Fish rearing under intensive farming conditions can be easily disturbed by pesticides, substances that have immunotoxic properties and may predispose to infections. Organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) ...are widely used in agricultural activities; however, the mechanism of immunotoxicity of these substances is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of diazinon pesticides (OPs) on the cholinergic system of immune cells as a possible target of OP immunotoxicity. We evaluated ACh levels and cholinergic (nicotinic and muscarinic) receptor concentration. Additionally, AChE activity was evaluated in mononuclear cells of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), a freshwater fish mostly cultivated in tropical regions around the world. The obtained results indicate that acute exposure to diazinon induces an increase in ACh concentration and a decrease in nAChR and mAChR concentrations and AChE activity in fish immune cells, This suggests that the non-neuronal lymphocytic cholinergic system may be the main target in the mechanism of OP immunotoxicity. This study contributes to the understanding of the mechanisms of immunotoxicity of pollutants and may help to take actions for animal health improvement.
To report sex- and age-specific physical fitness levels in European adolescents.
A sample of 3428 adolescents (1845 girls) aged 12.5-17.49 years from 10 European cities in Austria, Belgium, France, ...Germany, Greece (an inland city and an island city), Hungary, Italy, Spain and Sweden was assessed in the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence study between 2006 and 2008. The authors assessed muscular fitness, speed/agility, flexibility and cardiorespiratory fitness using nine different fitness tests: handgrip, bent arm hang, standing long jump, Bosco jumps (squat jump, counter movement jump and Abalakov jump), 4×10-m shuttle run, back-saver sit and reach and 20-m shuttle run tests.
The authors derived sex- and age-specific normative values for physical fitness in the European adolescents using the LMS statistical method and expressed as tabulated percentiles from 10 to 100 and as smoothed centile curves (P₅, P₂₅, P₅₀, P₇₅ and P₉₅). The figures showed greater physical fitness in the boys, except for the flexibility test, and a trend towards increased physical fitness in the boys as their age increased, whereas the fitness levels in the girls were more stable across ages.
The normative values hereby provided will enable evaluation and correct interpretation of European adolescents' fitness status.
This study investigated differences in health‐related fitness (20‐m shuttle run, handgrip, bent arm hang, standing long jump, shuttle run 4 × 10 m and sit and reach tests) in 2474 Spanish adolescents ...(1196 boys and 1278 girls; age 13–18.5 years) classed as underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese according to body mass index. Body fat and fat‐free mass were derived from skinfold thickness. The prevalence of underweight was higher than obesity in girls (4.8% vs 3.0%, respectively; P<0.05) and the opposite in boys (3.9% vs 5.8%, respectively; P<0.05). Underweight was associated with a higher performance in the bent arm hang test in girls (P<0.05) and a lower performance in handgrip in both genders (P<0.01) compared with normal weight. Overweight and obese adolescents presented a lower performance in 20‐m shuttle run, bent arm hang, standing long jump and shuttle run 4 × 10 m tests (P<0.001), but a higher performance in handgrip strength (P<0.001) compared with normal weight. In weight‐bearing tests, the association became non‐significant after adjusting for fat mass. In conclusion, not only overweight and obesity but also underweight seem to be determinants of health‐related fitness in adolescents. The associations could be related to differences in body composition.
Summary
What is already known about this subject
Metabolic and cardiovascular diseases involve an inflammatory process that begins early in life.
Muscular fitness has been inversely associated with ...cardiometabolic risk factors in adolescents, including inflammatory biomarkers.
More research is needed to evaluate whether the influence of muscular fitness on chronic inflammation is independent of cardiorespiratory fitness and fatness.
What this study adds
Muscular fitness is inversely related with inflammatory biomarkers during adolescence, independently of cardiorespiratory fitness and insulin resistance.
The lower inflammatory status in adolescents with higher levels of muscular fitness seems to be explained by lower levels of fatness.
