Association between serum uric acid levels and cardiometabolic risk factors among Japanese junior high school students.

BACKGROUND: The present study was designed to examine whether serum uric acid (SUA) levels were associated with cardiometabolic risk factors and to determine optimal cut-offs for SUA to identify multiple risk factors among Japanese junior high school students. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 958 students (518 boys and 440 girls, aged 12.1-15.0 years) who were enrolled between April 2005 and June 2008 were divided into 4 groups according to SUA quartiles. Compared with the lowest quartile of SUA, prevalence of abdominal obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia was significantly increased in the highest quartile in boys and that of abdominal obesity was increased in the highest quartile in girls. The adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of the highest quartile of SUA for 2 or more cardiometabolic risk factors were 2.59 (1.16-5.79) for boys and 1.54 (0.43-5.56) for girls. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that the most appropriate cut-offs for SUA to identify multiple cardiometabolic risk factors were 6.4 mg/dl for boys and 4.9 mg/dl for girls. CONCLUSIONS: SUA was strongly associated with the prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors among male Japanese junior high school students. The present study may provide insights into the role of SUA in the school screening system for the development of educational programs on prevention of lifestyle-related diseases among school children.

Environmental exposure and p53 mutations in esophageal cancer patients in areas of low and high incidence of esophageal cancer in China.

Esophageal cancer is the 6th most common cancer in the world, and genetic factors (p53 mutations) in addition to the environmental factors (food, nutrition, smoking, drinking, etc.) are involved in its development. In this study, the association between the both factors, environmental risk factors for esophageal cancer and p53 mutations, in tumor tissues was investigated in 77 patients living in a high-incidence area and 50 patients living in a low-incidence area in Hebei Province, China. Among these patients, p53 mutations were observed in about 50%, without regional differences in the respective frequencies. G:C>A:T (G to A or C to T) transition mutations were the major type of mutations observed in patients in the high-incidence area (19 patients, 50%), whereas G:C>A:T transitions and insertions were observed with equal frequency (8 patients, 33.3%) in the low-incidence area. As for the association with environmental factors, p53 mutations occurred with higher frequency in patients with a daily intake of spicy foods and in those who used unboiled well water in the low-incidence area. Logistic regression analysis showed no association between food intakes and p53 mutations in high- and low-incidence areas. Thus, higher frequency of spicy food intake and use of unboiled well water may be risk factors of esophageal cancer via p53 mutations in China.