Prevalence of hypertension in overweight and obese children from a large school-based population in Shanghai, China.

Background: The ongoing rise in the prevalence of hypertension in children and adolescents is considered to be accompanied with the epidemic of childhood overweight and obesity. In this study, we established a large scale cross-sectional study in Shanghai, China, which presented a new evidence for the correlation of hypertension prevalence with overweight and obesity stages in Chinese children and adolescents.

Methods: A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted during February to December 2009 in Shanghai, China, including total 78,114 children and adolescents.

The Influence of Amino Acid Substitutions on the Function of Interleukin-2.

The effects of some residues in IL-2 on its activity have been studied by site-directed mutagenesis. After changing 39 Met or 43 Lys to Pro, neither the CD spectra (s) nor the biological activities of these mutants were changed, implying that the 39 Met and 43 Lys were not involved in the reported alpha-helical structure. However after changing 52 Glu, 53 Leu or 54 Lys to Pro respectively the CD spectra were markedly changed and the activities were decreased significantly, showing that these three amino acids in IL-2 were integrated in the alpha-helix structure and very important for their biological functions.