Unstable shoes increase energy expenditure of obese patients.

BACKGROUND: Ergonomic unstable shoes, which are widely available to the general population, could increase daily non-exercise activity thermogenesis as the result of increased muscular involvement. We compared the energy expenditure of obese patients during standing and walking with conventional flat-bottomed shoes versus unstable shoes.¦METHODS: Twenty-nine obese patients were asked to stand quietly and to walk at their preferred walking speed while wearing unstable or conventional shoes. The main outcome measures were metabolic rate of standing and gross and net energy cost of walking, as assessed with indirect calorimetry.¦RESULTS: Metabolic rate of standing was higher while wearing unstable shoes compared with conventional shoes (1.11±0.20 W/kg(-1)vs 1.06±0.23 W/kg(-1), P=.0098). Gross and net energy cost of walking were higher while wearing unstable shoes compared with conventional shoes (gross: 4.20±0.42 J/kg(-1)/m(-1)vs 4.01±0.39 J/kg(-1)/m(-1), P=.0035; net: 3.37±0.41 J/kg(-1)/m(-1)vs 3.21±0.37 J/kg(-1)/m(-1); P=.032).¦CONCLUSION: In obese patients, it is possible to increase energy expenditure of standing and walking by means of ergonomic unstable footwear. Long-term use of unstable shoes may eventually prevent a positive energy balance.

Treatment of human acute schistosomiasis with oxamniquine induces an increase in interferon-gamma response to Schistosoma mansoni antigens

Patients with acute schistosomiasis were studied before and after oxamniquine treatment. They had been exposed to cercariae 5 to 9 weeks before, and presented compatible clinical manifestations, eosinophilia, and high levels of total IgE. Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and interleukin-4 were measured by ELISA in whole blood samples under soluble egg antigen or soluble adult worm preparation stimulation. After treatment, the reduction of leukocytosis and eosinophilia were not significant, but total IgE levels decreased significantly, in contrast to IFN-gamma levels that were significantly increased. The oxamniquine treatment of acute schistosomiasis patients is followed by an improvement of a Th1 response in vitro. If this response has a protective aspect is unknown, and some investigations need to be realized.

Depression with atypical features and increase in obesity, body mass index, waist circumference, and fat mass: a prospective, population-based study.

IMPORTANCE: Depression and obesity are 2 prevalent disorders that have been repeatedly shown to be associated. However, the mechanisms and temporal sequence underlying this association are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the subtypes of major depressive disorder (MDD; melancholic, atypical, combined, or unspecified) are predictive of adiposity in terms of the incidence of obesity and changes in body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared), waist circumference, and fat mass. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This prospective population-based cohort study, CoLaus (Cohorte Lausannoise)/PsyCoLaus (Psychiatric arm of the CoLaus Study), with 5.5 years of follow-up included 3054 randomly selected residents (mean age, 49.7 years; 53.1% were women) of the city of Lausanne, Switzerland (according to the civil register), aged 35 to 66 years in 2003, who accepted the physical and psychiatric baseline and physical follow-up evaluations. EXPOSURES: Depression subtypes according to the DSM-IV. Diagnostic criteria at baseline and follow-up, as well as sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle (alcohol and tobacco use and physical activity), and medication, were elicited using the semistructured Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Changes in body mass index, waist circumference, and fat mass during the follow-up period, in percentage of the baseline value, and the incidence of obesity during the follow-up period among nonobese participants at baseline. Weight, height, waist circumference, and body fat (bioimpedance) were measured at baseline and follow-up by trained field interviewers. RESULTS: Only participants with the atypical subtype of MDD at baseline revealed a higher increase in adiposity during follow-up than participants without MDD. The associations between this MDD subtype and body mass index (β = 3.19; 95% CI, 1.50-4.88), incidence of obesity (odds ratio, 3.75; 95% CI, 1.24-11.35), waist circumference in both sexes (β = 2.44; 95% CI, 0.21-4.66), and fat mass in men (β = 16.36; 95% CI, 4.81-27.92) remained significant after adjustments for a wide range of possible cofounding. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The atypical subtype of MDD is a strong predictor of obesity. This emphasizes the need to identify individuals with this subtype of MDD in both clinical and research settings. Therapeutic measures to diminish the consequences of increased appetite during depressive episodes with atypical features are advocated.

