Choline Metabolites and 15-Year Risk of Incident Diabetes in a Prospective Cohort of Adults: Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study.

Objective: The potential for choline metabolism to influence the development of diabetes has received increased attention. Previous studies on circulating choline metabolites and incident diabetes have been conducted in samples of older adults, often with a high prevalence of risk factors.

Research Design And Methods: Participants were from year 15 of follow-up (2000-2001) in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study (n = 3,133, aged 33-45 years) with plasma choline metabolite (choline, betaine, and trimethylamine N-oxide [TMAO]) data.

Maternal Vitamin B12 in Pregnancy and Placental Development.

Vitamin B12, or cobalamin, is an essential nutrient required for diverse physiological functions secondary to its role as a critical cofactor for two mammalian enzymes, methionine synthase and methylmalonyl-CoA mutase. While essential throughout all life stages, several pathways that require vitamin B12, including hematopoiesis, myelination, and DNA/histone methylation, are particularly critical during pregnancy and fetal development. This narrative review aims to describe vitamin B12 in pregnancy, with emphasis on the placenta's role in ensuring adequate nutrition of the fetus and impacts of vitamin B12 deficiency on placental development and function.

Dietary choline and betaine intake minimally impacts rate of annualized cognitive performance throughout the menopause transition: data from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Objective: Dietary choline is associated with lower risk of dementia in older adults, yet this association during mid-life remains unknown. Given that menopause reflects a nutrition-sensitive time point where prevention strategies may mitigate cognitive deficits, we examined the relationship of choline, betaine, and egg intakes (ie, dietary exposures) with cognitive performance in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) cohort ( N = 1,006).

Methods: SWAN is a longitudinal study of women across the menopause transition.

Molecular epidemiology of pregnancy using omics data: advances, success stories, and challenges.

Multi-omics approaches have been successfully applied to investigate pregnancy and health outcomes at a molecular and genetic level in several studies. As omics technologies advance, research areas are open to study further. Here we discuss overall trends and examples of successfully using omics technologies and techniques (e.

Evidence-Based Practice Competencies among Nutrition Professionals and Students: A Systematic Review.

Background: Evidence-based practice (EBP) promotes shared decision-making between clinicians and patients.

Objective: The aim was to determine EBP competencies among nutrition professionals and students reported in the literature.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review by searching Medline, Embase, CINAHL, ERIC, CENTRAL, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, BIOSIS Citation Index, and clinicaltrials.

The Relationship of Circulating Choline and Choline-Related Metabolite Levels with Health Outcomes: A Scoping Review of Genome-Wide Association Studies and Mendelian Randomization Studies.

Choline is essential for proper liver, muscle, brain, lipid metabolism, cellular membrane composition, and repair. Understanding genetic determinants of circulating choline metabolites can help identify new determinants of choline metabolism, requirements, and their link to disease endpoints. We conducted a scoping review to identify studies assessing the association of genetic polymorphisms on circulating choline and choline-related metabolite concentrations and subsequent associations with health outcomes.

Chowing down: diet considerations in rodent models of metabolic disease.

Diet plays a substantial role in the etiology, progression, and treatment of chronic disease and is best considered as a multifaceted set of modifiable input variables with pleiotropic effects on a variety of biological pathways spanning multiple organ systems. This brief review discusses key issues related to the design and conduct of diet interventions in rodent models of metabolic disease and their implications for interpreting experiments. We also make specific recommendations to improve rodent diet studies to help better understand the role of diet on metabolic physiology and thereby improve our understanding of metabolic disease.

A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Products Marketed as Plant-Based Across the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada Using Online Nutrition Information.

Background: The food industry is responding to a rising demand for plant-based foods by developing and marketing an ever-wider range of vegan and vegetarian products under the banner of "plant-based." Understanding the nutritional properties of these products is critical.

Objectives: To assess the number, meal type, and nutritional content of products marketed as plant-based (MaPB) from the perspective of the consumer across multiple sectors in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.

