Arterial Stiffness and Blood Pressure in a Multicultural Child Sample (Angola, Brazil, and Spain).

Background: To analyze the relationship between early-life indicators, blood pressure (BP), and arterial stiffness in childhood, in three samples with different bio-cultural characteristics.

Methods: The total sample included 520 schoolchildren 9-10 years of age from Madrid (Spain), Vitória (Brazil), and Luanda (Angola). Height and weight, BP, and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) were measured, all by one observer in each site, and body mass index (BMI) was calculated.

Lipid disorders among Black Africans non-users of lipid-lowering medication.

Objective: Angola is a sub-Saharan African country where the population has scarce access to lipidlowering medication. We sought to determine the frequency of lipid disorders among Angolan nonusers of lipid-lowering medication.

Material And Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in a sample of 604 workers from the public sector.

A cross-brain regions study of ANK1 DNA methylation in different neurodegenerative diseases.

Recent epigenome-wide association studies in Alzheimer's disease have highlighted consistent robust neuropathology-associated DNA hypermethylation of the ankyrin 1 (ANK1) gene in the cortex. The extent to which altered ANK1 DNA methylation is also associated with other neurodegenerative diseases is not currently known. In the present study, we used bisulfite pyrosequencing to quantify DNA methylation across 8 CpG sites within a 118 bp region of the ANK1 gene across multiple brain regions in Alzheimer's disease, Vascular dementia, Dementia with Lewy bodies, Huntington's disease, and Parkinson's disease.

Expression quantitative trait loci in the developing human brain and their enrichment in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Background: Genetic influences on gene expression in the human fetal brain plausibly impact upon a variety of postnatal brain-related traits, including susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disorders. However, to date, there have been no studies that have mapped genome-wide expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) specifically in the human prenatal brain.

Results: We performed deep RNA sequencing and genome-wide genotyping on a unique collection of 120 human brains from the second trimester of gestation to provide the first eQTL dataset derived exclusively from the human fetal brain.

Leveraging DNA-Methylation Quantitative-Trait Loci to Characterize the Relationship between Methylomic Variation, Gene Expression, and Complex Traits.

Characterizing the complex relationship between genetic, epigenetic, and transcriptomic variation has the potential to increase understanding about the mechanisms underpinning health and disease phenotypes. We undertook a comprehensive analysis of common genetic variation on DNA methylation (DNAm) by using the Illumina EPIC array to profile samples from the UK Household Longitudinal study. We identified 12,689,548 significant DNA methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTL) associations (p < 6.

A histone acetylome-wide association study of Alzheimer's disease identifies disease-associated H3K27ac differences in the entorhinal cortex.

We quantified genome-wide patterns of lysine H3K27 acetylation (H3K27ac) in entorhinal cortex samples from Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases and matched controls using chromatin immunoprecipitation and highly parallel sequencing. We observed widespread acetylomic variation associated with AD neuropathology, identifying 4,162 differential peaks (false discovery rate < 0.05) between AD cases and controls.

Autosomal genetic variation is associated with DNA methylation in regions variably escaping X-chromosome inactivation.

X-chromosome inactivation (XCI), i.e., the inactivation of one of the female X chromosomes, restores equal expression of X-chromosomal genes between females and males.

Relationship between heart rate variability and subclinical thyroid disorders of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil).

The association between subclinical thyroid dysfunctions and autonomic modulation changes has been described by many studies with conflicting results. We aimed to analyze the association between subclinical hyperthyroidism (SCHyper), subclinical hypothyroidism (SCHypo), and heart rate variability (HRV) using the baseline from ELSA-Brasil. SCHyper and SCHypo were classified by use of medication to treat thyroid disorders, thyrotropin levels respectively above and under the reference range, and normal free thyroxine levels.

The ACE 2 activator diminazene aceturate (DIZE) improves left ventricular diastolic dysfunction following myocardial infarction in rats.

Diminazene aceturate (DIZE) has been reported to enhance the catalytic efficiency of ACE-2 and presumably increases angiotensin 1-7 generation, interfering with cardiac remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI). Our aim was to investigate the chronic effects of DIZE on cardiac dysfunction post-MI. Male Wistar rats underwent myocardial infarction (MI) or SHAM surgery (SO) and were divided into groups treated with DIZE 15 mg/kg/day, s.

Characterizing genetic and environmental influences on variable DNA methylation using monozygotic and dizygotic twins.

Variation in DNA methylation is being increasingly associated with health and disease outcomes. Although DNA methylation is hypothesized to be a mechanism by which both genetic and non-genetic factors can influence the regulation of gene expression, little is known about the extent to which DNA methylation at specific sites is influenced by heritable as well as environmental factors. We quantified DNA methylation in whole blood at age 18 in a birth cohort of 1,464 individuals comprising 426 monozygotic (MZ) and 306 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs.

