Pre-diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are associated with an unhealthy lifestyle and pose extremely high costs to the healthcare system. In this study, we aim to explore whether ...individualized aerobic exercise (AEx) and low carbohydrate diet (LCh) intervention affect hepatic fat content (HFC) in pre-diabetes via modification of gut microbiota composition and other post-interventional effects.
A 6-month randomized intervention with 6-month follow-up is conducted from January 2013 to December 2015. The target sample size for intervention is 200 postmenopausal women and middle-aged men aged 50-65 year-old with pre-diabetes and NAFLD. The qualified subjects are randomized into 4 groups with 50 subjects in each group: 1 = AEx, 2 = LCh, 3 = AEx + LCh, and 4 = control. In addition, two age-matched reference groups (5 = pre-diabetes without NAFLD (n = 50) and 6 = Healthy without pre-diabetes or NAFLD (n = 50)) are included. The exercise program consists of progressive and variable aerobic exercise (intensity of 60 to 75% of initial fitness level, 3-5 times/week and 30-60 min/time). The diet program includes dietary consultation plus supplementation with a special lunch meal (40% of total energy intake/day) which aims to reduce the amount of carbohydrate consumption (30%). The control and reference groups are advised to maintain their habitual habits during the intervention. The primary outcome measures are HFC, serum metabolomics and gut microbiota composition. The secondary outcome measures include body composition and cytokines. In addition, socio-psychological aspects, social support, physical activity and diet will be performed by means of questionnaire and interview.
Specific individualized exercise and diet intervention in this study offers a more efficient approach for liver fat reduction and diabetes prevention via modification of gut microbiota composition. Besides, the study explores the importance of incorporating fitness assessment and exercise in the management of patients with pre-diabetes and fatty liver disorders. If our program is shown to be effective, it will open new strategies to combat these chronic diseases.
Current Controlled Trials: ISRCTN42622771.
Potentially fatal physiologic and metabolic derangements can occur in response to bacterial infection in animals and man. Recently it has been shown that alterations in the levels of circulating ...cytokines such as IL-6 and TNF-alpha occur shortly after bacterial challenge. To understand better the role of IL-6 in inflammation, we investigated the effects of in vivo anti-mouse IL-6 antibody treatment in a mouse model of septic shock. Rat anti-mouse IL-6 neutralizing mAb was produced from splenocytes of an animal immunized with mouse rIL-6. This mAb, MP5-20F3, was a very potent and specific antagonist of mouse IL-6 in vitro bioactivity, demonstrated using the NFS60 myelomonocytic and KD83 plasmacytoma target cell lines, and also immunoprecipitated radiolabeled IL-6. Anti-IL-6 mAb pretreatment of mice subsequently challenged with lethal doses of i.p. Escherichia coli or i.v. TNF-alpha protected mice from death caused by these treatments. Pretreatment of E. coli-challenged mice with anti-IL-6 led to an increase in serum TNF bioactivity, in comparison to isotype control antibody, implicating IL-6 as a negative modulator of TNF in vivo. Anti-TNF-alpha treatment of mice challenged i.p. with live E. coli resulted in a 70% decrease in serum IL-6 levels, determined by immunoenzymetric assay, compared to control antibody, thereby supporting a role for TNF-alpha as a positive regulator of IL-6 levels. We conclude that IL-6 is a mediator in lethal E. coli infection, and suggest that antagonists of IL-6 may be beneficial therapeutically in life-threatening bacterial infection.
