Serum vascular adhesion protein-1 is up-regulated in hyperglycemia and is associated with incident diabetes negatively.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) can enhance tissue glucose uptake in cell studies and normalize hyperglycemia in animal studies. However, serum VAP-1 concentration (sVAP-1) is higher in subjects with diabetes in cross-sectional studies. In this cohort study, we test our hypothesis that sVAP-1 is increased in prediabetes to counteract hyperglycemia and is associated with incident diabetes negatively. SUBJECTS/METHODS: From 2006 to 2012, 600 subjects without diabetes from Taiwan Lifestyle Study were included and followed regularly. Diabetes was diagnosed if FPG ≥ 126 mg/dL (7 mmol/L), 2-h plasma glucose (2hPG) during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) ≥ 200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L), or hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) ≥ 6.5%, or if the subject received anti-diabetic medications. Abdominal fat areas were measured by abdominal computed tomography and sVAP-1 was analyzed by ELISA. RESULTS: sVAP-1 was higher in subjects with prediabetes (p < 0.05) and increased during an OGTT (p < 0.001). Fasting sVAP-1 was associated with the response of sVAP-1 during an OGTT (p < 0.001). Besides, sVAP-1 was associated negatively with body mass index (BMI, r = -0.1449, p = 0.003), waist circumference (r = -0.1425, p = 0.004), abdominal visceral (r = -0.1457, p = 0.003), and subcutaneous (r = -0.1025, p = 0.035) fat areas, and serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) concentration (r = -0.2035, p < 0.0001), and positively with plasma adiponectin concentration (r = 0.2086, p < 0.0001), adjusted for age and gender. After 4.7 ± 2.6 years, 73 subjects (12.2%) developed incident diabetes. High sVAP-1 predicted a lower incidence of diabetes, adjusted for age, gender, BMI, family history of diabetes, HbA1c, HOMA2-%B and HOMA2-IR (HR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.50-0.88, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: sVAP-1 is increased in response to hyperglycemia. It is associated with obesity and serum hsCRP concentration negatively, and plasma adiponectin concentration positively. Besides, a high sVAP-1 is associated with a lower incidence of diabetes in human.

The Impact of Gastric Atrophy on the Incidence of Diabetes.

Gastric atrophy results in lower plasma ghrelin, higher gastrin secretion, a change in gut microbiota, and altered dietary nutrient absorption, which may be associated with the incidence of diabetes. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is a major cause of gastric atrophy and is associated with diabetes in some reports. Since there is no study which investigates the impact of gastric atrophy on diabetes, we conduct a prospective cohort study to examine the relationship between H. pylori infection, gastric atrophy, and incident diabetes. In this study, subjects with gastric atrophy had a lower risk of incident diabetes, compared to those without gastric atrophy. The extent of gastric atrophy, measured by serum pepsinogen (PG) I/II ratio, was correlated with age, H. pylori IgG titer, HOMA2-IR, and HOMA2%B. When gastric atrophy is more extensive, presented as a lower serum PG I/II ratio, the risk of incident diabetes is lower. On the other hand, there was no significant association between H. pylori infection and the incidence of diabetes. In conclusion, the presence and the extent of gastric atrophy, but not H. pylori infection, are associated with incident diabetes. Further studies are needed to investigate the detailed mechanisms and the potential applications of the findings to guide diabetes screening and treatment strategies.

Photodegradation of bisphenol-A in a batch TiO2 suspension reactor.

In this work, the photocatalytic behaviors of bisphenol-A (BPA), which has been listed as one of endocrine disrupting chemicals, were carried out in a batch TiO(2) suspension reactor. The photodegradation efficiency has been investigated under the controlled process parameters including initial BPA concentration (i.e., 1-50 mg L(-1)), TiO(2) dosage (i.e., 5-600 mg/200 cm(3)), initial pH (i.e., 3-11), and temperature (i.e., 10-70 degrees C). It was found that the optimal conditions in the photoreaction process could be coped with at initial BPA concentration=20 mg L(-1), TiO(2) dosage=0.5 g L(-1) (100mg/200 cm(3)), initial pH=7.0, and temperature=25 degrees C. According to the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model, the results showed that the photodegradation kinetics for the destruction of BPA in water also followed the first-order model well. The apparent first-order reaction constants (k(obs)), thus obtained from the fittings of the model, were in line with the destruction-removal efficiencies of BPA in all the photocatalytic experiments. Based on the intermediate products identified in the study, the possible mechanisms for the photodegradation of BPA in water were also proposed in the present study.

Characterization of bio-oil from induction-heating pyrolysis of food-processing sewage sludges using chromatographic analysis.

In this study, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to analyze the pyrolytic bio-oils and gas fractions derived from the pyrolysis of industrial sewage sludges using induction-heating technique. The liquid products were obtained from the cryogenic condensation of the devolatilization fraction in a nitrogen atmosphere using a heating rate of 300 degrees C/min ranging from 25 to 500 degrees C. The analytical results showed that the pyrolysis bio-oils were very complex mixtures of organic compounds and contained a lot of nitrogenated and/or oxygenated compounds such as aliphatic hydrocarbons, phenols, pyridines, pyrroles, amines, ketones, and so on. These organic hydrocarbons containing nitrogen and/or oxygen should originate from the protein and nucleic acid textures of the microbial organisms present in the sewage sludge. The non-condensable devolatilization fractions were also composed of nitrogenated and oxygenated compounds, but contained small fractions of phenols, 1H-indoles, and fatty carboxylic acids. On the other hand, the compositions in the non-condensable gas products were principally carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane analyzed by gas chromatography-thermal conductivity detector (GC-TCD).