Alcohol consumption and carotid artery structure in Korean adults aged 50 years and older

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epidemiologic studies of the association between alcohol consumption and carotid artery structure have reported conflicting results. We investigated the association between alcohol consumption and carotid atherosclerosis by evaluating the effects of alcohol intake on carotid artery enlargement.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study population consisted of 4302 community-dwelling Koreans (1577 men and 2725 women) aged 50 years and over. All the subjects had participated in the baseline survey of the Dong-gu Study conducted between 2007 and 2008. Daily alcohol consumption was determined by the number and frequency of alcoholic beverages consumed. We measured common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT), common carotid and bulb IMT (CB-IMT), carotid plaques, and the diameter of the common carotid artery (CCA-diameter) using high-resolution B-mode ultrasonography. We used analysis of covariance and multiple logistic regressions to determine the relationship between alcohol consumption and carotid artery parameters.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>CCA-IMT and CB-IMT were negatively correlated with alcohol consumption after controlling for cardiovascular risk factors in men (<it>p </it>for linear trend = 0.009 and = 0.038, respectively). The multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) for carotid plaques was significantly higher in men who consumed >40.0 g/d (OR = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.13-2.91), although a significant positive correlation was observed between alcohol consumption and carotid plaques (<it>p </it>for linear trend = 0.027). Neither carotid IMT nor carotid plaques were correlated with alcohol intake in women. Alcohol intake was positively correlated with CCA-diameter adjusted for carotid IMT and plaques in the multivariate-adjusted model in both sexes (<it>p </it>for linear trend <0.001 for men and 0.020 for women).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results of our study indicate that alcohol consumption is inversely related to carotid IMT and positively related to carotid plaques in men, but not women. However, alcohol intake is positively associated with CCA-diameter in both men and women. Additional large population-based prospective studies are needed to confirm the effects of alcohol consumption on carotid artery structure.</p

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase C677T polymorphism in patients with gastric and colorectal cancer in a Korean population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study was designed to investigate an association between the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T polymorphism and the risk of gastric and colorectal cancer in the Korean population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a population-based large-scale case-control study involving 2,213 patients with newly diagnosed gastric cancer, 1,829 patients with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer, and 1,700 healthy controls. Genotyping was performed with peripheral blood DNA for MTHFR C677T polymorphisms. The statistical significance was estimated by logistic regression analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The MTHFR C677T frequencies of CC, CT, and TT genotypes were 35.2%, 47.5%, and 17.3% among stomach cancer, 34%, 50.5%, and 15.5% in colorectal cancer, and 31.8%, 50.7%, and 17.5% in the controls, respectively. The MTHFR 677TT genotype showed a weak opposite association with colorectal cancer compared to the homozygous CC genotype [adjusted age and sex odds ratio (OR) = 0.792, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.638-0.984, <it>P </it>= 0.035]. Subjects with the MTHFR 677CT showed a significantly reduced risk of gastric cancer compared whose with the 677CC genotype (age- and sex-adjusted OR = 0.810; 95% CI = 0.696-0.942, <it>P </it>= 0.006). We also observed no significant interactions between the MTHFR C677T polymorphism and smoking or drinking in the risk of gastric and colorectal cancer.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The T allele was found to provide a weak protective association with gastric cancer and colorectal cancer.</p

Overexpression of OsCYP19-4 increases tolerance to cold stress and enhances grain yield in rice (Oryza sativa)

AtCYP19-4 (also known as CYP5) was previously identified as interacting in vitro with GNOM, a member of a large family of ARF guanine nucleotide exchange factors that is required for proper polar localization of the auxin efflux carrier PIN1. The present study demonstrated that OsCYP19-4, a gene encoding a putative homologue of AtCYP19-4, was up-regulated by several stresses and showed over 10-fold up-regulation in response to cold. The study further demonstrated that the promoter of OsCYP19-4 was activated in response to cold stress. An OsCYP19-4-GFP fusion protein was targeted to the outside of the plasma membrane via the endoplasmic reticulum as determined using brefeldin A, a vesicle trafficking inhibitor. An in vitro assay with a synthetic substrate oligomer confirmed that OsCYP19-4 had peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase activity, as was previously reported for AtCYP19-4. Rice plants overexpressing OsCYP19-4 showed cold-resistance phenotypes with significantly increased tiller and spike numbers, and consequently enhanced grain weight, compared with wild-type plants. Based on these results, the authors suggest that OsCYP19-4 is required for developmental acclimation to environmental stresses, especially cold. Furthermore, the results point to the potential of manipulating OsCYP19-4 expression to enhance cold tolerance or to increase biomass. © 2015 The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology.

Artificial de novo biosynthesis of hydroxystyrene derivatives in a tyrosine overproducing Escherichia coli strain

BACKGROUND: Styrene and its derivatives as monomers and petroleum-based feedstocks are valuable as raw materials in industrial processes. The chemical reaction for styrene production uses harsh reaction conditions such as high temperatures or pressures, or requires base catalysis with microwave heating. On the other hand, production of styrene and its derivatives in Escherichia coli is an environmental friendly process to produce conventional petroleum-based feedstocks. RESULTS: An artificial biosynthetic pathway was developed in E. coli that yields 4-hydroxystyrene, 3,4-dihydroxystyrene and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxystyrene from simple carbon sources. This artificial biosynthetic pathway has a codon-optimized phenolic acid decarboxylase (pad) gene from Bacillus and some of the phenolic acid biosynthetic genes. E. coli strains with the tal and pad genes, the tal, sam5, and pad genes, and the tal, sam5, com, and pad genes produced 4-hydroxystyrene, 3,4-dihydroxystyrene and 4-hydorxy-3-methoxystyrene, respectively. Furthermore, these pathways were expressed in a tyrosine overproducing E. coli. The yields for 4-hydroxystyrene, 3,4-dihydroxystyrene and 4-hydorxy-3-methoxystyrene reached 355, 63, and 64 mg/L, respectively, in shaking flasks after 36 h of cultivation. CONCLUSIONS: Our system is the first to use E. coli with artificial biosynthetic pathways for the de novo synthesis of 3,4-dihydroxystyrene and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxystyrene in a simple glucose medium. Similar approaches using microbial synthesis from simple sugar could be useful in the synthesis of plant-based aromatic chemicals. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12934-015-0268-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users