Dana Müllerová

Mitochondria in White, Brown, and Beige Adipocytes.

Mitochondria play a key role in energy metabolism in many tissues, including cardiac and skeletal muscle, brain, liver, and adipose tissue. Three types of adipose depots can be identified in mammals, commonly classified according to their colour appearance: the white (WAT), the brown (BAT), and the beige/brite/brown-like (bAT) adipose tissues. WAT is mainly involved in the storage and mobilization of energy and BAT is predominantly responsible for nonshivering thermogenesis. Recent data suggest that adipocyte mitochondria might play an important role in the development of obesity through defects in mitochondrial lipogenesis and lipolysis, regulation of adipocyte differentiation, apoptosis, production of oxygen radicals, efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation, and regulation of conversion of white adipocytes into brown-like adipocytes. This review summarizes the main characteristics of each adipose tissue subtype and describes morphological and functional modifications focusing on mitochondria and their activity in healthy and unhealthy adipocytes.

Negative association between plasma levels of adiponectin and polychlorinated biphenyl 153 in obese women under non-energy-restrictive regime

The aim of this study was to reveal whether accumulation of the persistent organic pollutants (POPs), especially polychlorinated biphenyl (2,2′,4,4′,5,5′-hexachlorobiphenyl, PCB 153), affects plasma levels of adiponectin in obese patients. The study was designed as a longitudinal intervention trial with a control group, where 27 obese women (body mass index (BMI)>30 kg/m2; age 21–74 years) were studied before (OB) and after (OB-LCD) a 3-month low-calorie-diet intervention (LCD; 5 MJ daily). As the control group, 9 female volunteers without LCD intervention were used (C; BMI=19–25 kg/m2; age 21–64 years). Plasma levels of PCB 153 were measured by high-resolution gas chromatography with electron capture detection; total adiponectin and insulin plasma levels were quantified by immunoassays; and adiponectin multimeric complexes were quantified by immunoblotting. Plasma levels of total adiponectin, high and medium molecular weight multimers significantly negatively correlated with plasma levels of PCB 153 in OB, but not in C or in OB-LCD, whereas the LCD intervention lowered BMI by 3.3±3.0 kg/m2. Our results may suggest suppression of adiponectin by PCB 153 in obese women under non-energy-restrictive regime, which may contribute to the known association of PCB 153 and other POPs with type 2 diabetes.

Biological models for phytochemical research: from cell to human organism

Nutrigenomics represents a shift of nutrition research from epidemiology and physiology to molecular biology and genetics. Nutrigenomics seeks to understand nutrition influences on homeostasis, the mechanism of genetic predispositions for diseases, to identify the genes influencing risk of diet related diseases. This review presents some in vitro models applicable in nutrigenomic studies, and discusses the use of animal models, their advantages and limitations and relevance for human situation. In vitro and in vivo models are suitable for performance of DNA microarrays, proteomic and transcriptomic analyses. In vitro models (intracellular organelles and suborganellar compartments, cell cultures, or tissue samples/cultures) give insight in metabolic pathways and responses to test stimuli on cellular and molecular levels. Animal models allow evaluation of the biological significance of the effects recorded in vitro and testing of the hypothesis on how a specific factor affects specific species under specific circumstances. Therefore, the evaluation of the data in relation to human organism should be done carefully, considering the species differences. The use of in vitro and in vivo models is likely to continue as the effects of nutrition on health and disease cannot be fully explained without understanding of nutrients action at nuclear level and their role in the intra- and intercellular signal transduction. Through advances in cell and molecular biology (including genomic and proteomic), the use of these models should become more predictively accurate. However, this predictive value relies on an underpinning knowledge of the advantages and limitations of the model in nutrigenomic research as in other fields of biomedical research.

Impact of breast-feeding promotion on infant feeding in the Czech Republic.

