scholarly journals The minor allele of the CREBRF rs373863828 p.R457Q coding variant is associated with reduced levels of myostatin in males: Implications for body composition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Lee ◽  
Sanaz Vakili ◽  
Hannah J Burden ◽  
Shannon Adams ◽  
Greg C Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Composition ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Lean Mass ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Minor Allele ◽  
Composition Analysis ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
New Evidence

The minor allele (A) of the rs373863828 variant (p.Arg457Gln) in CREBRF is restricted to indigenous peoples of the Pacific islands (including New Zealand Māori and peoples of Polynesia), with a frequency up to 25% in these populations. This allele associates with a large increase in body mass index (BMI) but with significantly lower risk of type-2 diabetes (T2D). It is unclear whether the increased BMI is driven by increased adiposity or by increased lean mass. Hence, we undertook body composition analysis using DXA in 189 young men of Māori and Pacific descent living in Aotearoa New Zealand. The rs373863828 A allele was associated with a trend toward increased relative lean mass although this was not statistically significant (p=0.06). Notably though this allele was associated with significantly lower circulating levels of the muscle inhibitory hormone myostatin (p<0.05). This was further investigated in two Arg458Gln knockin mouse models on FVB/Nj and C57Bl/6j backgrounds. Supporting the human data, significant increases in relative lean mass were observed in male knockin mice. This was more significant in older mice (p<0.01) where it was associated with increased grip strength (p<0.01) and lower levels of myostatin (p <0.05). Overall these results provide new evidence that the rs373863828 A-allele is associated with a reduction of myostatin levels which likely contributes to increased lean muscle mass component of BMI, at least in males.

scholarly journals CREBRF missense variant rs373863828 has both direct and indirect effects on type 2 diabetes and fasting glucose in Polynesians living in Samoa and Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily M. Russell ◽  
Jenna C. Carlson ◽  
Mohanraj Krishnan ◽  
Nicola L. Hawley ◽  
Guangyun Sun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Type 2 Diabetes ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Path Analysis ◽  
Fasting Glucose ◽  
Missense Variant ◽  
American Samoa ◽  
Minor Allele ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand

AbstractObjectiveThe minor allele of rs373863828 in CREBRF is associated with higher BMI, lower fasting glucose, and lower odds of type 2 diabetes. We examined the associations between BMI and rs373863828 on type 2 diabetes and fasting glucose with a large sample of adult Polynesians from Samoa, American Samoa and Aotearoa New Zealand and estimated direct and indirect (via BMI) effects of rs373863828 on type 2 diabetes and fasting glucose.Research Design and MethodsWe regressed type 2 diabetes and fasting glucose on BMI and rs373863828 stratified by obesity, regressed type 2 diabetes and fasting glucose on BMI stratified by rs373863828 genotype, and assessed the effects of rs373863828 on type 2 diabetes and fasting glucose with path analysis.ResultsAssociation of BMI with fasting glucose was greater in those without obesity than in those with obesity. We did not observe evidence of differences by genotype. In the path analysis, the minor allele has direct negative and indirect positive effects on type 2 diabetes risk and fasting glucose, with the indirect effect mediated through a direct positive effect on BMI.ConclusionsThere may be a stronger effect of BMI on fasting glucose in Polynesians without obesity than in those with obesity. Carrying the rs373863828 minor allele does not decouple higher BMI from odds of type 2 diabetes. Given the current cost of genotyping compared to the accessibility of measuring BMI, including rs373863828 as a clinical predictor of type 2 diabetes may not be indicated.

scholarly journals Covid-19 outbreak reflects inequities in health and socioeconomic disadvantage in Aotearoa/New Zealand and the Pacific Islands

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 475-476
Author(s):  
Colin Tukuitonga ◽  
Alec Ekeroma
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Socioeconomic Factors ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Socioeconomic Disadvantage ◽  
Pacific People ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Timely Reminder

The Covid-19 outbreak in Aotearoa/New Zealand is a timely reminder of the chronic inequities in health and the importance of socioeconomic factors in the origins of the disease. The pandemic has affected mainly indigenous Maori and Pacific people.  There were 5,371 confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 as at 13 November 2021, of which 2,104 (39%) were in Maori and 1,646 (31%) were in Pacific people.  Furthermore, 228 (70%) of all hospital admissions were Maori and Pacific people

scholarly journals Commissioned for Mission: the Co-Relation between Mission Theology and Praxis in Contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anne Grace Hadfield
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Mission Theology ◽  
Cultural Shock ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
London Missionary Society

<p>In the 1993-4 Northern Hemisphere academic year, I had the privilege of studying at Birmingham University and the Mission Studies department of the Selly Oak Colleges. I also had the opportunity to peruse original letters and reports from London Missionary Society and Church Missionary Society missionaries who came to Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific Islands last century. The content of these documents revealed personal stories of dramatic proportions; childbirth, death, drownings, loneliness and cultural shock. Alongside the personal stories lay the pragmatic accounts of establishing schools and mission stations with appropriate accompanying statistics in order to ensure continued funding Interwoven throughout were intensely evangelical sentiments about the salvation of the heathen.</p>

scholarly journals Commissioned for Mission: the Co-Relation between Mission Theology and Praxis in Contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anne Grace Hadfield
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Mission Theology ◽  
Cultural Shock ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
London Missionary Society

