Protection against type 2 diabetes offered by a Mediterranean diet and diets low in available carbohydrates

Main Category: Diabetes
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet;  Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 19 Aug 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Protection against type 2 diabetes offered by a Mediterranean diet and diets low in available carbohydrates

New research shows that a Mediterranean-style diet and diets low in available carbohydrates can offer protection against type 2 diabetes. The study is published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), and is by Dr Carlo La Vecchia, Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research, Milan, Italy, and colleagues.

The authors studied patients from Greece who are part of the ongoing European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition (EPIC), led by Dr. Antonia Trichopoulou, from the University of Athens. From a total of 22,295 participants, actively followed up for just over 11 years, 2,330 cases of type 2 diabetes were recorded. To assess dietary habits, all participants completed a questionnaire, and the researchers constructed a 10-point Mediterranean diet score (MDS) and a similar scale to measure the available carbohydrate (or glycaemic load [GL]) of the diet.

People with an MDS of over 6 were 12% less likely to develop diabetes than those with the lowest MDS of 3 or under. Patients with the highest available carbohydrate in their diet were 21% more likely to develop diabetes than those with the lowest. A high MDS combined with low available carbohydrate reduced the chances of developing diabetes by 20% as compared with a diet low in MDS and high in GL.

The authors say: "The role of the Mediterranean diet in weight control is still controversial, and in most studies from Mediterranean countries the adherence to the Mediterranean diet was unrelated to overweight. This suggests that the protection of the Mediterranean diet against diabetes is not through weight control, but through several dietary characteristics of the Mediterranean diet. However, this issue is difficult to address in cohort studies because of the lack of information on weight changes during follow-up that are rarely recorded."

They point out that a particular feature of the Mediterranean diet is the use of extra virgin olive oil which leads to a high ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fatty acids. But again research here has been conflicting. One review of dietary fat and diabetes suggests that replacing saturated and trans fats with unsaturated fats has beneficial effects on insulin sensitivity and is likely to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. However, in a randomised trial of high-cardiovascular-risk individuals who were assigned to the Mediterranean diet supplemented with either free extra virgin olive oil or nuts and were compared with individuals on a low-fat diet (comparison group), there was no difference in diabetes occurrence between the two variants of the Mediterranean diet when compared with the comparison group.

Regarding GL, the authors say: "High GL diet leads to rapid rises in blood glucose and insulin levels. The chronically increased insulin demand may eventually result in pancreatic ß cell failure and, as a consequence, impaired glucose tolerance and increased insulin resistance, which is a predictor of diabetes. A high dietary GL has also been unfavourably related to glycaemic control in individuals with diabetes."

They conclude: "A low GL diet that also adequately adheres to the principles of the traditional Mediterranean diet may reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes."

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
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Potential to repair any genetic defect offered by new gene repair technique

Main Category: Genetics
Article Date: 14 Aug 2013 - 1:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Potential to repair any genetic defect offered by new gene repair technique

Using human pluripotent stem cells and DNA-cutting protein from meningitis bacteria, researchers from the Morgridge Institute for Research and Northwestern University have created an efficient way to target and repair defective genes.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team reports that the novel technique is much simpler than previous methods and establishes the groundwork for major advances in regenerative medicine, drug screening and biomedical research.

Zhonggang Hou of the Morgridge Institute's regenerative biology team and Yan Zhang of Northwestern University served as first authors on the study; James Thomson, director of regenerative biology at the Morgridge Institute, and Erik Sontheimer, professor of molecular biosciences at Northwestern University, served as principal investigators.

"With this system, there is the potential to repair any genetic defect, including those responsible for some forms of breast cancer, Parkinson's and other diseases," Hou said. "The fact that it can be applied to human pluripotent stem cells opens the door for meaningful therapeutic applications."

Zhang said the Northwestern University team focused on Neisseria meningitidis bacteria because it is a good source of the Cas9 protein needed for precisely cleaving damaged sections of DNA.

"We are able to guide this protein with different types of small RNA molecules, allowing us to carefully remove, replace or correct problem genes," Zhang said. "This represents a step forward from other recent technologies built upon proteins such as zinc finger nucleases and TALENs."

These previous gene correction methods required engineered proteins to help with the cutting. Hou said scientists can synthesize RNA for the new process in as little as one to three days - compared with the weeks or months needed to engineer suitable proteins.

Thomson, who also serves as the James Kress Professor of Embryonic Stem Cell Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a John D. MacArthur professor at UW-Madison's School of Medicine and Public Health and a professor in the department of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says the discovery holds many practical applications.

