Prevalence of Obesity in Elementary School Children and its Association with Dental Caries.

PURPOSE: To determine any associations between obesity and caries activity in the mixed dentition stage among primary school children in a low-income Mexican primary school. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed in Mexican schoolchildren aged 8-12 years. The body mass index (BMI) was obtained, and children were classified as overweight/obese considering age and sex. The experience of caries in permanent and temporary dentition was established with the sum of decayed/missing/filled teeth (DMFT or deft index for permanent or temporal dentition); a caries index for all teeth was also considered (total decay [TD]). Mann-Whitney U-test was used to contrast the distribution between sexes of the quantitative variables and to contrast the distribution of each variable per category, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used. Spearman's Rho test was used to establish the correlation between the quantitative variables. Multiple linear regression models were performed to find the relationship between the O'Leary index and the BMI. A Multilayer Perceptron was constructed as follows: (a) dependent variables: deft, DMFT, TD and O'Leary index; (b) factor: BMI; (c) covariable: age. RESULTS: A total of 331 children were included in the study. Dental caries prevalence was 32.4% (95% CI 29.7-35.2), while the mean DMFT was 0.64 (± SD 1.00). Through the Spearmen test, a statistically significant negative correlation was found between BMI-for-age with the total experience of carious lesions (r = -0.127, p = 0.021) and with experience of carious lesions in the deciduous dentition (deft) (r = -0.195, p ≤0.001). But when using the linear and logistic regression models to analyse the relationship with the O'Leary index, BMI was not statistically significant. With the Multilayer Perceptron there appears to be less error in the prediction of deft than the other indexes. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the high prevalence of obesity in primary school children. It also shows the scarce association between carious lesions and obesity.

sRANKL and its correlation with metabolic syndrome parameters in children.

BACKGROUND: Activating receptor ligand for nuclear factor (RANKL) has been identified as a ligand attached to the cell membrane of osteoblasts and odontoclasts. AIM: To determine a possible association of sRANKL in saliva and serum with the parameters of metabolic syndrome (MS) in paediatric population aged 8-12 years. DESIGN: This was a clinical, analytical and comparative study. Students between 6 and 12 years with good oral hygiene were included. Anthropometry, clinical analysis, dentobacterial plaque registration were registered as well as sRANKL in total saliva and serum through the ELISA technique. RESULTS: A total of 43 children were enrolled, with a mean age of 9.7 (±0.8 years). Contrasting the groups by the presence or absence of the waist circumference above the normal limit, the difference in serum sRANKL concentration was statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05). A negative statistical significance was found in the correlation between serum sRANKL and HDLc (r2  = -0.310, P = 0.046). Saliva sRANKL did not show statistical difference between neither gender nor body mass index and was not correlated with any parameter of the MS. CONCLUSIONS: A good oral hygiene seems to avoid the effects of MS on the oral cavity.

Leptin resistance during pregnancy is also exerted at the periphery.

Pregnancy is a physiological state with a great demand of energy and nutrients in mammals and is characterized by hyperphagia, increase in fat mass, hyperleptinemia, and central resistance to leptin. In order to evaluate whether pregnancy is also a state of leptin resistance at the periphery, we studied the response to leptin in the liver and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT). We demonstrated reduced levels of phosphoryalated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (p-STAT3) and phosphorylated protein kinase B (p-AKT) after intravenous leptin in both tissues in mid-term pregnant rats (G13) and a restored response in late pregnancy (G18). As underlying mechanisms of the peripheral leptin resistance of mid-gestation we found decreased leptin receptor b (LepRb) mRNA levels and increased content of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3). Furthermore, we demonstrated that in G13 rats the main lipogenic molecules and activity (sterol regulatory element binding transcription protein 1 (SREBP-1) and fatty acid synthase (FAS)) were elevated in the liver and SAT, and the molecules involved in ß-oxidation (peroxisome proliferator activated receptor α (PPARα) and carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT-1)) were reduced, as it happens in early pregnancy. In G18, the opposite pattern is observed. This probably reflects that in G13 the peripheral resistance to the hyperleptinemia might help maintaining the lipogenic metabolism of early pregnancy. In contrast, the recovery of the response to leptin in late pregnancy would favor a catabolic metabolism. Finally, using a pseudogestation model we showed that progesterone and prolactin are not involved in the gestational peripheral leptin resistance. In conclusion, during mid-pregnancy a state of leptin resistance is also exerted at the periphery, and is probably involved in the characteristic lipid regulation of this physiological state.

Prevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi infection among people aged 15 to 89 years inhabiting the Department of Casanare (Colombia).

The purpose of this study was to calculate the seroprevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in a sample of inhabitants from a region considered to be at high risk of natural transmission of Chagas disease in Colombia. A cross-sectional study was conducted in subjects from 5 municipalities, recruited in urban and rural locations, distributed by gender according to the demographic information available. Socio-demographic information, history of potential exposure to insect vectors, blood donating, as well as symptoms suggesting cardiac disease were collected using a questionnaire. After giving written informed consent, blood specimens were obtained from 486 people to determine the serologic evidence of past exposure to T. cruzi. Infection was diagnosed when two different tests (ELISA and IHA) were positive. The seroprevalence of antibodies against T. cruzi was 16.91% considering an estimated population of 44,355 aged between 15 and 89 years (95%IC: 13.72 to 20.01). The factors significantly associated with the infection were: 1- Housing materials like vegetable material, adobe or unfinished brick walls; 2- The fact of having previous tests for Chagas disease (regardless of the result). Of note, the mean ages among infected and not infected participants were significantly different (49.19 vs. 41.66, p ≤ 0.0001). Among the studied municipalities, the one with the highest frequency of T. cruzi infection was Nunchia, with 31.15% of the surveyed subjects. Therefore it may be concluded that T. cruzi infection is highly prevalent in the north region of Casanare, in Colombia.