Vitamin B12 deficiency and impaired expression of amnionless during aging.

Background: Physical frailty and loss of mobility in elderly individuals lead to reduced independence, quality of life, and increased mortality. Vitamin B12 deficiency has been linked to several age-related chronic diseases, including in the musculo-skeletal system, where vitamin B12 deficiency is generally believed to be linked to poor nutritional intake. In the present study, we asked whether aging and frailty associate with altered vitamin B12 homeostasis in humans and investigated the underlying molecular mechanisms using preclinical models.

Lipidomics reveals diurnal lipid oscillations in human skeletal muscle persisting in cellular myotubes cultured in vitro.

Circadian clocks play an important role in lipid homeostasis, with impact on various metabolic diseases. Due to the central role of skeletal muscle in whole-body metabolism, we aimed at studying muscle lipid profiles in a temporal manner. Moreover, it has not been shown whether lipid oscillations in peripheral tissues are driven by diurnal cycles of rest-activity and food intake or are able to persist in vitro in a cell-autonomous manner.

Development of a quantitative multi-compound method for the detection of 14 nitrogen-rich adulterants by LC-MS/MS in food materials.

The increasing number of food frauds using exogenous nitrogen-rich adulterants to artificially raise the protein content for economically motivated adulteration has demonstrated the need for a robust analytical methodology. This method should be applicable for quality control in operations covering a wide range of analyte concentrations to be able to analyse high levels as usually found in adulteration, as well as low levels due to contamination. The paper describes a LC-MS/MS method covering 14 nitrogen-rich adulterants using a simple and fast sample preparation based on dilution and clean-up by dispersive SPE.

Vitamin A degradation in triglycerides varying by their saturation levels.

Vitamin A deficiency has a widespread occurrence globally and is considered as one of the world's most serious health risk factors. Potential solutions to address this deficiency include dietary diversification or supplementation, but food fortification is generally accepted as the most cost-effective solution. The main issue with food fortification of this vitamin is related to its high instability in food matrices.

Strategies to limit colour changes when fortifying food products with iron.

Iron, vitamin A, zinc and iodine have been recognized to be the micronutrients with the largest deficiencies worldwide. Among these, iron is highly reactive and may lead to negatively perceived organoleptic changes in products such as dull colour and off-taste. The colour change originated in fortified fruit-containing food products was confirmed to be the result of the complexation of iron and polyphenols.

The contribution of microbial biotechnology to sustainable development goals.

The signature and almost unique characteristic of microbial technology is the exceptional diversity of applications it can address, and the exceptional range of human activities and needs to which it is and can be applied. Precisely because sustainability goals have very diverse and complex components and requirements, microbial technology has the ability to contribute substantively on many levels in many arenas to global efforts to achieve sustainability. Indeed, microbial technology could be viewed as a unifying element in our progress towards sustainability.

Persistent diarrhea: a persistent infection with enteropathogens or a gut commensal dysbiosis?

In children from developing countries 5-10% of acute diarrhea (AD) episodes develop into persistent diarrhea (PD) defined by > 14 days of diarrhea duration. PD represents a major health burden leading to growth faltering. It is also associated with half of all diarrhea mortality.

Hunger and microbiology: is a low gastric acid-induced bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine a contributor to malnutrition in developing countries?

Underproduction of hydrochloric acid into the stomach is frequently encountered in subjects from developing countries. We explore the hypothesis that hypochlorhydria compromises the gastric barrier and favours bacterial overgrowth in the proximal parts of the small intestine where nutrient absorption takes place. Food calories are thus deviated into bacterial metabolism.

Perspective: A Definition for Whole-Grain Food Products-Recommendations from the Healthgrain Forum.

Whole grains are a key component of a healthy diet, and enabling consumers to easily choose foods with a high whole-grain content is an important step for better prevention of chronic disease. Several definitions exist for whole-grain foods, yet these do not account for the diversity of food products that contain cereals. With the goal of creating a relatively simple whole-grain food definition that aligns with whole-grain intake recommendations and can be applied across all product categories, the Healthgrain Forum, a not-for-profit consortium of academics and industry working with cereal foods, established a working group to gather input from academics and industry to develop guidance on labeling the whole-grain content of foods.

Early intervention with Bifidobacterium lactis NCC2818 modulates the host-microbe interface independent of the sustained changes induced by the neonatal environment.

Inflammatory and metabolic diseases can originate during early-life and have been correlated with shifts in intestinal microbial ecology. Here we demonstrate that minor environmental fluctuations during the early neonatal period had sustained effects on the developing porcine microbiota and host-microbe interface. These inter-replicate effects appear to originate during the first day of life, and are likely to reflect very early microbiota acquisition from the environment.

Timing and pattern of postexercise protein ingestion affects whole-body protein balance in healthy children: a randomized trial.

