Evaluation of Immortalized AVPV- and Arcuate-Specific Neuronal Kisspeptin Cell Lines to Elucidate Potential Mechanisms of Estrogen Responsiveness and Temporal Gene Expression in Females.

In females, ovarian estradiol modulates kisspeptin (Kiss-1) synthesis to act as an obligatory regulator of downstream gonadotropin release in vivo, via stimulation of GnRH neurons. Changes in the ovarian condition are relayed to the neuroendocrine hypothalamus via two sexually dimorphic Kiss-1 populations, located in the anteroventral periventricular (AVPV) and arcuate nuclei, conveying estradiol-positive and -negative feedback, respectively. To elucidate how differential responsiveness to estradiol is mediated in these populations, we generated two kisspeptin-secreting cell lines from an adult kiss1-green fluorescent protein (GFP) female mouse.

Malnutrition is prevalent in hospitalized medical patients: are housestaff identifying the malnourished patient?

Objective: Malnutrition is highly prevalent in hospitalized patients and is often not identified by the medical staff. Clinical nutrition and nutritional assessment are often neglected components of the curriculum of medical schools. The effect of instruction of nutritional assessment early in medical school on nutritional practice in clinical training is unknown.

Minimal enteral feeding within 3 d of birth in prematurely born infants with birth weight < or = 1200 g improves bone mass by term age.

Background: Evidence-based practice guidelines for aggressive nutritional intervention by using parenteral amino acids (AAs) and minimal enteral feeding (MEF) as early as the first day of life have not been tested for benefits to bone mass.

Objective: We investigated whether early introduction of parenteral AAs and MEF improves growth and bone mass achieved by term age in infants born prematurely.

Design: Twenty-seven infants who were < or = 1200 g and < or = 32 wk gestation at birth were randomly assigned by using a 2 x 2 design to treatment of either 1 g AAs/kg within the first 24 h or 12 mL MEF x kg(-1) x d(-1) within the first 72 h of life.

Maternal and cord blood long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are predictive of bone mass at birth in healthy term-born infants.

Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC PUFA) are associated with bone mass in animals and human adults, yet no data exist for human infants. Thus, the objective of this study was to establish that LC PUFA status is associated with bone mass in healthy infants. Thirty mother-infant pairs were studied for LC PUFA status by measuring maternal and cord blood red blood cells (RBC) for arachidonic acid (AA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and DHA.

Vitamin D deficiency and whole-body and femur bone mass relative to weight in healthy newborns.

Background: Vitamin D is required for normal bone growth and mineralization. We sought to determine whether vitamin D deficiency at birth is associated with bone mineral content (BMC) of Canadian infants.

Methods: We measured plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] as an indicator of vitamin D status in 50 healthy mothers and their newborn term infants.