Clinical epidemiology of COVID-19 among hospitalized children in rural western Kenya.

The epidemiology of pediatric COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa and the role of fecal-oral transmission in SARS-CoV-2 are poorly understood. Among children and adolescents in Kenya, we identify correlates of COVID-19 infection, document the clinical outcomes of infection, and evaluate the prevalence and viability of SARS-CoV-2 in stool. We recruited a prospective cohort of hospitalized children aged two months to 15 years in western Kenya between March 1 and June 30 2021.

Potential for Front of Pack Labeling Exposure to Impact US Dietary Choices: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study Using NHANES 2017-2018.

In recent years, front-of-pack nutrition labeling (FOPL) schemes have proliferated, but the components of the diet subject to FOPL have not been described. This study quantified the proportion and elements of the diet that would be subject to FOPL in the US. The 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey ( = 7121; age ≥2 year) 24-h dietary recalls were used to identify foods/beverages subject to FOPL.

A Slow-Digesting, Low-Glycemic Load Nutritional Beverage Improves Glucose Tolerance in Obese Pregnant Women Without Gestational Diabetes.

Background: Obesity is a risk factor for gestational diabetes (gestational diabetes). Low-glycemic index diets attenuate hyperglycemia. We designed a study to determine whether a slow-digesting, low-glycemic load (SD-LGL) beverage improves glucose tolerance in obese pregnant women without GDM.

Assessment of the Nutrition Care Process in US Hospitals Using a Web-Based Tool Demonstrates the Need for Quality Improvement in Malnutrition Diagnosis and Discharge Care.

Malnutrition in hospitalized patients is a pervasive problem in the United States. To our knowledge, although malnutrition has been acknowledged as a concern for >40 y, it has not yet been well addressed with a systematic, process improvement approach. We aimed to characterize the current nutrition care process in US hospitals to establish a baseline for improvements.

Supplementation with or -α-Tocopherol Differentially Affects the α-Tocopherol Stereoisomer Profile in the Milk and Plasma of Lactating Women.

The naturally occurring α-tocopherol stereoisomer α-tocopherol is known to be more bioactive than synthetic α-tocopherol (-α-tocopherol). However, the influence of this difference on the α-tocopherol stereoisomer profile of human milk is not understood. We investigated whether supplemental α-tocopherol or -α-tocopherol differentially affected the distribution of α-tocopherol stereoisomers in milk and plasma from lactating women.

Lutein supplementation increases breast milk and plasma lutein concentrations in lactating women and infant plasma concentrations but does not affect other carotenoids.

Lutein is a carotenoid that varies in breast milk depending on maternal intake. Data are lacking with regard to the effect of dietary lutein supplementation on breast milk lutein concentration during lactation and subsequent plasma lutein concentration in breast-fed infants. This study was conducted to determine the impact of lutein supplementation in the breast milk and plasma of lactating women and in the plasma of breast-fed infants 2-3 mo postpartum.

Generation of leptin receptor bone marrow chimeras: recovery from irradiation, immune cellularity, cytokine expression, and metabolic parameters.

Leptin regulates appetite and metabolism but also immunity and inflammation. Although functional leptin receptors (LepR) are expressed on hematopoietic cells, the role of these receptors in regulating immune function in vivo remains controversial. To clarify this issue, we performed bone marrow (BM) transplantation between obese db/db mice, lacking LepR, and wild-type (WT) mice.

Sickness behavior induced by endotoxin can be mitigated by the dietary soluble fiber, pectin, through up-regulation of IL-4 and Th2 polarization.

Peripheral activation of the immune system by infectious agents triggers the brain-cytokine system causing sickness behaviors which profoundly impact well-being. Dietary fiber is a beneficial foodstuff that, from a gastrointestinal tract perspective, exists in both insoluble and soluble forms. We show that a diet rich in soluble fiber protects mice from endotoxin-induced sickness behavior by polarizing mice Th2 when compared to a diet containing only insoluble fiber.

Accelerated recovery from acute hypoxia in obese mice is due to obesity-associated up-regulation of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist.

The proinflammatory consequences of obesity are thought to be due, in part, to macrophage infiltration into adipose tissue. There are, however, potential antiinflammatory consequences of obesity that include obesity-associated up-regulation of IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA). Here we show that obesity-associated up-regulation of IL-1RA speeds recovery from hypoxia.

Behavioral recovery from acute hypoxia is reliant on leptin.

Individuals affected by hypoxia experience a variety of immune-associated sickness symptoms including malaise, fatigue, lethargy and loss of interest in the physical and social environment. Recently, we demonstrated that the interleukin (IL)-1beta arm of the neuroimmune system was critical to the sickness symptoms caused by hypoxia, and that IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA), IL-1beta's endogenous inhibitor, was critical to promoting sickness recovery. Here, we report that leptin is key to recovery from hypoxia because it dramatically augmented IL-1RA production in mice.

Acute hypoxia, diabetes, and neuroimmune dysregulation: converging mechanisms in the brain.

Acute hypoxia is experienced by a variety of individuals (neonates to the elderly) and in an assortment of conditions and diseases (terrorist bomb attack to decompensated heart failure). Increasingly, elaboration of inflammatory cytokines appears key to the brain-based response to hypoxia, as evidenced by the biobehaviors of malaise, fatigue, lethargy, and loss of interest in the physical and social environment. These sickness symptoms implicate hypoxia-dependent activation of the neuroimmune system as a key component of acute hypoxia.

Type 2 diabetes impairs insulin receptor substrate-2-mediated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity in primary macrophages to induce a state of cytokine resistance to IL-4 in association with overexpression of suppressor of cytokine signaling-3.

Chronic elevation of proinflammatory markers in type 2 diabetes (T2D) is well defined, but the role of anti-inflammatory cytokines in T2D is less clear. In this study, we report that normal IL-4-dependent elaboration of IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) requires IRS-2-mediated PI3K activity in primary macrophages. We also show that macrophages isolated from obese/diabetic db/db mice have impaired IRS-2-mediated PI3K activity and constitutively overexpress suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS)-3, which impairs an important IL-4 anti-inflammatory function.

Augmented lipopolysaccharide-induced TNF-alpha production by peritoneal macrophages in type 2 diabetic mice is dependent on elevated glucose and requires p38 MAPK.

Dysregulated inflammation is a complication of type 2 diabetes (T2D). In this study, we show that augmented LPS-induced TNF-alpha production by resident peritoneal macrophages (PerMphi) in type 2 diabetic (db/db) mice is dependent on elevated glucose and requires p38 MAPK. Intraperitoneal LPS administered to db/db and nondiabetic (db/+) mice induced 3- and 4-fold more TNF-alpha in the peritoneum and serum, respectively, of db/db mice as compared with db/+ mice.