Estimate Healthy Homes/Healthy Families (HHHF) intervention efficacy for improving dietary quality.
Low-income overweight and obese women (n = 349) recruited from rural community health centers were ...randomized to receive HHHF, a 16-week home environment–focused coaching intervention or health education materials by mail. Healthy Eating Index–2010 scores were calculated from 2 24-hour dietary recalls collected at baseline and 6- and 12-month follow-up.
HHHF participants reported greater improvements in Healthy Eating Index–2010 total scores at 6-month follow-up (+3.41 ± 13.43 intervention vs +2.02 ± 12.26 control; P =.009). Subcomponent analysis indicated greater consumption of total vegetables (P = .02) and greens and beans (P = .001), whole grains (P = .02) and reduced consumption of empty calories (P = .03). Standardized intervention effect sizes were 0.16 at 6 months and 0.13 at 12 months of follow-up.
The HHHF resulted in short-term improvements in dietary quality, although more research is needed to interpret the clinical significance of effect sizes of this magnitude.
Background: There are inherent conceptual problems in investigating the pharmacodynamics of cancer drugs in vivo. One of the
few possible approaches is serial biopsies in patients. However, this type ...of research is severely limited by methodological
and ethical constraints. Materials and Methods: A modified 3-dimensional tissue culture technique was used to culture human
tumor samples, which had been collected during routine cancer operations. Twenty tumor samples of patients with non-small
cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were cultured ex vivo for 120 h and treated with mitomycin C, taxotere and cisplatin. The cytotoxic
activity of the anticancer agents was quantified by assessing the metabolic activity of treated tumor cultures and various
assays of apoptosis and gene expression were performed. Results: The proliferative activity of the tissue was maintained in
culture as assessed by Ki-67 staining. Mitomycin C, cisplatin and taxotere reduced the metabolic activity of the tumor tissue
cultures by 51%, 29% and 20%, respectively, at 120 h. The decrease in metabolic activity corresponded to the induction of
apoptosis as demonstrated by the typical morphological changes, such as chromatin condensation and nuclear fragmentation.
In addition, activated caspase-3 could be verified in apoptotic cells by immunohistochemistry. To verify functional aspects
of apoptosis, the induction of chemotherapy-induced cell death was inhibited with the caspase inhibitor z-VAD.fmk. RNA was
extracted from the tissue cultures after 120 h of ex vivo drug treatment and was of sufficient quality to allow quantitative
PCR. Conclusion: The 3-dimensional ex vivo culture technique is a useful method to assess the molecular effects of pharmacological
interventions in human cancer samples in vitro. This culture technique could become an important tool for drug development
and for the prediction of in vivo drug efficacy.
Helicobacter pylori is a worldwide infection. It is estimated that approximately 50% of the general population is affected, but this percentage varies considerably between countries. To investigate ...the prevalence of H. pylori infection, a cross-sectional epidemiological study, based on the serological determination of the IgG antibodies against H. pylori, was carried out in healthy Italian blood donors by using a commercially available kit.
From March 1995 to March 1997, a total of 2598 consecutive volunteer blood donors were tested for the presence of antibodies against H. pylori. All patients answered a detailed questionnaire which collected sociodemographic characteristics, and smoking, alcohol drinking and dietary habits. Test-positive subjects with gastrointestinal symptoms underwent endoscopy, with biopsies taken for histological diagnosis.
The global prevalence of H. pylori infection in our study was 1161/2598 (45%). It was directly correlated with age (67% in subjects aged > or = 50 years). The prevalence of H. pylori infection was higher in men (46.4%) than women (38.4%), and more frequent in patients with a low educational level, in the lower quintile of height and in the upper quintile of body mass index (BMI). No significant association with smoking and alcohol drinking was found. Inverse associations were found with elevated consumption of milk (chi-square for trend 5.49, P < 0.05), but not other examined food groups. Multivariate analysis selected sex, age, BMI and educational level as the variables independently related to H. pylori infection.
This study confirms relatively high prevalence of H. pylori seropositivity among Italian healthy adults and points to sex, age, BMI and sociocultural class as persisting determinant features of H. pylori infection.
Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the WalkSafe program, an elementary school-based pedestrian safety program in a single high-risk district in Miami-Dade County.
Methods: Sixteen elementary ...schools were identified in a single high-risk district and enrolled in a one-year study. All schools implemented the WalkSafe program on the last week of January 2003. A pre, post, and three-month post testing of pedestrian safety knowledge was conducted. An observational component was also implemented at four schools that were randomly chosen. Engineering recommendations and law enforcement initiatives were also performed.
Results: A total of 6467 children from K-5th grade from 16 elementary schools participated in the program. Of these 5762 tests were collected over three different testing times. A significant difference (p-value < 0.001) was found between the pre and post testing conditions across all grade levels. There was no significant difference found between the post and three-month post testing conditions across all grade levels (p-value > 0.05). The observational data collected at four schools across the different testing times demonstrated a significant difference found between pre and post testing conditions for Group A (stop at the curb and look left, right, left) and also for Group B (midstreet crossing and darting out) (p-value < 0.05). There was no difference found between comparing the pre-test or post-test condition with the three-month post-test time. There were many environmental modifications that were recommended and actually performed.
