Is Increasing Diet Diversity of Animal-Source Foods Related to Better Health-Related Quality of Life among Chinese Men and Women?

Diet plays a crucial role in regulating individuals' lifestyles and is closely related to health. The intake of animal-sourced foods (ASF) provides the human body with high-quality protein and various micronutrients. This study aimed to investigate whether the diversity of animal foods has a positive impact on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among residents. The data came from the Shaanxi baseline survey of the Northwest Chinese Regional Ethnic Cohort Study, which recruited more than 100 thousand participants aged 35 to 74 from five provinces between June 2018 and May 2019. A total of 39,997 participants in Shaanxi (mean age: 50 years; 64% women) were finally included in this current study. The animal source food diet diversity score (ASFDDS) was established based on the frequency of consuming pork, mutton, beef, poultry, seafood, eggs, pure milk, and yogurt. The physical component score (PCS) and mental component score (MCS), ranging from 0 to 100 on the 12-Item Short Form Survey (SF-12), were used to assess participants' HRQoL. Better PCS/MCS was defined as scores higher than the 90th percentile. The results showed that men had a higher intake of ASF and ASFDDS than women. After adjusting for potential confounders, compared with those who never or rarely consumed animal foods, the likelihood of having better PCS and MCS increased by 16% (OR = 1.16, 95%CI: 1.01-1.34) and 24% (OR = 1.24, 95%CI: 1.03-1.448), respectively, in men with an ASFDDS ≥ 2. In women, a 34% increase (OR = l.34, 95%CI: 116-l.54) likelihood for better PCS was observed for an ASFDDS ≥ 2, but no association was observed for MCS. Increasing each specific animal source's food intake was associated with better PCS after adjusting for all covariates. However, for MCS, positive associations were only observed in seafood consumption among men and eggs among women. Restricted cubic splines showed a substantial dose-response association between intake frequency of animal-source foods and PCS, both in men and women. The study suggests that a diverse intake of animal-sourced foods can potentially improve the HRQoL of Chinese adults.

Gender-specific association of body fat mass with muscle meat-vegetable intake ratio in Shaanxi, China.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The effects of muscle meat and vegetable intake on body fat mass remain unclear in the general population. This study aimed to investigate the association of body fat mass and fat dis-tribution with a muscle meat-vegetable intake (MMV) ratio. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: In total, 29,271 par-ticipants aged 18-80 years were recruited from the Shaanxi cohort of the Regional Ethnic Cohort Study in Northwest China. The associations of muscle meat, vegetable and MMV ratio, as the independent variable, with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, total body fat percentage (TBF) and visceral fat (VF), as dependent variables were evaluated by gender-specific linear regression models. RESULTS: There was 47.9% of men whose MMV ratio was greater than or equal to 1 and this figure was about 35.7% for women. For men, higher muscle meat intake was associated with higher TBF (standardized coefficient [ß], 0.508; 95% CI, 0.187-0.829), higher vegetable intake was associated with lower VF (ß, -0.109; 95% CI, -0.206 - -0.011), and higher MMV ratio was associated with higher BMI (ß, 0.195; 95% CI, 0.039-0.350) and VF (ß, 0.523; 95% CI, 0.209-0.838). For women, both higher muscle meat consumption and MMV ratio were associated with all fat mass markers, but vegetable intake was not correlated with body fat mass markers. The positive association of MMV on body fat mass was more pronounced in higher MMV ratio group, with both men and women. The intake of pork, mutton and beef was associated positively with fat mass markers but no such as-sociation was observed for poultry or seafood. CONCLUSIONS: An increased intake of muscle meat or a higher MMV ratio was associated with increased body fat, especially among women, and such impact may mainly be attributed to increasing intake of pork, beef and mutton. The dietary MMV ratio could be thus a useful parameter for nutritional intervention.

The Progress and Pitfalls of Pharmacogenetics-Based Precision Medicine in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

The inadequate efficacy and adverse effects of antipsychotics severely affect the recovery of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). We report the evidence for associations between pharmacogenetic (PGx) variants and antipsychotics outcomes, including antipsychotic response, antipsychotic-induced weight/BMI gain, metabolic syndrome, antipsychotic-related prolactin levels, antipsychotic-induced tardive dyskinesia (TD), clozapine-induced agranulocytosis (CLA), and drug concentration level (pharmacokinetics) in SSD patients. Through an in-depth systematic search in 2010-2022, we identified 501 records. We included 29 meta-analyses constituting pooled data from 298 original studies over 69 PGx variants across 39 genes, 4 metabolizing phenotypes of CYP2D9, and 3 of CYP2C19. We observed weak unadjusted nominal significant (p < 0.05) additive effects of PGx variants of DRD1, DRD2, DRD3, HTR1A, HTR2A, HTR3A, and COMT (10 variants) on antipsychotic response; DRD2, HTR2C, BDNF, ADRA2A, ADRB3, GNB3, INSIG2, LEP, MC4R, and SNAP25 (14 variants) on weight gain; HTR2C (one variant) on metabolic syndrome; DRD2 (one variant) on prolactin levels; COMT and BDNF (two variants) on TD; HLA-DRB1 (one variant) on CLA; CYP2D6 (four phenotypes) and CYP2C19 (two phenotypes) on antipsychotics plasma levels. In the future, well-designed longitudinal naturalistic multi-center PGx studies are needed to validate the effectiveness of PGx variants in antipsychotic outcomes before establishing any reproducible PGx passport in clinical practice.