Overweight and obese adolescents present an exacerbated inflammatory status, but this may be counteracted – to some extent – by maintaining appropriate levels of muscular fitness.
Background
Muscular fitness, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and fatness are mutually related with chronic inflammation.
Purpose
To examine the independent association of muscular fitness with inflammatory biomarkers in adolescents from nine European countries.
Methods
A total of 639 adolescents (296 boys) aged from 12.5 to 17.5 year were included in this report. Data collection took place in 2006–2007 and analyses in 2012. A muscular fitness score was computed from handgrip strength and standing long jump. CRF was measured using the 20 m shuttle run test. Z‐scores of C‐reactive protein, complement factors C3 and C4, leptin and white blood cell counts were summed to create a cluster of inflammatory biomarkers. Sex, age, pubertal stage and centre were used as main confounders. Additional models were further adjusted for insulin resistance (HOMA‐IR) and sum of four skinfolds.
Results
Muscular fitness was negatively associated with single and clustered inflammatory biomarkers (standardized β from −0.399 to −0.100, all P‐values < 0.05). Additional adjustments for CRF and HOMA‐IR weakened the associations, but they still remained significant. The association was no longer significant when adjusting for skinfolds. Decreasing values of inflammatory score were observed across incremental levels of muscular fitness in both non‐overweight and overweight adolescents (P ≤ 0.05).
Conclusions
Adolescents with higher levels of muscular fitness present a lower chronic inflammation, and this seems to be explained by lower levels of fatness. Yet, overweight and obese adolescents may exhibit a less adverse profile if they maintain appropriate levels of muscular fitness.
Purpose: To evaluate the association between allergic sensitivity and pollen counts in patients with allergic respiratory disease (ARD) and its relationship with atmospheric pollutants. Methods: From ...2012 to 2018, we evaluated the sensitivity by skin prick test in ARD patients. The pollen counts were analyzed according to international guidelines (2014-2018). The pollutant and meteorological data were obtained at the same time from AIRE-CDMX websites. We analyzed the association between allergic sensitivity and pollen counts using the chi square test and stratified by disease allergic rhinitis (AR) and AR with asthma (ARwA), periods (before/after 2015), and pollination seasons (S1:2014-2015), (S2:2015-2016), (S3:2016-2017), (S4:2017-2018). Likewise, we correlated the pollen counts with the concentrations of pollutants using Pearson's correlation. For all analyses, we used SPSS v.21 software, and p-value <0.05 was considered significant. Results: A total of 520 patients were enrolled, of whom 67.3% had ARwA and 33.7% had AR (p<0.05). The frequency of patients allergic to at least one pollen was higher compared with patients sensitive to indoor allergens (55.3% vs 44.6%, p<0.001). A total of 46.8% of the patients were only sensitive to trees in comparison to other outdoor allergens (p<0.001). The Fraxinus sp. and the Cupressaceae family allergens were approximately two times more frequent than the other tree allergens in both diseases (p<0.05). These pollens doubled their counts since 2015 (p<0.001), which was associated with increases in sensitivity for Fraxinus sp. and the Cupressaceae family compared to previous years (p<0.001). Regarding pollutants, the most significant correlations were with PM.sub.10, NO.sub.2, PM.sub.CO for Fraxinus sp. pollen concentrations in all seasons (pless than or equal to0.02). Conclusion: The high increases in pollen counts of the Fraxinus sp. and Cupressaceae family were associated with increases in the frequency of sensitization to these species, and this phenomenon correlated with increases in PM.sub.10, NO.sub.2, and PM.sub.CO. Keywords: air pollutants, airborne particulate matter, pollen, allergy, asthma, rhinitis allergic seasonal
Background and Purpose
Lipogenesis is intimately controlled by hormones and cytokines as well as nutritional conditions. IL‐6 participates in the regulation of fatty acid metabolism in the liver. We ...investigated the role of IL‐6 in mediating fasting/re‐feeding changes in the expression of hepatic lipogenic enzymes.
