Palmitoleic Acid Protects against Hypertension by Inhibiting NF-κB-Mediated Inflammation.

SCOPE: The role of palmitoleic acid (POA) in hypertension or blood pressure remains uncertain. This study aims to investigate the epidemiological association between circulating POA and primary hypertension in humans, and subsequently evaluate the effects of exogenous POA on blood pressure and aortic remodeling in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). METHODS AND RESULTS: A case-control study of 349 hypertensive and 1396 normotensive children and adolescents is conducted, and found hypertensive cases show significant lower erythrocyte phospholipid POA than normotensive controls (p < 0.001). In conditional logistic regression model, participants in the top quartile of POA have a lower prevalence of primary hypertension than those in the bottom (multivariate-adjusted OR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.25-0.89). In animal study, 24 SHRs are randomly assigned to n-3 PUFAs (500 mg kg-1 ), POA (500 mg kg-1 ), or vehicle (olive oil) for 8 weeks. At the end of intervention, as compared to SHRs treated with vehicle, SHRs treated with POA shows significantly decreased systolic blood pressure (SBP), improved aortic remodeling, and also decreased aortic expressions of NF-κB and its downstream proinflammatory cytokines. CONCLUSIONS: Circulating POA is inversely associated with risk of primary hypertension, and exogenous POA supplementation can decrease SBP and improve aortic remodeling by inhibiting NF-κB-mediated inflammation.

Quantitative determination of osteopontin in bovine, buffalo, yak, sheep and goat milk by Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and stable isotope dimethyl labeling.

Osteopontin (OPN) is a multifunctional protein present in different tissues, body fluids and milk. Different milk has different level of OPN content. To determine the amount of osteopontin in bovine, buffalo, yak, sheep and goat milk, we developed an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method to detect an osteopontin signature peptide. The signature peptides selected by searching Uniprot database for trypsin digested osteopontin. The sample preparation procedure includes trypsin digestion, dimethyl labeling of tryptic peptides, purification and concentration of labeled tryptic peptide with solid phase extraction. The limit of detection and limit of quantification are 0.5 mg L-1 and 2.0 mg L-1, respectively. The method has satisfactory analytical performance with a linearity of R2 ≥ 0.998, recoveries of 103.7-111.0%, and precision of 1.8-6.2%. It is also validated and successfully applied to quantifying osteopontin content in bovine, buffalo, yak, sheep and goat milk.

Effects of consuming red furu (fermented bean curd) on serum vitamin B-12, homocysteine and other cardiometabolic risk factors in young healthy volunteers: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The health benefits of red furu in young, healthy volunteers had not been adequately investigated. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a single meal containing red furu on serum vitamin B-12 (B-12), homocysteine and other cardiometabolic risk factors compared with that of tofu. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Twenty-three healthy volunteers from Zhejiang University, China, were randomly assigned to two groups of consumption, either red furu (n=11, 5 women and 6 men) or tofu (n=12, 6 women and 6 men). Volunteers consumed one breakfast meal composed of either 50 g of red furu (intervention group) or 50 g of tofu (non-active comparison group) with two slices of bread. Fasting blood was collected at 0 h, 24 h, and 72 h. Standard methods were used to measure the volunteers' biochemical parameters. RESULTS: The consumption of 50 g of red furu a day did not significantly affect serum B-12 and showed a non-significant trend to reduce serum homocysteine. In the red furu group, but not in tofu group, serum concentrations of B-12 and folate were negatively associated with homocysteine, and B-12 was positively associated with folate. CONCLUSIONS: A breakfast meal with 50 g of red furu containing 0.096 µg of B-12 did not increase serum B-12 in healthy volunteers. These results suggested that one meal containing B-12 could be sufficient to reduce serum Hcy.

Human milk microbiota development during lactation and its relation to maternal geographic location and gestational hypertensive status.

Bacteria in human milk could directly seed the infant intestinal microbiota, while information about how milk microbiota develops during lactation and how geographic location, gestational hypertensive status, and maternal age influence this process is limited. Here, we collected human milk samples from mothers of term infants at the first day, 2 weeks, and 6 weeks postpartum from 117 longitudinally followed-up mothers (age: 28.7 ± 3.6 y) recruited from three cities in China. We found that milk microbial diversity and richness were the highest in colostrum but gradually decreased over lactation. Microbial composition changed across lactation and exhibited more discrete compositional patterns in 2-week and 6-week milk samples compared with colostrum samples. At phylum level, the abundance of Proteobacteria increased during lactation, while Firmicutes showed the opposite trend. At genus level, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, and Lactobacillus were predominant in colostrum samples and showed distinct variations across lactation. Maternal geographic location was significantly associated with the milk microbiota development and the abundance of predominant genus. In addition, milk from mothers with gestational prehypertension had a different and less diverse microbial community at genus level in early lactation times, and contained less Lactobacillus in the 2-week milk samples than those from normotensive mothers. Findings of our study outlined the human milk microbial diversity and community development over lactation, and underscored the importance of maternal geographic locations and gestational hypertensive status on milk microbiota, which might have important implications in the establishment of the infant intestinal microbiota via breastfeeding.

Different metabolism of EPA, DPA and DHA in humans: A double-blind cross-over study.

