Snacking Behaviors of Middle and High School Students in Seoul / 대한지역사회영양학회지

The purpose of this study was to investigate snacking behavior in adolescents. We selected one middle school and one high school in 11 school districts in Seoul. The subjects were 1,813 students (904 boys and 909 girls) in 21 schools (11 middle schools and 10 high schools). Subjects reported their snacking behavior: snack frequency, snack type, snack time, with whom to eat snack, place to purchase snack. The subjects were classified into four groups by gender and schooling. The mean snack frequency was 2.8. Girls ate snacks more frequently than boys (p < 0.001). More than half of subjects ate 1 to 3 snacks a day. Only 9.3% of them did not eat any snack. Tangerine was highly ranked in snack type. Each subject groups had different snack time (p < 0.01) and type of snack (p < 0.001). Most snack was consumed alone (46.6%), however they mainly ate fruits and other foods with family. 46.9% of snacks were purchased outside. A typical snack time was 'before dinner' for most snacks except fruits. Unhealthy foods like soft drinks, cookies, chips, candies, chocolates, ice creams had relatively high proportion in snack consumption with friends. In conclusion, adolescents had different snacking behaviors by their age and gender. These results indicate necessities of multi-dimensional efforts at home, school, media and government level considering adolescents' age and gender for their healthy snacking behavior.

The Total Serum Homocysteine and Folate by C677T Methylene-tetrahydrofolate Reductase Mutation in Korean Preeclamptic Pregnant Women / 대한산부인과학회잡지

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the C677T Methylene-TetraHydroFolate Reductase (MTHFR) polymorphism affects the total maternal serum homocysteine and folate concentration in preeclamptic pregnant women. METHODS: Patients admitted to the hospital for the delivery during 2000-2002. 126 controls without the pregnancy complications and 34 patients with severe preeclampsia were enrolled. The serum homocysteine analysis was conducted using the high performance liquid chromatography methods. The serum folate and vitamin B12 concentration were determined using a radioimmunoassay kit. The C677T MTHFR gene mutation was examined by the polymerase chain reaction of the genomic DNA fragments. RESULTS: The total maternal serum homocysteine concentration and the serum vitamin B12 concentration were not significantly different between controls and the preeclampsia patients (p=0.44 for homocysteine, p=0.06 for vitamin B12). However, the maternal serum folate concentration was significantly higher in the preeclampsia patients than in controls (27.00 +/- 9.54 nmol/L versus 18.03 +/- 12.97 nmol/L, respectively, p=0.01). The total maternal serum homocysteine concentration, the serum folate concentration, and serum vitamin B12 in the C677T MTHFR CC type and TT type were not significantly different (p=0.21 for homocysteine, p=0.22 for folate, p=0.14 for vitamin B12). CONCLUSION: The C677T MTHFR mutation does not significantly affect the maternal homocysteine and folate concentration in both the controls without pregnancy complication and the preeclampsia patients.

A Trial for Association between Oxidative Stress in Midterm Pregnancy and Postnatal Growth during the First Year of Life / 한국역학회지

OBJECTIVES: We aims to construct Infant Growth Cohort for evaluating whether oxidative stress in midterm pregnancy has an adverse effect on postnatal growth. METHODS AND MATERIALS: From September 2001 to April 2004, we constructed an Ewha Infant Growth Cohort connected with the Ewha Pregnant Women Cohort. We excluded mother-and-child pairs in which the mother had experienced hypertension or diabetes during pregnancy and had multiple births for this study, which gave us 233 mother-and-child pairs for analysis. We measured maternal serum homocysteine and urinary 8-hydroxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and malondialdehyde (MDA) at 24~28 weeks of pregnancy, and infant weights at birth and at 6 and 12 months postnatally. We applied repeated measures ANOVA with PROC MIXED to assess the significance of differences. RESULTS: We followed 64 and 85 infants at 6 and 12 months respectively. The mean body weights were 3146.4 g at birth, 8229.7 g at 6 months, and 1006.47 g at 12 months. The mean birth weight of infants was lower in mothers with higher homocysteine levels (third and fourth quartiles), but body weights from the first- and fourth-quartile groups of maternal homocysteine levels were lower than the others even though it was not statistically significant. Body weights at birth and at 6 months in third- and fourth-quartile groups of 8-OHdG levels were lower than the others. The body weights in the fourth quartile MDA group were significantly lower than the others at all time points. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal oxidative stress in midterm pregnancy may cause postnatal growth retardation. But, there were high rate of follow up loss and various measurement errors. Therefore, we need to have efforts for compete follow up and valid and reliable measurements.