LRH-1 induces hepatoprotective nonessential amino acids in response to acute liver injury.

Acute hepatic injury is observed in response to various stressors, including trauma, ingestion of hepatic toxins, and hepatitis. Investigations to date have focused on extrinsic and intrinsic signals required for hepatocytes to proliferate and regenerate the liver in response to injury, though there is a more limited understanding of induced stress responses promoting hepatocyte survival upon acute injury. In this issue of the JCI, Sun and colleagues detail a mechanism by which local activation of the nuclear receptor liver receptor homolog-1 (LRH-1; NR5A2) directly induces de novo asparagine synthesis and expression of asparagine synthetase (ASNS) in response to injury and show that this response restrains hepatic damage.

Genetic Variants in One-Carbon Metabolism and Their Effects on DHA Biomarkers in Pregnant Women: A Post-Hoc Analysis.

The delivery of docosahexanoic acid (DHA) to the fetus is dependent on maternal one-carbon metabolism, as the latter supports the hepatic synthesis and export of a DHA-enriched phosphatidylcholine molecule via the phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PEMT) pathway. The following is a post-hoc analysis of a choline intervention study that sought to investigate whether common variants in one-carbon metabolizing genes associate with maternal and/or fetal blood biomarkers of DHA status. Pregnant women entering their second trimester were randomized to consume, until delivery, either 25 (n = 15) or 550 (n = 15) mg choline/d, and the effects of genetic variants in the PEMT, BHMT, MTHFD1, and MTHFR genes on DHA status were examined.

Robust designation of meiotic crossover sites by CDK-2 through phosphorylation of the MutSγ complex.

Crossover formation is essential for proper segregation of homologous chromosomes during meiosis. Here, we show that Caenorhabditis elegans cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK-2) partners with cyclin-like protein COSA-1 to promote crossover formation by promoting conversion of meiotic double-strand breaks into crossover–specific recombination intermediates. Further, we identify MutSγ component MSH-5 as a CDK-2 phosphorylation target.

Prenatal choline supplementation improves biomarkers of maternal docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) status among pregnant participants consuming supplemental DHA: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Dietary methyl donors (e.g., choline) support the activity of the phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PEMT) pathway, which generates phosphatidylcholine (PC) molecules enriched in DHA that are exported from the liver and made available to extrahepatic tissues.

Practical, Evidence-Based Approaches to Nutritional Modifications to Reduce Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease: An American Society For Preventive Cardiology Clinical Practice Statement.

Despite numerous advances in all areas of cardiovascular care, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States (US). There is compelling evidence that interventions to improve diet are effective in cardiovascular disease prevention. This clinical practice statement emphasizes the importance of evidence-based dietary patterns in the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), and ASCVD risk factors, including hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity.

One-carbon metabolism in children with marasmus and kwashiorkor.

Background: Kwashiorkor is a childhood syndrome of edematous malnutrition. Its precise nutritional precipitants remain uncertain despite nine decades of study. Remarkably, kwashiorkor's disturbances resemble the effects of experimental diets that are deficient in one-carbon nutrients.

Perspective: Estrogen and the Risk of Cognitive Decline: A Missing Choline(rgic) Link?

Factors that influence the risk of neurocognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD) may provide insight into therapies for both disease treatment and prevention. Although age is the most striking risk factor for AD, it is notable that the prevalence of AD is higher in women, representing two-thirds of cases. To explore potential underlying biological underpinnings of this observation, the intent of this article is to explore the interplay between cognitive aging and sex hormones, the cholinergic system, and novel hypotheses related to the essential nutrient choline.

Choline metabolome response to prenatal choline supplementation across pregnancy: A randomized controlled trial.

