Food environment change on wild food consumption in rural Tanzania.

In this longitudinal study we explore how changes in food environments have shaped the acquisition and consumption of wild foods among people living near forests. Our study conceptually improves food environment frameworks by including evidence on changes in wild food consumption. We used data collected in both the dry and rainy seasons in 2009 and 2021/2022 in four villages in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania.

ABCB1 expression is increased in human first trimester placenta from pregnant women classified as overweight or obese.

Obesity has become a global health challenge also affecting reproductive health. In pregnant women, obesity increases the risk of complications such as preterm birth, macrosomia, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia. Moreover, obesity is associated with long-term adverse effects for the offspring, including increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and neurodevelopmental difficulties.

Deforestation reduces fruit and vegetable consumption in rural Tanzania.

SignificanceTwo billion people across the planet suffer from nutrient deficiencies. Dietary diversification is key to solving this problem, yet many food and nutrition security policies, especially in low- and middle-income countries, still focus on increasing agricultural production and access to sufficient calories as the main solution. But calories are not all equal.

Reduced hepatic metallothionein expression in first trimester fetuses in response to intrauterine smoking exposure: a consequence of low maternal zinc levels?

Study Question: Does maternal smoking in early pregnancy affect metallothionein 1 and 2 (MT1 and MT2) mRNA and protein expression in first trimester placenta or embryonic/fetal liver?

Summary Answer: In the first trimester, MT protein expression is seen only in liver, where smoking is associated with a significantly reduced expression.

What Is Known Already: Zinc homeostasis is altered by smoking. Smoking induces MT in the blood of smokers properly as a result of the cadmium binding capacities of MT.

Tracing the origin of adult intestinal stem cells.

Adult intestinal stem cells are located at the bottom of crypts of Lieberkühn, where they express markers such as LGR5 and fuel the constant replenishment of the intestinal epithelium. Although fetal LGR5-expressing cells can give rise to adult intestinal stem cells, it remains unclear whether this population in the patterned epithelium represents unique intestinal stem-cell precursors. Here we show, using unbiased quantitative lineage-tracing approaches, biophysical modelling and intestinal transplantation, that all cells of the mouse intestinal epithelium-irrespective of their location and pattern of LGR5 expression in the fetal gut tube-contribute actively to the adult intestinal stem cell pool.

Changes in first trimester fetal CYP1A1 and AHRR DNA methylation and mRNA expression in response to exposure to maternal cigarette smoking.

Prenatal exposure to maternal cigarette smoking increases the risk of intrauterine growth retardation, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and diseases later in life. Exposure can result in postnatal global and gene-specific DNA methylation changes, with the latter well documented for the CYP1A1 and AHRR genes involved in the detoxification of xenobiotic substances. This study assessed the impact of exposure to maternal smoking on first trimester fetal CYP1A1 and AHRR mRNA expression and DNA methylation for CpG-sites displaying maternal smoking during pregnancy-mediated methylation changes at birth.

Temporal expression pattern of genes during the period of sex differentiation in human embryonic gonads.

The precise timing and sequence of changes in expression of key genes and proteins during human sex-differentiation and onset of steroidogenesis was evaluated by whole-genome expression in 67 first trimester human embryonic and fetal ovaries and testis and confirmed by qPCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC). SRY/SOX9 expression initiated in testis around day 40 pc, followed by initiation of AMH and steroidogenic genes required for androgen production at day 53 pc. In ovaries, gene expression of RSPO1, LIN28, FOXL2, WNT2B, and ETV5, were significantly higher than in testis, whereas GLI1 was significantly higher in testis than ovaries.

Concentration of perfluorinated compounds and cotinine in human foetal organs, placenta, and maternal plasma.

Background: Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are bio-accumulative pollutants, and prenatal exposure to PFASs is believed to impact human foetal development and may have long-term adverse health effects later in life. Additionally, maternal cigarette smoking may be associated with PFAS levels. Foetal exposure has previously been estimated from umbilical cord plasma, but the actual concentration in foetal organs has never been measured.

Assessment of global DNA methylation in the first trimester fetal tissues exposed to maternal cigarette smoking.

Aims: Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of negative health consequences for the exposed child. Epigenetic mechanisms constitute a likely link between the prenatal exposure to maternal cigarette smoking and the increased risk in later life for diverse pathologies. Maternal smoking induces gene-specific DNA methylation alterations as well as global DNA hypermethylation in the term placentas and hypomethylation in the cord blood.

Default-mode network functional connectivity is closely related to metabolic activity.

Over the last decade, the brain's default-mode network (DMN) and its function has attracted a lot of attention in the field of neuroscience. However, the exact underlying mechanisms of DMN functional connectivity, or more specifically, the blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal, are still incompletely understood. In the present study, we combined 2-deoxy-2-[(18) F]fluoroglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1) H-MRS), and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to investigate more directly the association between local glucose consumption, local glutamatergic neurotransmission and DMN functional connectivity during rest.

The effects of capillary dysfunction on oxygen and glucose extraction in diabetic neuropathy.

Diabetic neuropathy is associated with disturbances in endoneurial metabolism and microvascular morphology, but the roles of these factors in the aetiopathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy remain unclear. Changes in endoneurial capillary morphology and vascular reactivity apparently predate the development of diabetic neuropathy in humans, and in manifest neuropathy, reductions in nerve conduction velocity correlate with the level of endoneurial hypoxia. The idea that microvascular changes cause diabetic neuropathy is contradicted, however, by reports of elevated endoneurial blood flow in early experimental diabetes, and of unaffected blood flow when early histological signs of neuropathy first develop in humans.