Metabolic profile of procyanidin A2 by human intestinal microbiota and their antioxidant and hypolipidemic potential in HepG2 cells.

Purpose: Procyanidins have strong potential for antioxidation and decreasing hepatic fat accumulation thus preventing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Procyanidin A2 (PCA2), predominately found in cranberries, avocado, peanut red skins and litchi fruit pericarp, is poorly absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract. However, literatures about its metabolic profile by gut microbiota and effects on lipid metabolism are limited.

3-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)propionic acid, a major microbial metabolite of procyanidin A2, shows similar suppression of macrophage foam cell formation as its parent molecule.

The effect of procyanidin A2 (PCA2) and its major colonic metabolite 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propionic acid (HPPA) on the suppression of macrophage foam cell formation, and underlying mechanism, were investigated for the first time. The results showed that 12.5 μg mL PCA2 and HPPA significantly reduced cellular lipid accumulation and inhibited foam cell formation.

Different Approaches to Covariate Inclusion in the Mixture Rasch Model.

The present study investigates different approaches to adding covariates and the impact in fitting mixture item response theory models. Mixture item response theory models serve as an important methodology for tackling several psychometric issues in test development, including the detection of latent differential item functioning. A Monte Carlo simulation study is conducted in which data generated according to a two-class mixture Rasch model with both dichotomous and continuous covariates are fitted to several mixture Rasch models with misspecified covariates to examine the effects of covariate inclusion on model parameter estimation.

Assessing fit of alternative unidimensional polytomous IRT models using posterior predictive model checking.

This article explored the application of the posterior predictive model checking (PPMC) method in assessing fit for unidimensional polytomous item response theory (IRT) models, specifically the divide-by-total models (e.g., the generalized partial credit model).