Race and gender differences in the association of dieting and gains in BMI among young adults

Objective: To assess the relationship between dieting and subsequent weight change and whether the association varies by gender or race/ethnicity. Research Methods and Procedures: Male (n = 4100) and female (n = 4302) participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health who provided information on weight and height at baseline and two follow‐up assessments and were not missing information on weight control strategies or race were studied. Generalized estimating equations were used to assess whether dieting to lose or maintain weight at Wave I or II predicted BMI (kg/m²) change between adolescence and young adulthood (Wave II to III). Analyses were stratified by gender and took sampling weights and clustering into account. Results: At Wave I, the mean age of the participants was 14.9 years. Approximately 29.3% of female participants and 9.8% of male participants reported dieting in Wave I or II. Fewer African Americans than whites (6.2% vs. 10.0% and 25.5% vs. 31.2%, p = 0.007 and p = 0.02, among males and females, respectively) reported dieting. Between Waves II and III, participants gained on average 3.3 kg/m². Independent of BMI gain during adolescence (Waves I to II), female participants who dieted to lose or maintain weight during adolescence made larger gains in BMI during the 5 years between Waves II and III (mean additional gain, 0.39 kg/m²; 95% confidence interval, 0.08 to 0.71) than their nondieting peers. The association was not significant among the male participants. The association was largest among African‐American female participants. Discussion: The results suggest that not only is dieting to lose weight ineffective, it is actually associated with greater weight gain, particularly among female adolescents. Female African‐American dieters made the largest BMI gains.     

Central and noncentral blood volumes in cirrhosis: relationship to anthropometrics and gender

The size of the central and arterial blood volume (CBV) is essential in the understanding of fluid retention in cirrhosis. Previously, it has been reported decreased, normal, or increased, but no reports have analyzed CBV with respect to gender and lean body mass. The aim of the present study was by means of an optimized technique to reassess it in a large group of patients with cirrhosis compared with healthy controls and matched controls in relationship to their body dimensions and gender. Eighty-three patients with cirrhosis (male/female, 60:23), 67 patients without liver disease (male/female, 22:45), and 14 young healthy controls (male/female, 6:8) underwent a hemodynamic investigation with determination of cardiac output, central circulation time, and CBV determined according to kinetic principles. Related to gender, CBV was lower in male cirrhotics (1.48 +/- 0.30 liter) than in matched and young controls (1.68 +/- 0.33 and 1.72 +/- 0.33 liter, respectively; P < 0.05-0.01). No significant differences in CBV were seen between female cirrhotics and controls. Absolute and adjusted CBVs were lower in the females than in men with cirrhosis (P < 0.001), and men with cirrhosis had lower absolute and body weight-adjusted CBVs than matched controls (P < 0.01). Normalized values of CBV (%total blood volume) were significantly lower in patients with cirrhosis (25 +/- 4%) than in matched controls (31 +/- 7%) and young controls (28 +/- 4%; P < 0.02). CBV correlated significantly with anthropometrics, including lean body mass (r = 0.68-0.82; P < 0.0001). In conclusion, the CBV of patients with cirrhosis was lower than that of controls when adjusted for body dimensions and gender. There are significant gender differences, and signs of underfilling are more pronounced in male than in female patients. The results emphasize the importance of adjustments of blood volumes for anthropometrics and gender.     

Interethnic differences in muscle, liver and abdominal fat partitioning in obese adolescents

The prevalence of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in obese youth is rapidly increasing, especially in Hispanics and African Americans compared to Caucasians. Insulin resistance is known to be associated with increases in intramyocellular (IMCL) and hepatic fat content. We determined if there are ethnic differences in IMCL and hepatic fat content in a multiethnic cohort of 55 obese adolescents. We used (1)H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to quantify IMCL levels in the soleus muscle, oral glucose tolerance testing to estimate insulin sensitivity, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure abdominal fat distribution. Liver fat content was measured by fast-MRI. Despite similar age and % total body fat among the groups, IMCL was significantly higher in the Hispanics (1.71% [1.43%, 2.0%]) than in the African-Americans (1.04% [0.75%, 1.34%], p = 0.013) and the Caucasians (1.2% [0.94%, 1.5%], p = 0.04). Liver fat content was undetectable in the African Americans whereas it was two fold higher than normal in both Caucasians and Hispanics. Visceral fat was significantly lower in African Americans (41.5 cm(2) [34.6, 49.6]) and was similar in Caucasians (65.2 cm(2) [55.9, 76.0]) and Hispanics (70.5 cm(2) [59.9, 83.1]). In a multiple regression analysis, we found that ethnicity independent of age, gender and % body fat accounts for 10% of the difference in IMCL. Our study indicates that obese Hispanic adolescents have a greater IMCL lipid content than both Caucasians and African Americans, of comparable weight, age and gender. Excessive accumulation of fat in the liver was found in both Caucasian and Hispanic groups as opposed to virtually undetectable levels in the African Americans. Thus, irrespective of obesity, there seem to be some clear ethnic differences in the amount of lipid accumulated in skeletal muscle, liver and abdominal cavity.     

