Significance of African Diets in Biotherapeutic Modulation of the Gut Microbiome.

Diet plays an essential role in human development and growth, contributing to health and well-being. The socio-economic values, cultural perspectives, and dietary formulation in sub-Saharan Africa can influence gut health and disease prevention. The vast microbial ecosystems in the human gut frequently interrelate to maintain a healthy, well-coordinated cellular and humoral immune signalling to prevent metabolic dysfunction, pathogen dominance, and induction of systemic diseases. The diverse indigenous diets could differentially act as biotherapeutics to modulate microbial abundance and population characteristics. Such modulation could prevent stunted growth, malnutrition, induction of bowel diseases, attenuated immune responses, and mortality, particularly among infants. Understanding the associations between specific indigenous African diets and the predictability of the dynamics of gut bacteria genera promises potential biotherapeutics towards improving the prevention, control, and treatment of microbiome-associated diseases such as cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The dietary influence of many African diets (especially grain-base such as millet, maize, brown rice, sorghum, soya, and tapioca) promotes gut lining integrity, immune tolerance towards the microbiota, and its associated immune and inflammatory responses. A fibre-rich diet is a promising biotherapeutic candidate that could effectively modulate inflammatory mediators' expression associated with immune cell migration, lymphoid tissue maturation, and signalling pathways. It could also modulate the stimulation of cytokines and chemokines involved in ensuring balance for long-term microbiome programming. The interplay between host and gut microbial digestion is complex; microbes using and competing for dietary and endogenous proteins are often attributable to variances in the comparative abundances of Enterobacteriaceae taxa. Many auto-inducers could initiate the process of quorum sensing and mammalian epinephrine host cell signalling system. It could also downregulate inflammatory signals with microbiota tumour taxa that could trigger colorectal cancer initiation, metabolic type 2 diabetes, and inflammatory bowel diseases. The exploitation of essential biotherapeutic molecules derived from fibre-rich indigenous diet promises food substances for the downregulation of inflammatory signalling that could be harmful to gut microbiota ecological balance and improved immune response modulation.

Callus and etiolation induction data from explants of Solanecio biafrae (Olive & Hierne) C. Jeffrey cultured in the dark.

Different types of explant (leaf, nodal and petiole explant) from in vitro grown plant maintained on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, were cultured on MS medium supplemented with various concentrations of 2, 4-Dichlorophenoxy acetic acid(2, 4-D) (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg/l) in dark condition. Data on callus formation was recorded on 10 days after culture. Number of explants forming callus, callus colour and type were recorded. The plant growth regulator-free media which served as the control induced etiolation resulting in long hypocotyls from the nodal explants.

Resting Serum Concentration of High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP) in Sportsmen and Untrained Male Adults.

There is an inverse relationship between regular physical activity and concentration of serum inflammatory markers, with variations in resting CRP in trained and untrained subjects. The effect of acute and prolonged exercises has been studied on inflammatory markers with dearth of information and controversies on the resting serum values of high sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP). Therefore, this study sought to identify and compare variations that occur in serum levels of high sensitivity CRP in groups of sportsmen (6) and physically active untrained subjects. Eighty-one healthy male participants made up of 21 untrained (control), 10 footballers, 10 athletes, 10 karates, 10 volleyballers, 10 basketballers, and 10 baseballers voluntarily participated in the study. Participants rested while in sitting position for about 30 minutes during which blood pressures and heart rates were taken. 5 mls of venous blood was withdrawn from the antecubital vein of the participants (aseptically) between 7:00 and 10:00 am into lithium heparin bottles following an overnight fast. The supernatant was decanted and centrifuged at 3000 rpm, serum was collected and stored at -20ºC prior to biochemical assay which was done with the use of enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits for hs-CRP. Differences in the means within the sporting groups were analysed using one-way ANOVA while the difference between the trained sportsmen and untrained young adults was analysed using the independent T-test. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. The Mean ±SEM age, weight, height, and BMI of the participants were 22.0±0.8 years, 64.1±2.2 kg, 1.74±0.3 m, and 20.6±0.2 kg/m2 respectively. The resting concentration of hs-CRP (µg/ml) was 1.0±0.2 in the untrained, 2.6±0.7 in footballers, 3.6±2.1 in track athletes, 2.4±0.5 in basketballers, 2.2±0.5 in volleyballers, 2.4±1.3 in baseballers, and 1.7±0.5 in karate respectively. There was no significant difference in the resting hs-CRP amongst the sporting groups, and in the sportsmen and untrained group. Resting serum levels of hs-CRP falls within normal range, and varies insignificantly in groups of sports, and in sportsmen and untrained young male adults. This may suggest that the types of sporting activities or participation in sports has no impact on the resting serum hs-CRP.

Sickle cell Nephropathy in children seen in an African Hospital - Case Report.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To determine and report the occurrence of overt renal presentations in children with sickle cell disease seen over the last 14 years (1995-2009) at the Emergency Paediatric Unit and Paediatric Ward and followed up at the Paediatric Nephrology clinic of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin (UITH). PATIENTS AND METHODS: The five cases with overt renal presentations seen during the period were reported and analyzed for age, sex, and renal manifestations. RESULTS: The age range of the children was 9-15years with a mean of 11years. Four of the five patients were females, with one male. Three of the four females presented with features suggestive of nephrotic syndrome (NS) while the other one had gross haematuria which resolved within 24 hours. The only male had enuresis. The NS in one of the patients progressed to end stage renal disease requiring renal replacement therapy. CONCLUSION: Children with sickle cell disease should be screened for renal complications especially from the late first decade of life. This will help in the early detection of renal disorder that could lead to chronic kidney disease. It is also suspected that the severe forms of SCN such as NS may have a predilection for the female gender. A more extensive study is needed to test the veracity of this observation.

Prevalence of snoring and symptoms of sleep disordered breathing among primary school pupils in Ilorin, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Snoring is the production of sound from the upper aero-digestive tract during sleep due to turbulent airflow This study is to determine the prevalence, pattern, night and daytime symptoms of snoring among nursery and primary school pupils in Ilorin, Nigeria due to its public health importance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross sectional survey was carried out among nursery /primary school pupils in Ilorin, Kwara state between April and September, 2010. Ten schools were selected randomly from 100 schools sited within the 3LGAs of Ilorin municipality. Also private and public schools with different parental social economic status were selected. The pupils were selected from nursery 2 to primary 6 in each school using the class registers with the aid of a table of random numbers with 1500 children assessed. The parents/guardians were made to fill the questionnaires and same returned with visitations to the schools twice weekly and reminders sent via phone calls. Data were analyzed using EPIINFO 2002 version 2 software. RESULTS: 1500 questionnaires were given out but 909 were completely filled and returned (response rate of 61%.). There were 598(65.8%) non snorers (NSn) and 311(34.2%) snorers (Sn) at different scales with 153 male snorers to 158 female snorers. The ages of the children ranges from 3 to 16 years (mean ± SD, 8.3 ± 4.8 years. The mean age for the Sn was 8.2 and 8.3 for NSn (range 3-6 years). No statistical difference in age, gender or socio-economic status between Sn and NSn. 598(65.8%) were non snorers (NSn) and 311(34.2%) were snorers (Sn) especially in the age groups 3-6 years, 121(38.9%) and above 6 years of age 101(32.7%) and below 3 years were 89(28%). CONCLUSION: Snoring is an important health problem among the pupils as a significant percentage snores and most of them are between third and sixth year of life.