Age-related change in muscle strength, muscle mass, and fat mass between the dominant and non-dominant upper limbs.

Background: Any form of physical activity is recommended for the older adults to maintain their physical function; however, the effect of daily activities on muscle function still needs to be investigated. Humans always use one dominant hand to perform tasks, providing a natural situation for research on the effect of daily activities on muscle function. Methods: Five hundred and twenty-six healthy adults were recruited from the community in Beijing. Muscle strength was assessed using a handgrip dynamometer, lean mass, fat mass, bone area and bone mineral content of upper limbs were assessed using dual-energy X ray-absorptiometry. The results were compared between the dominant and non-dominant upper limbs. Results: The dominant upper limb had better muscle strength, lean mass, bone area and bone mineral content than the non-dominant side. The difference in muscle strength and lean mass between the two upper limbs decreased with the advanced age. In older age, fat mass of upper limbs increased in men, but not in women. Conclusion: Daily activities can maintain better muscle function in the dominant upper limb than in the non-dominant side; however, the delaying effect on age-related decline in muscle function was limited.

Age-Related Changes in Shear Wave Elastography Parameters of the Gastrocnemius Muscle in Association with Physical Performance in Healthy Adults.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: to investigate new indicators for early recognition of physical performance decline. Shear wave elastrography, a new ultrasound technique, was discussed in this study. METHODS: Gastrocnemius muscle thickness and muscle stiffness were detected by traditional ultrasound and shear wave elastrography in 108 Chinese aged 20-85 years, and then analyzed with physical performance together. RESULTS: After 70 years old, the decline rate of muscle stiffness under contractive state was significantly faster than that of muscle thickness, muscle relaxed stiffness, and physical performance indicators. The correlation analysis showed that gastrocnemius contractive stiffness was positively related with handgrip strength, step length, and fast gait speed after adjusted by age and gender. Among physical performance variants, step length had closer relationship with muscle strength than repeated chair stands. CONCLUSIONS: The detection of gastrocnemius muscle by shear wave elastography reflected the change of lower-limb muscle stiffness with aging. Muscle contractive stiffness and step length measurement supplied novel ways for muscle performance and motor function assessment.

Characteristics of decline in cognition and locomotion among the elderly in seven provinces of China.

BACKGROUND: Decline in cognition and in locomotion is associated with aging. However, the relationship between them and the current occurrence of them in Chinese elderly people was weak. METHODS: To investigate the details of these two functions in Chinese elderly people and to try to find some early recognition and intervention clues, data of MMSE test and usual gait speed from 4487 elderly people from seven provinces in China were analysed. RESULTS: The prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in persons aged 60 and over was 17.83% and 4.08%, respectively. Among 11 items of MMSE, calculation, three-word recall, drawing two pentagons, and temporal orientation were the most commonly impaired items in persons with MCI or dementia. The gait speed of old persons with dementia was significantly slower than that of persons with MCI or NCI. Meanwhile, old persons with gait speed >1.39 m/s fast gait speed also had high MMSE scores and no dementia was detected by MMSE. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of dementia observed in this population was similar to that reported 20 years ago. Loss of temporal orientation and drawing two pentagons may supply more information for early recognition of cognitive impairment. Maintaining locomotion in a proper way may help old persons to prevent cognitive function decline.

Prevalence and factors associated with mild cognitive impairment among Chinese older adults with depression.

AIM: Depression and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are common among older adults. Most of the existing studies were carried out in developed countries, and evidence from developing countries are lacking. In the present study, using a national sample, we aimed to describe the prevalence of MCI and its associated factors among Chinese older adults with depression. METHOD: The present study uses data from a national survey of the 2011 Comprehensive Assessment of Elderly Health, which involved 8113 older adults from eight provinces or municipalities directly under the Central Government of six regions in China. The Geriatric Depression Scale was used to assess depression, and the Mini-Mental State Examination was used as the measurement of cognitive function. RESULTS: The results showed that the prevalence of geriatric depression was 15.9%, and 36.4% of those with depression had MCI. Geriatric depression was found to be significantly associated with MCI after controlling for demographics. Among participants with geriatric depression, female sex, older age, rural or suburban residence, poor physical health status, education level of illiterate or elementary school, having no daily physical activity, and living in Central China or West China were associated with an increased risk of MCI. CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed a high prevalence rate of MCI among Chinese older adults with depression. Early screening and treatment for MCI are necessary among people with geriatric depression. Further research and health services innovations are required to address the high prevalence of MCI in this population. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 263-268.

Characterization of a functional recombinant human creatine kinase-MB isoenzyme prepared by tandem affinity purification from Escherichia coli.

Creatine kinase isoform CK-MB has been widely applied as a biomarker of myocardial injury. While a variety of methods have been used to measure CK-MB activity or mass in clinical laboratories, a CK-MB standard is needed to eliminate between-method bias. Because the in vitro expression of human creatine kinase generates three isoenzymes, CK-MM, CK-MB, and CK-BB, it is important to establish an effective method to purify the isoform CK-MB from the mixture. In this study, we aimed at using tandem affinity purification (TAP) to purify recombinant CK-MB protein and evaluate its value in clinical laboratories. After the optimized sequence coding CK-M and CK-B were synthesized, they were combined with TAP tags (6His and SBP) and inserted into a pRSFDuet vector; then, the constructed 6His-CK-M-SBP-CK-B-pRSF plasmid was transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) for expression. After TAP, we obtained purified CK-MB protein. We also did recovery testing using the engineered CK-MB and standard CK-MB (Randox) at different concentrations, and the results suggested that the engineered CK-MB could be used as the reference material. Moreover, the stability study of recombinant CK-MB showed high stability during long-term storage at -80 °C. In conclusion, the TAP-purified recombinant CK-MB protein may be a much better and cheaper standard or reference material for clinical laboratories.