Age-related relationships between muscle fat content and metabolic traits in growing rabbits

This study was aimed at ascribing muscle fat accretion in growing rabbits to changes in several extra-muscular and intra-muscular metabolic pathways. At 10 wk or 20 wk of age (n = 8 per group), tissue lipid content and metabolic indicators of nutrient anabolic or catabolic pathways were simultaneously assessed in the liver, perirenal fat, the heart and the Longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle, together with plasma concentrations in energy-yielding metabolites. Lipid content significantly increased with age (P < or = 0.01) in the glycolytic LL muscle (+67%) and the oxidative heart (+30%). In the former muscle, it was statistically correlated (r2 = 0.68; P < 0.01) to the changes in the orientation of muscle metabolism towards an enhanced lipogenic capacity and a depressed capacity for fatty acid transport and nutrient oxidation, and to indications of lower availability in plasma glucose and triglycerides. In the heart, age-related fat accretion was positively associated (r2 = 0.48, P < 0.01) to intrinsic metabolic changes towards an enhanced lipogenic capacity, together with a lower availability in plasma glucose. Variables representative of cardiac catabolic capacity tended to be negatively correlated to fat content in the heart (r2 = 0.15, P = 0.07). In growing rabbits, muscle fat content variation was proven to result from a reciprocal balance between catabolic and anabolic fatty acid fluxes, rather than to be assigned to one specific energy metabolic pathway.     

Age and gender differences in the relationship between heart rate reactivity and elevated serum lipids

Data on serum lipids and heart rate reactivity to a standardized mental arithmetic stressor were collected on 54 healthy men and 73 healthy women. Subjects' ages ranged from 18 to 61 years, allowing analysis of data from both young and older subgroups. MANOVA revealed that age was directly associated with elevated lipids in men and women. There was no significant relationship between reactivity and lipids for either older or young men. Conversely, young women showed a significant direct relationship between reactivity and Total Cholesterol and LDL, but this was not present for older women. Implications of these data for the previously reported hypothetical relationship between reactivity and lipids are discussed. Limitations of the study are examined, and future directions for research suggested.I wish to thank Dianne Vella for her assistance in aspects of data-collection. This research was supported by grant No. 900946 from the National Health & Medical Research Council.     

Relationship between eccentric hip torque and lower-limb kinematics: gender differences

The purposes of this study were to compare lower-limb kinematics between genders, and determine the relationships among eccentric hip abductor and lateral rotator torques and lower-limb kinematics. The movements of the pelvis, femur, and knee were calculated for 16 women and 16 men during the single-leg squat. Eccentric hip abductor and lateral rotator torques were measured using an isokinetic dynamometer. The results showed that women had greater contralateral pelvic depression, femur adduction, and knee abduction than men. The eccentric hip abductor and lateral rotator torques were correlated with coronal plane femur and knee movements in the overall sample. When the genders were analyzed separately, it was observed that women with greater eccentric hip abductor torque exhibited less femur adduction and femur medial rotation, and greater knee adduction excursion. No significant relationship was observed between the isokinetic and kinematic variables in the male group. The differences between the genders help to explain the greater rate of knee disorders observed in women. Moreover, the eccentric hip abduction action seemed to be more important in women to control the lower-limb movements.     

QTLs associated with growth traits and abdominal fat weight and their interactions with gender and hatch in commercial meat-type chickens

Associations between microsatellite markers and traits related to growth and fatness were investigated using resource broiler population. A sire-line x dam-line F1 male was backcrossed to 12 dam-line females to produce 24 sires and 47 dams of the backcross 1 (BC1) generation. These 71 parents were genotyped with 76 microsatellite markers. Following full-sib mating among the parents, 234 BC1-F2 progeny were phenotyped for five growth traits (body weight at 49 days from hatch, wog weight, front half weight, breast weight and tender weight) and abdominal fat weight. Maximum likelihood analysis was used to estimate the marker effects and to evaluate their statistical significance. Individual marker-trait analysis revealed 44 significant associations out of the 456 marker-trait combinations. Correction for multiple comparisons by controlling the false discovery rate (FDR) resulted in 12 significant associations at FDR = 10% with markers on chromosomes 1, 2, 5 and 13. Seventy-five percent of the 44 significant associations displayed no dependence on either hatch or gender; half of the remaining associations displayed dependence of the quantitative trait loci (QTL) effect on hatch x gender interaction. Thus, the analysed traits in this study may be dependent on external factors.     

