Betaine AND methylation

Dementia, with homocysteine (Hcy) as an important risk factor, is a severe public health problem in the aging society. Betaine serves as a methyl donor and plays an important role in reducing Hcy. However, the effects and mechanisms of betaine on Hcy-induced cognitive impairment remain unclear. Firstly, SD rats were injected with Hcy (400 μg/kg) through vena caudalis, and betaine (2.5 % w/v) was supplemented via drinking water for 14 days. Betaine supplementation could attenuate Hcy-induced cognitive impairment in the Y maze and novel object recognition tests by repairing brain injury...

Low temperature storage is widely used in the storage and transportation of postharvest fruits and vegetables. However, the negative effects of chilling injury (CI) on certain fruits and vegetables cannot be ignored. Therefore, efficient CI prevention technologies were used for reducing CI. This paper expounds the mechanisms of CI, common symptoms of CI and its impacts on the quality of fruits and vegetables, and summarizes the application of CI prevention technology. CI control methods are mainly classified into physical treatments (hot shock, near-freezing storage, high relative humidity storage, light-proof storage, and electromagnetic field), chemical treatments (melatonin, 1-methylcyclopropene, astragalus polysaccharides, γ-aminobutyric acid, 24-epibrassinolide, methyl jasmonate, trisodium phosphate, glycine betaine, and salicylic acid, etc...

Age-related impairment of autophagy accelerates muscle loss and lead to sarcopenia. Betaine can delay muscle loss as a dietary methyl donor via increasing S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM, a crucial metabolite for autophagy regulation) in methionion cycle. However, whether betaine can regulate autophagy level to attenuate degeneration in aging muscle remains unclear. Herein, male C57BL/6J young mice (YOU, 2-month-old), old mice (OLD, 15-month-old), and 2%-betaine-treated old mice (BET, 15-month-old) were employed and raised for 12 weeks...

BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious clinical emergency with an acute onset, rapid progression and poor prognosis, which has high morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. DNA methylation plays an important role in the occurrence and progression of kidney disease, and aberrant methylation and certain altered methylation-related metabolites have been reported in AKI patients. However, the specific alterations of methylation-related metabolites in the AKI patients were not investigated clearly...

The use of PEG-based hydrogels as cell culture matrix to mimic the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) has been realized using a range of well-defined, tunable, and dynamic scaffolds, although they require cell adhesion ligands such as RGDS to promote cell adhesion. We herein demonstrate the synthesis of ionic and degradable hydrogels for cell culture by crosslinking [PEG-SH]4 with the zwitterionic crosslinker N,N-bis(acryloxyethyl)-N-methyl-N-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium betaine (BMSAB) and the cationic crosslinker N,N-bis(acryloxyethyl)-N,N-dimethyl-1-ammonium iodide (BDMAI)...

Paracoccus sp. strain DMF (P. DMF from henceforth) is a gram-negative heterotroph known to tolerate and utilize high concentrations of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). The work presented here elaborates on the metabolic pathways involved in the degradation of C1 compounds, many of which are well-known pollutants and toxic to the environment. Investigations on microbial growth and detection of metabolic intermediates corroborate the outcome of the functional genome analysis. Several classes of C1 compounds, such as methanol, methylated amines, aliphatic amides, and naturally occurring quaternary amines like glycine betaine, were tested as growth substrates...

Choline is essential for cell membrane formation and methyl transfer reactions, impacting parenchymal and neurological development. It is therefore enriched via placental transfer, and fetal plasma concentrations are high. In spite of the greater needs of very low birth weight infants (VLBWI), choline content of breast milk after preterm delivery is lower (median (p25-75): 158 mg/L (61-360 mg/L) compared to term delivery (258 mg/L (142-343 mg/L)). Even preterm formula or fortified breast milk currently provide insufficient choline to achieve physiological plasma concentrations...

The prevalences of diabetes mellitus and obesity are increasing yearly and has become a serious social burden. In addition to genetic factors, environmental factors in early life development are critical in influencing the prevalence of metabolic disorders in offspring. A growing body of evidence suggests the critical role of early methyl donor intervention in offspring health. Emerging studies have shown that methyl donors can influence offspring metabolism through epigenetic modifications and changing metabolism-related genes...

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation patterns are directly associated with diverse metabolic disorders. The status of methyl-donor micronutrients has been associated with DNA methylation levels, and altered ingestion of folate, choline, betaine, B vitamins and methionine may impact genes both globally and at the level of promoter regions. Despite this, the role of methyl-donor micronutrient supplementation on DNA methylation profiles is currently unclear. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this systematic review and meta-analysis were to identify and synthesize the evidence about methyl-donor nutrients supplementation on DNA methylation profile...

Reports of aerobic biogenic methane (<mml:math xmlns:mml="https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>CH</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mn>4</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>) have generated new views about <mml:math xmlns:mml="https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>CH</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mn>4</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math> sources in nature...

