Nutrients最新文献

It has been demonstrated that filbertone, the principal flavor compound of hazelnuts, exhibits preventive effects against hypothalamic inflammation, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, and muscle lipid accumulation. However, its influence on muscle aging has yet to be elucidated. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of filbertone on muscle aging in C₂C₁₂ myotubes subjected to senescence induction by either doxorubicin or hydrogen peroxide. To ascertain the mechanisms by which filbertone exerts its effects, we conducted a series of experiments, including Western blot analysis, reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) staining. Filbertone was markedly observed to decrease not only the protein levels of p53 (p < 0.01) in senescence-induced skeletal muscle cells, but also the gene expression levels of p21 (p < 0.05), a direct target of p53. The expression of muscle-related genes, including myogenin and muscle RING-finger protein-1 (MuRF1), was found to be significantly enhanced in senescent muscle cells following treatment with filbertone (p < 0.05). In addition, the number of senescent skeletal muscle cells exhibiting β-galactosidase activity was found to be markedly reduced in the presence of filbertone (p < 0.01). Collectively, these findings suggest that filbertone plays a pivotal role in the regulation of muscle aging.

Over the past few decades, the scientific community has been highly concerned about the obesity epidemic. Artificial sweeteners are compounds that mimic the sweet taste of sugar but have no calories or carbohydrates; hence, they are very popular among patients suffering from diabetes or obesity, aiming to achieve glycemic and/or weight control. There are four different types of sweeteners: artificial, natural, rare sugars, and polyols. Artificial and natural sweeteners are characterized as non-nutritional sweeteners (NNSs) since they do not contain calories. The extended use of sweeteners has been reported to have a favorable impact on body weight and glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and on tooth decay prevention. However, there is concern regarding their side effects. Several studies have associated artificial sweeteners' consumption with the development of insulin resistance, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), gastrointestinal symptoms, and certain types of cancer. The present review focuses on the description of different types of sweeteners and the benefits and possible deleterious effects of the chronic consumption of NNSs on children's health. Additionally, possible underlying mechanisms of the unfavorable effects of NNSs on human health are described.

Excessive body weight is associated with many chronic metabolic diseases and weight loss, so far, remains the gold standard treatment. However, despite tremendous efforts exploring optimal treatments for obesity, many individuals find losing weight and maintaining a healthy body weight difficult. Weight loss is often not sustainable resulting in weight regain and subsequent efforts to lose weight. This cyclic pattern of weight loss and regain is termed "yoyo dieting" and predisposes individuals to obesity and metabolic comorbidities. How yoyo dieting might worsen obesity complications during the weight recurrence phase remains unclear. In particular, there is limited data on the role of the gut microbiome in yoyo dieting. Gut health distress, especially gut inflammation and microbiome perturbation, is strongly associated with metabolic dysfunction and disturbance of energy homeostasis in obesity. In this review, we summarise current evidence of the crosstalk between the gastrointestinal system and energy balance, and the effects of yoyo dieting on gut inflammation and gut microbiota reshaping. Finally, we focus on the potential effects of post-dieting weight loss in improving gut health and identify current knowledge gaps within the field, including gut-derived peptide hormones and their potential suitability as targets to combat weight regain, and how yoyo dieting and associated changes in the microbiome affect the gut barrier and the enteric nervous system, which largely remain to be determined.

Introduction: Food literacy (FL) is a rapidly emerging area of research that provides a framework to explain the interplay of food-related skills, beliefs, knowledge and practises that contribute to nutritional health and wellbeing. This review is the first to scope the current literature for FL interventions, assess their characteristics against the components provided in the most widely cited definition of FL. and describe their characteristics to identify gaps in the literature.

Methods: This review scopes original articles describing FL interventions in the Medline, CINAHL, ProQuest Education, Web of Science and AMED databases up to August 2023.

Results: Despite the heterogeneity between all seven included studies, they all demonstrated some improvements in their FL outcome measures alongside dietary intake (DI), with the greatest improvements seen in studies that employed a FL theoretical framework in intervention design. Populations at high risk of food insecurity, such as university students and people living in disadvantaged areas, were the main targets of FL interventions.

Conclusion: The minimal inclusion of FL theory amongst interventions led to an overall poor coverage of essential FL components, indicating researchers should aim to design future FL interventions with a FL theoretical framework.

Background: Capsaicin, a bioactive compound found in peppers, is recognized for its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-lipidemic properties. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of capsaicin on atherosclerosis progression.

Methods: Apolipoprotein E knockout mice and their C57BL/6 controls were utilized to assess blood lipid profile, inflammatory status, and atherosclerotic lesions. We also examined the influence of capsaicin on cholesterol influx and efflux, and the role of TRPV1 and PPARγ signaling pathways in bone marrow-derived macrophages.

Results: Capsaicin treatment reduced weight gain, visceral adiposity, blood triglycerides, and total and non-HDL cholesterol. These improvements were associated with a reduction in atherosclerotic lesions in the aorta and carotid. Capsaicin also improved hepatic oxidative and inflammatory status. Systemic inflammation was also reduced, as indicated by reduced leukocyte rolling and adhesion on the mesenteric plexus. Capsaicin decreased foam cell formation by reducing cholesterol influx through scavenger receptor A and increasing cholesterol efflux via ATP-binding cassette transporter A1, an effect primarily linked to TRPV1 activation.

