Wellness Articles

Researchers examined data for 190,672 participants from The Cardiovascular Disease Lifetime Risk Pooling Project. They tracked BMI, cardiovascular disease incidence rates, and mortality. Those with BMIs higher than 24.9 increased their risk for heart disease, developed heart disease earlier in life, and were more likely to die from a cardiovascular event when compared to those with lower BMIs.

Researchers observed a higher average number of years spent living with cardiovascular disease in overweight and obese individuals and note that overweight individuals appear to live longer due to earlier onset of the disease.

Obese and overweight people live shorter lives and live with more chronic diseases, according to a study published in JAMA Cardiology

Khan SS, Ning H, Wilkins JT, et al. Association of body mass index with lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease and compression of morbidity. JAMA Cardiol. Published online February 28, 2018.

Scientists recently infected the first human liver-on-a-chip model with hepatitis B and unraveled biological and immune responses to the virus similar to that found in real human livers.

This 3-D human-based model reproduced the viral infection at infection doses similar to that found in humans. Because it is physiologically relevant to humans, (vs animals), it is likely to reduce the time and cost traditionally required for drug development for hepatitis B.

Ortega-Prieto AM, Skelton JK, Wai SN, et al. 3D microfluidic liver cultures as a physiological preclinical tool for hepatitis B virus infection. Nat Commun. 2018;9:682. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-02969-8.

Biomedical engineers recently created a miniature device composed of blood vessels, a valve that induces a “wound,” and the flow of blood to recapitulate the wound healing process seen during injury in humans. They used the human-based system to understand the role of several key-clotting factors for blood clot formation.

The system helped the scientists to determine the defects causing excessive bleeding in hemophilia-A patients, as well as, to assess the specific effects of blood clotting drugs. Thus, the model can be used:1. as a screening tool for drugs to modulate human wound healing, 2. a diagnostic tool to identify patients with bleeding disorders, and 3. a personalized medicine tool to determine the optimal individualized drug treatments to modulate clotting.

Unlike previous models which only simulate one aspect of the wound healing process, this system reproduces all components of the human small blood vessel injury and repair process.

 

Sakurai Y, Hardy ET, Ahn B, et al. A microengineered vascularized bleeding model that integrates the principal components of hemostasis. Nat Commun. 2018;9:509. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-02990-x.

Virtual Brain:

Researchers used a brain modeling platform called The Virtual Brain to incorporate individual patient brain measurements to produce personalized models simulating six features of patient brain activity. The tool allowed the researchers to assess the neuron interactions involved, which cannot be directly measured in humans, and enables the data from patient’s brain signals to predict neuronal network interactions.

This method advances personalized medicine by producing individualized models that can be used to optimize brain surgical procedures to improve outcomes prior to execution. It can also be used to uncover individual differences in brain networks and functions as well as underlying mechanisms of brain disorders.

Improving Research: Unlike other computational models, this mathematical platform can incorporate real-time human data to make better predictions about brain processes relevant to each individual patient and with greater resolution than previous attempts in invasive animal studies.

 

Schirner M, McIntosh AR, Jirsa V, Deco G, Ritter P. Inferring multi-scale neural mechanisms with brain network modelling. Elife. 2018;7. doi: 10.7554/eLife.28927.

 

 

Diabetes prevention is a possibility, if not a probability.

A plant-based diet improves beta-cell function, according to a study published in Nutrients.

Researchers from the Physicians Committee assessed insulin resistance after a meal for 75 overweight participants without diabetes for 16 weeks, half of whom followed a low-fat, vegan (plant based) diet. Those who consumed the vegan diet increased meal-stimulated insulin secretion and beta-cell glucose sensitivity and lowered their body weight, compared with the control group. Lower body fat increases beta-cells’ ability to regulate blood sugar. These results show that a vegan dietary intervention helps prevent diabetes.

Kahleova H, Tura A, Hill M, Holubkov R, Barnard ND. A plant-based dietary intervention improves beta-cell function and insulin resistance in overweight adults. A 16-week randomized clinical trial. Nutrients. Published online February 9, 2018.

According to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers compared cancer incidence rates for 48,835 postmenopausal women assigned to either a low-fat diet, in which fat intake was limited to 20 percent of daily energy, and daily servings of fruits, vegetables, and grains were increased to those in a control group.

Those in the intervention group had fewer cases of pancreatic cancer, compared with the control group. The authors observed more pronounced reductions in cancer risk for intervention participants with higher BMIs.

Researchers suspect increased phytochemical intake, weight reduction, and improvements in insulin resistance, inflammation, and immunity as possible mechanisms for the preventive effect of the low-fat diet.

Jiao L, Chen L, White DL, et al. Low-fat dietary pattern and pancreatic cancer risk in the Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Randomized Controlled Trial. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2018;110:49-56.

Using a new technique called “in-air microfluidics,” scientists succeeded in printing 3-D structures with live cells. By shooting a jet stream of fluid into another jet stream of cells, in-air microfluidics allows partially solidified droplets of live cells to be created in-flight and deposited onto a substrate to build a 3-D structure filled with cells and fluid that recapitulates the structure of natural tissues.

Unlike other 3-D printing techniques, which use ultraviolet light or heat that can damage living cells, this new tissue engineering technique does not harm cells. Therefore, it may be possible one day to use it to repair damaged tissues in patients using their own cultured cells.

Where microfluidic technology requires the use of chips with tiny channel which can impede the flow of fluid and limit clinical and industrial applications of 3-D bioprinting, this new chip-free platform reduces the production time by 10- to 100-fold and allows for the reaction of different combinations of fluids to create various biological building blocks in a single step.

Visser CW, Kamperman T, Karbaat LF, Lohse D, Karperien M. In-air microfluidics enables rapid fabrication of emulsions, suspensions, and 3D modular (bio)materials. Sci Adv. 2018;4:eaao1175. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aao1175.