Objectives
This study examined the relationship between the consumption of plant-based diet and frailty in older Chinese adults.
Design
Prospective cohort study
Setting
Community-based setting in 22 ...provinces of China.
Participants
The final sample included data from 3990 older adults from 2011–2014 from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey
Measurements
A plant-based diet index (PDI) was calculated based on a qualitative food frequency questionnaire. Frailty was defined using modified Fried criteria. A Generalized Estimating Equation was used to estimate risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for frailty. We further performed subgroup analyses stratified by sex and lifestyle factors.
Results
557 cases of frailty were observed. After adjustment for covariates, the RR for frailty of a high PDI was 0.792 (95% CI: 0.644–0.973), relative to a low PDI. During follow-up, compared with respondents with a continually low PDI, the respondents with a continually high PDI had a significantly reduced risk of frailty (RR = 0.683, 95% CI: 0.514–0.908). In further subgroup analysis, a consistently high PDI over time resulted in a significantly reduced risk of frailty for male (RR = 0.591, 95% CI: 0.391–0.893); for never smokers (RR = 0.670, 95% CI: 0.458–0.979); for people who did never consume alcohol (RR = 0.654, 95% CI: 0.454–0.941); and for people with current or former exercise habits (RR = 0.488, 95% CI: 0.313–0.762).
Conclusion
Plant-based diet was associated with low risk of frailty in men and in older adults with healthy lifestyle. These findings stress that plant-based diet should be recommended as a dietary strategy to prevent and reduce frailty in older adults; in addition, more dietary interventions along with lifestyle modification should be adopted to promote successful ageing, especially for women.
Major depression is a common mood disorder that affects overall health; currently, almost all of the available antidepressants have the same core mechanisms of action through promotion of serotonin ...or noradrenaline function in the brain. The major limitation of today's antidepressants is that chronic treatment (3 - 6 weeks) is required before a therapeutic benefit is achieved. More effective and faster treatments for depression are needed. Adult neurogenesis is the birth of new neurons, which continues postnatally and into adulthood in the brains of multiple species, including humans. Recently, a large body of evidence gives rise to the hypothesis that the antidepressant effect and increases in adult hippocampal neurogenesis may be causally related. Multiple classes of antidepressants increase hippocampal neurogenesis in a chronic, but not acute, time course. This effect corresponds to the therapeutic time lag associated with current antidepressants. In addition, antidepressants are not effective in behavioral models of depression when hippocampal neurogenesis is prevented. This review examines the current understanding of adult neurogenesis and the evidence of the causal relationship between antidepressant effects and adult hippocampal neurogenesis. We also present our recent research findings, which support a promising strategy for enhancing adult hippocampal neurogenesis that might be a new approach for the development of novel antidepressants.
A total of 320 male Arbor Acres broiler chickens (28 days old) were randomly allotted to one of the three experimental diets supplemented with 0 (160 birds), 600 (80 birds) or 1200 mg/kg (80 birds) ...creatine monohydrate (CMH) for 14 days. On the morning of 42 day, after an 8-h fast, the birds of CMH-free group were divided into two equal groups, and all birds of these four groups were transported according to the follow protocol: 0.75-h transport without CMH supplementation (as a lower stress control group), 3-h transport without CMH supplementation, 3-h transport with 600 or 1200 mg/kg CMH supplementation. Each treatment group was composed of 8 replicates with 10 birds each. The results showed that supplementation of CMH for 14 days before slaughter did not affect the overall growth performance and carcass traits of stressed broilers (P>0.05). A 3-h transport decreased plasma glucose concentration, elevated plasma corticosterone concentration, increased bird live weight loss, breakdown of muscle glycogen, as well as the accumulation of muscle lactate (P<0.05), which induced some detrimental changes to breast meat quality (lower ultimate pH and higher drip loss, P<0.05). Nevertheless, supplementation of 1200 mg/kg CMH reduced chicken weight loss, decreased the contents of lactate and glycolytic potential in pectoralis major of 3-h transported broilers (P<0.05), which is beneficial to maintain breast meat quality by reducing the drip loss (P<0.05). These findings suggest that the reduction of muscle glycolysis is probably the reason for maintainance of meat quality by supplementation of CMH in transported broilers.
We demonstrate the generation of chiral modes-vortex flows with fixed handedness in exciton-polariton quantum fluids. The chiral modes arise in the vicinity of exceptional points (non-Hermitian ...spectral degeneracies) in an optically induced resonator for exciton polaritons. In particular, a vortex is generated by driving two dipole modes of the non-Hermitian ring resonator into degeneracy. Transition through the exceptional point in the space of the system's parameters is enabled by precise manipulation of real and imaginary parts of the closed-wall potential forming the resonator. As the system is driven to the vicinity of the exceptional point, we observe the formation of a vortex state with a fixed orbital angular momentum (topological charge). This method can be extended to generate higher-order orbital angular momentum states through coalescence of multiple non-Hermitian spectral degeneracies. Our Letter demonstrates the possibility of exploiting nontrivial and counterintuitive properties of waves near exceptional points in macroscopic quantum systems.
