Oligofructose does not affect the development of type 1 diabetes mellitus induced by dietary proteins in the diabetes-prone BB rat model.

Background: Prevention of Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), a major childhood chronic disease with rapidly increasing incidence, is an urgent topic of research. We investigated whether 5% oligofructose (OF) as compared to 5% cellulose had a protective effect against diet-induced T1DM in the diabetes-prone BioBreeding (BB) rat model.

Methods: Groups of BB rats were fed the experimental diets from weaning.

Induction of systemic immunologic tolerance to beta-lactoglobulin by oral administration of a whey protein hydrolysate.

Background: Oral administration of an antigen has been shown to suppress the specific immune response to this antigen. This approach, called oral tolerance, has been demonstrated with intact proteins in animal models for prevention of allergy and autoimmune diseases.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether oral tolerance can be induced with protein peptides.

Osteoporosis as a pediatric problem.

Osteoporosis has long been considered a disease of the elderly; however, there is now a general agreement that predisposition begins in childhood and adolescence; thus, rational approaches to prevention of the disease should be started during childhood and adolescence. Indeed, by determining PBM, events occurring in the first two decades of life may determine in large part the subsequent risk of osteoporosis. Attention has thus been focused on the physiology of bone mass accumulation during growth, including the role of environmental factors such as dietary calcium and exercise.

In vitro anti- and pro-oxidative effects of natural polyphenols.

The anti- and pro-oxidative effects of phenolic compounds and antioxidants were studied in two different in vitro model systems utilizing ethyl linoleate and 2'-deoxyguanosine (2'-dG) as oxidative substrates, and a Fenton reaction (H2O2, Fe2+) to initiate oxidation. Oxidation of the biomolecules in both model systems exhibited dose dependency. In the 2'-dG assay, oxidation was closely related to H2O2 generation, which occurred during autoxidation of the phenolics.

Simian virus 40 large tumor antigen-immortalized normal human liver epithelial cells express hepatocyte characteristics and metabolize chemical carcinogens.

Normal human liver tissue and cultured human hepatocytes are valuable models to study xenobiotic metabolism and toxicity, but they only have a limited in vitro life-span and are not readily available. This report describes the establishment of replicative cultures of human adult liver epithelial cells in serum-free medium. The longevity of three of these cultures, derived from different donors, was extended by introduction of the simian virus 40 large T antigen gene.

Serum T-kininogen levels increase two to four months before death.

We have reported an accumulation of T-kininogen mRNA in the liver of aging Sprague-Dawley rats. T-kininogen is a cysteine proteinase inhibitor. Since a disruption of the intracellular protein degradation machinery is known to occur during senescence, we wished to further define the role of this protein in the aging process.