OBJECTIVES To assess infant feeding practices, identify factors that influence the duration of exclusive breast-feeding, and evaluate the impact of the National Breastfeeding Promotion Programme in the Czech Republic. HYPOTHESIS We predicted the positive effect of the program in terms of increased prevalence of breast-feeding at discharge from the hospital and 6 months later. DESIGN Multicenter cross-sectional survey. Mothers were randomly selected and interviewed in maternity hospitals in 1998 and were reinterviewed 6 months later. SETTINGS Nine maternity hospitals in 6 cities across the country and households. PARTICIPANTS 1104 mothers who gave birth within the 38th to the 42nd week of pregnancy to a healthy child with a minimum birthweight 2500 g; 1019 mothers were reinterviewed 6 months later. INTERVENTION The National Breastfeeding Promotion Programme implemented since 1991. VARIABLES MEASURED Breast-feeding rates at discharge from the hospital and 6 months later, participation in prenatal classes, strategies related to breast-feeding promotion in the hospital, and support following discharge. ANALYSIS Epi Info 6, SPSS (analysis of variance, F test), chi2. RESULTS On leaving the hospital, 93.5% of newborns were exclusively breast-fed. Six months later, 23.1% of infants were breast-fed exclusively and 29.9% of infants were breast-fed while receiving complementary food. Participation in prenatal classes, first suckling within 2 hours of birth, breast-feeding on demand in the hospital, exclusive breast-feeding on leaving the hospital, and the duration of breast-feeding recommended by a pediatrician were positively related to the duration of exclusive breast-feeding (P <.001). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Compared with national data from the last 2 decades, the data from this study proved the increasing rates of breast-feeding at discharge from the hospital and 6 months later. The findings indicate the effectiveness of the National Breastfeeding Promotion Programme. However, further implementation of breast-feeding promotion strategies in health facilities coordinated by the Ministry of Health is needed.

Balancing Upstream and Downstream Measures to Tackle the Obesity Epidemic : A Position Statement from the European Association for the Study of Obesity

© 2017 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger GmbH, Freiburg. This is an Open Access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Interna- tional License (CC BY-NC-ND) (http://www.karger.com/Services/OpenAccessLicense). Usage and distribu- tion for commercial purposes as well as any distribution of modified material requires written permission.

A Proposal of the European Association for the Study of Obesity to Improve the ICD-11 Diagnostic Criteria for Obesity Based on the Three Dimensions Etiology, Degree of Adiposity and Health Risk

Diagnostic criteria for complex medical conditions caused by a multitude of both genetic and environmental factors should be descriptive and avoid any attribution of causality. Furthermore, the wording used to describe a disorder should be evidence-based and avoid stigmatization of the affected individuals. Both terminology and categorizations should be readily comprehensible for healthcare professionals and guide clinical decision making. Uncertainties with respect to diagnostic issues and their implications may be addressed to direct future clinical research. In this context, the European Association of the Study of Obesity (EASO) considers it an important endeavor to review the current ICD-11 Beta Draft for the definition of overweight and obesity and to propose a substantial revision. We aim to provide an overview of the key issues that we deem relevant for the discussion of the diagnostic criteria. We first discuss the current ICD-10 criteria and those proposed in the ICD 11 Beta Draft. We conclude with our own proposal for diagnostic criteria, which we believe will improve the assessment of patients with obesity in a clinically meaningful way.

Urine Levels of Phthalate Metabolites and Bisphenol A in Relation to Main Metabolic Syndrome Components: Dyslipidemia, Hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes. A pilot study.

AIM Human exposure to organic pollutants (some of them also called endocrine disruptors) can be associated with adverse metabolic health outcomes including type 2 diabetes. The goal of this study was to compare the urine levels of bisphenol A and phthalate metabolites in subgroups of patients with metabolic syndrome composed of patients with and without three important components of metabolic syndrome (hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes). METHODS We have investigated 24 hr urine samples of 168 patients with metabolic syndrome from the Metabolic Outpatient Department of General University Hospital in Prague. Using standard metabolic syndrome criteria, we classified patients as dyslipidemic (n=87), hypertensive (n=96), and type 2 diabetic (n=58). Bisphenol A and 15 metabolites of phthalates were evaluated in relation to creatinine excretion. Samples were analysed with enzymatic cleavage of glucuronide using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry in one laboratory with external quality control. RESULTS Four metabolites, mono-n-butyl phthalate, mono-(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate, mono-(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate, and mono-(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate showed significantly higher levels in diabetic compared to non-diabetic patients (p<0.001, p=0.002, p=0.002, and p=0.005, respectively). The differences remained significant after adjustment to hypertension, dyslipidemia, age, and BMI. No difference was found between either the hypertensive and non-hypertensive or dyslipidemic and non-dyslipidemic patients. There was no significant relation of bisphenol A level to diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, age, and BMI. CONCLUSIONS Urine levels of four phthalate metabolites were significantly higher in type 2 diabetics independently on specified predictors. Phthalate levels can be in relation to beta cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetic patients but this study is not able to show if the relation is causal.