Prevalence of depression and its associated factors among Chinese elderly people: A comparison study between community-based population and hospitalized population.

Depression is common among elderly people, but people from various study settings were at different levels of risk for depression. However, most of the existing studies were conducted among community population, and little was known about depression among institutionalized population. In this study, using a national sample, we aimed to compare the prevalence rate of depression and its associated factors between community-dwelling elderly people (CDEP) and elderly medical inpatients (EMI). Data for this study was derived from a national survey of the 2011 Comprehensive Assessment of Elderly Health. The Geriatric Depression Scale was used to assess depression. The results indicated that the prevalence rate of depression among EMI was significantly higher than that in CDEP (18.1% vs 11.6%, P<0.001). Physical health status was found to be the most important factor associated with depression among both groups. This study revealed a high prevalence rate of depression among Chinese elderly people, especially for those medically institutionalized. It's essential to pay more efforts on the training of general practitioners for early screening and identification of depression on the admission of elderly patients and during their hospitalization, and case management of the elderly medical inpatients on assessment and treatment for depression may be beneficial.

The effects of energy intake of four different feeding patterns in rats.

Energy intake can affect the metabolism. But it is not very clear that how and to what degree the metabolism can be changed by energy intake quantity and change. Here we applied four feeding patterns in male Sprague-Dawley rats--normal ad libitum diet (NFal), high-fat diet (HFal), caloric restriction (CR) after HFal (HFal-NFcr), and refeeding from CR to ad libitum (HFal-NFcr-NFal). Food intake and body weight, along with fat mass, insulin sensitivity, fasting plasma insulin, and glucose level were used to calculate the energy efficiency and compared the quantitative effects of energy intake. Energy intake changed little in NFal or HFal group; while it changed greatly and suddenly in HFal-NFcr or HFal-NFcr-NFal group. All the parameters we detected were different between these four feeding patterns. Excess of energy intake from high-fat diet induced adverse outcomes with low energy efficiency. CR reversed the impairment of high-fat diet with very high energy efficiency in a short period. However, dramatic response with high energy efficiency induced by recovery to feeding ad libitum after CR, which was possible harmful to health. In conclusion, energy intake quantity and change are key determinants of metabolism. Different energy intake quantity and change affect body weight, white adipose tissue weight, insulin sensitivity, etc. at different degrees and speeds because of different energy efficiency.

[Correlation of three common variation loci in von Willebrand factor gene and pulmonary thromboembolism disease].

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the relationship between three common variation loci of von Willebrand factor (VWF) gene (rs216321, rs216325 and rs1800378) and pulmonary thromboembolism. METHODS: A total of 95 patients with definite pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital and Beijing Hospital during November 2008 to March 2012 served as PTE group while 90 healthy subjects at Beijing Hospital during the same period as control group. Fasting venous blood samples were collected for extracting genomic DNA. Three common variation loci with single nucleotide polymorphism were rs216321 (T/C), rs216325 (G/A) and rs1800378 (T/C) and their minor allele frequency was over 0.05 in VWF gene. The method of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-Sanger was employed for sequencing. The differences of alleleic and genotypic frequencies between PTE and control groups were compared for each locus. And the correlations of their haplotypes with PTE were analyzed. RESULTS: The distributions of rs216325 (G/A) and rs1800378 (T/C) in VWF gene had significant difference between PTE and control groups (P=0.039, 0.006). And rs216325 with genotype AA was positively correlated with PTE occurrence (r=1.914, P=0.047). And rs1800378 with genotype TT was also positively correlated with PTE occurrence (r=0.282, P=0.008). The distributions of haplotype TGT had significant differences between PTE and control groups. This haplotype was positively correlated with PTE occurrence (r=0.239, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The rs216325 and rs1800378 loci variations in VWF gene are associated with PTE, rs216325 with genotype AA and rs1800378 with genotype TT. And haplotype TGT indicates a high risk of PTE onset.

Differences in body composition and physical functions associated with sarcopenia in Chinese elderly: reference values and prevalence.

This study investigates the age-related differences in skeletal muscle mass (SM), muscle strength and physical performance in mainland Chinese. Based on available data, the reference values (criteria) for the definition of sarcopenia in elderly Chinese were explored. Body composition measurements were obtained using a bioelectrical impedance analyzer (BIA); muscle strength was determined by handgrip strength (HS); and physical function was evaluated by the subjects' 6-m gait speed (GS). In this study, HS and GS declined significantly after 55 years and very dramatically after 75 years. Appendicular SM index of <7.61kg/m(2) (males) and <6.43kg/m(2) (females); HS of <27kg (males) and <16kg (females); and GS of <0.98m/s (males) and <0.88m/s (females) were considered as low SM, low HS and low GS. Applying these suggested criteria to the study population, there were 9.55% and 6.63% of the subjects with low SM, 20.10% and 18.46% with low GS, and 14.07% and 15.38% with low HS in elderly males and females, respectively. Utilizing Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) criteria in our population results in a very low prevalence of low SM and low GS. If Western criteria for sarcopenia were adopted, the prevalence of low GS and low HS would be 2-4 times higher in the studied population, also exhibiting significant gender differences. These findings indicate that it is necessary to establish an outcomes-based and ethnic-specific set of reference values for the diagnosis of sarcopenia in elderly Chinese.