Achievements, Challenges, and Future Direction in Early Life Nutrition.

Malnutrition is present in most countries of the world. This ranges from general undernutrition due to insufficient food, or poor-quality diets low in some essential nutrients, to overnutrition and obesity with energy-rich but nutrient-poor diets. The fundamental aim of dietary recommendations is to prevent deficiency diseases, and the assumptions which underpin these recommendations need to be understood when considering what advice to give to the general public or individual patients.

Selection scan in Native Americans of Mexico identifies rs174616: Evidence of gene-diet interactions affecting lipid levels and Delta-6-desaturase activity.

Searching for positive selection signals across genomes has identified functional genetic variants responding to environmental change. In Native Americans of Mexico, we used the fixation index (F) and population branch statistic (PBS) to identify SNPs suggesting positive selection. The 103 most differentiated SNPs were tested for associations with metabolic traits, the most significant association was /rs174616 with body mass index (BMI).

Nutrition and the Metabolic Health of Children.

Overnutrition, expressed as overweight and obesity, sometimes combined with inadequate micronutrient intake, coexists together with undernutrition as the major threats of malnutrition in children. Appropriate growth and metabolism of children have been extensively studied as to their association with future metabolic diseases. It is appreciated that early growth is controlled via the biochemical pathways that support organ and tissue growth and development, energy release from dietary intake, and production and release of hormones and growth factors regulating the biochemical processes.

Dynamics of human milk oligosaccharides in early lactation and relation with growth and appetitive traits of Filipino breastfed infants.

Human milk oligosaccharides play a key role in the maturation of the infant gut microbiome and immune system and are hypothesized to affect growth. This study examined the temporal changes of 24 HMOs and their associations to infant growth and appetitive traits in an exploratory, prospective, observational, study of 41 Filipino mother-infant dyads. Exclusively breastfed, healthy, term infants were enrolled at 21-26 days of age (≈ 0.

Biology of human milk oligosaccharides: From basic science to clinical evidence.

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) have been researched by scientists for over 100 years, driven by the substantial evidence for the nutritional and health benefits of mother's milk. Yet research has truly bloomed during the last decade, thanks to progress in biotechnology, which has allowed the production of large amounts of bona fide HMOs. The availability of HMOs has been particularly crucial for the renewed interest in HMO research because of the low abundance or even absence of HMOs in farmed animal milk.

The Influence of and Polymorphisms and Nasopharyngeal Microbiome on Respiratory Infections in Breastfed Bangladeshi Infants from the Microbiota and Health Study.

Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in young children. The aim of our study was to examine whether variation in maternal (α1,2-fucosyltransferase 2) and (α1,3/4-fucosyltransferase 3) genes, which shape fucosylated human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in breast milk, are associated with the occurrence of ARIs in breastfed infants as well as the influence of the nasopharyngeal microbiome on ARI risk. Occurrences of ARIs were prospectively recorded in a cohort of 240 breastfed Bangladeshi infants from birth to 2 years.

Concentrations of oligosaccharides in human milk and child growth.

Background: The relationship between human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) and child growth has been investigated only insufficiently with ambiguous results. Therefore, this study examines potential influencing factors of HMO concentrations and how HMO are associated with child growth parameters.

Methods: Milk samples from the German LIFE Child cohort of healthy children were analyzed for 9 HMO.

Perspective: Human Milk Oligosaccharides: Fuel for Childhood Obesity Prevention?

Obesity begins early but has lifelong consequences for health and well-being. Breastfeeding is thought to be preventive against obesity, but the extent and cause of this association are not well understood. Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are abundant in human milk and not present in commercially available infant formula.

Impact of maternal characteristics on human milk oligosaccharide composition over the first 4 months of lactation in a cohort of healthy European mothers.

Human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) composition varies among lactating mothers and changes during the course of lactation period. Interindividual variation is largely driven by fucosyltransferase (FUT2 and FUT3) polymorphisms resulting in 4 distinct milk groups. Little is known regarding whether maternal physiological status contributes to HMO variability.

FUT2 Genetic Variants and Reported Respiratory and Gastrointestinal Illnesses During Infancy.

Background: Fucosyltransferase 2 (FUT2) controls the production of digestive and respiratory epithelia of histo-blood group antigens involved in the attachment of pathogens. The aim of our study was to relate FUT2 variants to reported gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses in infancy.

Methods: In the Southampton Women's Survey, FUT2 genetic variants (single-nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs] rs601338 and rs602662) were genotyped in 1831 infants and related to infant illnesses, after adjustment for sex, breastfeeding duration, and potential confounders.

Improvement of cardiometabolic markers after fish oil intervention in young Mexican adults and the role of PPARα L162V and PPARγ2 P12A.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) contained in fish oil (FO) are ligands for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) that may induce changes in cardiometabolic markers. Variation in PPAR genes may influence the beneficial responses linked to FO supplementation in young adults. The study aimed to analyze the effect of FO supplementation on glucose metabolism, circulating lipids and inflammation according to PPARα L162V and PPARγ2 P12A genotypes in young Mexican adults.

Daily potassium intake and sodium-to-potassium ratio in the reduction of blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of daily potassium intake on decreasing blood pressure in non-medicated normotensive or hypertensive patients, and to determine the relationship between potassium intake, sodium-to-potassium ratio and reduction in blood pressure.

Design: Mixed-effect meta-analyses and meta-regression models.

Data Sources: Medline and the references of previous meta-analyses.

Polymorphisms related to ORMDL3 are associated with asthma susceptibility, alterations in transcriptional regulation of ORMDL3, and changes in TH2 cytokine levels.

Background: Chromosome 17q21, harboring the orosomucoid 1-like 3 (ORMDL3) gene, has been consistently associated with childhood asthma in genome-wide association studies.

Objective: We investigated genetic variants in and around ORMDL3 that can change the function of ORMDL3 and thus contribute to asthma susceptibility.

Methods: We performed haplotype analyses and fine mapping of the ORMDL3 locus in a cross-sectional (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood Phase II, n = 3557 total subjects, n = 281 asthmatic patients) and case-control (Multicenter Asthma Genetics in Childhood Study/International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood Phase II, n = 1446 total subjects, n = 763 asthmatic patients) data set to identify putative causal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the locus.

An epigenome-wide association study of total serum immunoglobulin E concentration.

Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is a central mediator of allergic (atopic) inflammation. Therapies directed against IgE can alleviate hay fever and allergic asthma. Genetic association studies have not yet identified novel therapeutic targets or pathways underlying IgE regulation.

Geographical and ethnic distribution of single nucleotide polymorphisms within genes of the folate/homocysteine pathway metabolism.

High levels of plasma homocysteine are associated with an increased risk of many health conditions influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. The objective of this study was to provide the geographical distribution of folate pathway genetic polymorphisms in Mexico and the comparison with the reported frequencies in different continental populations. This study included the analysis of the genotypic frequencies of eight polymorphisms in genes of the folate/homocysteine metabolic pathway in 1,350 Mestizo and Amerindian subjects from different regions in Mexico and 836 individuals from European, African and Asian populations of the 1,000 Genomes Project.

A polymorphism affecting MYB binding within the promoter of the PDCD4 gene is associated with severe asthma in children.

A previous genome-wide association study in asthma revealed putative associations that merit further investigation. In this study, the genome-wide significant associations of SNPs at the 5% false discovery rate were examined in independent groups of severe asthmatics. The panel consisted of 397 severe asthmatic adults, 116 severe asthmatic children, and a collection of 207 family-trios with an asthmatic proband.