Using a dataset of 6.32 fb −1 of e + e − annihilation data collected with the BESIII detector at center-of-mass energies between 4178 and 4226 MeV, we have measured the absolute branching fraction ...of the leptonic decay D + s →τ + ν τ via τ + →e + ν e ¯ν τ , and find BD + s→τ + ν τ = (5.27±0.10±0.12)×10 −2 , where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The precision is improved by a factor of 2 compared to the previous best measurement. Combining with fD + s from lattice quantum chromodynamics calculations or the |Vcs| from the CKMfitter group, we extract |V cs |=0.978±0.009±0.012 and fD + s = (251.1±2.4±3.0) MeV, respectively. Combining our result with the world averages of BD + s →τ + ν τ and BD + s →μ+νμ, we obtain the ratio of the branching fractions BD + s →τ+ν τ /BD + s →μ+νμ = 9.72±0.37, which is consistent with the standard model prediction of lepton flavor universality.
The absolute branching fraction of Λ → pμ−¯νμ is reported for the first time based on an e+ e− annihilation sample of 10 × 109 J/ψ events collected with the BESIII detector at √s = 3.097 GeV. The ...branching fraction is determined to be B(Λ → pμ− νμ) = 1.48 ± 0.21(stat) ± 0.08 (syst) × 10−4, which is improved by about 30% in precision over the previous indirect measurements. Combining this result with the world average of B(Λ → pe−¯νe), we obtain the ratio {Γ(Λ → pμ−¯νμ)/Γ(Λ → pe−¯νe)} to be 0.178 ± 0.028, which agrees with the standard model prediction assuming lepton flavor universality. The asymmetry of the branching fractions of Λ → pμ−¯νμ and ¯Λ → ¯pμ+νμ is also determined, and no evidence for CP violation is found.
To investigate the clinical severity, etiological classification and risk factors of severe cases with hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD).
A total of 1 489 records on severe and fatal HFMD cases ...reported to the national pilot surveillance system of HFMD were used to analyze the demographic, medical treatment, etiological classification of the cases. Treatment outcome related risk factors were also studied with multi-variable stepwise logistic regression method.
Seven out of the 1 489 severe HFMD cases died of this disease. A total of 960 (72.9
) were under three years old and 62.9
were male and most of the cases (937, 62.9
) resided in rural areas. Among all the cases, 494 (33.2
) went to seek the first medical assistance at the institutions of village or township level. Durations between disease onset and first medical attendance, being diagnosed as the disease or diagnosed as severe cases were 0(0-1) d, 1 (0-2) d and 2 (1-4) d, respectively. In total, 773 (51.9
) of the severe HFMD cases were diagnosed as
Using 448.1 x 10(6) psi(3686) decays collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII e(+)e(-) storage rings, the branching fractions and angular distributions of the decays chi(cJ) -> Xi(-)(Xi) ...over bar (+) and Xi(0)(Xi) over bar (0) ( J = 0, 1, 2) are measured based on a partial-reconstruction technique. The decays chi(c1) -> Xi(0)(Xi) over bar (0) and chi(c2) -> Xi(0)(Xi) over bar (0) are observed for the first time with statistical significances of 7 sigma and 15 sigma, respectively. The results of this analysis are in good agreement with previous measurements and have significantly improved precision.
A search for the hadronic decays of the h(c) meson to the final states p (p) over bar pi(+)pi(-)pi(0), p (p) over bar eta and p (p) over bar pi(0) via the process psi(3686) -> pi(0)(h)c is ...performed using (4.48 +/- 0.03) x 10(8) psi(3686) events collected with the BESIII detector. The decay channel h(c) -> p (p) over bar eta is observed for the first time with a significance greater than 5 sigma and a branching fraction of (6.41 +/- 1.74 +/- 0.53 +/- 1.00) x 10(-4), where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and that from the branching fraction of psi(3686) -> pi(0)(h)c. Strong evidence for the decay h(c) p (p) over bar pi(+)pi(-)pi(0) is found with a significance of 4.9 sigma and a branching fraction of (3.84 +/- 0.83 +/- 0.69 +/- 0.58) x 10(-3). The significances include systematic uncertainties. No clear signal of the decay h(c) -> p (p) over bar pi(0) is found, and an upper limit of 6.59 x 10(-4) on its branching fraction is set at the 90% confidence level.
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