Interaction of tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption with obesity on cardiovascular disease in a Chinese cohort.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to detect the synergistic effect between alcohol drinking, smoking and obesity on incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a Chinese population- based cohort. METHODS: We performed this study based on a prospective cohort based on a Chinese population in Jiangsu, China. Logistic regression was employed to detect the interaction of smoking, drinking with obesity on susceptibility to CVD, and calculate the odds ratio (OR) of CVD and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: A total of 3598 subjects (1451 males and 2147 females) were enrolled, including 82 CVD patients (36 males and 46 females) who new developed CVD at the follow-up. We found a significant abdominal obesity-current smoking interaction on CVD risk. Compared to never-smokers with normal waist circumference, OR (95% CI) of CVD were 2.44 (1.56-3.81), 1.58 (0.93-2.69), and 5.37 (3.08-9.34) for smokers with normal waist circumference, abdominal obese nonsmokers and abdominal obese smokers, respectively. Synergy index for this interaction was 2.35 (1.05-4.50). We also found a significant abdominal obesity-alcohol drinking interaction on CVD. Compared to never-drinkers with normal waist circumference, OR (95% CI) of CVD were 1.57 (1.01-2.45), 1.84 (1.08-3.12), and 4.44 (2.55-7.72) for drinkers with normal waist circumference, abdominal obese non- drinkers and abdominal obese drinkers, respectively. Synergy index for this interaction was 2.44 (1.04-5.72). CONCLUSION: We found significant interactions between alcohol drinking and abdominal obesity, smoking and abdominal obesity on CVD risk, suggested that the effect of alcohol drinking or smoking on CVD susceptibility seems to be modified by abdominal obesity.

Interaction between STAT3 gene polymorphisms and smoking on Crohn's disease susceptibility: a case-control study in a Chinese Han population.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) gene and additional STAT3 gene-smoking interaction on Crohn's disease (CD) risk based on a Chinese population. METHODS: A total of 1012 participants (491 men, 521 women), were selected, including 502 CD patients and 510 normal controls. The mean age of all participants was 42.3 ± 11.2 years. Logistic regression model was used to examine the association between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of STAT3 and CD risk; the odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confident interval (95 % CI) were calculated. Generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction was employed to analyze the interaction among several SNPs. RESULTS: Logistic analysis showed the significant association between genotypes of variants in two SNP and decreased CD risk, after covariates adjustment. The carriers of homozygous mutant of two SNP polymorphism revealed decreased CD risk than those with wild-type homozygotes; OR (95 % CI) was 0.75 (0.59-0.93) and 0.68 (0.57-0.91), respectively. There was a significant two-locus model (p = 0.0107) involving rs744166 and smoking, indicating a potential gene-environment interaction between rs744166 and smoking. Overall, the cross-validation consistency was 10/10, and the testing accuracy was 62.17 %, and never smokers with TC or CC genotype have the lowest CD risk, compared to smokers with TT genotype; OR (95 % CI) was 0.52 (0.31-0.82), after covariate adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support an important association of rs744166 and rs4796793 with decreased CD risk, and additional interaction between rs744166 and smoking.

[The effect of MSC spectral pretreatment regions on near infrared spectroscopy calibration results].

In the present paper, 60 whole wheat flour samples were prepared and corresponding NIR spectra were collected. After the determinations of calibration range, several spectral sub-regions containing calibration range and prepared for the correction using multiple scattering correction (MSC) were obtained in the whole spectral region firstly, and MSC correction based on different spectral sub-region followed subsequently. Corresponding spectral data were obtained from the fixed calibration range of the spectra corrected based on different regions. Several partial least squares regression (PLSR) calibration models for analyzing protein content of whole wheat flour were established based on corresponding spectral data, and according to the performance about the calibration coefficient and the root mean square error of cross validation (RMSEV) of every calibration, the effects of MSC pretreatment spectral region on PLSR calibration results were investigated and the pretreatment spectral regions were optimized by comparing theperformance of more calibration models. For the optimized calibration, the calibration coefficient and the RMSECV improved compared with the calibration established based on the spectral data corrected using MSC in the fixed region of calibration. The correlation coefficient can be raised from 0.96 to 0.98 and RMSECV can be decreased from 0.37% to 0.32%. The results show that the capability of MSC on correcting the spectral interference information of non-chemical absorption can be influenced by preprocessing spectral regions, the performance of calibration model can be improved by optimizing the MSC pretreatment spectral region, and the appropriate pretreatment spectral region is prerequisite to obtain the best calibration results while using MSC for near-infrared spectra analysis.

Role of urinary biomarkers of N,N-dimethylformamide in the early detection of hepatic injury among occupational exposed workers.