Intake and Profile of Plant Polyphenols in the Diet of the Czech Population

Abstract Nowadays, a great attention is paid to the biological activity of plant polyphenols and their potential importance for the human health. Therefore knowledge regarding the dietary intake of polyphenols and their particular subclasses has gained interest. In this report, the results of a pilot study evaluating the average polyphenol content in the Czech diet have been presented. Knowledge of the average intake of plant polyphenols is an important contribution to the evaluation of the dietary pattern from the aspect of its health impact. An annual average consumption of the main foods of plant origin (a total of 80 commodities) was estimated, using data from the Czech annual statistical report, in the entire Czech population in 2013. These values (kg/y) were multiplied with the contents of plant polyphenols in the same items as presented in the in the database Phenol Explorer. The average intake of plant polyphenols was 426 mg/d. The prevailing polyphenols were chlorogenic acid, 82 mg/d (most important sources were potatoes, coffee, plums), followed by apigeninflavone, 79 mg/d (wheat), heneicosylresorcinol, 38 mg/d (wheat), ferrulic acid, 17 mg/d (wheat) and anthocyanin malvidin, 13 mg/d (red wine). These values are below the intake of polyphenols in the most EU countries. These differences reflect – inter alia – the fact that beer having low content of polyphenols is a dominant commodity in Czech dietary pattern while fruit and vegetables as well as teas and coffee consumption is relatively low.

Trends in gene expression changes during adipogenesis in human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells under dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene exposure

BackgroundsExposure to lipophilic environmental pollutants has been explored as a risk factor of development of diabetes mellitus in obese. Adipose tissue is a reservoir of bioaccumulative lipophilic contaminants including p,pʹ-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE). Our aim was to analyze the effect of DDE (in concentrations 0.1 μM, 1 μM, and 10 μM) on adipocyte differentiation and insulin signalling pathway on in vitro adipogenic model of human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADMSC).MethodsThe effect of DDE was monitored by analysis of expression (RT qPCR, Western blotting) of genes involved in adipocyte differentiation and insulin signalling pathway including lipid metabolism on days 0, 4, 10, 21, 28 of differentiation.ResultsThe main observation was significant increase of INSR, LIPE, FASN, SREBP1, OCT4 and AKT2 expression under influence of DDE. We did not record any increase of the active form of Akt.ConclusionOur findings suggest that DDE exposure changes the differentiation of adipocytes, enhances the lipid metabolism and so may play a role in the development of obesity and metabolic diseases by affecting the insulin signalling pathway. The influence of DDE seems to be similar to the effect of insulin itself. However, further studies to elucidate the mechanism of action of DDE are necessary.

Phthalates exposure indicators determined by urinary phthalate metabolites in healthy non-obese Czech adults, FANTOM study.

ABSTRACT It is assumed that human exposure to phthalates may be associated with adverse health effects. The indicators of urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations in healthy adults are limited. In this study, the phthalate metabolites concentrations were detected from 24-h urine collection in non-obese Czech adults (n = 201). Each participant filled in an 80-item questionnaire (FANTOM-SQ 2013) regarding the outdoor and indoor sources of phthalates, the use of personal care products and food intake sources. The concentrations of 15 phthalates metabolites were analysed following enzymatic cleavage of the glucuronide using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS). The indicators of chronic or acute exposure phthalate-containing materials were identified. It is shown that higher fruit consumption was positively and significantly associated with a higher level of total 15 urinary phthalates biomarkers (p < 0.001). Regular meat consumption showed a negative significant association with total 15 phthalates metabolites (p < 0.01). The use of personal care products was significantly and positively correlated with monoethyl phthalate urine concentrations (p < 0.05). The analysis of the dietary behaviour and personal care products use in the Czech non-obese population showed it to be a predictable tool in the level of phthalates exposure when high fruit consumption and personal care products use are linked to higher phthalate metabolite contents in the urine. However, this topic deserves more research.