Kepaløg (Allium cepa L) dyrket konventionelt og økologisk - ligheder og forskelle

Denne Grøn Viden giver information om 5 sorters udbytteforskelle v hhv. økologisk og konventionel dyrkning. Desuden dokumenterer den, at der er større frasortering blandt konventionelt dyrkede kepaløg end blandt økologisk dyrkede

Vitamin D depletion aggravates hypertension and target-organ damage

BACKGROUND: We tested the controversial hypothesis that vitamin D depletion aggravates hypertension and target-organ damage by influencing renin. METHODS AND RESULTS: Four-week-old double-transgenic rats (dTGR) with excess angiotensin (Ang) II production due to overexpression of the human renin (hREN) and angiotensinogen (hAGT) genes received vitamin D-depleted (n=18) or standard chow (n=15) for 3 weeks. The depleted group had very low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels (mean+/-SEM; 3.8+/-0.29 versus 40.6+/-1.19 nmol/L) and had higher mean systolic BP at week 5 (158+/-3.5 versus 134.6+/-3.7 mm Hg, P<0.001), week 6 (176.6+/-3.3 versus 162.3+/-3.8 mm Hg, P<0.01), and week 7 (171.6+/-5.1 versus 155.9+/-4.3 mm Hg, P<0.05). Vitamin D depletion led to increased relative heart weights and increased serum creatinine concentrations. Furthermore, the mRNAs of natriuretic peptides, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, hREN, and rRen were increased by vitamin D depletion. Regulatory T cells in the spleen and in the circulation were not affected. Ang metabolites, including Ang II and the counter-regulatory breakdown product Ang 1 to 7, were significantly up-regulated in the vitamin D-depleted groups, while ACE-1 and ACE-2 activities were not affected. CONCLUSIONS: Short-term severe vitamin D depletion aggravated hypertension and target-organ damage in dTGR. Our data suggest that even short-term severe vitamin D deficiency may directly promote hypertension and impacts on renin-angiotensin system components that could contribute to target-organ damage. The findings add to the evidence that vitamin D deficiency could also affect human hypertension

Long-term stability of five atypical antipsychotics (risperidone, olanzapine, paliperidone, clozapine, quetiapine) and the antidepressant mirtazapine in human serum assessed by a validated SPE LC–MS/MS method

Long-term sample stability of five atypical antipsychoticdrugs risperidone, paliperidone, clozapine, quetiapine and olanzapine and the antidepressant drug mirtazapine in serum was studied by use of a newly developed and validated analytical method based on solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Ascorbic acid was used as an antioxidative agent to stabilize olanzapine during storage and sample preparation. We assessed analyte stability on long-term storage in serum samples at 25°C, 5°C, −20°C and −80°C, and during five freeze–thaw cycles. Analytes were stable for 23 days at room temperature except for olanzapine and mirtazapine (17 days). All analytes were stable for at least 30 days at 5°C. All analytes were stable for 270 days at −20°C, except for paliperidone and mirtazapine with 60 days and 180 days, respectively. All analytes were stable for 270 days at −80°C. Furthermore, all analytes were stable for five freeze–thaw cycles. We recommend storage at −80°C when samples drawn for analysis of antipsychotic drugs are stored for more than 60 days, whereas a temperature of −20°C is sufficient for storage less than 60 days.</p

Screening of substance use in pregnancy:A Danish cross-sectional study

Introduction: There is a paucity of objectively verified data on substance use among Danish pregnant women. We estimated the prevalence of substance use including alcohol and nicotine among the general population of Danish pregnant women. Material and Methods: In this anonymous, national, cross-sectional, descriptive study, pregnant women were invited when attending an ultrasound scan between November 2019 and December 2020 at nine Danish hospitals. Women submitted a urine sample and filled out a questionnaire. Urine samples were screened on-site with a qualitative urine dipstick for 15 substances including alcohol, nicotine, opioids, amphetamines, cannabis, and benzodiazepines. All screen-positive urine samples underwent secondary quantitative analyses with gold standard, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) analysis. Results were compared to questionnaire information to analyze the validity of self-reporting and to examine possible cross-reactions. Results: A total of 1903 of 2154 invited pregnant women participated (88.3%). The prevalence of dipstick-positive urine samples was 25.0%. 44.0% of these were confirmed positive, resulting in a total confirmed prevalence of 10.8%. The prevalence of nicotine use was 10.1%—and for all other substances, &lt;0.5%. Nicotine use was more prevalent among younger pregnant women, while other substance use appeared evenly distributed over age groups. Self-reporting of use of nicotine products was high (71.1%), but low for cannabis and alcohol intake (0% and 33.3%, respectively). Prescription medication explained almost all cases of oxycodone, methylphenidate, and benzodiazepine use. Conclusions: Substance use among pregnant women consisted mainly of nicotine. Dipstick screening involved risks of false negatives and false positives. Except for alcohol intake and cannabis use, dipstick analyses did not seem to provide further information than self-reporting. LC–MS/MS analyses remain gold standard, and future role of dipstick screenings should be discussed.</p

Implementation and clinical benefit of DPYD genotyping in a Danish cancer population