"Human pluripotent stem cells can proliferate indefinitely and they give rise to virtually all human cell types, making them invaluable for regenerative medicine, drug screening and biomedical research," Thomson says. "Our collaboration with the Northwestern team has taken us further toward realizing the full potential of these cells because we can now manipulate their genomes in a precise, efficient manner."

Sontheimer, who serves as the Soretta and Henry Shapiro Research Professor of Molecular Biology with Northwestern's department of molecular biosciences, Center for Genetic Medicine and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, says the team's results also offer hopeful signs about the safety of the technique.

"A major concern with previous methods involved inadvertent or off-target cleaving, raising issues about the potential impact in regenerative medicine applications," he said. "Beyond overcoming the safety obstacles, the system's ease of use will make what was once considered a difficult project into a routine laboratory technique, catalyzing future research."

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our genetics section for the latest news on this subject.

Efficient genome engineering in human pluripotent stem cells using Cas9 from Neisseria meningitidis

Also contributing to the study, which was supported by funding from sources including the National Institutes of Health, the Wynn Foundation and the Morgridge Institute for Research, were Nicholas Propson, Sara Howden and Li-Fang Chu from the Morgridge Institute for Research.

Zhonggang Hou, Yan Zhang, Nicholas E. Propson, Sara E. Howden, Li-Fang Chu, Erik J. Sontheimer, and James A. Thomson. PNAS 2013 ; published ahead of print August 12, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1313587110

University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Bone healing turbo boost offered by 'magic metal'

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Academic Journal
Main Category: Bones / Orthopedics
Article Date: 31 Jul 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Bone healing turbo boost offered by 'magic metal'
An unusual "nanowire" coating for medical implants may soon be helping broken bones and joint replacements to heal faster.

Ohio State University reports that research engineers there have found that bone cells grow and reproduce almost twice as fast on a textured surface made of metal oxide wires, each tens of thousands of times thinner than a human hair.

The engineers have developed an affordable technique for creating these wires, which they describe in a paper in the current issue of the journal Ceramics International. The research suggests that the coating could help healthy bone form a strong bond with a metal implant.

The Ohio State University team call their process "Nanostructures by material design."

Sheikh Akbar, professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State, explains:

"What's really exciting about this technique is that we don't have to carve the nanowires from a solid piece of metal or alloy.

We can grow them from scratch, by exploiting the physics and chemistry of the materials."

Co-advised by Suliman Dregia, associate professor of materials science and engineering, Prof. Sheikh Akbar's team has been able to grow the wires by tailoring the mix of materials and gases inside a furnace.

At temperatures around 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, fine filaments of titanium dioxide rose from a smooth titanium surface.

The rise of the fine filaments was expected, but what happened next was not. Each wire began to wrap a protective coating of aluminum oxide around itself - like a layer of bark around a tree trunk. This would have made sense if the scientists had been working with a titanium alloy that contained aluminum. But they were working with pure titanium, so it is not clear how this aluminum coating formed.

"It's strange that we don't completely understand why this process works the way it does. We're going to have to do some fancy microscopy to figure it out, but we do know that the wires only form under just the right conditions," Prof. Sheikh Akbar said.

In tests, the researchers grew bone cancer cells on three different surfaces: smooth titanium, smooth titanium dioxide, and the nanowire carpet. They chose cancer cells because they are particularly hardy, and also reproduce in the same way healthy bone cells do.

The biggest difference in cell growth occurred within the first 15 hours of testing, when researchers measured a 20% higher concentration of the bone-growth enzyme alkaline phosphatase in the cells growing on the nanowires. By the end of the study, there were around 90,000 cells per square centimeter on the nanowire surface - 80% higher density than on the other two surfaces.

Study co-author Derek Hansford, associate professor of biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering, said that the coating could aid people who have hip and knee replacements, dental implants, or broken bones that require screws and plates for repair.

Derek Hansford said:

"Our hope is that this surface treatment will become a simple-to-implement modification to titanium implants to help them form a stronger interface with surrounding bone tissue.

A stronger interface means that implants and bones will be better able to share mechanical loads, and we can better preserve healthy bone and soft tissue around the implant site."

Prof. Sheikh Akbar believes that the price is right for commercial development. Around $100 worth of metal foil provides enough material to make hundreds of samples. The method could hardly be simpler - set the right mix of materials and gases in a laboratory furnace, press the 'On' button, sit back and wait.

"Seriously, if you spent the day in my lab, you could learn how to do it yourself," Prof. Sheikh Akbar said.

His team are now exploring other material and gas combinations to make different nano-sized shapes for cell growth and chemical sensing in a program partially funded by the US National Science Foundation.

Written by Nick Valentine

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