Betaine has been found to alleviate oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis. However, whether dietary betaine can protect late-laying hens against these adverse effects is unknown. Here, 270 65-week-old Jinghong-1 laying hens were randomly divided into the Control, 0.1% Betaine, and 0.5% Betaine groups and fed a basal diet, 0.1%, and 0.5% betaine supplemented diet, respectively. The trial lasted for seven weeks. Birds that consumed 0.5% betaine laid more eggs with thicker eggshells. Accordingly, uterine reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX), and ovarian superoxide dismutase (SOD) contents were increased...

Objective: To characterize the relationship between the levels of plasma methyl donor and related metabolites (including choline, betaine, methionine, dimethylglycine and homocysteine) and fetal growth in twin pregnancies. Methods: A hospital-based cohort study was used to collect clinical data of 92 pregnant women with twin pregnancies and their fetuses who were admitted to Peking University Third Hospital from March 2017 to January 2018. Fasting blood was collected from the pregnant women with twin pregnancies (median gestational age: 18...

Environmental factors, particularly dietary habits, play an important role in cardiovascular disease susceptibility and progression through epigenetic modification. Previous studies have shown that hyperplastic vascular intima after endarterectomy is characterized by genome-wide hypomethylation. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether methyl donor diet affects intimal hyperplasia and the possible mechanisms involved. Intimal hyperplasia was induced in SD rats by carotid artery balloon injury. From 8 days before surgery to 28 days after surgery, the animals were fed a normal diet (ND) or a methyl donor diet (MD) supplemented with folic acid, vitamin B12, choline, betaine, and zinc...

Betaine supplementation in the context of human nutrition, athletic performance, and clinical therapy demonstrate that the osmolyte and methyl donor, betaine, is cytoprotective and beneficial to human health. These studies also demonstrate that betaine supplementation in healthy humans is straight-forward with no reported adverse effects. Here, we explore betaine uptake in the central nervous system (CNS) and contribute to evidence that betaine may be uniquely protective to the brain. We specifically describe the therapeutic potential of betaine and explore the potential implications of betaine on inhibition mediated by GABA and glycine neurotransmission...

BACKGROUND: Neural tube defects (NTDs) still occur among some women who consume 400 μg of folic acid for prevention. It has been hypothesized that intakes of methyl donors and other micronutrients involved in one-carbon metabolism may further protect against NTDs. OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether intakes of vitamin B6, vitamin B12, choline, betaine, methionine, thiamine, riboflavin, and zinc, individually or in combination, were associated with NTD risk reduction in offspring of women meeting the folic acid recommendations...

BACKGROUND: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), characterized by hyperglycemia that develops during pregnancy, increases the risk of fetal macrosomia, childhood obesity and cardiometabolic disorders later in life. This process has been attributed partly to DNA methylation modifications in growth and stress-related pathways. Nutrients involved with one-carbon metabolism (OCM), such as folate, choline, betaine, and vitamin B12 , provide methyl groups for DNA methylation of these pathways...

Findings of epidemiologic studies focusing on the association between one-carbon metabolism-related micronutrients and breast cancer risk, along with the involvement of DNA methylation, have been inconsistent and incomprehensive. We conducted a case-control study in China including 107 paired participants and comprehensively detected 12 plasma one-carbon metabolism-related micronutrients. Genomic DNA methylation was measured using an 850 K chip and differential methylation probes (DMPs) were identified. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to estimate the associations between plasma micronutrients and the odds of breast cancer...

Understanding mechanisms of epigenetic regulation in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is of fundamental importance for stem cell and developmental biology. Here, we identify Spic , a member of the ETS family of transcription factors (TFs), as a marker of ground state pluripotency. We show that Spic is rapidly induced in ground state ESCs and in response to extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) inhibition. We find that SPIC binds to enhancer elements and stabilizes NANOG binding to chromatin, particularly at genes involved in choline/one-carbon (1C) metabolism such as Bhmt , Bhmt2 , and Dmgdh ...

Based on metabolomics, to study the mechanism of Radix Wikstroemia indica (RWI) "Sweat soaking method" processing detoxification. The raw drug group and processed products was given raw RWI and processed RWI respectively by gavage. The control group was given the same amount of 1% sodium carboxy methyl cellulose distilled water by gavage. After 7 days of continuous gavage, blood samples were collected. The blood samples of rats in each group were analyzed by 1 H-NMR technology to explore the changes of endogenous metabolism and the possible metabolic pathways to rats before and after processing...

A sustainable synthesis of interesting glycine betaine derivatives from cyclic 3°-amines viz. N-methyl morpholine ( NMM ), N-methyl piperidine ( NMP ), and 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane ( DABCO ) with numerous aryl diazoacetates 1 in water and under blue LED is reported. Generally, 3°-amines and metal carbenoids (from diazoacetates with transition metal catalysts) provide C-H insertion at the α-position of the amines. Computational comparison of the metal carbenoid with the singlet carbene (metal free and generated under blue LED) realized the difference in reactivity...