BACKGROUND: In 2020, the European Medicines Agency recommended testing patients for dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) deficiency before systemic treatment with fluoropyrimidines (FP). DPD activity testing identifies patients at elevated risk of severe FP-related toxicity (FP-TOX). The two most used methods for DPD testing are DPYD genotyping and DPD phenotyping (plasma uracil concentration). The primary objective of this study was to compare the overall frequency of overall grade ≥3 FP-TOX before and after the implementation of DPYD genotyping.PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two hundred thirty Danish, primarily gastrointestinal cancer patients, were DPYD-genotyped before their first dose of FP, and blood was sampled for post hoc assessment of P-uracil. The initial dose was reduced for variant carriers. Grade ≥3 FP-TOX was registered after the first three treatment cycles of FP. The frequency of toxicity was compared to a historical cohort of 492 patients with post hoc determined DPYD genotype from a biobank.RESULTS: The frequency of overall grade ≥3 FP-TOX was 27% in the DPYD genotype-guided group compared to 24% in the historical cohort. In DPYD variant carriers, DPYD genotyping reduced the frequency of FP-related hospitalization from 19% to 0%. In the control group, 4.8% of DPYD variant carriers died due to FP-TOX compared to 0% in the group receiving DPYD genotype-guided dosing of FP. In the intervention group, wild-type patients with uracil ≥16 ng/ml had a higher frequency of FP-TOX than wild-type patients with uracil &lt;16 ng/ml (55% versus 28%).CONCLUSIONS: We found no population-level benefit of DPYD genotyping when comparing the risk of grade ≥3 FP-TOX before and after clinical implementation. We observed no deaths or FP-related hospitalizations in patients whose FP treatment was guided by a variant DPYD genotype. The use of DPD phenotyping may add valuable information in DPYD wild-type patients.</p

Disturbed microcirculation and hyperaemic response in a murine model of systemic inflammation

Systemic inflammation affects cognitive functions and increases the risk of dementia. This phenomenon is thought to be mediated in part by cytokines that promote neuronal survival, but the continuous exposure to which may lead to neurodegeneration. The effects of systemic inflammation on cerebral blood vessels, and their provision of adequate oxygen to support critical brain parenchymal cell functions, remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that neurovascular coupling is profoundly disturbed in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced systemic inflammation in awake mice. In the 24 hours following LPS injection, the hyperaemic response of pial vessels to functional activation was attenuated and delayed. Concurrently, under steady-state conditions, the capillary network displayed a significant increase in the number of capillaries with blocked blood flow, as well as increased duration of ‘capillary stalls’—a phenomenon previously reported in animal models of stroke and Alzheimer’s disease pathology. We speculate that vascular changes and impaired oxygen availability may affect brain functions following acute systemic inflammation and contribute to the long-term risk of neurodegenerative changes associated with chronic, systemic inflammation

Evaluation of antiseizure medication concentration ranges in blood samples using an automated big data approach

Objective: The aim of the study is to provide insight into the real-world use of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) for the most common antiseizure medications (ASMs). Methods: In total, 137 586 samples from the period 2019–2023 were collected from the five main Danish laboratories performing TDM. A previously described algorithm developed to exclude abnormal TDM results from patient data was applied. This resulted in the inclusion of 84 951 samples from 53 406 patients. Concentration ranges were calculated as 10th to 90th percentiles for the datasets of the ASMs: brivaracetam, carbamazepine, lacosamide, lamotrigine, levetiracetam, oxcarbazepine, perampanel, phenobarbital, topiramate, valproic acid, and zonisamide. The observed concentration ranges were compared to the established reference ranges from Danish laboratories, the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Neuropsychopharmakologie und Pharmakopsychiatrie (AGNP). Furthermore, data were stratified based on sex, age groups (0–17, 18–64, and 65–100 years) and indication (all indications vs psychiatric indication). Results: The observed concentration ranges showed good overall concordance with reference ranges from Danish laboratories except for levetiracetam, whereas the ranges for brivaracetam, lacosamide, lamotrigine, levetiracetam, valproic acid, and zonisamide were different from the AGNP and ILAE guidelines. Age-related differences were identified for several of the drugs. The calculated range of lamotrigine was lower in samples requested from psychiatric departments compared to samples from non-psychiatric departments. Significance: The applied automated approach can facilitate a fast and efficient method for comparing established reference ranges with nationwide TDM datasets, thereby allowing continual monitoring of laboratory reference ranges. The findings from this study suggest that the Danish reference range for levetiracetam should be reevaluated. Furthermore, dose adjustment may be relevant for levetiracetam, topiramate, and lacosamide to account for age-related changes in metabolism. The lower concentration range for lamotrigine in the psychiatric population indicates that it may be effective at lower concentrations in patients with bipolar disorder compared to patients with epilepsy.</p

Arm-in-cage testing of natural human-derived mosquito repellents

BACKGROUND: Individual human subjects are differentially attractive to mosquitoes and other biting insects. Previous investigations have demonstrated that this can be attributed partly to enhanced production of natural repellent chemicals by those individuals that attract few mosquitoes in the laboratory. The most important compounds in this respect include three aldehydes, octanal, nonanal and decanal, and two ketones, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and geranylacetone [(E)-6,10-dimethylundeca-5,9-dien-2-one]. In olfactometer trials, these compounds interfered with attraction of mosquitoes to a host and consequently show promise as novel mosquito repellents. METHODS: To test whether these chemicals could provide protection against mosquitoes, laboratory repellency trials were carried out to test the chemicals individually at different concentrations and in different mixtures and ratios with three major disease vectors: Anopheles gambiae, Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti. RESULTS: Up to 100% repellency was achieved depending on the type of repellent compound tested, the concentration and the relative composition of the mixture. The greatest effect was observed by mixing together two compounds, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and geranylacetone in a 1:1 ratio. This mixture exceeded the repellency of DEET when presented at low concentrations. The repellent effect of this mixture was maintained over several hours. Altering the ratio of these compounds significantly affected the behavioural response of the mosquitoes, providing evidence for the ability of mosquitoes to detect and respond to specific mixtures and ratios of natural repellent compounds that are associated with host location. CONCLUSION: The optimum mixture of 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and geranylacetone was a 1:1 ratio and this provided the most effective protection against all species of mosquito tested. With further improvements in formulation, selected blends of these compounds have the potential to be exploited and developed as human-derived novel repellents for personal protection