This study aimed to compare eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) incorporated into red blood cells (RBC) phospholipids (PL), plasma PL, plasma triglyceride (TAG), and plasma cholesteryl ester (CE) fractions, and the metabolomics profiles in a double-blind cross-over study. Twelve female healthy subjects randomly consumed 1 g per day for 6 days of pure EPA, DPA, or DHA. The placebo treatment was olive oil. The fasting venous blood was taken at days 0, 3 and 6, and the RBC PL and plasma lipid fractions were separated for fatty acid determination using thin layer chromatography followed by gas chromatography. Plasma metabolites were analyzed by UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap/MS. Supplemental EPA significantly increased the concentrations of EPA in RBC PL (days 3 and 6). For subjects consuming the DPA supplement, the concentrations of both DPA and EPA were significantly increased in RBC PL over a 6-day period, respectively. For plasma PL fraction, EPA and DPA supplementation significantly increased the concentrations of EPA and DPA at both days 3 and 6, respectively. Supplemental DHA significantly increased the concentrations of DHA in plasma PL at day 6. For plasma TAG fraction, supplementation with EPA and DPA significantly increased the concentrations of EPA and DPA at both days 3 and 6, respectively. After DHA supplementation, significant increases in the concentrations of DHA were found relative to baseline at both days 3 and 6. For plasma CE fraction, EPA supplementation significantly increased the concentrations of EPA (days 3 and 6) and DPA (days 6), respectively. Supplemental DPA significantly increased the concentrations of EPA at day 6. Meanwhile, the concentrations of DHA were significantly increased over a 6-day period of intervention after subjects consuming the DHA supplements. There were a total of 922 plasma metabolites identified using metabolomics analyses. Supplementation with DPA and DHA significantly increased the levels of sphingosine 1-phosphate (P for DPA = 0.025, P for DHA = 0.029) and 15-deoxy-Δ12,14-prostaglandin A1 (P for DPA = 0.034; P for DHA = 0.021) in comparison with olive oil group. Additionally, supplementation with EPA (P = 0.007) and DHA (P = 0.005) significantly reduced the levels of linoleyl carnitine, compared with olive oil group. This study shows that DPA might act as a reservoir of n-3 LCP incorporated into blood lipid fractions, metabolized into DHA, and retro-converted back to EPA. Metabolomics analyses indicate that supplemental EPA, DPA and DHA have shared and differentiated metabolites. The differences of these metabolic biomarkers should be investigated in additional studies.

Habitual animal fat consumption in shaping gut microbiota and microbial metabolites.

Short-term intervention studies support a link between animal-based diet and the outgrowth of microorganisms capable of triggering inflammatory bowel disease. However, whether habitual animal fat intake is associated with gut-related health remains unclear. Thus, we collected dietary information, clinical data and fecal samples from 297 healthy young subjects and characterized gut microbiota by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and microbial metabolites, including short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and bile acids (BAs) using a gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF/MS) system and ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) platform, respectively. We found that the microbial diversity of butyric acid (rho = -0.17, p = 0.004 for the Shannon index) and the concentrations of butyric acid (rho = -0.33, p < 0.001) and valeric acid (rho = -0.28, p = 0.002) were negatively associated with animal fat consumption. In line with this, the abundance of SCFAs-producing bacteria such as Blautia, Eubacterium hallii, and Megamonas were significantly lower in the high animal fat group compared with the low animal fat group (all p < 0.05). Additionally, the high animal fat group had higher concentrations of total (p = 0.06) and unconjugated (p = 0.09) BAs relative to the lower animal fat groups. The findings of our study indicate that a diet with higher animal-based fat consumption is likely to be associated with moderately unfavorable impacts on gut microbial diversity, community, and regulation of fecal SCFAs, which may influence the host cardiometabolic health in the long term among healthy Chinese adults whose diet is in a nutrition transition.

Effects of Chlorella vulgaris polysaccharides accumulation on growth characteristics of Trachemys scripta elegans.

The present study investigated the effects of the accumulated polysaccharides in Chlorella vulgaris microalgae on the growth characteristics of Trachemys scripta elegans. Sodium alginate was used to prepare immobilized C. vulgaris, and the antioxidant effects of the accumulated polysaccharides in it were determined using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model. We determined the specific growth rates of T. s. elegans (10 in each group) and their levels of non-specific immune-related indexes (including alkaline phosphatase; total superoxide dismutase; catalase; malondialdehyde). Under optimal culturing conditions, the accumulated polysaccharide content in C. vulgaris reached 32.7% (dry weight). Polysaccharides from C. vulgaris significantly improved the hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress resistance and resulted in the enhancement of stress resistance-related antioxidant enzymes, including total superoxide dismutase and catalase (p < 0.05). The accumulated polysaccharides in C. vulgaris were heteropolysaccharides comprising rhamnose, ribose, arabinose, xylose, 2-deoxy-D-glucose, mannose, glucose, galactose, and glucosamine with a molar ratio of 0.26: 0.62: 0.21: 0.10: 0.08: 0.18: 1.00: 0.42: 0.17. Compared with the control group with common feeds, suspended and immobilized C. vulgaris with higher accumulated polysaccharide levels had a positive effect on the specific growth rate of the T. s. elegans (p < 0.05). Further, the suspended and immobilized C. vulgaris with higher accumulated polysaccharide levels significantly increased serum alkaline phosphatase, total superoxide dismutase and catalase activity (p < 0.05) and decreased serum malondialdehyde levels of T. s. elegans (p < 0.05).