Race differences in the sex dimorphism of dermatoglyphic traits

For three dermatoglyphic traits it could be proved that there are racial differences in sex dimorphism. The results are as follow: (1) For the index of pattern intensity (158 samples), the sex difference is significantly higher in Negroids than in Europoids and Mongoloids. (2) For total ridge count, the sex difference is lower in Negroids than in Europoids. The discrepancy between (1) and (2) has been discussed. (3) The number of samples with higher frequencies of palmar patterns in males than in females is significantly higher in Negroids than in Mongoloids and Europoids for the hypothenar and III interdigital and lower in Mongoloids than in Europoids and Negroids for the II interdigital (max. 127 samples).     

Epistatic effect between ACACA and FABP2 gene on abdominal fat traits in broilers

Epistasis is generally defined as the interaction between two or more genes or their mRNA or protein products to influence a single trait. Experimental evidence suggested that epistasis could be important in the determination of the genetic architecture of complex traits in domestic animals. Acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase alpha (ACACA) and fatty acid binding protein 2 (FABP2) are both key factors of lipogenesis and transport. They may play a crucial role in the weight variability of abdominal adipose tissue in the growing chicken. In this study, the polymorphisms of c.2292GA in ACACA and c.-561AC in FABP2 were detected among individuals from two broiler lines which were divergently selected for abdominal fat content. Epistasis between the two SNPs on abdominal fat weight (AFW) and abdominal fat percentage (AFP) was analyzed. The additive × additive epistatic components between these two SNPs were found significant or suggestively significant on both AFW and AFP in lean lines of the 9th and 10th generation; whereas, it was not significantly associated with either AFW or AFP in fat lines. At the same time, there were not any other significant epistatic components found in both generations or in both lines. Significant epistatic effects between these two SNPs found only in the lean lines could partly be due to the fact that the abdominal fat traits in these two experimental lines have been greatly modified by strong artificial selection. The results suggested that the epistasis mode may be different between the lean and fat chicken lines. Our results could be helpful in further understanding the genetic interaction between candidate genes contributing to phenotypic variation of abdominal fat content in broilers.     

Race differences in pubic symphyseal aging patterns in the male

A well-documented multiracial sample of 704 male pubic bones allows for rigorous testing for racial differences in pubic symphyseal metamorphosis. The relationship between estimated age (using a modified Todd six-stage system) and age is examined as a function of race (White, Black, Mexican). One set of analyses incorporates linear regression models, while a second set does not impose such structure on the relationship. The latter analyses incorporate analysis of variance and related procedures. Significant differences in age are found across racial groups; it is seen that Blacks and Mexicans with advanced pubic symphyseal patterns tend to have lower ages than Whites. We do not address the question of causality, which may involve genetic factors and/or environmental variables such as diet, alcoholism, or drug abuse.     

The relationships between corpora allata and fat body and haemolymph lipids in the adult female desert locust

Allatectomy of 1-day-old female desert locusts resulted in an accumulation of lipid in the fat body. This accumulation of lipid was due to the continuation of lipid deposition in the fat body after the period of somatic growth. Somatic growth and feeding activity were unaffected by allatectomy, and so could not be indirect causes of fat body lipid accumulation. Lipid accumulation in allatectomized locusts is more likely to be related directly to a lack of juvenile hormone. Implantation of active corpora allata into 1-day-old adult female locusts resulted in a premature development of oöcytes and a decrease in fat body lipid accumulation; somatic growth was not inhibited. Implantation of active corpora allata into old allatectomized locusts resulted in a decrease in the fat body lipid content and the onset of oöcyte development. The lipid synthetic activity of the fat body, measured by the incorporation of ¹⁴C-actate into total fat body lipid, was greatly increased in allatectomized locusts after the period of somatic growth. The protein synthetic activity of the fat body, measured by the incorporation of ³H-leucine into total fat body protein, remained low after the period of somatic growth in allatectomized insects. Juvenile hormone might thus have a dual effect on fat body metabolism, that is suppressing lipid synthesis and stimulating vitellogenic protein synthesis. Increased synthesis of lipid by the fat body would then account for the accumulation of lipid in the fat body after allatectomy. Inhibition of release of lipid from the fat body is unlikely to play a part in the accumulation as allatectomy had no effect on haemolymph lipid concentrations.     

