tertile of the vegetable pattern was associated with a decreased risk of GDM (relative risk (RR) 0·79, 95% CI 0·64, 0·97), compared with the lowest tertile, whereas the highest tertile of the sweets and seafood pattern was associated with an increased risk of GDM (RR 1·23, 95% CI 1·02, 1·49). No significant association was found for either the protein-rich or the prudent pattern. The protective effect of a high vegetable pattern score was more evident among women who had a family history of diabetes (P for interaction=0·022). These findings suggest that the vegetable pattern was associated with a decreased risk of GDM, while the sweets and seafood pattern was associated with an increased risk of GDM. These findings may be useful in dietary counselling during pregnancy.

Arecoline inhibits epithelial cell viability by upregulating the apoptosis pathway: implication for oral submucous fibrosis.

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by the accumulation of excess collagen, and areca nut chewing has been proposed as a significant etiological factor for disease manifestation. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms regarding areca nut chewing-induced OSF are only partially understood. Herein, we reported that arecoline markedly induced morphologic change in HaCaT epithelial cells, but had no obvious effect on Hel fibroblast cells. MTS assay revealed that arecoline significantly suppressed HaCaT cell viability. Moreover, flow cytometric analysis indicated that arecoline substantially promoted HaCaT cell, but not Hel cell apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, arecoline-induced HaCaT cell apoptosis was found to be associated with increased expression and activation of cleaved-Bid, cleaved-PARA and cleaved-caspase-3. Collectively, our results suggest that HaCaT epithelial cells are more sensitive than Hel fibroblast cells to arecoline-induced cytotoxicity, which may be involved in the pathogenesis of OSF.

[Effects of astragalus polysaccharides-chitosan/polylactic acid scaffolds and bone marrow stem cells on repairing supra-alveolar periodontal defects in dogs].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of astragalus polysaccharides-chitosan/polylactic acid (AP-C/PLA) scaffolds and bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) on periodontal regeneration of experimentally horizontal periodontal defects in dogs. METHODS: Dog BMSCs were isolated from the bone marrow and then cultured in a conditioned medium to be induced for osteogenesis. The expressions of Type I collagen and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were examined by immunohistochemistry and histochemistry in the induced BMSCs, respectively. The BMSCs were harvested and implanted with astragalus polysaccharides-chitosan/polylactic acid (AP-C/PLA) and chitosan/polylactic acid (C/PLA) scaffolds. Horizontal alveolar bone defects (5 mm depth, 2 mm width) were produced surgically in the buccal side of the mandibular premolar 3 and 4 of the 10 dogs. The defects were randomly repaired with a cell-scaffold construction (10 teeth per group): root planning only (surgical control), AP-C/PLA with a conditioned medium (medium control), C/PLA with BMSCs (scaffolds control), and AP-C/PLA with BMSCs (experimental group) . The dogs were killed at 4 weeks and 8 weeks after the surgery, and block sections of the defects were collected for the histologic and histometric analysis. RESULTS: BMSCs induced in vitro exhibited an osteogenic phenotype with expressing Type I collagen and ALP histologically. The bone nodule structure was observed in the experimental group 4 weeks postsurgically. The engineered bone became more mature,similar to the native bone 8 weeks postsurgically. The amount of new bone regeneration and the rate of new bone filling to the defect height of the experimental group were significantly different from those of the surgical control, medium control, and scaffolds control [(2.90+/-0.41) mm vs (0.83+/-0.30) mm, (1.46+/-0.55) mm, (2.67+/-0.26) mm; 57.46% vs 15.68 %, 30.13%, 51.87%)] (P<0.01, P<0.01, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Astragalus polysaccharides can promote the new bone formation on the periodontal defects. The technology of tissue engineering with AP-C/PLA scaffolds and induced BMSCs may contribute to the periodontal regeneration.