Malnutrition is a common and critical problem that influences outcome in cancer patients. Body composition reflects a patient's metabolic profile and physiologic reserves, which might be the true ...determinant of prognosis. In the present study, which aimed to identify valuable new prognostic indicators, we investigated the association between computed tomography-quantified body composition and short-term outcomes after gastrectomy for gastric cancer.
Skeletal muscle index, mean muscle attenuation, and ratio of visceral-to-subcutaneous adipose tissue area (vsr) were calculated from preoperative computed tomography images. Low skeletal muscle index, low mean muscle attenuation, and high vsr were respectively termed "sarcopenia," "myosteatosis," and "visceral obesity." The association of body composition with postoperative complications and serum markers of nutrition and inflammation after radical gastrectomy were analyzed.
The overall complication rate was significantly higher in the sarcopenia (62.5% vs. 27.3%,
= 0.001) and myosteatosis groups (38.2% vs. 4%,
= 0.002). Patients with visceral obesity had a higher incidence of inflammatory complications (20.3% vs. 6.5%,
= 0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that sarcopenia (
= 0.013), myosteatosis (
= 0.017), and low serum retinol-binding protein (
= 0.019) were independent risk factors for overall complications. Compared with control subjects, patients with sarcopenia had lower postoperative levels of serum retinol-binding protein (
= 0.007), and patients with visceral obesity had higher levels of C-reactive protein (
= 0.026).
Sarcopenia, myosteatosis, and visceral obesity were significantly associated with increased rates of postoperative complications and affected the postoperative nutrition and inflammation status of patients with gastric cancer.
Moyamoya disease (MMD) is a rare, genetically heterogeneous cerebrovascular disease resulting from occlusion of the distal internal carotid arteries. A variant in the Ring Finger 213 gene (RNF213), ...altering arginine at position 4810 (p.R4810K), is associated with MMD in Asian populations. However, there are a lack of data on the role of RNF213 in patients with MMD of additional ethnicities and diasporic Asian populations. We investigate the contribution of RNF213 alterations to MMD in an ethnically diverse population based in the United States.
We initially sequenced RNF213 exons 43, 44, and 45 (encoding the eponymous RING finger domain) and exon 60 (encoding p.R4810K) in 86 ethnically diverse patients with MMD. Comprehensive exome sequencing data from 24 additional patients with MMD was then analyzed to identify RNF213 variants globally. Segregation of variants with MMD and other vascular diseases was assessed in families.
RNF213 p.R4810K was identified in 56% (9/16) of patients with MMD of Asian descent and not in 94 patients of non-Asian descent. 3.6% (4/110) of patients had variants in the exons encoding the RING finger domain. Seven additional variants were identified in 29% (7/24) of patients with MMD who underwent exome sequencing. Segregation analysis supported an association with MMD for 2 variants and a lack of association with disease for 1 variant.
These results confirm that alterations in RNF213 predispose patients of diverse ethnicities to MMD, and that the p.R4810K variant predisposes individuals of Asian descent in the United States to MMD.
PHLPP (PH domain leucine-rich repeats protein phosphatase) represents a family of novel Ser/Thr protein phosphatases. Two highly related isoforms in this family, PHLPP1 and PHLPP2, have been ...identified to serve as negative regulators of Akt and protein kinase C by dephosphorylating the kinases directly. In this study, we examined the expression pattern of both PHLPP isoforms in colorectal cancer specimens and the adjacent normal mucosa using immunohistochemical staining. We found that the expression of PHLPP1 or PHLPP2 isoform was lost or decreased in 78 and 86% of tumor tissues, respectively. Stable overexpression of either PHLPP isoform in colon cancer cells decreased the rate of cell proliferation and sensitized the cells to growth inhibition induced by the phosphoinositide-3 kinase inhibitor, LY294002, whereas knockdown of either PHLPP isoform by shRNA promoted the proliferation of DLD1 cells. In addition, we demonstrated that the PHLPP-mediated growth inhibition in colon cancer cells was largely rescued by overexpression of a constitutively active Akt. Moreover, reexpression of either PHLPP isoform in HCT116 cells inhibited tumor growth in vivo. Taken together, our results strongly support a tumor suppressor role of PHLPP in colon cancer.
The response of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) flux to permafrost degradation is one of the major sources of uncertainty in predicting the permafrost carbon feedback. We investigated DOC export and ...properties over two complete flow seasons in a catchment on the northern Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau. DOC concentration and biodegradability decreased systematically as thaw depth increased through the season, attributable to changing carbon sources and degree of microbial processing. Increasing DOC aromaticity and δ13C‐DOC indicated shifts toward more recalcitrant carbon sources and greater residence time in soils prior to reaching the stream network. These strong and consistent seasonal trends suggest that gradual active layer deepening may decrease DOC export and biodegradability from permafrost catchments. Because these patterns are opposite observations from areas experiencing abrupt permafrost collapse (thermokarst), the overall impact of permafrost degradation on DOC flux and biodegradability may depend on the proportion of the landscape experiencing gradual thaw versus thermokarst.
Key Points
Catchment‐scale dissolved organic carbon dynamics were investigated over two complete flow seasons
Dissolved organic carbon export and biodegradability decreased as thaw depth and soil temperature increased
Biodegradability of dissolved organic carbon was strongly associated with δ13C and specific ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm
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