Digital Commons Network^™

Antibiotic-Driven Intestinal Dysbiosis In Pediatric Short Bowel Syndrome Is Associated With Persistently Altered Microbiome Functions And Gut-Derived Bloodstream Infections, Robert Thänert, Anna Thänert, Jocelyn Ou, Adam Bajinting, Carey-Ann D Burnham, Holly J Engelstad, Maria E Tecos, I Malick Ndao, Carla Hall-Moore, Colleen Rouggly-Nickless, Mike A Carl, Deborah C Rubin, Nicholas O Davidson, Phillip I Tarr, Barbara B Warner, Gautam Dantas, Brad W Warner

Open Access Publications

Surgical removal of the intestine, lifesaving in catastrophic gastrointestinal disorders of infancy, can result in a form of intestinal failure known as short bowel syndrome (SBS). Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are a major challenge in pediatric SBS management. BSIs require frequent antibiotic therapy, with ill-defined consequences for the gut microbiome and childhood health. Here, we combine serial stool collection, shotgun metagenomic sequencing, multivariate statistics and genome-resolved strain-tracking in a cohort of 19 patients with surgically-induced SBS to show that antibiotic-driven intestinal dysbiosis in SBS enriches for persistent intestinal colonization with BSI causative pathogens in SBS. Comparing the gut microbiome composition of …

The T-Type Calcium Channel Isoform Ca V 3.1 Is A Target For The Hypnotic Effect Of The Anaesthetic Neurosteroid (3Β,5Β,17Β)-3-Hydroxyandrostane-17-Carbonitrile, Tamara Timic Stamenic, Simon Feseha, Francesca M Manzella, Damon Wallace, Davis Wilkey, Timothy Corrigan, Hanna Fiedler, Patricia Doerr, Kathiresan Krishnan, Yogendra H Raol, Douglas F Covey, Vesna Jevtovic-Todorovic, Slobodan M Todorovic

Open Access Publications

BACKGROUND: The mechanisms underlying the role of T-type calcium channels (T-channels) in thalamocortical excitability and oscillations in vivo during neurosteroid-induced hypnosis are largely unknown.

METHODS: We used patch-clamp electrophysiological recordings from acute brain slices ex vivo, recordings of local field potentials (LFPs) from the central medial thalamic nucleus in vivo, and wild-type (WT) and Ca

RESULTS: Patch-clamp recordings showed that 3β-OH inhibited isolated T-currents but had no effect on phasic or tonic γ-aminobutyric acid A currents. Also in acute brain slices, 3β-OH inhibited the spike firing mode more profoundly in WT than in Ca

CONCLUSIONS: The Ca

Acute Symptoms Of Mild To Moderate Covid-19 Are Highly Heterogeneous Across Individuals And Over Time, Thomas L. Rodebaugh, Madelyn R. Frumkin, Angela M. Reiersen, Eric J. Lenze, Michael S. Avidan, J. Philip Miller, Jay F. Piccirillo, Charles F. Zorumski, Caline Mattar

Open Access Publications

Background: The symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) appear to be heterogenous, and the typical course of these symptoms is unknown. Our objectives were to characterize the common trajectories of COVID-19 symptoms and to assess how symptom course predicts other symptom changes as well as clinical deterioration.

Methods: One hundred sixty-two participants with acute COVID-19 responded to surveys up to 31 times for up to 17 days. Several statistical methods were used to characterize the temporal dynamics of these symptoms. Because 9 participants showed clinical deterioration, we explored whether these participants showed any differences in symptom profiles.

Results: Trajectories varied …

Overlapping But Disparate Inflammatory And Immunosuppressive Responses To Sars-Cov-2 And Bacterial Sepsis: An Immunological Time Course Analysis, Tyler J Loftus, Ricardo Ungaro, Marvin Dirain, Philip A Efron, Monty B Mazer, Kenneth E Remy, Richard S Hotchkiss, Luer Zhong, Rhonda Bacher, Petr Starostik, Lyle L Moldawer, Scott C Brakenridge

Open Access Publications

Both severe SARS-CoV-2 infections and bacterial sepsis exhibit an immunological dyscrasia and propensity for secondary infections. The nature of the immunological dyscrasias for these differing etiologies and their time course remain unclear. In this study, thirty hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection were compared with ten critically ill patients with bacterial sepsis over 21 days, as well as ten healthy control subjects. Blood was sampled between days 1 and 21 after admission for targeted plasma biomarker analysis, cellular phenotyping, and leukocyte functional analysis

A Pharmacokinetic Analysis Of Hemodialysis For Metformin-Associated Lactic Acidosis, Stephen A Harding, Rana Biary, Robert S Hoffman, Mark K Su, Mary Ann Howland

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: Although hemodialysis is recommended for patients with severe metformin-associated lactic acidosis (MALA), the amount of metformin removed by hemodialysis is poorly documented. We analyzed endogenous clearance and hemodialysis clearance in a patient with MALA.

