ABSTRACT
Objective@#To understand the status on beverages consumption among grade 4 and grade 5 primary school students in six cities of China, and to provide evidence for nutrition education and intervention strategies.@*Methods@#A multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method was used to select 12 197 grade 4 and grade 5 primary school students from 72 primary schools in Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Jinan and Harbin. All the participants were investigated with a self-administered questionnaire survey of dietary behaviors.@*Results@#The proportion of students who consumed beverages at home, school and elsewhere was 92.5%, 51.4% and 70.6% respectively. The most popular beverages at home were milk, fruit & vegetable drinks, tea drinks (69.4%, 46.6%, 39.6%); the most popular beverages at school were milk, fruit & vegetable drinks, tea drinks (30.5%, 13.0%, 12.7%) while the most popular beverages in other places were milk, tea drinks, fruit & vegetable drinks(37.4%, 29.6%, 28.1%). The top five reasons for choosing beverages were taste delicious, healthy & nutritious, clean, choice of peers and family members(72.3%, 50.8%, 38.4%, 21.9%, 21.6%, respectively).@*Conclusion@#Consumption of drinking beverages is popular among students, most of which are unhealthy. Therefore, nutrition education for students and parents should be encouraged aiming to help students choose healthy drinks and eating behaviors.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish a highly sensitive screening method for phytoestrogen active constituents and to primarily screen the phytoestrogenic active constituents from the chickpea extractions by the method.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Human ERalpha cDNA was cloned using MCF-7 total RNA as the template by RT-PCR and then was constructed into a pcDNA3 and named as pERalpha. The cell line MCF-7 was co-transfected with pERalpha and the reporter plasmid pERE-Luc which carrying the estrogen response element (ERE) plus the luciferase reporter gene. The luciferase activity was then assayed. The model was optimized by changing the ratio of two plasmids. The feasibility of the optimized model was further proved by the several known phytoestrogen compounds including fermononetin, biochanin A and genistein, et al. As an application of the model, the phytoestrogen activity of the extracts of the chickpea was assayed.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The recombinant plasmid (pERalpha) can enhance luciferase activities of pERE-Luc transfected MCF-7 cells. The highest transfection efficiency and luciferase activity were found at the ratio of 10:1 (pERE-Luc: pERalpha), the luciferase activity was improved five times as high as the unique pERE-Luc transfection. The co-transfection screening model also indicated that fermononetin, biochanin A and genistein could induce ERE-driven luciferase activity and ICI 182,780 suppressed the induced transcription. As the application of the model, the results showed that the ethanol (70%) total extraction, the ethyl acetate extraction and the ligarine extraction of the chickpea can induce ERE-driven luciferase activity. Concurrent treatment with ICI 182,780 abolished the induced luciferase activity.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>A phytoestrogen active constituent screening mode have been established based on co-transfection method. It is sensitive to assay the phytoestrogen active constituents and can be applied to screen the active component of phytoestrogens.</p>
Subject(s)
Humans , Cell Line, Tumor , Cicer , Chemistry , Metabolism , Drug Evaluation, Preclinical , Methods , Estrogen Receptor alpha , Genetics , Metabolism , Genes, Reporter , Genetic Vectors , Metabolism , Genistein , Chemistry , Pharmacology , Luciferases , Metabolism , Phytoestrogens , Pharmacology , Plant Extracts , Chemistry , Metabolism , Pharmacology , Plasmids , Metabolism , Transfection , MethodsABSTRACT
Human bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein(hBPI)cDNA was amplified by reverse transcription(RT)and touchdown PCR(TD-PCR)from blood stem cells collected from healthy human of Uygur nationality in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, and then was subcloned into pEGFP-N1 vector,hBPI cDNA sequence consists of 1,464bp.Comparison with other 4 hBPI cDNA sequences registered in GenBank identified 99% homology in DNA sequence.However,there were two base substitutions(nucleotide 576G→C,nu- clotide 676A→G),one of which resulted in an amino acid(residue 185 Lys→Glu).