Association of dietary nutrients with blood lipids and blood pressure in 18 countries: a cross-sectional analysis from the PURE study

BACKGROUND: The relation between dietary nutrients and cardiovascular disease risk markers in many regions worldwide is unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of dietary nutrients on blood lipids and blood pressure, two of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease, in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries.METHODS: We studied 125 287 participants from 18 countries in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia in the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. Habitual food intake was measured with validated food frequency questionnaires. We assessed the associations between nutrients (total fats, saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, carbohydrates, protein, and dietary cholesterol) and cardiovascular disease risk markers using multilevel modelling. The effect of isocaloric replacement of saturated fatty acids with other fats and carbohydrates was determined overall and by levels of intakes by use of nutrient density models. We did simulation modelling in which we assumed that the effects of saturated fatty acids on cardiovascular disease events was solely related to their association through an individual risk marker, and then compared these simulated risk marker-based estimates with directly observed associations of saturated fatty acids with cardiovascular disease events.

Associations of urinary sodium excretion with cardiovascular events in individuals with and without hypertension: a pooled analysis of data from four studies

BACKGROUND: Several studies reported a U-shaped association between urinary sodium excretion and cardiovascular disease events and mortality. Whether these associations vary between those individuals with and without hypertension is uncertain. We aimed to explore whether the association between sodium intake and cardiovascular disease events and all-cause mortality is modified by hypertension status. METHODS: In this pooled analysis, we studied 133,118 individuals (63,559 with hypertension and 69,559 without hypertension), median age of 55 years (IQR 45-63), from 49 countries in four large prospective studies and estimated 24-h urinary sodium excretion (as group-level measure of intake). We related this to the composite outcome of death and major cardiovascular disease events over a median of 4.2 years (IQR 3.0-5.0) and blood pressure...

Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor prevents the development of hepatic steatosis in rats.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Previously, we reported that granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) improves hepatic steatosis in experimental animals. It may also have preventive effects on the development of hepatic steatosis. Therefore, we investigated the preventive effects of G-CSF by using a high-fat diet (HFD) rat model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twelve rats were fed HFD and 6 rats were fed control diet from 10 weeks of age. Once little steatosis was confirmed in the liver (after 10 weeks of feeding the HFD; at 20 weeks of age), HFD rats were randomly divided into two groups and treated with either G-CSF (100 µg kg-1 day-1 for 5 consecutive days every other week; HFD/G-CSF rats) or saline (HFD/saline rats) for 10 weeks at 20 weeks of age. All rats were sacrificed at 30 weeks of age. Histology was examined by hematoxylin and eosin (H-E) and Oil Red O staining, and the expression levels of genes of associated with lipogenesis and ß-oxidation enzymes were determined by qRT-PCR. RESULTS: Histological examinations revealed that HFD/G-CSF rats had significantly lower lipid accumulation in their hepatocytes than did HFD/saline rats (p < 0.05). HFD/G-CSF rats also showed lower expression levels of genes associated with lipogenesis and higher expression levels of genes associated with ß-oxidation than HFD/saline rats (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, we found that G-CSF prevented development of hepatic steatosis in an HFD rat model. The preventive effect may be associated with the regulation of gene expression involved in hepatic lipogenesis and ß-oxidation.

A Novel Method to Evaluate the Community BuiltEnvironment Using Photographs – Environmental Profileof a Community Health (EPOCH) Photo NeighbourhoodEvaluation Tool

Previous research has shown that environments with features that encourage walking are associated withincreased physical activity. Existing methods to assess the built environment using geographical information systems (GIS)data, direct audit or large surveys of the residents face constraints, such as data availability and comparability, when used tostudy communities in countries in diverse parts of the world. The aim of this study was to develop a method to evaluatefeatures of the built environment of communities using a standard set of photos. In this report we describe the method ofphoto collection, photo analysis instrument development and inter-rater reliability of the instrument.Methods/Principal Findings: A minimum of 5 photos were taken per community in 86 communities in 5 countriesaccording to a standard set of instructions from a designated central point of each community by researchers at each site. Astandard pro forma derived from reviewing existing instruments to assess the built environment was developed and used toscore the characteristics of each community. Photo sets from each community were assessed independently by threeobservers in the central research office according to the pro forma and the inter-rater reliability was compared by intra-classcorrelation (ICC). Overall 87% (53 of 60) items had an ICC of $0.70, 7% (4 of 60) had an ICC between 0.60 and 0.70 and 5% (3of 60) items had an ICC #0.50.Conclusions/Significance: Analysis of photos using a standardized protocol as described in this study offers a means toobtain reliable and reproducible information on the built environment in communities in very diverse locations around theworld. The collection of the photographic data required minimal training and the analysis demonstrated high reliability forthe majority of items of interest.

Therapeutic effects of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor on non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis in the rat.

