Tissue-Specific Content of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in (n-3) Deficiency State of Rats

The dietary intake of fatty acids (FAs) affects the composition and distribution of FAs in the body. Here, a first-generation (n-3)-deficiency study was conducted by keeping young (age 21 ± 2 days) Sprague–Dawley male rats on a peanut-oil-based diet for 33 days after weaning in order to compare the effect of mild (n-3)-deficiency on the lipid composition of different organs and feces. Soybean-oil-based diet was used as a control. The plasma FA levels corresponded to FAs levels in the organs. Lower docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) content was detected in the plasma, brain, testis, visceral fat, heart, and lungs of the (n-3)-deficient group, whereas the DHA content of the eye and feces did not differ between the experimental groups. The DHA content of the brains of the (n-3)-deficient group was 86% of the DHA content of the brains of the (n-3)-adequate group. The DHA level of the organs was affected in the order of visceral fat > liver triacylglycerols > lung > heart > liver phospholipids > testis > eye > brain, with brain being least affected. The low levels of (n-3) FAs in the liver, brain, eye, heart, and lung were offset by an increase in the (n-6) FAs, mainly arachidonic acid. These results indicate that, in rats, adequate maternal nutrition during pregnancy and weaning does not provide enough (n-3) FAs for 33 days of an (n-3)-deficient diet. Results of this study can be used also to evaluate the conditions needed to reach mild (n-3) deficiency in the first generation of rats and to evaluate the feasibility to collect data from a variety of organs or only selected ones.

Cadmium Level Status in Iranian Breast Milk: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Due to the lack of a systematic review on cadmium status in breast milk of Iranian mothers, this study was designed to evaluate the published articles on factors affecting the exposure and the levels of cadmium in breast milk. Methods: In this study, English and Farsi electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Magiran, Iran Medex and SID were comprehensively searched for papers published from July 2009 until May 2021. The PRISMA guidelines for reporting systematic reviews were followed for screening and reviewing the processes involved in this study. Results: From 102 articles found in the initial search, 9 studies were included in systematic review. The highest mean cadmium concentration was related to milk samples collected from Kerman City. Among study factors, the exposure to cigarette smoke, living near industrial centers and maternal nutrition had a significant effect on increasing the concentration of cadmium in breast milk. Conclusion: Further studies are demanded to obtain more comprehensive and reliable results on the status of cadmium in breast milk of Iranian mothers.

Role of Folate and Folic Acid During Pregnancy

Pregnancy represents a period of fast tissue growth of maternal and foetal tissues that's related to enhanced energy and nutrient needs. Maternal nutrition throughout gestation period, has being essential for best offspring development, reducing long unwellness burden and for general health throughout life. Maternal Folate throughout pregnancy might have numerous roles in offspring health, as well as neurodevelopment and psychological feature performance in childhood. Folate is crucial for C1 metabolism, a network of pathways concerned in many biological processes as well as nucleotide synthesis, deoxyribonucleic acid repair and methylation reactions. The periconceptional use of pteroylglutamic acid (Folic Acid ) containing supplements reduces the primary incidence, as well as recurrence of neural tube defects. Folic Acid (FA) are artificial form of a necessary vitamin generically considered Folates or B9. It is concerned in one-carbon metabolism, and it's been connected to lowering neural tube Defect (NTD). National programs to mandate fortification of food with Folic Acid have reduced the prevalence of NTDs worldwide . The indisputable protecting role of Folic Acid in the hindrance of NTD, in addition to the low compliance of women to Folic Acid recommendations, has aroused the choice of mandatory Folic Acid fortification, a policy currently in place in over eighty countries worldwide. Mandatory food fortification needs food makers to feature Folic Acid to certain foods (e.g. starch or grain products), whereas voluntary fortification permits Folic Acid to be added to foods at the discretion of manufacturers. Food fortification with Folic Acid because the intervention is likely to achieve increasing Folic Acid intake among populations throughout the world. The objective of this article is to discuss the Role of Folic Acid and Folate during pregnancy and to review the role of Folate and Folic Acid , metabolism , absorption and Folic Acid effects on maternal on the basis of recent findings that are important for implementation of fortified food to design future studies. Keywords: Neurodevelopment, Methylation Reactions, Pteroylglutamic Acid, Bioavailability, Monoglutamates.

Scoping Review of Intervention Strategies for Improving Coverage and Uptake of Maternal Nutrition Services in Southeast Asia

Maternal undernutrition can lead to protein-energy malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, or anemia during pregnancy or after birth. It remains a major problem, despite evidence-based maternal-nutrition interventions happening on ground. We conducted a scoping review to understand different strategies and delivery mechanisms to improve maternal nutrition, as well as how interventions have improved coverage and uptake of services. An electronic search was conducted in PubMed and Google Scholar for published studies reporting on the effectiveness of maternal-nutrition interventions in terms of access or coverage, health outcomes, compliance, and barriers to intervention utilization. The search was limited to studies published within ten years before the initial search date, 8 November 2019; later, it was updated to 17 February 2021. Of 31 studies identified following screening and data extraction, 22 studies were included for narrative synthesis. Twelve studies were reported from India and eleven from Bangladesh, three from Nepal, two from both Pakistan and Thailand (Myanmar), and one from Indonesia. Nutrition education and counselling, home visits, directly observed supplement intake, community mobilization, food, and conditional cash transfer by community health workers were found to be effective. There is a need to incorporate diverse strategies, including various health education approaches, supplementation, as well as strengthening of community participation and the response of the health system in order to achieve impactful maternal nutrition programs.