Pregnancy places a unique stress upon choline metabolism, requiring adaptations to support both maternal and fetal requirements. The impact of pregnancy and prenatal choline supplementation on choline and its metabolome in free-living, healthy adults is relatively uncharacterized. This study investigated the effect of prenatal choline supplementation on maternal and fetal biomarkers of choline metabolism among free-living pregnant persons consuming self-selected diets.

Limited data exist to inform our basic understanding of micronutrient requirements in pregnancy.

Women and pregnant people have historically been underrepresented in research; this may extend to the basic research informing nutrient reference values, such as the United States’ and Canada’s Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs). After screening the DRI reports for 23 micronutrients, we extracted metadata from 704 studies. Women were excluded in 23% of studies, and they accounted for a smaller proportion of the sample size (29%).

Toward a more stable understanding of pregnancy micronutrient metabolism.

There is an urgent need to better understand the micronutrient demands of pregnancy due to the complex physiological adaptations during the gestational period and the importance of micronutrients in maternal-fetal health. Rigorous studies of micronutrients in pregnancy are significantly lacking due to a number of issues including the exclusion of pregnant people in research, methodological barriers to studying micronutrients, and the multidisciplinary expertise required for such studies. Stable isotopes present a unique methodological opportunity to quantify pregnancy-related changes in the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of micronutrients.

Protocol for meta-research on the evidence informing micronutrient dietary reference intakes for pregnant and lactating women.

Nutrient reference values are important parameters that guide nutrition and public health work globally. Micronutrient requirements during the peri-conception period are generally increased, which is essential in ensuring maternal, fetal, and neonatal health. Nevertheless, the current dietary reference intakes (DRIs) may be limited in terms of the methods used and the populations included, particularly the DRIs for pregnancy and lactation.

Baseline red blood cell and breast milk DHA levels affect responses to standard dose of DHA in lactating women on a controlled feeding diet.

Background: The importance of providing the newborn infant with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) from breast milk is well established. However, women in the United States, on average, have breast milk DHA levels of 0.20%, which is below the worldwide average (and proposed target) of >0.

Nutrition and the Immune System: A Complicated Tango.

Enthusiasm exists for the potential of diet to impact the immune system, prevent disease and its therapeutic potential. Herein, we describe the challenge to nutrition scientists in defining this relationship through case studies of diets and nutrients in the context of allergic and autoimmune diseases. Moderate-quality evidence exists from both human intervention and observational studies to suggest that diet and individual nutrients can influence systemic markers of immune function and inflammation; numerous challenges exist for demonstrating the impact of defined diets and nutrient interventions on clearly influencing immune-mediated-clinical disease endpoints.

Reproductive state and choline intake influence enrichment of plasma lysophosphatidylcholine-DHA: a analysis of a controlled feeding trial.

The major facilitator superfamily domain 2a protein was identified recently as a lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) symporter with high affinity for LPC species enriched with DHA (LPC-DHA). To test the hypothesis that reproductive state and choline intake influence plasma LPC-DHA, we performed a post hoc analysis of samples available through 10 weeks of a previously conducted feeding study, which provided two doses of choline (480 and 930 mg/d) to non-pregnant (n 21), third-trimester pregnant (n 26), and lactating (n 24) women; all participants consumed 200 mg of supplemental DHA and 22 % of their daily choline intake as 2H-labelled choline. The effects of reproductive state and choline intake on total LPC-DHA (expressed as a percentage of LPC) and plasma enrichments of labelled LPC and LPC-DHA were assessed using mixed and generalised linear models.

Maternal choline supplementation alters vitamin B-12 status in human and murine pregnancy.

Despite participation in overlapping metabolic pathways, the relationship between choline and vitamin B-12 has not been well characterized especially during pregnancy. We sought to determine the effects of maternal choline supplementation on vitamin B-12 status biomarkers in human and mouse pregnancy, hypothesizing that increased choline intake would improve vitamin B-12 status. Associations between common genetic variants in choline-metabolizing genes and vitamin B-12 status biomarkers were also explored in humans.