The dose and timing of postexercise protein ingestion can influence whole-body protein balance (WBPB) in adults, although comparable data from children are scarce. This study investigated how protein intake (both amount and distribution) postexercise can affect WBPB in physically active children. Thirty-five children (26 males; 9-13 years old) underwent a 5-day adaptation diet, maintaining a protein intake of 0.

Correlation between in vitro and in vivo data on food digestion. What can we predict with static in vitro digestion models?

During the last decade, there has been a growing interest in understanding food's digestive fate in order to strengthen the possible effects of food on human health. Ideally, food digestion should be studied in vivo on humans but this is not always ethically and financially possible. Therefore, simple in vitro digestion models mimicking the gastrointestinal tract have been proposed as alternatives to in vivo experiments.

Benefits of ion mobility for analysing monochloropropane-diol esters.

This paper reports the first application and benefits of ion mobility in combination with liquid chromatography and a transportable time-of-flight mass spectrometer to the analysis of monochloropropane-diol esters (MCPDE) in vegetable oils. The additional selectivity obtained with the ion mobility allowed the quantitative analysis of MCPDEs as such in their intact form (direct analysis) without any chemical derivatisation and, furthermore, without any enrichment or purification step. This gain in selectivity manifests primarily in the resolution of interferences originating, for example, from the diacylglycerol components of palm oil.

Protein and Energy Intakes Are Skewed toward the Evening among Children and Adolescents in the United States: NHANES 2013-2014.

Emerging evidence suggests that the timing, amount at individual eating occasions, and distribution of protein and energy intakes throughout the day may affect health. We examined the timing, amounts, and distribution of protein and energy intakes throughout the day among participants aged 4-18 y in the United States in the context of chronobiology and nutrition. This cross-sectional analysis included 2532 participants aged 4-18 y who completed the first interviewer-administered 24-h dietary recall in NHANES 2013-2014.

Postexercise Dietary Protein Ingestion Increases Whole-Body Leucine Balance in a Dose-Dependent Manner in Healthy Children.

Protein ingestion is important in enhancing whole-body protein balance in children. The effect of discrete bolus protein ingestion on acute postexercise recovery has yet to be determined. This study determined the effect of increasing doses of ingested protein on postexercise whole-body leucine balance in healthy, active children.

Differentiating true androgen receptor inhibition from cytotoxicity-mediated reduction of reporter-gene transactivation in-vitro.

In vitro effect-based reporter assays are applied as biodetection tools designed to address nuclear receptor mediated-modulation. While such assays detect receptor modulating potential, cell viability needs to be addressed, preferably in the same well. Some assays circumvent this by co-transfecting a second constitutively-expressed marker gene or by multiplexing a cytotoxicity assay.

Understanding the contamination of food with mineral oil: the need for a confirmatory analytical and procedural approach.

The contamination of food by mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOHs) found in packaging is a long-running concern. A main source of MOHs in foods is the migration of mineral oil from recycled board into the packed food products. Consequently, the majority of food manufacturers have taken protective measures, e.

Heat-induced formation of mepiquat by decarboxylation of pipecolic acid and its betaine derivative. Part 2: Natural formation in cooked vegetables and selected food products.

Mepiquat (N,N-dimethylpiperidinium) is a plant growth regulator registered for use as its chloride salt in many countries on cereals and other crops. Recent model system studies have shown that natural chemicals present in crop plants, such as pipecolic acid and pipecolic acid betaine, may furnish mepiquat through different chemical pathways, when subjected to temperatures in the range of 200°C. In this study, we cooked raw vegetables that did not contain mepiquat to a palatable state using different traditional cooking methods, and detected mepiquat in 9 out of 11 oven-cooked vegetables, reaching up to 189μg/kg dry wt in oven-cooked broccoli.

Heat-induced formation of mepiquat by decarboxylation of pipecolic acid and its betaine derivative. Part 1: Model system studies.

This study describes, for the first time, the role of pipecolic acid betaine and pipecolic acid, naturally present in some foods, in the formation of the plant growth regulator N,N-dimethylpiperidinium (mepiquat) under dry thermal conditions. The formation of mepiquat and intermediate compounds was investigated in model systems using high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Mepiquat is released with a yield of up to 0.

Dual-Laboratory Validation of a Method for the Determination of Fructans in Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals: First Action 2016.14.

Until recently, only two AOAC Official MethodsSM have been available for the analysis of fructans: Method 997.08 and Method 999.03.

Determination of pesticides in fatty matrices using gel permeation clean-up followed by GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS analysis: A comparison of low- and high-pressure gel permeation columns.

Two low-pressure columns (Bio-Beads SX-3) and three high-pressure GPC columns were compared for clean-up of a wide range of pesticides in fatty matrices of vegetable or animal origin. The GPC fractions were analyzed by GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS without additional clean-up. The performance of the GPC clean-up on the five column types was compared in terms of solvent consumption, lipid removal, pesticide recovery and repeatability.