Body mass and body fat in Hungarian schoolboys: differences between 1980-2005

The prevalence of juvenile excess weight keeps growing in the more developed world (WHO, 1998). The aim of the study was to compare the prevalence of overweight and obesity in Hungarian schoolboys in 1980 and 2005.Two independent representative data collections were performed in volunteer boys aged between 6.51 and 18.50 years in the same 90 settlements of the country in 1980 (n=13,061) and 2005 (n=13,060). Height, body mass, and five skinfolds were measured by the same investigators in both instances. Overweight and obesity were estimated by using BMI (Cole et al., 2000), respectively skinfold thicknesses (Parízková, 1961).The pair-wise differences between height means were consistently significant in the 12 age groups studied. Body mass differences were not exactly proportionate with height. The boys of 2005 had significantly more relative body fat than those of 1980. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was remarkably higher in 2005.Taller height and a part of the heavier body mass in 2005 was attributed to a positive secular growth trend. The increases in BMI and fat content are negative consequences of a markedly changed lifestyle associated with inactivity and dietary habits. Because of its public health importance the trends of childhood obesity should be closely monitored.     

Interrelationships between strength, anthropometrics, and strongman performance in novice strongman athletes

The sport of strongman is relatively new; hence, specific research investigating this sport is currently very limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between anthropometric dimensions and maximal isoinertial strength to strongman performance in novice strongman athletes. Twenty-three semiprofessional rugby union players with considerable resistance training and some strongman training experience (age 22.0 ± 2.4 years, weight 102.6 ± 10.8 kg, height 184.6 ± 6.5 cm) were assessed for anthropometry (height, body composition, and girth measurements), maximal isoinertial performance (bench press, squat, deadlift, and power clean), and strongman performance (tire flip, log clean, and press, truck pull, and farmer's walk). The magnitudes of the relationships were determined using Pearson correlation coefficients, and interpreted qualitatively according to Hopkins (90% confidence limits ～±0.37). The highest relationship observed was between system force (body mass + squat 1-repetition maximum) and overall strongman performance (r = 0.87). Clear moderate to very large relationships existed between performance in all strongman events and the squat (r = 0.61-0.85), indicating the importance of maximal squat strength for strongman competitors. Flexed arm girth and calf girth were the strongest anthropometric correlates of overall strongman performance (r = 0.79 and 0.70, respectively). The results of this study suggest that body structure and common gymnasium-based exercise strength are meaningfully related to strongman performance in novice strongman athletes. Future research should investigate these relationships using more experienced strongman athletes and determine the relationships between changes in anthropometry, isoinertial strength, and strongman performance to determine the role of anthropometry and isoinertial strength in the sport of strongman.     

ApoB与UCP基因间上位效应对鸡腹脂性状影响的遗传学分析

已有研究表明, 上位效应在畜禽重要复杂经济性状的表型形成过程中发挥重要作用。文章选取对肉鸡7 周龄腹脂率有显著影响的载脂蛋白B(Apoliprotein B, ApoB)基因T123G位点与解耦连蛋白(Uncoupling protein, UCP)基因C1197A位点, 在东北农业大学肉鸡高、低腹脂双向选择品系8、9、10世代内检测这两个SNPs的多态性并利用Natural and Orthogonal InterActions (NOIA)模型分析二者之间的上位效应对7周龄腹脂率的影响。结果表明, 在高脂系内这两个位点之间存在着对7周龄腹脂率有显著影响的上位效应组分(P<0.05), 并且在连续多世代选育过程中仍能持续稳定存在; 同时, 在低脂系中二者之间各上位效应组分对腹脂率均无影响(P>0.05)。此结果意味着, 至少在高脂系内, 腹脂率的遗传受到这两个基因间上位效应的影响; 同时提示两系间脂肪性状QTL或重要候选基因功能位点之间不同的遗传互作模式可能是引起这两个品系腹脂性状巨大表型差异的重要影响因素之一。     

Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and gender differences

In a comparative study, involving 500 subjects with 294 males and 206 females aged 30 years and above, data were collected from NIMS (National Institute of Medical Sciences) hospital and research centre and controls from the general population whose age and sex were matched with subjects during the years 2010 - 2011. Metabolic syndrome was present both in women and men corresponding to 29% and 23% of the women's and men's sample, respectively. The prevalence was higher in women than in men. In women, elevated BMI, low HDL cholesterol, increased waist circumference and hyperglycemia were significantly larger contributors to the metabolic syndrome while in men these were hypertension and elevated triglycerides. The contribution of several metabolic components to the metabolic syndrome is different in men and women. This might contribute to gender specific differences in the relative risk of metabolic complications such as insulin resistance.