Treating rural paediatric obesity through telemedicine vs. telephone: Outcomes from a cluster randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the current study was to examine the feasibility of telemedicine vs. telephone for the delivery of a multidisciplinary weekly family-based behavioural group intervention to treat paediatric obesity delivered to families living in rural areas using a randomized controlled trial methodology. METHODS: 103 rural children and their families were recruited. Feasibility measures included participant satisfaction, session attendance and retention. Treatment outcome measures included child Body Mass Index z-score (BMIz), parent BMI, 24-hour dietary recalls, accelerometer data, the child behavior checklist and the behavioral pediatrics feeding assessment scale. RESULTS: Participants were highly satisfied with the intervention both via telemedicine and via telephone. Completion rates were much higher than for other paediatric obesity intervention programmes, and both methodologies were highly feasible. There were no differences in telemedicine and telephone groups on primary outcomes. CONCLUSION: Both telemedicine and telephone intervention appear to be feasible and acceptable methods of delivering paediatric obesity treatment to rural children.

Immunoprotective properties of primary Sertoli cells in mice: potential functional pathways that confer immune privilege.

Primary Sertoli cells isolated from mouse testes survive when transplanted across immunological barriers and protect cotransplanted allogeneic and xenogeneic cells from rejection in rodent models. In contrast, the mouse Sertoli cell line (MSC-1) lacks immunoprotective properties associated with primary Sertoli cells. In this study, enriched primary Sertoli cells or MSC-1 cells were transplanted as allografts into the renal subcapsular area of naive BALB/c mice, and their survival in graft sites was compared. While Sertoli cells were detected within the grafts with 100% graft survival throughout the 20-day study, MSC-1 cells were rejected between 11 and 14 days, with 0% graft survival at 20 days posttransplantation. Nonetheless, the mechanism for primary Sertoli cell survival and immunoprotection remains unresolved. To identify immune factors or functional pathways potentially responsible for immune privilege, gene expression profiles of enriched primary Sertoli cells were compared with those of MSC-1 cells. Microarray analysis identified 2369 genes in enriched primary Sertoli cells that were differentially expressed at ±4-fold or higher levels than in MSC-1 cells. Ontological analyses identified multiple immune pathways, which were used to generate a list of 340 immune-related genes. Three functions were identified in primary Sertoli cells as potentially important for establishing immune privilege: suppression of inflammation by specific cytokines and prostanoid molecules, slowing of leukocyte migration by controlled cell junctions and actin polymerization, and inhibition of complement activation and membrane-associated cell lysis. These results increase our understanding of testicular immune privilege and, in the long-term, could lead to improvements in transplantation success.

Coffee enhances the development of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-induced hamster buccal pouch carcinomas.

UNLABELLED: In this study, we examined the effect of roasted coffee extract on 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-induced buccal pouch carcinogenesis in male Syrian hamsters using lipid peroxidation, reduced glutathione (GSH) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity as biomarkers of chemoprevention. Forty male hamsters were divided into four groups of 10 animals. The right buccal pouches of the animals in Group 1 was painted with a 0.5% solution of DMBA in liquid paraffin three times a week. The animals in Group 2 painted with DMBA as in Group 1, received in addition 2 ml of 8% black coffee extract intragastrically three times a week on days alternate to DMBA application. Group 3 animals received coffee extract as in Group 2. Animals in Group 4 received neither DMBA nor coffee extract and served as control. The hamsters were sacrificed after an experimental period of 14 weeks. Biochemical measurements were carried out on tumour and normal pouch tissues. Administration of roasted coffee extract had no preventive effect on DMBA-induced oral cancer as revealed by the higher mean tumour volume and tumour burden compared to animals painted with DMBA alone. Diminished lipid peroxidation in the oral tumour tissue was accompanied by a significant increase in the levels of GSH and GPx. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study suggest that coffee exerts a tumour enhancing effect when administered during DMBA-induced hamster buccal pouch carcinogenesis.

Of humans and hamsters: comparative analysis of lipid peroxidation, glutathione, and glutathione-dependent enzymes during oral carcinogenesis.

We examined the extent of lipid peroxidation and the amount of reduced glutathione (GSH), and activities of the GSH-dependent enzymes, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione S-transferase (GST), in human oral tumour tissue and 7, 12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-(DMBA)-induced hamster buccal pouch tumour tissues. Diminished lipid peroxidation in the oral and hamster tumours was accompanied by a significant reduction in the concentration of phospholipids and an increase in the cholesterol:phospholipid ratio. The concentration of glutathione and the activities of GPx and GST were raised in both human oral and hamster tumour tissues. Our results show that the patterns of changes in human oral squamous cell carcinomas and chemically-induced carcinomas of the hamster buccal pouch are similar.

Tissue lipid peroxidation and glutathione-dependent enzyme status in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma.

We examined the extent of lipid peroxidation and the status of reduced glutathione (GSH) and the GSH-dependent enzymes-glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST)-in oral tumour tissues from 33 adult oral cancer patients and an equal number of age- and sex-matched normal subjects. Diminished lipid peroxidation in the oral tumour tissue was accompanied by a significant decrease in phospholipids and an increase in the cholesterol/phospholipid (C/P) ratio. The concentration of glutathione and the activities of GPx and GST were elevated in oral tumour tissues. These findings suggest that GSH- and GSH-dependent enzymes play a crucial role in tobacco-related tumourigenesis and may be considered as markers of carcinogen exposure.

The active site composition of porcine pancreatic lipase: possible involvement of lysine.

A mechanism is proposed wherein an essential lysine in porcine pancreatic lipase is the acylable residue in the catalytic mechanism of the enzyme. This mechanism involves an initial interfacial activation step were acylation first takes place in a rate-limiting step on a serine residue assisted by histidine and a carboxyl-containing residue, aspartic acid or glutamic acid, and then in a fast subsequent step the acyl group is transferred to the essential lysine residue at the catalytic site. Indirect support for the mechanism is presented. When the essential lysine is made inactive by reductive methylation, the lipase is functionally converted to a proteinase, as predicted by the mechanism.