METHODS: A 62-year-old man with a history of type II diabetes mellitus presented after several days of vomiting and diarrhea and was found to have acute kidney injury (AKI) and severe acidemia. Initial serum metformin concentration was 315.34 μmol/L (40.73 μg/mL) (typical therapeutic concentrations 1-2 μg/mL). He underwent 6 h of hemodialysis. We collected hourly whole blood, serum, urine, and dialysate metformin concentrations. Blood, urine, …

Profiles Of Hiv Care Disruptions Among Adult Patients Lost To Follow-Up In Zambia: A Latent Class Analysis, Aaloke Mody, Kombatende Sikombe, Laura K. Beres, Sandra Simbeza, Njekwa Mukamba, Ingrid Eshun-Wilson, Sheree Schwartz, Jake Pry, Nancy Padian, Charles B. Holmes, Carolyn Bolton-Moore, Izukanji Sikazwe, Elvin H. Geng

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Patients report varied barriers to HIV care across multiple domains, but specific barrier patterns may be driven by underlying, but unobserved, behavioral profiles.

METHODS: We traced a probability sample of patients lost to follow-up (>90 days late) as of July 31, 2015 from 64 clinics in Zambia. Among those found alive, we ascertained patient-reported reasons for care disruptions. We performed latent class analysis to identify patient subgroups with similar patterns of reasons reported and assessed the association between class membership and care status (ie, disengaged versus silently transferred to a new site).

RESULTS: Among 547 patients, we identified …

Dynamics Of Male-On-Male Penetrative Sexual Assaults In The United States Army, Nicole Cunningham

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Male-on-male sexual assaults are a challenge for prevention and response personnel, law enforcement, and the military justice system. Limited research has been conducted on the military sex offender population, and none has been done specifically on military male-on-male assaults resulting in a gap in the research on offenders, what factors make their victims vulnerable, and the situational dynamics of the assaults. In this quantitative exploratory study, 171 cases of penetrative male-on-male sexual assaults were examined through the lens of the routine activity theory. The results of this exploration found that both victims and offenders were most likely to be 18-24 …

Black Fathers Experiences Of Paternal Abandonment Through Raising & Disciplining Their Sons, William Douglas Harvey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Black male children have long experienced paternal abandonment. In some instances, those male children grow up to have sons of their own, yet have no frame of reference of fatherhood from their upbringing. The specific issue for this study was exploring the capacity to control the quality of one’s life entering fatherhood, even when considering the influences related to paternal abandonment. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences of paternally abandoned Black fathers and their experience of raising their male offspring, to understand how those Black fathers’ past occurrence may affect their relationships with their …

Neonatal Mouse Gut Metabolites Influence Cryptosporidium Parvum Infection In Intestinal Epithelial Cells, Kelli L Vandussen, Lisa J Funkhouser-Jones, Marianna E Akey, Deborah A Schaefer, Kevin Ackman, Michael W Riggs, Thaddeus S Stappenbeck, L David Sibley

Open Access Publications

The protozoan parasite

Evaluating The Implementation Of The Switch® School Wellness Intervention And Capacity-Building Process Through Multiple Methods, Gabriella M Mcloughlin, Priscila Candal, Spyridoula Vazou, Joey A Lee, David A Dzewaltowski, Richard R Rosenkranz, Lorraine Lanningham-Foster, Douglas A Gentile, Laura Liechty, Senlin Chen, Gregory J Welk

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: School wellness programming is important for promoting healthy lifestyles and academic achievement in youth; however, research is needed on methods that can help schools implement and sustain such programs on their own. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors within and outside the school environment that influenced school capacity for implementation and potential sustainability of wellness programming.