Does Interviewer-Respondent Socio-Demographic Matching Increase Cooperation in Centralized CATI Household Panels?

Overall it seems that age and gender interviewer characteristics are relevant in achieving higher cooperation rates by telephone panel members. This appears to be the case especially for older male interviewers, who perform the best on gaining cooperation across different types of respondents. This holds if important interviewer covariates like experience are controlled for. There is no evidence that special sex age or sex matches yield a higher cooperation. It may be that not only the perceived authority of the institution that sponsors the survey plays a role when it comes to cooperation (Groves et al., 1992) but also of the interviewer who asks for this cooperation. Presumably older men have more authority to convince sample members to participate. A simple recommendation is to use as many older male interviewers as possible for the recruitment phase. It is likely that this strategy would also be successful in other western cultures than Switzerland.

Does 'altitude training' increase exercise performance in elite athletes?

The general practice of altitude training is widely accepted as a means to enhance sport performance despite a lack of rigorous scientific studies. For example, the scientific gold-standard design of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial has never been conducted on altitude training. Given that few studies have utilised appropriate controls, there should be more scepticism concerning the effects of altitude training methodologies. In this brief review we aim to point out weaknesses in theories and methodologies of the various altitude training paradigms and to highlight the few well-designed studies to give athletes, coaches and sports medicine professionals the current scientific state of knowledge on common forms of altitude training. Another aim is to encourage investigators to design well-controlled studies that will enhance our understanding of the mechanisms and potential benefits of altitude training.

Marked increase in the secretion of a fully antigenic recombinant carcinoembryonic antigen obtained by deletion of its hydrophobic tail.

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a well-known tumor marker, consisting of a single heavily glycosylated polypeptide chain (mol. wt 200 kD), bound to the cell surface by a phosphatidylinositol-glycan anchor. The hydrophobic domain, encoded by the 3' end of the open reading frame of the CEA gene is not present in the mature protein. This domain is assumed to play an important role in the targeting and attachment of CEA to the cell surface. To verify this hypothesis, a recombinant CEA cDNA lacking the 78 b.p. of the 3' region, encoding the 26 a.a. hydrophobic domain, was prepared in a Rc/CMV expression vector containing a neomycin resistance gene. The construct was transfected by the calcium phosphate technique into CEA-negative human and rat colon carcinoma cell lines. Geneticin-resistant transfectants were screened for the presence of CEA in the supernatant and positive clones were isolated. As determined by ELISA, up to 13 micrograms of recombinant CEA per 10(6) cells was secreted within 72 hr by the human transfected cells and about 1 microgram by the rat cells. For comparison, two human carcinoma cell lines, CO112 and LS174T, selected for high CEA expression, shed about 45 and 128 ng per 10(6) cells within 72 hr, respectively. Western blot analysis showed that the size of the recombinant CEA secreted by the transfected human cells is identical to that of reference CEA purified from human colon carcinomas metastases (about 200 kD). The recombinant CEA synthesized by the transfected rat carcinoma cells has a smaller size (about 144 kD, possibly due to incomplete glycosylation), as has already been observed for CEA produced by rat colon carcinoma cells transfected with full-length CEA cDNA. The 100-fold increase in secretion of rCEA encoded by truncated CEA cDNA transfected in human cells confirms the essential role of this domain in the targeting and anchoring of the glycoprotein. These results suggest a new approach for the in vitro production of large amounts of CEA needed in research laboratories and for immunoassay kits.