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE: Non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis refers to the accumulation of triglycerides in the liver in the absence of alcohol consumption. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) has been reported to be an effective treatment for a variety of liver diseases. We examined the possible therapeutic effects of G-CSF on non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis in rats. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty-week-old Otsuka Long Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats received water containing 30% sucrose for 8 weeks to promote the development of non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis. After development of the model, the rats were injected with G-CSF (100 µg/kg/day) or saline for 5 days. Four weeks after this treatment, serum levels of glucose, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and free fatty acids (FFA) were measured. Histology was examined by hematoxylin and eosin (H-E) and periodic acid Schiff (PAS) staining, and levels of expression of hepatic lipogenic enzymes were determined by RT-PCR. RESULTS: The G-CSF-treated rats displayed significantly fewer lipid droplets than the saline-treated rats (P < 0.01), and their levels of sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)-1c, fatty acid synthase (FAS), and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) mRNAs were also lower (P < 0.01), as were their liver weight and serum levels of TG and FFA (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that G-CSF ameliorated non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis in the OLETF rat, and this therapeutic effect involved a reduction of SREBP-1c expression. Therefore, G-CSF deserves further study as a potential treatment for non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis.

Behavioral evidence for cone-based ultraviolet vision in divergent bat species and implications for its evolution

We investigated the reactions of four bat species from four different lineages to UV light: Hipposideros armiger (Hodgson, 1835) and Scotophilus kuhlii Leach, 1821, which use constant frequency (CF) or frequency modulation (FM) echolocation, respectively; and Rousettus leschenaultii (Desmarest, 1820) and Cynopterus sphinx (Vahl, 1797), cave and tree-roosting Old World fruit bats, respectively. Following acclimation and training involving aversive stimuli when exposed to UV light, individuals of S. kuhlii and C. sphinx exposed to such stimuli displayed conditioned reflexes such as body crouching, wing retracting, horizontal crawling, flying and/or vocalization, whereas individuals of H. armiger and R. leschenaultii, in most cue-testing sessions, remained still on receiving the stimuli. Our behavioral study provides direct evidence for the diversity of cone-based UV vision in the order Chiroptera and further supports our earlier postulate that, due to possible sensory tradeoffs and roosting ecology, defects in the short wavelength opsin genes have resulted in loss of UV vision in CF bats, but not in FM bats. In addition, Old World fruit bats roosting in caves have lost UV vision, but those roosting in trees have not. Bats are thus the third mammalian taxon to retain ancestral cone-based UV sensitivity in some species.

Behavioral evidence for cone-based ultraviolet vision in divergent bat species and implications for its evolution

We investigated the reactions of four bat species from four different lineages to UV light: Hipposideros armiger (Hodgson, 1835) and Scotophilus kuhlii Leach, 1821, which use constant frequency (CF) or frequency modulation (FM) echolocation, respectively; and Rousettus leschenaultii (Desmarest, 1820) and Cynopterus sphinx (Vahl, 1797), cave and tree-roosting Old World fruit bats, respectively. Following acclimation and training involving aversive stimuli when exposed to UV light, individuals of S. kuhlii and C. sphinx exposed to such stimuli displayed conditioned reflexes such as body crouching, wing retracting, horizontal crawling, flying and/or vocalization, whereas individuals of H. armiger and R. leschenaultii, in most cue-testing sessions, remained still on receiving the stimuli. Our behavioral study provides direct evidence for the diversity of cone-based UV vision in the order Chiroptera and further supports our earlier postulate that, due to possible sensory tradeoffs and roosting ecology, defects in the short wavelength opsin genes have resulted in loss of UV vision in CF bats, but not in FM bats. In addition, Old World fruit bats roosting in caves have lost UV vision, but those roosting in trees have not. Bats are thus the third mammalian taxon to retain ancestral cone-based UV sensitivity in some species.

Behavioral evidence for cone-based ultraviolet vision in divergent bat species and implications for its evolution

We investigated the reactions of four bat species from four different lineages to UV light: Hipposideros armiger (Hodgson, 1835) and Scotophilus kuhlii Leach, 1821, which use constant frequency (CF) or frequency modulation (FM) echolocation, respectively; and Rousettus leschenaultii (Desmarest, 1820) and Cynopterus sphinx (Vahl, 1797), cave and tree-roosting Old World fruit bats, respectively. Following acclimation and training involving aversive stimuli when exposed to UV light, individuals of S. kuhlii and C. sphinx exposed to such stimuli displayed conditioned reflexes such as body crouching, wing retracting, horizontal crawling, flying and/or vocalization, whereas individuals of H. armiger and R. leschenaultii, in most cue-testing sessions, remained still on receiving the stimuli. Our behavioral study provides direct evidence for the diversity of cone-based UV vision in the order Chiroptera and further supports our earlier postulate that, due to possible sensory tradeoffs and roosting ecology, defects in the short wavelength opsin genes have resulted in loss of UV vision in CF bats, but not in FM bats. In addition, Old World fruit bats roosting in caves have lost UV vision, but those roosting in trees have not. Bats are thus the third mammalian taxon to retain ancestral cone-based UV sensitivity in some species.