Bedtime massage intervention for improving infant and mother sleep condition: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Infants' sleep disorders and parents' insufficient sleep are common problems in the infant care. The current study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of infant massage on infants' night-time sleep condition and mothers' sleep quality. PROCEDURES: 140 infants were randomly put into two different groups, experimental group with fifteen-minute bedtime messages for two weeks and the control group with normal infant routine care. The Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire, a personal information submission form, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index for the mothers were the tools used to gather data in this study. RESULTS: Infants in experimental group showed meaningful differences in variables such as, sleep latency (P < 0001, eta = 0.099), number of night waking (P = 0.03, eta = 0.027) and longest continuous sleep period (P = 0.03, eta = 0.026). As for other variables no meaningful differences were observed. There wasn't meaningful difference in the mother's overall night-time sleep quality between the two groups (P = 0.184, eta = 0.012) except for the duration of the mother's night-time sleep (P = 0.028, eta = 0.026) and the reduction of maternal sleep disorder (P = 0.020 eta = 0.029). CONCLUSION: The findings indicated that infants' bedtime massages would improve some of the sleep markers of mothers and infants, and therefore, can be suggested as a practical, harmless, and cost-free method to improve sleep.

Technical note: Isolation and characterization of porcine mammary epithelial cells.

Within the mammary gland, functional synthesis of milk is performed by its epithelial (alveolar) cells. The availability of a stable mammary epithelial cell line is essential for biochemical studies to elucidate cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for nutritional regulation of lactation. Therefore, porcine mammary epithelial cells (PMEC) were isolated from mammary glands of a 9-mo-old nonpregnant and nonlactating gilt and cultured to establish a nonimmortalized cell line. These cells were characterized by expression of cytokeratin-18 (an intermediate filament specific for epithelial cells), ß-casein (a specific marker for mammary epithelial cells), and α-lactalbumin. In culture, the PMEC doubled in number every 24 h and maintained a cobblestone morphology, typical for cultured epithelial cells, for at least 15 passages. Addition of 0.2 to 2 µg/mL prolactin to culture medium for 3 d induced the production of ß-casein and α-lactalbumin by PMEC in a dose-dependent manner. Thus, we have successfully developed a useful PMEC line for future studies of cellular and molecular regulation of milk synthesis by mammary epithelial cells of the sow.

Impact of matrix metalloproteinases on inhibition of mineralization by fetuin.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Human subjects affected by inflammatory diseases, such as periodontitis, may be at increased risk for the development of cardiovascular diseases and calcification of atheromas; however, the potential mechanisms have not been defined. Alpha-2-Heremans Schmid glycoprotein (fetuin A) is an abundant serum glycoprotein of ~49 kDa that inhibits ectopic arterial calcification. We examined whether matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which are increased in inflammatory diseases, including periodontitis, bind and degrade fetuin and alter its ability to inhibit calcification in vitro. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Binding and cleavage of fetuin by MMPs were assessed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, in-silico analyses and mass spectrometry. The effects of intact and MMP-degraded human fetuin on mineralization were measured in a cell-free assay. RESULTS: From in-silico analyses and literature review, we found that only MMP-3 (stromelysin) and MMP-7 (matrilysin) were predicted to cleave human fetuin at levels that were physiologically relevant. In-vitro assays showed that MMP-7, and, to a lesser extent, MMP-3, degraded human fetuin in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Fetuin peptides generated by MMP-7 cleavage were identified and sequenced by mass spectrometry; novel cleavage sites were found. Hydroxyapatite mineralization in vitro was strongly inhibited by fetuin (> 1 µm), as was MMP-3-cleaved fetuin, while MMP-7-cleaved fetuin was threefold less effective in blocking mineralization. CONCLUSION: MMP-7 and, to a lesser extent, MMP-3, affect the ability of fetuin to inhibit the formation of hydroxyapatite in vitro. These data suggest that the MMPs increased in inflammatory diseases, such as periodontitis, could affect regulation of mineralization and potentially enhance the risk of calcified atheroma formation.