Nutrition education for cardiovascular disease prevention in individuals with spinal cord injuries: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

The interaction of macronutrients and body composition among individuals with chronic spinal cord injury

Changes in body composition and dietary intake occur following spinal cord injury (SCI). The Geometric Framework for Nutrition (GFN) is a tool that allows the examination of the complex relationships between multiple nutrition factors and health parameters within a single model. This study aimed to utilize the GFN to examine the associations between self-reported macronutrient intakes and body composition in persons with chronic SCI. Forty-eight individuals with chronic SCI were recruited. Participants completed and returned 3- or 5-day self-reported dietary recall sheets. Dietary intake of macronutrients (fats, proteins, and carbohydrates) were analysed. Anthropometric measures (circumferences), dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were used to assess whlole-body composition. Associations between all circumference measures and carbohydrates were observed. Among MRI measures, only significant associations between subcutaneous adipose tissue and protein x carbohydrate as well as carbohydrates alone were identified. Carbohydrates were negatively associated with several measures of fat mass as measured by DXA. Overall, carbohydrates appear to play an important role in body composition among individuals with SCI. Higher carbohydrate intake was associated with lower fat mass. Additional research is needed to determine how carbohydrate intake influences body composition and cardiometabolic health after SCI.

LINC00472 regulates vascular smooth muscle cell migration and proliferation via regulating miR-149-3p

LncRNAs are one group of gene modulators functioning via several mechanisms in pathological and physiological conditions. We noted that LINC00472 expression level is elevated in atherosclerotic coronary tissues compared with normal coronary artery samples. LINC00472 is also upregulated in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) induced by TNF-α and PDGF-BB. Ectopic expression of LINC00472 induced VSMC migration and proliferation. The predicted binding sequence between miR-149-3p and LINC00472 was analyzed by LncBase Predicted. Overexpression of miR-149-3p decreases the luciferase activity of wild-type reporter plasmid, but not the mutant one. Ectopic expression of LINC00472 suppresses the expression of miR-149-3p in VSMCs. Furthermore, we demonstrated that miR-149-3p expression is decreased in atherosclerotic coronary tissues. MiR-149-3p was downregulated in VSMCs induced by TNF-α and PDGF-BB. Overexpression of LINC00472 induces VSMC migration and proliferation via regulating miR-149-3p. These data suggested that LINC00472 acts a critical role in the migration and proliferation of VSMCs partly via modulating miR-149-3p.