Experimental Approach
Gene and protein expression of lipogenic enzymes were examined in livers of wild‐type (WT) and IL‐6‐deficient (IL‐6−/−) mice during fasting and re‐feeding conditions. Effects of exogenous IL‐6 administration on gene expression of these enzymes were evaluated in vivo. The involvement of STAT3 in mediating these IL‐6 responses was investigated by using siRNA in human HepG2 cells.
Key Results
During feeding, the up‐regulation in the hepatic expression of lipogenic genes presented similar time kinetics in WT and IL‐6−/− mice. During fasting, expression of lipogenic genes decreased gradually over time in both strains, although the initial drop was more marked in IL‐6−/− mice. Protein levels of hepatic lipogenic enzymes were lower in IL‐6−/− than in WT mice at the end of the fasting period. In WT, circulating IL‐6 levels paralleled gene expression of hepatic lipogenic enzymes. IL‐6 administration in vivo and in vitro showed that IL‐6‐mediated signalling was associated with the up‐regulation of hepatic lipogenic enzyme genes. Moreover, silencing STAT3 in HepG2 cells attenuated IL‐6 mediated up‐regulation of lipogenic gene transcription levels.
Conclusions and Implications
IL‐6 sustains levels of hepatic lipogenic enzymes during fasting through activation of STAT3. Our findings indicate that clinical use of STAT3‐associated signalling cytokines, particularly against steatosis, should be undertaken with caution.
Smoking and smoke from biomass burning (BB) are the main environmental risk factors for COPD. Clinical differences have been described between COPD related to smoking and related to wood smoke, but ...no studies have shown genetic differences between patients exposed to these two risk factors.
To investigate a possible association of tumor necrosis factor (
) promoter polymorphisms, we conducted a case-control study. A total of 1,322 subjects were included in four groups: patients with a diagnosis of COPD secondary to smoking (COPD-S, n=384), patients with COPD secondary to biomass burning (COPD-BB, n=168), smokers without COPD (SWOC, n=674), and biomass burning-exposed subjects (BBES n=96). Additionally, a group of 950 Mexican mestizos (MMs) was included as a population control. Three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were selected in the
gene (rs1800629, rs361525, and rs1800750) and one SNP in the lymphotoxin alpha gene (rs909253).
Statistically significant differences were found with genotype GA of the rs1800629: COPD-S vs SWOC, (
<0.001, odds ratio OR =2.55, 95% CI=1.53-4.27); COPD-S vs COPD-BB (
,0.01). When performing the comparison of the less severe (G1: I + II) and the more severe (G2: III + IV) levels, differences were identified in G1 (
<0.05, OR=1.94, 95% CI=1.04-3.63) and G2 (
<0.001, OR=3.68, 95% CI=1.94-3.07) compared with SWOC. Regarding genotype GA of rs361525, it has been associated when comparing COPD-BB vs BBES (
=0.0079, OR=5.99, 95% CI=1.38-53.98).
The heterozygous genotype GA of polymorphisms rs1800629 and rs361525 in the
promoter are associated with the risk of COPD.
The influence of socioeconomic status on health-related fitness is not clear.
To examine the influence of socioeconomic status on health-related fitness in adolescents.
A total of 3,259 adolescents ...(15.0 +/- 1.3 y) from the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence Cross-Sectional Study (HELENA-CSS) participated in the study. Socioeconomic status was assessed by the family affluence scale (FAS). Speed-agility, muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness were assessed. Covariates included total body fat, physical activity and pubertal status.
Adolescents with high FAS had significantly higher fitness levels than their peers of lower FAS categories except for speed-agility and handgrip in boys. Overall, the associations observed presented a medium to large effect size.
These results suggest that socioeconomic status is positively associated with physical fitness in European adolescents independently of total body fat and habitual physical activity.
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