Vitamin B Status and Serum Homocysteine Levels in Infertile Women

Adequate vitamin B(2), vitamin B(6), folate and vitamin B(12) nutrition is known to be important for reproductive function in women of childbearing age. The purpose of this study was to evaluate serum vitamin B(2), vitamin B(6), folate and vitamin B(12) status and serum homocysteine levels in 115 women aged 33.2 +/- 4.0 years, who had been diagnosed with infertility, and 49 women aged 34.5 +/- 3.8 years having at least one born child. Total vitamin B(2) and vitamin B(6) intakes in infertile women were significantly lower than those in control. Serum vitamin B(2), vitamin B(6), folate and vitamin B(12) concentrations were significantly lower in infertile women than those in control and serum homocysteine levels were significantly higher in infertile women than those in control. Thirteen percent in infertile women and zero percent in control were assessed as hyperhomocysteinemic and there was a significant difference in the prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia between infertile women and control. 41% infertile women were assessed as folate deficiency. Serum folate concentrations was negatively correlated with serum homocysteine of the infertile women and control. Total vitamin B2 intakes was negatively correlated with serum homocysteine of the infertile women and control. Total vitamin B6, folate intakes were negatively correlated with homocysteine of infertile women only. In conclusion, infertile women are needed to intake more B vitamins intakes. Furthermore researches are needed to estimate adequate B vitamin supplementation in infertile women.

The Effect of Hyperhomocysteinemia on the Preeclampsia / 대한산부인과학회잡지

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was, at the time of delivery, to determine if an elevated plasma homocysteine level is associated with the development of preeclampsia and to investigate whether 677 (C->T) polymorphism in the 5, 10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene, folate status and vitamin B12 levels are risk factors for the development of preeclampsia for Korean pregnant women. METHODS: DNA was extracted from whole blood of 191 healthy pregnant women and 84 preeclampsia patients. All samples were genotyped for the 677 (C->T) polymorphism in MTHFR gene by polymerase chain reaction (PCR-RELP). Serum levels of homocysteine, folate, and vitamin B12 were measured by high preformance liquid chromatography for homocysteine, and radioassay for folate and vitamin B12. RESULTS: Women with severe preeclampsia showed higher concentrations of serum homocysteine (10.5 micro mol/L) than healthy pregnant women (8.46 micro mol/L) and women with mild preeclampsia (8.24 micro mol/L) (p=0.09). For serum folate levels, women with severe (12.7 ng/ml) or mild (13.2 ng/ml) preeclampsia showed increased level compare to healthy pregnant women (9.23 ng/ml) (p=0.0046). Increased homocysteine level (>14 micro mol/L) was associated with preeclampsia (odds ratio=2.86, 95% confidence intervals: 1.27-6.45). CONCLUSION: These results are suggesting that hyperhomocysteinemia in pregnancy could be a risk factor of preeclampsia. Preeclampsia patients with higher serum folate level are speculated to represent a compensatory response to oxidative stress.

Effect of Ultraviolet Light on the Expression of Adhesion Molecules and T Lymphocyte Adhesion to Human Dermal Microvascular Endothelial Cells

In order to determine the effect of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) on the cell adhesion molecules expressed in human dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HDMEC), the cells were exposed to varying UVR doses and the cell surface was examined for expression of intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM- 1), and E-selectin. The effect of UVB irradiation on the binding of T lymphocytes to HDMEC was also examined. UVA irradiation did not affect the surface expression of ICAM-1, VCAM-1, or E-selectin on the HDMEC. However, following UVB exposure, ELISA demonstrated a significant increase in the baseline ICAM-1 cell surface expression on the HDMEC. However, no induction of either E-selectin or VCAM-1 was noted. UVB also significantly augmented ICAM-1 induction by IL-1 alpha and TNF- alpha. VCAM-1 was induced by stimulating HDMEC with IL-1alpha following a UVB irradiation dose of 100 mJ/cm2. Flow cytometric analysis of the HDMEC stimulated with IL-1 alpha for 24h demonstrated that 12% of the cells expressed VCAM-1 but either IL-1 alpha or UVB irradiation alone failed to induce VCAM-1 expression. Enhancement of T cell-HDMEC binding by IL-1 alpha; or TNF- alpha treatment was not significantly affected after UVB irradiation. This study demonstrated that UVB irradiation can alter ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 expression on the HDMEC surface and that augmentation of ICAM-1 expression and the IL-1 alpha -dependent induction of VCAM-1 following UVB exposure might be important steps in the pathogenesis of sunburn.

The Effects of Hyperhomocysteinemia on the Ultrastructures of Cerebral Microvessels / 대한해부학회지

Elevated plasma level of the sulfur amino acid homocysteine, termed hyperhomocysteinemia, is now recognized as a contributing factor to various pathological states of the brain including vascular, degenerative and other neurologic disorders. Endothelial dysfunction may be one of the underlying mechanisms leading to proatherogenic and neurotoxic effects associated hyperhomocysteinemia. We conducted electron microscopic studies to investigate microvascular changes in hyperhomocysteinemic rat brain due to folate deficiency. Dietary folate deprivation caused an increase in plasma Hcy by 317% from 6.15 +/- 0.9 micro mol/l to 19.5 +/- 3.2 micro mol/l with time up to 8 weeks of folate deprivation. In electron microscopic study, perivascular amorphous fibrosis, and pericytic and endothelial cell degenerative appearance were frequently found in hyperhomocysteinemic microvasculature. These findings are very similar with the typical cerebral microvascular pathology observed in neurodegenerative and aging processes. From these results, it can be suggested that hyperhomocysteinemia -induced blood -brain barrier disruption give rise to subsequent neuronal dysfunction in hyperhomocysteinemia.

Trends in Breakfast Consumption Patterns of Korean Adults

No Abstract Available.