A transient increase in total head phosphotyrosine levels is observed upon the emergence of Aedes aegypti from the pupal stage

Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of protein tyrosine residues constitutes a major biochemical regulatory mechanism for the cell. We report a transient increase in the total tyrosine phosphorylation of the Aedes aegypti head during the first days after emergence from the pupal stage. This correlates with an initial reduction in total head protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) activity. Similarly, phosphotyrosine (pTyr)-containing bands are seen in extracts prepared from both male and female heads and are spread among a variety of structures including the antennae, proboscis and the maxillary palps combined with the proboscis. Also, mosquitoes treated with sodium orthovanadate, a classical PTP inhibitor, show reduced blood-feeding activity and higher head tyrosine phosphorylation levels. These results suggest that pTyr-mediated signalling pathways may play a role in the initial days following the emergence of the adult mosquito from the pupal stage.

How to increase the population of a Phlebotomus perniciosus (Diptera: Psychodidae) colony: a new method

The sandfly Phlebotomus perniciosus is the most widespread vector of Leishmania infantum in Spain. Laboratory colonisation represents the most feasible source of information on the biology of these insects, but in conducting any study, the density of individuals in the colony may drop to such an extent that it is sometimes difficult to recover the initial population levels. A new technique was tested for the recovery of sandfly eggs in three different colonies; the recovery rate was studied by comparing the standard method of mass rearing with this new method of colony management. The results demonstrate a mean increase of 18.4% in adult production, a growth in colony productivity that justifies the inclusion of this process in the routine maintenance of any colony of sandflies.

Potential impact of a presumed increase in the biting activity of dengue-virus-infected Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) females on virus transmission dynamics

Recently, we showed that infection with dengue virus increases the locomotor activity of Aedes aegypti females. We speculate that the observed increased locomotor activity could potentially increase the chances of finding a suitable host and, as a consequence, the relative biting rate of infected mosquitoes. We used a mathematical model to investigate the impact of the increased locomotor activity by assuming that this activity translated into an increased biting rate for infected mosquitoes. The results show that the increased biting rate resulted in dengue outbreaks with greater numbers of primary and secondary infections and with more severe biennial epidemics.

Depletion of CD25+ cells during acute toxoplasmosis does not significantly increase mortality in Swiss OF1 mice

The interleukin (IL)-2R alpha chain (CD25) is expressed on regulatory T cells (Treg), which constitute more than 85% of the CD25+ T cell population in a naïve mouse. CD25 is also expressed on effector T cells in mice suffering from an acute infection by the obligate intracellular protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. Lethal toxoplasmosis is accompanied by a significant loss of Treg in mice naturally susceptible to toxoplasmosis. The present study was done to explore the role of Treg cells using an anti-CD25 antibody-mediated depletion in mice naturally resistant to toxoplasmosis. Although a significant decrease in the percentage of Treg cells was observed following anti-CD25 monoclonal antibody injections, the depletion of CD25+ cells during acute toxoplasmosis did not significantly increase the mortality of Swiss OF1 mice and no significant difference was observed in the brain parasitic load between the mice in the depleted-infected and isotype-infected groups. We found no significant difference between the titres of total IgG in the sera of the mice from the two groups in the chronic phase. However, CD25+ cells depletion was followed by significantly higher levels of IL-12 in the serum of depleted mice than in that of mice injected with the isotype control antibody.

Extracellular matrix molecules enhance the neurotrophic effect of schwann cell-like differentiated adipose-derived stem cells and increase cell survival under stress conditions.