AIM: To determine the sensitive and convenient biomarkers for the early detection of hepatic injury in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) exposed workers. METHODS: Seventy-nine individuals in a synthetic leather factory were investigated with questionnaire survey. The air samples, urine samples, and blood samples were collected at the specific time point. Airborne DMF and the urine metabolites of DMF were measured by gas chromatography (GC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Traditional liver function tests and hepatic fibrosis parameters were performed by auto-chemistry analyzer and ELISA methods. RESULTS: The urine concentration of N-acetyl-S-(N-methylcarbamoyl)-cysteine (AMCC), one of the metabolites of DMF, was positively correlated with activities of liver function enzymes. About 60% subjects with urine AMCC concentration above 40 mg/g creatinine showed raised liver enzymes activities. In terms of hepatic fibrosis parameters, we found 4 of 5 abnormal total serum bile acid (SBA) and 4 of 4 abnormal serum hyaluronidase (HA) among workers with higher amount of urine AMCC. CONCLUSION: Workers exposed to DMF with higher urine AMCC levels were more likely to develop liver diseases. In addition, SBA and HA have the potential to act as early indicators of toxic hepatic fibrosis activities for occupational health surveillance.

[Effects of carbaryl production exposure on the sperm and semen quality of occupational male workers].

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the male reproductive toxicity of carbaryl. METHODS: Thirty-one male carbaryl exposure workers and 46 male administrators in the office in a pesticide factory were selected as the exposure group and internal control group respectively, and 22 male administrators in a center for disease control and prevention were served as the external control group. In order to evaluate the exposure levels, the concentrations of carbaryl, methyl isocyanate, ammonia and phenol in the ambient air of the work place in these three groups were monitored simultaneously for three consecutive days. Moreover, three workers in the exposure group and the external control group were selected to evaluate the amount of carbaryl of individual and dermal contamination for three consecutive days. After the semen were collected according to the standard method, the workers'semen qualities were analysed with WHO method, the sperm morphology and the sperm motility were evaluated using micro-cell slide spectrum technology and computer assisted sperm analysis (CASA) respectively. RESULTS: In the exposure group, the concentrations of carbaryl and phenol (52.41 mg/m(3) and 0.08 mg/m(3) respectively) were significantly higher than those in the internal and external control group (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05). Furthermore, in the carbaryl exposure area the geometric mean concentration of carbaryl with the individual sampling was 7.38 mg/m(3), and the geometric mean of dermal contamination detected in the carbaryl exposure area was 862.47 mg/m(2). Carbaryl was not found in the external control area (P < 0.01). The seminal volume [(2.39 +/- 1.44) ml] and the sperm motility [(1.77 +/- 0.61) grade] were significantly lower than those in the external control group (P < 0.05), and sperm motion parameters such as linearity (LIN, 39.89% +/- 6.00%), straightness (STR, 71.51% +/- 11.22%), straight line velocity [VSL, (26.29 +/- 7.84) microm/s] and beat cross frequency [BCF, (3.99 +/- 1.55) Hz] were lower than those in the internal and external control group (P < 0.05), while the abnormal rates of viscidity, sperm motility and total aberration rate were higher than those in the external control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Occupational exposure to carbaryl production can affect the workers'sperm and semen quality to certain extent.

[Effects of fenvalerate exposure on the semen quality of occupational workers].

OBJECTIVES: To study the effects of fenvalerate exposure on the semen quality of occupational workers in order to find out the early effective biomarkers. METHODS: Thirty-two male workers who exposed to fenvalerate and 46 male administrators in the office in a pesticide factory were selected as the exposure group and internal control group, respectively, and 22 male administrators in a center for disease control were served as the external control group. In order to evaluate the exposed levels, the concentration of fenvalerate, toluene and xylene in the ambient air of working place in these three groups were monitored simultaneously for three consecutive days. After the semen were collected according to the standard method, the workers' semen qualities were analysed with University of California at Davis (UCDavis) method and the sperm motility were evaluated using computer assisted sperm analysis(CASA). RESULTS: In the exposure group, the concentrations of fenvalerate were significantly higher than those in the internal and external control group (P < 0.01), while no significant difference of the concentration on toluene or xylene was found (P > 0.05). Sperm motion parameters in the exposure group such as linearity(LIN), straightness(STR), and the sperm count were decreased significantly, and the abnormality rate of viscidity, coagulation and sperm count were increased significantly as compared with the internal and the external control groups(P < 0.05). Furthermore, the sperm progression and beat cross frequency (BCF) in the exposure group were also lower significantly than those in the external control group(P < 0.05), while the abnormality rate of sperm progression was increased significantly. CONCLUSIONS: In such a low concentration, occupational exposure to fenvalerate can affect workers' semen quality, especially the sperm count and sperm movement ability.