Low-grade inflammation, diet composition and health: current research evidence and its translation

The importance of chronic low-grade inflammation in the pathology of numerous age-related chronic conditions is now clear. An unresolved inflammatory response is likely to be involved from the early stages of disease development. The present position paper is the most recent in a series produced by the International Life Sciences Institute's European Branch (ILSI Europe). It is co-authored by the speakers from a 2013 workshop led by the Obesity and Diabetes Task Force entitled ‘Low-grade inflammation, a high-grade challenge: biomarkers and modulation by dietary strategies’. The latest research in the areas of acute and chronic inflammation and cardiometabolic, gut and cognitive health is presented along with the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying inflammation–health/disease associations. The evidence relating diet composition and early-life nutrition to inflammatory status is reviewed. Human epidemiological and intervention data are thus far heavily reliant on the measurement of inflammatory markers in the circulation, and in particular cytokines in the fasting state, which are recognised as an insensitive and highly variable index of tissue inflammation. Potential novel kinetic and integrated approaches to capture inflammatory status in humans are discussed. Such approaches are likely to provide a more discriminating means of quantifying inflammation–health/disease associations, and the ability of diet to positively modulate inflammation and provide the much needed evidence to develop research portfolios that will inform new product development and associated health claims

Tuneable drug-loading capability of chitosan hydrogels with varied network architectures

Advanced bioactive systems with defined macroscopic properties and spatio-temporal sequestration of extracellular biomacromolecules are highly desirable for next generation therapeutics. Here, chitosan (CT) hydrogels were prepared with neutral or negatively charged cross-linkers in order to promote selective electrostatic complexation with charged drugs. CT was functionalized with varied dicarboxylic acids, such as tartaric acid, poly(ethylene glycol) bis(carboxymethyl) ether, 1,4-phenylenediacetic acid and 5-sulfoisophthalic acid monosodium salt (PhS), whereby PhS was hypothesized to act as a simple mimetic of heparin. Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed the presence of Cdouble bond; length as m-dashO amide I, N–H amide II and Cdouble bond; length as m-dashO ester bands, providing evidence of covalent network formation. The cross-linker content was reversely quantified by proton nuclear magnetic resonance on partially degraded network oligomers, so that 18 mol.% PhS was exemplarily determined. Swellability (SR: 299 ± 65–1054 ± 121 wt.%), compressibility (E: 2.1 ± 0.9–9.2 ± 2.3 kPa), material morphology and drug-loading capability were successfully adjusted based on the selected network architecture. Here, hydrogel incubation with model drugs of varied electrostatic charge, i.e. allura red (AR, doubly negatively charged), methyl orange (MO, negatively charged) or methylene blue (MB, positively charged), resulted in direct hydrogel–dye electrostatic complexation. Importantly, the cationic compound, MB, showed different incorporation behaviours, depending on the electrostatic character of the selected cross-linker. In light of this tunable drug-loading capability, these CT hydrogels would be highly attractive as drug reservoirs towards e.g. the fabrication of tissue models in vitro

Effects of Variations in Question-Phrasing on True-False Answers by Grade-School Children

A 72-item questionnaire was administered to 97 elementary school children in Grades 3 to 6. An attempt was made to assess the effect of asking the same basic type of question, when the following variations were independently introduced: (1) presence or absence of a negative in the statement of the question, (2) truth value of the statement to be answered, and (3) form of presentation of the material. All three variations produced some statistically significant results, such that number of errors was correlated with “mental steps” of decoding necessary for solution. Developmental differences with respect to the tasks were noted, such that certain discriminations were made earlier than others within the variations. </jats:p