Interactive Effects of Early Exclusive Breastfeeding and Pre-Pregnancy Maternal Weight Status on Young Children's BMI - A Chinese Birth Cohort

A Case Study of Eukaryogenesis: The Evolution of Photoreception by Photolyase/Cryptochrome Proteins

Eukaryogenesis, the origin of the eukaryotes, is still poorly understood. Herein, we show how a detailed all-kingdom phylogenetic analysis overlaid with a map of key biochemical features can provide valuable clues. The photolyase/cryptochrome family of proteins are well known to repair DNA in response to potentially harmful effects of sunlight and to entrain circadian rhythms. Phylogenetic analysis of photolyase/cryptochrome protein sequences from a wide range of prokaryotes and eukaryotes points to a number of horizontal gene transfer events between ancestral bacteria and ancestral eukaryotes. Previous experimental research has characterised patterns of tryptophan residues in these proteins that are important for photoreception, specifically a tryptophan dyad, a canonical tryptophan triad, an alternative tryptophan triad, a tryptophan tetrad and an alternative tetrad. Our results suggest that the spread of the different triad and tetrad motifs across the kingdoms of life accompanied the putative horizontal gene transfers and is consistent with multiple bacterial contributions to eukaryogenesis.

Impact of parental weight status on children's body mass index in early life: evidence from a Chinese cohort

OBJECTIVES

To understand whether parents' weight status before conception predicts body mass index (BMI) of their offspring in early life and the differences between the mother-child and father-child associations.

DESIGN

A birth cohort study.

SETTING

Conducted at the Community Health Service Centre in Shenyang, Wuhan and Guangzhou.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 2220 live birth newborns were recruited randomly after consent of their parents, and 1178 were followed up until 2 years old.

METHODS

Parental demographics, maternal characteristics during pregnancy, children's anthropometric data and feeding patterns at 1 month old were collected. BMI was calculated and BMI Z-scores (BMI_Z) were generated by referring to WHO growth standard. Parental weight status was categorised into underweight, normal weight, and overweight and obese according to the Working Group of Obesity in China. General linear models and generalised linear models were used to assess the associations between parents and offspring.

OUTCOME MEASURES

The primary outcomes were descriptive data on child's sex-specific anthropometric variables. The secondary outcomes were BMI_Z and weight status of children at each time point.

RESULTS

No gender difference was observed in BMI_Z or overweight or obesity rates from birth to 24 months old, although boys were significantly heavier and had a greater length/height than girls (P<0.05). The overweight and obesity rates of children peaked at 12 months old. Maternal BMI/weight status had a significant but small effect on BMI_Z at birth, but not on the paternal side. The impact of parental BMI on child's BMI_Z after birth was similar at each follow-up. Offspring with underweight mothers tend to have reduced BMI_Z after birth while overweight/obese fathers had children with a greater BMI_Z.

CONCLUSIONS

Maternal weight status had small effect on both fetal and child growth after birth. Significant but mild paternal influence was only detected after birth.

Exclusive breastfeeding and partial breastfeeding reduce the risk of overweight in childhood: A nationwide longitudinal study in Korea

OBJECTIVE

Breastfeeding is generally known to reduce the risk of childhood overweight and obesity. However, the results are controversial between countries, and nationwide data are rare. This study assessed the relationship between breastfeeding types and overweight incidence using nationwide longitudinal data in Korea.

METHODS

We analysed 774,764 infants who participated in the longitudinal nationwide data from the Korea National Children's Health Examination 2007-2013. Childhood overweight was defined by a Z-score≥1.64 (95th centile) for infants under 24 months and Z-scores≥1.04 (85th centile) for children over 24 months. Cox proportional hazard model was used to analyse the relationship between breastfeeding types and overweight incidence.

RESULTS

Infants who were exclusively breastfed at 4-6 months of age had the multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio (HRs) for overweight of 0.78 (95% CI 0.77-0.79) and infants who were partially breastfed had the HRs for overweight of 0.96 (95% CI 0.94-0.98), which was lower compared to that of the exclusively formula fed group. Similar results were obtained for stratified analysis by boys and girls.

CONCLUSIONS

Exclusive and partial breastfeeding have preventive effect on childhood overweight in Korea. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage breastfeeding to prevent childhood obesity and its consequences in developed Asian countries.

Association between Sleep and Body Weight: A Panel Data Model Based on a Retrospective Longitudinal Cohort of Chinese Infants

The focus of this article is on sleep duration and sleep problems in infants and their association with body weight. A retrospective birth cohort of 519 infants was enrolled in a community-based study conducted in Changsha, China. Infant weight and other health-related information were collected during regular standard checkups at the Community Health Service Centers when infants were 1, 3, 6, 8, and 12 months old. The sleep duration and sleep problems of infants were assessed by maternal self-reports. Panel data model was used to evaluate the association of sleep duration and sleep problems with infant body weight. Significant relevance between self-reported sleep duration and weight of infants has been reported in the literature tested by the fixed effects model (p < 0.01). However, this study indicated that sleep problems of infants had no effect on their weight (p = 0.151), after adjusting feeding patterns and socioeconomic factors of their families. This paper argues that, as a potentially modifiable risk factor, infant sleep duration deserves more attention from their parents and families in order to prevent and control overweight or obesity in infants as well as reducing the incidence of obesity in adults.

Developmental origins of type 2 diabetes: a perspective from China

There has been a marked increase in the prevalence of diabetes in Asia, including China, over the last few decades. While the increased prevalence of diabetes has often been attributed to the nutritional transition associated with recent economic development, emerging data suggest that early-life exposures also play a major role in shaping developmental trajectories, and contributes to alter an individual's susceptibility to diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Early-life exposures such as in utero exposure to undernutrition has been consistently linked with later risk of diabetes and obesity. Furthermore, in utero exposure to maternal hyperglycemia, maternal obesity and excess gestational weight gain are all linked with increased childhood obesity and later risk of diabetes. Emerging data have also highlighted the potential link between early-feeding practices, the role of one-carbon metabolism in metabolic programming and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) with later risk of diabetes. These different developmental exposures may all be highly relevant to the current epidemic of diabetes in China. For example, the prevalence of gestational diabetes has increased markedly over the last two decades, and may contribute to the diabetes epidemic by driving macrosomia, childhood obesity and later risk of diabetes. In order to address the current burden of diabetes, a lifecourse perspective, incorporating multisectoral efforts from public health policy down to the individuals, will be needed. Several major initiatives have been launched in China as part of its national plans for NCD prevention and treatment, and the experience from these efforts would be invaluable.