Dietary Intake and Nutritional Status of Javanese Women in Rice Producing Areas: a Comparison between Lactating and Non-lactating Women

<p>Maintaining optimal maternal nutrition is essential for the mother’s health and the child’s growth and development. Throughout the lactating period, maternal nutrition is significant due to the child’s high nutritional needs. Therefore, an increase in food consumption is necessary. This research aimed to analyze the dietary intake and nutritional status of lactating and non-lactating women living in rice-producing areas in Central Java, Indonesia. A cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2014 to February 2015 in Demak Regency. As many as 375 participants were recruited and analyzed in this study. The results showed that the mean BMI-score of non-lactating mothers was higher than that of breastfeeding mothers (p=0.039). However, the nutritional status between the two groups of women was not significantly different. Significantly more lactating women consumed dark green leafy-colored vegetables (68.8%) and other vegetables (59.2%) than the non-lactating mothers (54.4%, p=0.065 and 36.8%, p=0.001, respectively). Regarding the selected macro and micronutrient intakes, statistically significant differences between the two groups of women could not be proven. In short, dietary intake between women within the different physiological statuses and BMI categories showed that they consumed around the same amount of macro-and micronutrient intakes and food groups, except for the high vegetable consumption among lactating women.</p>

Circulating microRNAs from early childhood and adolescence are associated with pre-diabetes at 18 years of age in women from the PMNS cohort

A high (20%) prevalence of glucose intolerance at 18-years was seen in women from the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study (PMNS) birth cohort. Here, we provide preliminary longitudinal analyses of circulating microRNAs in normal glucose tolerant (NGT@18y, N=10) and glucose intolerant (N=8) women (ADA criteria) at 6-, 12- and 17-years of their age using discovery analysis (OpenArray platform). Machine-learning workflows involving Lasso with bootstrapping/leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) identified microRNAs associated with glucose intolerance at 18-years of age. Several microRNAs, including miR-212-3p, miR-30e-3p and miR-638, stratified glucose-intolerant women from NGT at childhood. Our results suggest that circulating microRNAs in childhood could predict pre-diabetes at 18-years of age. Validation of these findings in males and remaining participants from the PMNS birth cohort will provide a unique opportunity to study novel epigenetic mechanisms in the life-course progression of glucose intolerance and enhance current clinical risk prediction of pre-diabetes and progression to type 2 diabetes.

Improving maternal nutrition in public health facilities by strengthening the dietary component of Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram – A government of India programme

Introduction: The Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK) is a government of India initiative for all pregnant women visiting public health facilities, with many free entitlements – free diet being one. After an in-depth study of existing dietary provisions in all community health centres, an elaborate cyclic-weekly nutritious menu was designed taking into consideration the latest recommendations (2019) by the Ministry of Family and Child Welfare, India to improve maternal health nutrition. Methods: The health functionaries from all ten community health centres of rural Vadodara were chosen for an in-depth estimation of the different meals served in the facilities. Standard measuring cups and spoons were used to measure the exact serving sizes for each person. Each meal served was supervised, checked and quantified in triplicate, while macro- and micronutrients were calculated using the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (Longvah et al. 2017). To bridge the gap in service delivery, two new models of cyclic-weekly menu were developed, keeping in mind the amount per mother per day as one hundred Indian rupees. Results: On average the foods served in the community health centres provided 69% of recommended energy intake, while mean recommended dietary allowance met for protein was 51%, calcium 18%, iron 50%, and fat 267%. Conclusion: The recommendations specified in this paper would improve the nutritional status of all pregnant and lactating women availing the services in rural health facilities, which would go a long way in ensuring safe and healthy motherhood.

Effects of Maternal Nutrition on Female Offspring Weight Gain and Sexual Development

Maternal nutrition during pregnancy influences postnatal life of animals; nevertheless, few studies have investigated its effects on the productive performance and reproductive development of heifers. This study evaluated the performance, reproductive development, and correlation between reproduction × fat thickness and performance × ribeye area (REA) traits of heifers. We also performed an exploratory genomic association during the rearing period in heifers submitted to fetal programming. The study comprised 55 Nellore heifers born to dams exposed to one of the following nutritional planes: control, without protein-energy supplementation; PELT, protein-energy last trimester, protein-energy supplementation offered in the final third of pregnancy; and PEWG, protein-energy whole gestation, protein-energy supplementation upon pregnancy confirmation. Protein-energy supplementation occurred at the level of 0.3% live weight. After weaning, heifers were submitted to periodic evaluations of weight and body composition by ultrasonography. From 12 to 18 months, we evaluated the reproductive tract of heifers to monitor its development for sexual precocity and ovarian follicle population. The treatments had no effect (p &gt; 0.05) on average daily gain; however, the weight of the animals showed a significant difference over time (p = 0.017). No differences were found between treatments for REA, backfat, and rump fat thickness, nor for puberty age, antral follicular count, and other traits related to reproductive tract development (p &gt; 0.05). The correlation analysis between performance traits and REA showed high correlations (r &gt; 0.37) between REA at weaning and year versus weight from weaning until yearling; however, no correlation was found for reproductive development traits versus fat thickness (p &gt; 0.05). The exploratory genomic association study showed one single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) for each treatment on an intergenic region for control and PEWG, and the one for PELT on an intronic region of RAPGEF1 gene. Maternal nutrition affected only the weight of the animals throughout the rearing period.