<p>In the 1993-4 Northern Hemisphere academic year, I had the privilege of studying at Birmingham University and the Mission Studies department of the Selly Oak Colleges. I also had the opportunity to peruse original letters and reports from London Missionary Society and Church Missionary Society missionaries who came to Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific Islands last century. The content of these documents revealed personal stories of dramatic proportions; childbirth, death, drownings, loneliness and cultural shock. Alongside the personal stories lay the pragmatic accounts of establishing schools and mission stations with appropriate accompanying statistics in order to ensure continued funding Interwoven throughout were intensely evangelical sentiments about the salvation of the heathen.</p>

scholarly journals Discordant association of the CREBRF rs373863828 minor allele with increased body mass index and protection from type 2 diabetes in Māori and Pacific (Polynesian) people living in Aotearoa New Zealand

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohanraj Krishnan ◽  
Tanya J Major ◽  
Ruth K Topless ◽  
Ofa Dewes ◽  
Lennex Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Type 2 Diabetes ◽  
Body Mass Index ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Waist Circumference ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
American Samoa ◽  
Minor Allele ◽  
Association Analyses ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand

AbstractAim/HypothesesThe minor allele of CREBRF rs373863828 associates with increased body mass index (BMI) and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in the Samoan population of Samoa and American Samoa. Our aim was to test rs373863828 for association with BMI and odds of T2D, gout and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Māori and Pacific (Polynesian) people living in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2,286 adults.MethodsAssociation analyses were performed by linear and logistic regression with BMI, log-transformed BMI, waist circumference, T2D, gout and CKD. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, the first four genome-wide principal components, and (when appropriate) BMI, waist circumference and T2D.ResultsFor the minor allele of rs373863828 the effect size for log-transformed BMI was 0.038 (95% CI [0.022-0.055], P=4.8x10−6) and for T2D was OR=0.59 (95% CI [0.47-0.73], P=1.9x10−6). There was no evidence for association of genotype with variance in BMI (P=0.13). Nor was there evidence for association with serum urate (β=0.012 mmol/L, Pc=0.10), gout (OR=1.00, P=0.98) or CKD (OR=0.91, P=0.59).Conclusions/interpretationOur results replicated, with very similar effect sizes, association of the minor allele of rs373863828 with higher BMI but lower odds of T2D among New Zealand Polynesian adults, as in Samoan adults living in Samoa and American Samoa.

XII Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands

2000 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 206-227
Author(s):  
Paul Bailey ◽  
James Grayson ◽  
Michael Sturma ◽  
Peter Lineham
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Middle East ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
The Pacific

scholarly journals Motivations for Smoking Cessation and the Impact of Regulatory Tax Increases Amongst Fathers within the Pacific Islands Families Study

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
El-Shadan Tautolo ◽  
Leon Iusitini ◽  
Steve Taylor ◽  
Janis Paterson
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Smoking Prevalence ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Tobacco Consumption ◽  
Excise Tax ◽  
Quit Smoking ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Quitting Smoking ◽  
High Smoking Prevalence ◽  
The Impact

Aims: To examine the prevalence of smoking, motivations for cessation, and impact of tobacco excise tax increases amongst a cohort of Pacific fathers at 11 years after the birth of their child.Methods: Within the context of broader interviews, 723 Pacific fathers participating in the Pacific Islands Families (PIF) Study were surveyed about their smoking at the 11-year measurement point. Prevalence of smoking was calculated, alongside motivations to quit, and the impact of increases to the excise tax on tobacco.Results: Smoking prevalence amongst Pacific fathers remains high (38%) at 11 years postpartum, although 81% of smokers disclosed interest in quitting smoking. The strongest motivation to quit smoking was their ‘own health’ (n = 185, 82%), followed by ‘the cost’ (n = 148, 66%), and the impact on ‘their child's health’ (n = 113, 50%). Among smokers, 12% (n = 31) had never attempted to quit, whereas 63% (n = 159) had made multiple attempts. Approximately 70% (n = 191) of smokers indicated the New Zealand Government-initiated tobacco excise tax increases caused them to reduce their tobacco consumption.Conclusions: High smoking prevalence amongst this cohort raises serious concerns about the risks Pacific families and communities face from smoking. Maintaining a sustained series of tobacco excise tax increases, alongside the utilisation of information on key motivators for Pacific fathers to quit smoking, may prove more effective in supporting Pacific communities to achieve the New Zealand Government's Smokefree 2025 goal.

Burden-sharing: the US, Australia and New Zealand alliances in the Pacific islands

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Wallis ◽  
Anna Powles
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Burden Sharing ◽  
Military Capability ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
The Us

Abstract One of President Joseph Biden's foreign policy priorities is to ‘renew’ and ‘strengthen’ the United States' alliances, as they were perceived to have been ‘undermined’ during the Trump administration, which regularly expressed concern that allies were free-riding on the United States' military capability. Yet the broad range of threats states face in the contemporary context suggests that security assistance from allies no longer only—or even primarily—comes in the form of military capability. We consider whether there is a need to rethink understandings of how alliance relationships are managed, particularly how the goals—or strategic burdens—of alliances are understood, how allies contribute to those burdens, and how influence is exercised within alliances. We do this by analysing how the United States–Australia and Australia–New Zealand alliances operate in the Pacific islands. Our focus on the Pacific islands reflects the United States' perception that the region plays a ‘critical’ role in helping to ‘preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific region’. We conclude that these understandings need to be rethought, particularly in the Pacific islands, where meeting non-traditional security challenges such as economic, social and environmental issues, is important to advancing the United States, Australia and New Zealand's shared strategic goal of remaining the region's primary security partners and ensuring that no power hostile to their interests establishes a strategic foothold.

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