The fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) is thought to be involved in many critical cellular processes and has been associated with prostate cancer risk. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms ...(SNPs) within or near FGFR4 were analyzed in a population-based study of 1458 prostate cancer patients and 1352 age-matched controls. We found no evidence to suggest that any of the FGFR4 SNP genotypes were associated with prostate cancer risk or with disease aggressiveness, Gleason score or stage. A weak association was seen between rs351855 and prostate cancer-specific mortality. Subset analysis of cases that had undergone radical prostatectomy revealed an association between rs351855 and prostate cancer risk. Although our results confirm an association between FGFR4 and prostate cancer risk in radical prostatectomy cases, they suggest that the role of FGFR4 in disease risk and outcomes at a population-based level appears to be minor.
Summary
There is little evidence to support the general assumption that dietary carotenoids can improve vitamin A status. We investigated in Bogor District, West Java, Indonesia, the effect of an ...additional daily portion of dark-green leafy vegetables on vitamin A and iron status in women with low haemoglobin concentrations (<130 g/L) who were breastfeeding a child of 3-17 months.
Every day for 12 weeks one group (n=57) received stirfried vegetables, a second (n=62) received a wafer enriched with β-carotene, iron, vitamin C, and folic acid, and a third (n=56) received a non-enriched wafer to control for additional energy intake. The vegetable supplement and the enriched wafer contained 3·5 mg β-carotene, 5·2 mg and 4·8 mg iron, and 7·8 g and 4·4 g fat, respectively. Assignment to vegetable or wafer groups was by village. Wafers were distributed double-masked. In the enriched-wafer group there were increases in serum retinol (mean increase 0·32 95% Cl 0·23-0·40 μmol/L), breastmilk retinol (0·59 0·35-0·84 μmol/L), and serum β-carotene (0·73 0·59-0·88 μmol/L). These changes differed significantly from those in the other two groups, in which the only significant changes were small increases in breastmilk retinol in the control-wafer group (0·16 0·02-0·30 μmol/L) and in serum β-carotene in the vegetable group (0·03 0-0·06 μmol/L). Changes in iron status were similar in all three groups.
An additional daily portion of dark-green leafy vegetables did not improve vitamin A status, whereas a similar amount of β-carotene from a simpler matrix produced a strong improvement. These results suggest that the approach to combating vitamin A deficiency by increases in the consumption of provitamin A carotenoids from vegetables should be re-examined.
Nutritional anaemia, thought to be caused by iron deficiency, affects 50-70% of pregnant women in the developing world. The influence of vitamin A and iron supplementation was studied in anaemic ...pregnant women in West Java, in a randomised, double-masked, placebo-controlled field trial. 251 women aged 17-35 years, parity 0-4, gestation 16-24 weeks, and haemoglobin between 80 and 109 g/L were randomly allocated to four groups: vitamin A (2·4 mg retinol) and placebo iron tablets; iron (60 mg elemental iron) and placebo vitamin A; vitamin A and iron; or both placebos, all daily for 8 weeks. Maximum haemoglobin was achieved with both vitamin A and iron supplementation (12·78 g/L, 95% Cl 10·86 to 14·70), with one-third of the response attributable to vitamin A(3·68 g/L, 2·03 to 5·33) and two-thirds to iron (7·71 g/L, 5·97 to 9·45). After supplementation, the proportion of women who became non-anaemic was 35% in the vitamin-A- supplemented group, 68% in the iron-supplemented group, 97% in the group supplemented with both, and 16% in the placebo group. Improvement in vitamin A status may contribute to the control of anaemic pregnant women.
In a controlled trial, fortification of commercially marketed monosodium glutamate (MSG) with vitamin A improved serum vitamin A levels of young children and the vitamin A content of breast milk of ...lactating women. These improvements in vitamin A indices were accompanied by dramatic changes in health and anthropometric status. During the course of the study, the prevalence of Bitot's spots among children in program villages fell progressively from 1.2% at base line to 0.2% 11 mo after introduction of the fortified product (p less than 0.001); xerophthalmia rates in control villages remained essentially unchanged. Linear growth was greater among program than among control children at every age. Hemoglobin levels among program children rose by approximately 10 g, from 113 +/- 16 g/L at base line to 123 +/- 16 by 5 mo (p less than 0.001); they remained essentially unchanged among children of control villages. Preschool children in control villages died at 1.8 times the rate of children in program villages
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