Effects of folic acid supplementation in pregnant mice on glucose metabolism disorders in male offspring induced by lipopolysaccharide exposure during pregnancy.

The DOHaD theory suggests that adverse environmental factors in early life may lead to the development of metabolic diseases including diabetes and hypertension in adult offspring through epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation. Folic acid (FA) is an important methyl donor in vivo and participates in DNA replication and methylation. The preliminary experimental results of our group demonstrated that lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 50 µg/kg/d) exposure during pregnancy could lead to glucose metabolism disorders in male offspring, but not female offspring; however, the effect of folic acid supplementation on glucose metabolism disorders in male offspring induced by LPS exposure remains unclear. Therefore, in this study, pregnant mice were exposed to LPS on gestational day (GD) 15-17 and were given three doses of FA supplementation (2 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg, or 40 mg/kg) from mating to lactation to explore its effect on glucose metabolism in male offspring and the potential mechanism. This study confirmed that FA supplementation of 5 mg/kg in pregnant mice improved glucose metabolism in LPS-exposed offspring during pregnancy by regulating gene expression.

Perioperative holistic care more significantly reduces levels of anxiety and depression of pituitary tumor patients versus conventional care.

To compare the effect of perioperative holistic care versus conventional care on the levels of anxiety and depression of pituitary tumor patients at a single tertiary care center in China.We enrolled 100 patients who underwent transnaso-sphenoidal microsurgical resection of pituitary tumor at our institution between January 2017 and December 2017. The patients were assigned to the conventional care group (n = 50) and the holistic care group by the order of admission. Patients were evaluated by staff nurses at admission and upon discharge from the hospital using the self-rating anxiety scale (SAS), and the self-rating depression scale (SDS). QoL was assessed using EORTC QLQ-C30.The 2 groups were comparable in the demographic and baseline variables including baseline SDS and SAS scores (P > .05). A significantly greater reduction in SAS score was observed in the holistic care group versus the conventional care group (-19.14% vs -11.60%; P < .05). Moreover, we observed a significantly greater reduction in SDS score in the holistic care group versus the conventional care group (-40.4% vs -18.79%, P < .05). The QoL functional domain scores at discharge were significantly higher in the holistic care group than the conventional care group (P < .05).Perioperative holistic care significantly alleviates the levels of anxiety and depression and improves QoL of pituitary adenoma patients.