Conclusion: The WalkSafe program implemented in a single high-risk district was shown to improve the pedestrian safety knowledge of elementary school children. The observational data demonstrated improved crossing behaviors from pre-test to post-testing conditions. Future research will focus on sustaining the program in this district and expanding the program throughout our county.
The antitumor drug fostriecin (phosphotrienin, FST) has been reported to exert its cytostatic and cytotoxic effects via inhibition of DNA topoisomerase II. The sensitivity of human lymphocytic ...leukemic MOLT-4 and promyelocytic HL-60 leukemic cells to a wide range of FST concentrations was studied by analyzing the cell cycle-specific effects and changes in nuclear chromatin induced by this inhibitor. The latter was evaluated by assaying the sensitivity of DNA in situ to acid-induced denaturation cytofluorimetrically, with the use of the metachromatic fluorochrome acridine orange (AO), which differentially stains double-stranded and denatured DNA. The cytostatic effects were observed soon after addition of FST (at concentrations of 1-30 microM for MOLT-4 cultures and 1-5 microM for HL-60 cultures) as a perturbation of cell progression through S and G2 phases of the cell cycle. Cell progression through the cycle was halted at greater than 30 microM FST in MOLT-4 cultures and at greater than 5 microM in HL-60 cultures; the effect was instantaneous and affected all phases of the cycle, so that no changes in the cell cycle distribution were apparent with increasing length of exposure to the drug. Instead, at these high FST concentrations, immediate cytotoxic effects became evident, manifesting either as cell apoptosis or necrosis. Apoptosis was observed only in the case of HL-60 cells, at FST concentrations of 5-100 microM, and was characterized by markedly increased sensitivity of DNA to denaturation combined with a decrease in overall DNA stainability, either with the DNA-specific dye DAPI or with AO, indicative of the activation of endogenous nucleases. Necrotic cell death was observed at FST concentrations of 1 mM and at greater than 30 microM for HL-60 and MOLT-4 cells, respectively: in both cases the overall DNA stainability, with either DAPI or AO, was unchanged compared to the control, but their DNA was very sensitive to denaturation. Interestingly, DNA in G2 and late S phase MOLT-4 cells, which were undergoing necrotic death, was much more sensitive to denaturation than was DNA in G1 cells of this lineage. The data indicate that chromatin changes induced by DNA topoisomerase II inhibitors in cells that undergo apoptotic or necrotic death can be conveniently monitored by the assay of DNA in situ sensitivity to denaturation.
Increasing use of retroviral vector-mediated gene transfer created intense interest to characterize vector integrations on the genomic level. Techniques to determine insertion sites, mainly based on ...time-consuming manual data processing, are commonly applied. Since a high variability in processing methods hampers further data comparison, there is an urgent need to systematically process the data arising from such analysis.
To allow large-scale and standardized comparison of insertion sites of viral vectors we developed two programs, IntegrationSeq and IntegrationMap. IntegrationSeq can trim sequences, and valid integration sequences get further processed with IntegrationMap for automatic genomic mapping. IntegrationMap retrieves detailed information about whether integrations are located in or close to genes, the name of the gene, the exact localization in the transcriptional units, and further parameters like the distance from the transcription start site to the integration.
We validated the method using 259 files originating from integration site analysis (LM-PCR). Sequences processed by IntegrationSeq led to an increased yield of valid integration sequence detection, which were shown to be more sensitive than conventional analysis and 15 times faster, while the specificities are equal. Output files generated by IntegrationMap were found to be 99.8% identical with results retrieved by much slower conventional mapping with the ENSEMBL alignment tool.
Using IntegrationSeq and IntegrationMap, a validated, fast and standardized high-throughput analysis of insertion sites can be achieved for the first time.
Aims Whereas cortical EEG effects of benzodiazepines are well characterized, information about benzodiazepine effects in other areas of the central nervous system is sparse. This study investigated ...the action of midazolam and its active metabolite α‐hydroxy‐midazolam on different parts of the auditory pathway in six healthy volunteers in a randomized, double‐blind, three‐way cross‐over study.
Methods Acoustically evoked short (SLP) and middle (MLP) latency potentials, transitory evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE), and EEG power spectra were analysed after short i.v. injections of placebo, or 0.15 mg kg−1 midazolam, or α‐hydroxy‐midazolam, respectively.
Results All subjects fell asleep during the 4 min infusion of active drug. SLP showed a significant transient increase of Jewett wave V 10 min after injection for midazolam and α‐hydroxy‐midazolam while the latency of wave I was unchanged. Both benzodiazepines induced a marked and long‐lasting MLP amplitude decrease for 240 min with slow recovery over the following 360 min. No changes of TEOAE were observed. In agreement with earlier reports, increases in EEG beta activity and decreases in alpha activity were observed after administration of either drug.
Conclusions Systemically administered benzodiazepines modulate the auditory pathway above the level of the cochlea. While SLP changes were closely associated with sedation and high plasma benzodiazepine concentrations, MLP effects persisted for hours after sedation even at low benzodiazepine plasma levels. Evoked potentials may therefore be more sensitive than EEG as a tool to monitor benzodiazepine effects.
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