Association between demand-control model components and blood pressure in the ELSA-Brasil study: exploring heterogeneity using quantile regression analyses.

Objectives This study aimed to investigate which components of the demand-control model (DCM) are associated with blood pressure (BP) and ascertain whether these associations vary over the BP distribution. Methods We evaluated the baseline date of 11 647 current workers enrolled in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) (2008-2010), a multicenter cohort study of 35-74-year-old civil servants. Job demands, skill discretion and decision authority were measured using the Brazilian version of the Demand-Control-Support Questionnaire.

Sugar-Sweetened Soft Drinks and Fructose Consumption Are Associated with Hyperuricemia: Cross-Sectional Analysis from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil).

The secular trend of hyperuricemia coincides with the substantial increase in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. Our aim was to evaluate the association between the consumption of soft drinks, dietary fructose and unsweetened, non-processed fruit juices with hyperuricemia in a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data (2008⁻2010; = 7173) of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). The explanatory variables were the consumption of soft drinks, fruit juice, and fructose using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire.

Socioeconomic Position and DNA Methylation Age Acceleration Across the Life Course.

Accelerated DNA methylation age is linked to all-cause mortality and environmental factors, but studies of associations with socioeconomic position are limited. Researchers generally use small selected samples, and it is unclear how findings obtained with 2 commonly used methods for calculating methylation age (the Horvath method and the Hannum method) translate to general population samples including younger and older adults. Among 1,099 United Kingdom adults aged 28-98 years in 2011-2012, we assessed the relationship of Horvath and Hannum DNA methylation age acceleration with a range of social position measures: current income and employment, education, income and unemployment across a 12-year period, and childhood social class.

Racial disparities in renal function: the role of racial discrimination. The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil).

Background: Racial discrimination may play a significant role in higher incidence and poorer prognosis of chronic kidney disease among Black individuals. This study set out to investigate the association between racial discrimination and renal function and to estimate the contribution of racial discrimination to existing racial disparities in renal function.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis using baseline data (2008-2010) of 14 355 participants (35-74 years) in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health cohort study.

Prenatal immune activation alters the adult neural epigenome but can be partly stabilised by a n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid diet.

An unstable epigenome is implicated in the pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. This is important because the epigenome is potentially modifiable. We have previously reported that adult offspring exposed to maternal immune activation (MIA) prenatally have significant global DNA hypomethylation in the hypothalamus.

Prevalence and Clinical Correlates of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Black Africans.

Introduction: African-Americans present higher prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) when compared with white populations. However, there is a lack of information about the prevalence and determinants of LVH in black individuals living in Africa.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed with a non-probabilistic sample comprised of 609 University workers from Angola/Africa, describing the prevalence of LVH and the determinants of left ventricular mass.

Aging-related compensated hypogonadism: Role of metabolomic analysis in physiopathological and therapeutic evaluation.

Aging is a complex process that increases the risk of chronic disease development. Hormonal and metabolic alterations occur with aging, such as androgen activity decrease. Studies aim to understand the role of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) in males, however biomarkers and the metabolic responses to TRT are not well characterized.

Associations of Dairy Intake with Arterial Stiffness in Brazilian Adults: The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil).

Recent studies have suggested the possible effect of dairy product intake on cardiovascular risk markers, including arterial stiffness. Our aim was to investigate whether dairy food intake is associated with arterial stiffness, which we assessed by carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) and pulse pressure (PP) in a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data (2008–2010; = 12,892) of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). Dairy consumption was evaluated with a validated food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) by computing servings per day for total and subgroups of dairy products.

DNA methylation and inflammation marker profiles associated with a history of depression.

Depression is a common and disabling disorder, representing a major social and economic health issue. Moreover, depression is associated with the progression of diseases with an inflammatory etiology including many inflammatory-related disorders. At the molecular level, the mechanisms by which depression might promote the onset of these diseases and associated immune-dysfunction are not well understood.

Waist-to-height ratio is as reliable as biochemical markers to discriminate pediatric insulin resistance.

Objective: Given the importance of incorporating simple and low-cost tools into the pediatric clinical setting to provide screening for insulin resistance, the present study sought to investigate whether waist-to-height ratio is comparable to biochemical markers for the discrimination of insulin resistance in children and adolescents.

Methods: This cross-sectional study involved students from nine public schools. In total, 296 children and adolescents of both sexes, aged 8-14 years, composed the sample.

Validation of single measurement of 12-hour urine excretion for estimation of sodium and potassium intake. A longitudinal study.

Background: Evaluation of sodium and potassium intake can be carried out using different methods. Biological markers are able to capture intra and inter-individual variability and are used as separate measurements of consumption. The aim of this study was to test the validity of a single measurement of urinary sodium and potassium excretion as representative of habitual intake.