A novel dietary inflammatory index reflecting for inflammatory ageing: Technical note.

OBJECTIVE: Chronic inflammation plays an important role in the development of several chronic diseases. Existing dietary inflammatory indexes require complicated calculations, which are difficult to use in clinical practice. We developed a new and simple index, based solely on the frequency of consumption of only 16 foods, to capture the inflammatory potential of diet. METHODS: The new index, an empirical dietary inflammatory index (eDII), is based on 8 pro-inflammatory and 8 anti-inflammatory components. First, in a validation study, 168 community-dwelling persons were invited to participate and an inflammatory aging disease (IAD) score of each participant was calculated by total number of IADs. Second, in the nutritional epidemiologic study, we calculated the eDII for 1464 participants and compared the eDII with healthy diet quality scores. RESULTS: In a validation study, when subjects were classified by eDII tertile, a higher eDII was significantly associated with a higher IAD score. In the nutritional epidemiologic study, a higher eDII was inversely associated with the Mediterranean diet score, the World Health Organization's healthy diet indicator, and the American Heart Association's recommended healthy diet score. CONCLUSIONS: The eDII is an easy and valid instrument to assess the inflammatory potential of dietary factors. This index is easy to use and does not require detailed estimations of nutrient intake.

Data in support of antioxidant activities of the non-extractable fraction of dried persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.).

This data article is related to the research article entitled, "Antioxidant potential in non-extractable fraction of dried persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.)" (Matsumura et al., 2016) [1]. We investigated antioxidant activities of the non-extractable fraction of dried persimmon fruits in vitro and in vivo. We evaluated both extracted fraction and non-extractable fraction, and reported that non-extractable fraction may possess significantly antioxidant potential in vivo on the basis of the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC). We showed our experimental raw data about antioxidant capacity of dried persimmon, plasma triglycerides (TG) and HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), and this data article might contribute to evaluate real antioxidant capacity of other fruits and vegetables.

A novel method for sexing day-old chicks using endoscope system.

Sexing day-old chicks is important for layer and broiler production. A novel method for sexing day-old chicks was developed using an endoscope system. The probe of the endoscope was inserted from the cloaca into the intestine of a chick, and the presence of testes or ovary was observed through the wall of the intestine. The picture image was displayed on the monitor. Sexing was performed in White Leghorn (WL) and Rhode Island Red (RIR) chicks using this new system. The accuracy of sexing was 91.1% in WL chicks and 88.3% in RIR chicks, confirmed by observing gonads after laparotomy or appearances at 80 d of age. Accuracy of sexing male chicks (95.0%) was higher than that of female chicks (86.0%). The overall accuracy of sexing was 90.2% in the present study, and the accuracy would be improved by continuous training in the handling of the endoscope. The endoscope system devised in this study requires no specific skills and anyone can perform sexing of chicks after short-term training.

Antioxidant potential in non-extractable fractions of dried persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.).

Dried fruits of persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) are a traditional food in Japan and contain large quantities of tannins. In this study, we investigated the in vitro and in vivo antioxidant potentials of non-extractable fractions from dried persimmons. Hydrolysed non-extractable fractions showed the highest antioxidant activities in vitro. In subsequent experiments, the plasma oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) values in rats supplemented with a 5% non-extractable fraction were approximately 1.5times higher than those in control rats after 1week in vivo. Furthermore, using an in vitro model of the gastrointestinal tract, the ORAC values of the non-extractable fraction were significantly increased with colonic fermentation in the large bowel stage. These data indicate that non-extractable fractions may possess significant antioxidant potential in vitro and in vivo.