Conclusions: These findings underscore the potential of capsaicin as a promising agent for atherosclerosis prevention, highlighting its comprehensive role in modulating lipid metabolism, foam cell formation, and inflammatory responses.

Background: Edible plants have been linked to the mitigation of metabolic disturbances in liver and adipose tissue, including the decrease of lipogenesis and the enhancement of lipolysis and adipocyte browning. In this context, plant microRNAs could be key bioactive molecules underlying the cross-kingdom beneficial effects of plants. This study sought to explore the impact of plant-derived microRNAs on the modulation of adipocyte and hepatocyte genes involved in metabolism and thermogenesis.

Methods: Plant miR6262 was selected as a candidate from miRBase for the predicted effect on the regulation of human metabolic genes. Functional validation was conducted after transfection with plant miRNA mimics in HepG2 hepatocytes exposed to free fatty acids to mimic liver steatosis and hMADs cells differentiated into brown-like adipocytes.

Results: miR6262 decreases the expression of the predicted target RXRA in the fatty acids-treated hepatocytes and in brown-like adipocytes and affects the expression profile of critical genes involved in metabolism and thermogenesis, including PPARA, G6PC, SREBF1 (hepatocytes) and CIDEA, CPT1M and PLIN1 (adipocytes). Nevertheless, plant miR6262 mimic transfections did not decrease hepatocyte lipid accumulation or stimulate adipocyte browning.

Conclusions: these findings suggest that plant miR6262 could have a cross-kingdom regulation relevance through the modulation of human genes involved in lipid and glucose metabolism and thermogenesis in adipocytes and hepatocytes.

Objectives: Heart failure (HF) is a global health concern with rising incidence and poor prognosis. While the essential role of nutritional and dietary strategies in HF patients is acknowledged in the existing scientific guidelines and clinical practice, there are no comprehensive nutritional recommendations for optimal dietary management of HF.

Methods: In this review, we discuss results from recent studies on the obesity paradox and the effects of calorie restriction and weight loss, intermittent fasting, the Western diet, the Mediterranean diet, the ketogenic diet, and the DASH diet on HF progression.

Results: Many of these strategies remain under clinical and basic investigation for their safety and efficacy, and there is considerable heterogeneity in the observed response, presumably because of heterogeneity in the pathogenesis of different types of HF. In addition, while specific aspects of cardiac metabolism, such as changes in ketone body utilization, might underlie the effects of certain dietary strategies on the heart, there is a critical divide between supplement strategies (i.e., with ketones) and dietary strategies that impact ketogenesis.

Conclusion: This review aims to highlight this gap by exploring emerging evidence supporting the importance of personalized dietary strategies in preventing progression and improving outcomes in the context of HF.

The incidence of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's Disease, characterized by a progressive cognitive decline, is rising worldwide. Despite the considerable efforts to unveil the neuropsychological bases of these diseases, there is still an unmet medical need for effective therapies against cognitive deficits. In recent years, increasing laboratory evidence indicates the potential of phytotherapy as an integrative aid to improve cognitive functions. In this review, we describe the data of plant whole extracts or single compounds' efficacy on validated preclinical models and neuropsychological tests, aiming to correlate brain mechanisms underlying rodent behavioral responses to human findings. After a search of the literature, the overview was limited to the following plants: Dioscorea batatas, Ginkgo biloba, Melissa officinalis, Nigella sativa, Olea europaea, Panax ginseng, Punica granatum, and Vitis vinifera. Results showed significant improvements in different cognitive functions, such as learning and memory or visuospatial abilities, in both humans and rodents. However, despite promising laboratory evidence, clinical translation has been dampened by a limited pharmacological characterization of the single bioactive components of the herbal products. Depicting the contribution of the single phytochemicals to the phytocomplex's pharmacological efficacy could enable the comprehension of their potential synergistic activity, leading to phytotherapy inclusion in the existing therapeutic package against cognitive decline.

As adiposity increases in youth, so does the prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs). The etiology of adiposity-based chronic disease and CMRFs includes ethnoracial disparities that are rarely considered in current treatment approaches. Precision interventions require further characterization of these disparities among high-risk youth. The objective of this study was to characterize differences in CMRF among African American (AA) and Hispanic (H) adolescents with varying levels of adiposity. A cross-sectional analysis of 2284 adolescents aged 12-17 was conducted using 3-year clinical data from Lifedoc Health. CMRF prevalence were compared using χ², with logistic regression models (LRM) applied to explore the relationships between exposures (age, sex, ethnoracial group, adiposity) and CMRF outcomes. Prevalence of CMRF rose with increasing adiposity, which was the strongest determinant of risk overall. However, individual risk profiles differed between the two groups, with H having higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS), higher triglycerides and liver enzymes, and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c). Meanwhile, AA had higher prevalence of elevated blood pressure (BP) in the overweight category, prediabetes in overweight to severe obesity, and type 2 diabetes in obesity. LRM showed 3.0-fold greater chance of impaired glucose metabolism in AA than H, who were 1.7, 5.9, and 8.3 times more likely to have low HDL-c, high liver enzymes, and high triglycerides, respectively. Overweight/obesity prevalence was very high among AA and H adolescents. Excess adiposity was associated with an increased prevalence of CMRF, with individual risk factors differing between groups as adiposity increased. Research within routine clinical settings is required to better characterize these discrepancies and ameliorate their adverse impact on health in the transition to adulthood.