Since the first reports of induction of adipose-derived stem cells (ASC) into neuronal and glial cell phenotypes, expectations have increased regarding their use in tissue engineering applications for nerve repair. Cell adhesion to extracellular matrix (ECM) is a basic feature of survival, differentiation, and migration of Schwann cells (SC) during nerve regeneration, and fibronectin and laminin are two key molecules of this process. Interaction between ECM and SC-like differentiated ASC (dASC) could potentially improve the neurotrophic potential of the stem cells. We have investigated the effect of ECM molecules on SC-like dASC in terms of proliferation, adhesion, and cell viability. Fibronectin and laminin did not affect the proliferation of dASC when compared with cell adherent tissue culture plastic, but significantly improved viability and cell attachment when dASC were exposed to apoptotic conditions. To assess the influence of the ECM molecules on dASC neurotrophic activity, dASC were seeded onto ECM-coated culture inserts suspended above dorsal root ganglia (DRG) sensory neurons. Neurite outgrowth of DRG neurons was enhanced when dASC were seeded on fibronectin and laminin when compared with controls. When DRG neurons and dASC were in direct contact on the various surfaces there was significantly enhanced neurite outgrowth and coculture with laminin-conditioned dASC produced the longest neurites. Compared with primary SCs, dASC grown on laminin produced similar levels of neurite outgrowth in the culture insert experiments but neurite length was shorter in the direct contact groups. Anti β1 integrin blocking antibody could inhibit baseline and dASC evoked neurite elongation but had no effect on outgrowth mediated by laminin-conditioned dASC. ECM molecules had no effect on the levels of nerve growth factor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor secretion from dASC. The results of the study suggest that ECM molecules can significantly improve the potential of dASC for nerve regeneration.

Measuring and Explaining the Increase of Travel Distance : A Multilevel Analysis Using Repeated Cross Sectional Travel Surveys

We want to shed some light on the development of person mobility by analysing the repeated cross-sectional data of the four National Travel Surveys (NTS) that were conducted in Germany since the mid seventies. The above mentioned driving forces operate on different levels of the system that generates the spatial behaviour we observe: Travel demand is derived from the needs and desires of individuals to participate in spatially separated activities. Individuals organise their lives in an interactive process within the context they live in, using given infrastructure. Essential determinants of their demand are the individual's socio-demographic characteristics, but also the opportunities and constraints defined by the household and the environment are relevant for the behaviour which ultimately can be realised. In order to fully capture the context which determines individual behaviour, the (nested) hierarchy of persons within households within spatial settings has to be considered. The data we will use for our analysis contains information on these three levels. With the analysis of this micro-data we attempt to improve our understanding of the afore subsumed macro developments. In addition we will investigate the prediction power of a few classic sociodemographic variables for the daily travel distance of individuals in the four NTS data sets, with a focus on the evolution of this predictive power. The additional task to correctly measure distances travelled by means of the NTS is threatened by the fact that although these surveys measure the same variables, different sampling designs and data collection procedures were used. So the aim of the analysis is also to detect variables whose control corrects for the known measurement error, as a prerequisite to apply appropriate models in order to better understand the development of individual travel behaviour in a multilevel context. This task is complicated by the fact that variables that inform on survey procedures and outcomes are only provided with the data set for 2002 (see Infas and DIW Berlin, 2003).

Prevalence of methylphenidate prescription among school-aged children in a Swiss population: increase in the number of prescriptions in the Swiss Canton of Vaud, from 2002 to 2005, and changes in patient demographics.

OBJECTIVE: Methylphenidate is prescribed for children and adolescents to treat ADHD. As in many Western countries, the increase in methylphenidate consumption is a public concern in Switzerland. The article discusses the authors' assessment of prescription prevalence in 2002 and 2005 for school-aged children in the canton of Vaud. METHOD: Pharmacy prescription information is available from the regional public health authority. Descriptive analyses are conducted on an anonymized database of the years 2002 and 2005. Data for each year are compared to assess trends in methylphenidate prescription prevalence. RESULTS: The findings show an increase from 0.74% to 1.02% in the number of prescriptions for 5- to 14-year-old children, particularly in prescriptions for girls. Data also show important geographical differences in prescription. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of methylphenidate prescription is lower in Switzerland than other Western countries, particularly the United States. However, some aspects of prevalence are similar, including the increase per year, demographics, and geographic characteristics.