METS-IR, a novel simple insulin resistance indexes, is associated with hypertension in normal-weight Chinese adults.

Insulin resistance (IR) plays a crucial role in the development of hypertension, so early recognition of IR is of substantial clinical importance for the management of hypertension. But traditional IR indexes are invasive, complex, and impractical. We aimed to evaluate the associations between three simple IR indexes and hypertension in different body mass index (BMI) categories. A total of 142 005 adults who did not take antihypertensive medication were included in this analysis. The ratio of triglycerides to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDLc), the product of fasting triglycerides and glucose (TyG), and metabolic score for IR (METS-IR) were calculated according to the corresponding formulas. The associations between them and hypertension were analyzed by logistic regression. Among the three indicators, only METS-IR had positive correlations with blood pressure levels (all P < 0.001). After full adjustment, METS-IR was significantly associated with hypertension in the normal BMI group but not in the elevated BMI group. The OR for hypertension in the normal BMI group in the highest quartile of METS-IR was 2.884 (95% CI: 2.468-3.369) in the total sample, 1.915 (95% CI: 1.614-2.271) in females and 2.083 (95% CI: 1.717-2.527) in males. Our findings indicate that METS-IR, a simple and cost-effective IR index, was strongly associated with hypertension in normal-weight Chinese subjects. It could help monitor and manage hypertension in normal-weight individuals.

DNA hypomethylation of CBS promoter induced by folate deficiency is a potential noninvasive circulating biomarker for colorectal adenocarcinomas.

Aberrant DNA methylation patterns, which induced by folate deficiency, play important roles in tumorigenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC). Some DNA methylation alterations can also be detected in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) of patients' plasma, making cfDNA an ideal noninvasive circulating biomarker. However, exact DNA methylation alterations induced by folate deficiency in tumorigenesis of CRC and exact potential circulating cfDNA methylation biomarker are still unclear. Therefore, DNA methylation patterns of the normal human colon mucosal epithelial cell line (NCM460), cultured with normal or low folate content, were screened and the DNA hypomethylation of cystathionine-beta-synthase (CBS) promoter was further validated in vitro and vivo. Then, the correlation analysis between folate level, DNA methylation alteration in promoter and expression of CBS was carried out in vitro and vivo. Further, the methylation patterns of CBS promoter in plasma cfDNA were detected and statistically correlated with pathological parameters and clinical outcome. Our study showed that DNA hypomethylation in CBS promoter, induced by folate deficiency, would lead to up-regulation of CBS both in vitro and vivo. Patients with cfDNA hypomethylation of CBS promoter in plasma were correlated with high tumor stage and poor clinical outcome. In addition, cfDNA hypomethylation of CBS promoter in plasma was shown to be an independent prognostic factor for recurrence and cancer-related death in CRC. Our results indicated that DNA hypomethylation of CBS promoter induced by folate deficiency could serve as a potential noninvasive circulating biomarker and may be helpful in developing more effective prognostic markers for CRC.