Study of the diversity and short-chain fatty acids production by the bacterial community in overweight and obese Mexican children.

Obesity and overweight are health problems of multifactorial etiology, which may include changes in the microbiome. In Mexico, more than 30 % of the child population between 5 and 11 years of age suffer from being overweight or are obese, which makes it a public health issue in progress. The purpose of this work was to measure the short-chain fatty acid concentration by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and to characterize the bacterial diversity by ion torrent semiconductor sequencing, of 16S rDNA libraries prepared from stools collected from a sample of well-characterized Mexican children for normal weight, overweight, and obese conditions by anthropometric and biochemical criteria. We found that triglyceride levels are increased in overweight and obese children, who presented altered propionic and butyric acid concentrations in feces. In addition, although the colon microbiota did not show a clear bacterial dysbiosis among the three conditions, the abundance of some particular bacteria was changed with respect to normal controls. We conclude from our results that the imbalance in the abundance of at least nine different bacteria as well as altered short-chain fatty acid concentration in feces is associated to the overweight and obese conditions of Mexican children.

Rheumatologic manifestations of pediatric HIV infection.

In order to assess the frequency of rheumatologic manifestations at different stages of pediatric human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, 26 HIV-infected children at any stage of infection, seen at the Children's AIDS Clinic of "La Raza" National Medical Center from January 1997 to December 1998, were studied. Rheumatologic manifestations were assessed following the criteria established by the American College of Rheumatology. Blood samples were taken for measuring CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, antinuclear antibodies (ANA), anticardiolipin (ACL) antibodies, and rheumatoid factor (RF). The results were compared to those of 25 HIV-negative children of similar ages. Rheumatologic manifestations were identified in 5 (19.2%) of 26 children. Two of whom were twin sisters with biphasic Raynaud's syndrome, and one had necrosing vasculitis of a finger, as well as lip necrosis and livedo reticularis. These patients were positive for ANA and ACL. One case each of knee arthalgias, vasculitis, and septic arthritis of the ankle were also seen. All of the rheumatologic manifestations were in advanced stages of HIV disease. These rheumatologic changes are similar to those reported for HIV-positive adults, and should be considered as part of the HIV acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) clinical spectrum in the pediatric population.