Folic acid defencity

Deterioration of sanitary conditions in piggeries is known to limit growth performance through inducing a moderate immune response. This article reports the results of an experiment performed to reproduce the consequences of bad sanitary conditions on growth performance and nutrient plasma concentrations of piglets after weaning. We propose to use these experimental conditions as a model for studying the interactions between nutrition and pig health. In this experiment, 20 pairs of littermate piglets were selected and weaned at 28 days of age on the basis of their body weight...

OBJECTIVE: It has been suggested that cardiac surgery-related ischemia-reperfusion injury to the myocardium is caused by the oxidative stress, derived from the formation of reactive oxygen species in the early phases of the reperfusion. The availability of cysteine, mostly deriving from homocysteine (Hcy) via the trans-sulfuration pathway, is determinant for the synthesis of glutathione (GSH), which in turn acts as a first line of defence against oxidative stress. Indeed, an increased consumption of Hcy in response to oxidative stress has been described...

Background - Defence food technology aims to provide an easy-to-prepare and palatable, nutritionally complete combat ration pack (CRP) which has minimal weight and volume and maximum shelf life under all climatic extremes. The nutritional aims are to identify the optimal nutrient mix to sustain the soldier in the face of operational stressors such as fatigue, intense physical activity, extreme climate and negative psychological factors and to encourage consumption. Review - Two studies of CRP consumption, which differed in duration and design, were conducted recently by DSTO Scottsdale...

Vitamins and minerals serve essential roles in cellular metabolism, maintenance and growth throughout life. They are also central components of many enzymes and transcription factors. However, the need for optimum amounts of key micronutrients at critical stages during the periovulatory period and subsequent embryonic and fetal life has become the focus of sustained research activity only recently. In addition to folic acid, the minerals zinc, iron and copper and the antioxidant vitamins A and E are of particular importance during pregnancy...

Between 17 January and 16 April 2000, 37 children attending a kindergarten were treated with MultiTabs masticatory tablets, product containing vitamins and trace elements. 36 children attending the same kindergarten served as controls. Only 1 of the children participating in this multivitamin treatment required antibiotic treatment during this period, in contrast with 12 of the control group (3 of them on more than 1 occasion). It was interesting that, when they came into contact with subjects with chickenpox, only 11 of the 37 vitamin-treated children contracted this disease (the contagiosity index of which otherwise exceeds 90%)...

Traditional risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) can only explain approximately two thirds of the observed clinical events. This has maintained interest in other nutritional and biochemical factors that might contribute to the underlying pathophysiology of vascular disease. Two such factors are dietary antioxidants and plasma homocysteine. Established risk factors such as hypertension, smoking and diabetes mellitus are all associated with increased oxidative stresses due to excess free radical activity in the vascular wall...

The effect of methotrexate (MTX) and leucovorin (LCV) on pentose cycle enzymes and the activity of enzymes involved in enzyme defence mechanisms against ROS in HeLa cells, were studied. The effect of MTX was also investigated on the cellular levels of glutathione. MTX inhibited the activity of glucose-6-phosphate and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenases. The activities of glutathione reductase and gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase were also inhibited by the drug. No effect was observed on the activities of catalase, superoxide dismutase or transketolase...

Nutritional assessments are frequently based on amounts of nutrients consumed. In the present paper the usefulness of nutrient intake data for assessing nutrient adequacy is examined in an elderly British population. Subjects were "free-living' elderly aged 68-90 years (sixty men, eighty-five women) in Norwich. Forty-two of forty-nine surviving males and sixty-seven of seventy-nine surviving females were reassessed after 2 years. With few exceptions, estimated micronutrient intake was not statistically predictive of biochemical measures of nutrient adequacy...

Blood samples from 40 patients with fissured tongue syndrome (FTS) were examined, and the results were compared with those of 20 healthy control subjects. FTS was diagnosed when a) the patient had a fissured tongue with smooth-surfaced papillae (n = 25) or b) the patient had geographic tongue and some relatives had fissured tongue (n = 15). These tongue forms were verified also histologically. To evaluate the possibility of systemic disorders in patients with FTS we determined the whole blood picture and levels of vitamin B12, serum folate, serum ferritin, and immunoglobulins (IgA, IgG, IgM, IgE)...

Synthetic oligonucleotides specifying amino acid sequences identified as epitopes of various foreign antigens (cholera toxin subunit B, hepatitis B surface protein and others) have been inserted at an EcoRV-EcoRV deletion site in a cloned Salmonella flagellin gene; the resulting plasmids, when placed in flagellin-negative Escherichia coli or Salmonella sp. strains, caused production of flagellin expressing the epitope. If the chimeric flagellin allowed formation of flagella, the epitope was exposed at the surface of the flagellar filaments...