Maternal Dietary Diversity and Birth Weight in Offspring: Evidence from a Chinese Population-Based Study.

Studies on the association between maternal dietary diversity and birth weight in offspring are limited, and the impact of such an adjustable factor on birth weight requires investigation to promote neonatal health. This study used data from a larger-scale population-based survey conducted in northwest China to evaluate the association of maternal dietary diversity with neonatal birth weight with a generalized estimating equation model. The results found that maternal dietary diversity was positively associated with neonate birth weight. Furthermore, a higher minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W) score during pregnancy was related to a lower risk of low birth weight (LBW) in offspring. The mothers with the highest MDD-W score had a 38% (OR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.43-0.89) lower risk of LBW than those with the lowest score. Similarly, the mothers with the highest animal-based food dietary diversity score (DDS) had 39% (OR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.38-0.98) lower risk of LBW in offspring compared with those with the lowest animal-based food DDS. Moreover, the ratio of animal-based food DDS to non-animal-based food DDS could play an important role in predicting neonate birth weight. In conclusion, increasing maternal dietary diversity would improve birth weight in offspring, especially by increasing the intake of animal-based foods among the Chinese population.

Clinical value of regional lymph node sorting in gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence have shown that regional lymph node metastasis is a critical prognostic factor in gastric cancer (GC). In addition, lymph node dissection is a key factor in determining the appropriate treatment for GC. However, the association between the number of positive lymph nodes and area of lymph node metastasis in GC remains unclear. AIM: To investigate the clinical value of regional lymph node sorting after radical gastrectomy for GC. METHODS: This study included 661 patients with GC who underwent radical gastrectomy at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital between January 2012 and June 2020. The patients were divided into regional sorting and non-sorting groups. Clinicopathological data were collected and retrospectively reviewed to determine the differences in the total number of lymph nodes and number of positive lymph nodes between the groups. Independent sample t-tests were used for intergroup comparisons. Continuous variables that did not conform to a normal distribution were expressed as median (interquartile range), and the Mann-Whitney U test was used for inter-group comparisons. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of the surgical method, tumor site, immersion depth, and degree of differentiation. The total number of lymph nodes was significantly higher in the regional sorting group (n = 324) than in the non-sorting group (n = 337) (32.5 vs 21.2, P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the number of positive lymph nodes between the two groups. A total of 212 patients with GC had lymph node metastasis in the lymph node regional sorting group, including 89 (41.98%) cases in the first dissection station and 123 (58.02 %) cases in the second dissection station. Binary and multivariate logistic regression results showed that the number of positive lymph nodes (P < 0.001) was an independent risk factor for lymph node metastases at the second dissection station. CONCLUSION: Regional sorting of lymph nodes after radical gastrectomy may increase the number of detected lymph nodes, thereby improving the reliability and accuracy of lymph node staging in clinical practice.

A Meta-Analysis of Sleep Disorders and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Potential Causality and Symptom Management.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is a type of metabolic disease, and recent research indicates that it may be associated with sleep disorders. We conducted a meta-analysis of current studies to estimate the associations between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and sleep situation, including sleep duration, daytime sleepiness, and sleep disorder. This study follows the checklist of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Articles in the recent 10 years were searched from five databases. Eighteen articles, which met the eligibility criteria, were included in this meta-analysis. The results show that patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease have a shorter sleep duration and higher Epworth Sleepiness Scale score. Patients with short sleep duration (≤6 hours per night) or with obstructive sleep apnea have a higher risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. In conclusion, there is a significant association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and sleep disorders in the included studies. In addition, patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease may have more severe daytime sleepiness and shorter sleep duration. More attention should be paid to the sleep situation of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease patients to potentially slow the disease progression.

Interleukin-27 decreases ghrelin production through signal transducer and activator of transcription 3-mechanistic target of rapamycin signaling.

Interleukin-27 (IL-27), a heterodimeric cytokine, plays a protective role in diabetes. Ghrelin, a gastric hormone, provides a hunger signal to the central nervous system to stimulate food intake. The relationship between IL-27 and ghrelin is still unexplored. Here we investigated that signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3)-mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling mediates the suppression of ghrelin induced by IL-27. Co-localization of interleukin 27 receptor subunit alpha (WSX-1) and ghrelin was observed in mouse and human gastric mucosa. Intracerebroventricular injection of IL-27 markedly suppressed ghrelin synthesis and secretion while stimulating STAT3-mTOR signaling in both C57BL/6J mice and high-fat diet-induced-obese mice. IL-27 inhibited the production of ghrelin in mHypoE-N42 cells. Inhibition of mTOR activity induced by mTOR siRNA or rapamycin blocked the suppression of ghrelin production induced by IL-27 in mHypoE-N42 cells. Stat 3 siRNA also abolished the inhibitory effect of IL-27 on ghrelin. IL-27 increased the interaction between STAT3 and mTOR in mHypoE-N42 cells. In conclusion, IL-27 suppresses ghrelin production through the STAT3-mTOR dependent mechanism.