METHODS: As part of the School Wellness Integration Targeting Child Health (SWITCH®) intervention, elementary school wellness teams (N = 30) were guided through a capacity-building process focused on promoting the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors in students. Data on implementation …

Stem Cell And Niche Regulation In Human Short Bowel Syndrome, Vered A Gazit, Elzbieta A Swietlicki, Miranda U Liang, Adam Surti, Raechel Mcdaniel, Mackenzie Geisman, David M Alvarado, Matthew A Ciorba, Grant Bochicchio, Obeid Ilahi, John Kirby, William J Symons, Nicholas O Davidson, Marc S. Levin, Deborah C Rubin

Open Access Publications

Loss of functional small bowel surface area following surgical resection for disorders such as Crohn's disease, intestinal ischemic injury, radiation enteritis, and in children, necrotizing enterocolitis, atresia, and gastroschisis, may result in short bowel syndrome, with attendant high morbidity, mortality, and health care costs in the United States. Following resection, the remaining small bowel epithelium mounts an adaptive response, resulting in increased crypt cell proliferation, increased villus height, increased crypt depth, and enhanced nutrient and electrolyte absorption. Although these morphologic and functional changes are well described in animal models, the adaptive response in humans is less well understood. Clinically the …

Medicine And Surgery Residents' Perspectives On The Impact Of Covid-19 On Graduate Medical Education., Tanvi Rana, Christopher Hackett, Timothy Quezada, Abhishek Chaturvedi, Veli Bakalov, Jody Leonardo, Sandeep Rana

COVID-19 Papers, Posters, and Presentations

The COVID-19 crisis has had an unprecedented impact on resident education and well-being: social distancing guidelines have limited patient volumes and forced virtual learning, while personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages, school/daycare closures, and visa restrictions have served as additional stressors. Our study aimed to analyze the effects of COVID-19 crisis-related stressors on residents' professional and personal lives. In April 2020, we administered a survey to residents at a large academic hospital system in order to assess the impact of the pandemic on residency training after >6 weeks of a modified schedule. The primary outcome was to determine which factors or …

Evolution Of The Epigenetic Landscape In Childhood B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia And Its Role In Drug Resistance, Shella Saint Fleur-Lominy, Nikki A. Evensen, Teena Bhatla, Gunjan Sethia, Sonali Narang, Jun H. Choi, Xiaotu Ma, Jun J. Yang, Stephen Kelly, Elizabeth Raetz, Richard C. Harvey, Cheryl Willman, Mignon L. Loh, Stephen P. Hunger, Patrick A. Brown, Kylie M. Getz, Cem Meydan, Christopher E. Mason, Aristotelis Tsirigos, William Carroll

Pathology Research and Scholarship

Although B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) is the most common malignancy in children and while highly curable, it remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. The outgrowth of tumor subclones carrying mutations in genes responsible for resistance to therapy has led to a Darwinian model of clonal selection. Previous work has indicated that alterations in the epigenome might contribute to clonal selection, yet the extent to which the chromatin state is altered under the selective pressures of therapy is unknown. To address this, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation, gene expression analysis, and enhanced reduced representation bisulfite sequencing on a cohort of …

Pomalidomide, Dexamethasone, And Daratumumab In Relapsed Refractory Multiple Myeloma After Lenalidomide Treatment., David S Siegel, Gary J Schiller, Christy Samaras, Michael Sebag, Jesus Berdeja, Siddhartha Ganguly, Jeffrey Matous, Kevin Song, Christopher S Seet, Giampaolo Talamo, Mirelis Acosta-Rivera, Michael Bar, Donald Quick, Bertrand Anz, Gustavo Fonseca, Donna Reece, William E Pierceall, Weiyuan Chung, Faiza Zafar, Amit Agarwal, Nizar J Bahlis

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Patients with multiple myeloma who have relapsed after or become refractory to lenalidomide in early treatment lines represent a clinically important population in need of effective therapies. The safety and efficacy of pomalidomide, low-dose dexamethasone, and daratumumab was evaluated in lenalidomide-pretreated patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) after one to two prior treatment lines in the phase 2 MM-014 study. Patients received pomalidomide 4 mg daily from days 1-21 and dexamethasone 40 mg weekly (28-day cycles). Daratumumab 16 mg/kg was administered per label. Primary endpoint was overall response rate (ORR); secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS) and safety. …

Antibody Profiling Of Patients With Prostate Cancer Reveals Differences In Antibody Signatures Among Disease Stages, Hemanth K Potluri, Tun Lee Ng, Michael A Newton, Jin Zhang, Christopher A Maher, Peter S Nelson, Douglas G Mcneel

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Previous studies of prostate cancer autoantibodies have largely focused on diagnostic applications. So far, there have been no reports attempting to more comprehensively profile the landscape of prostate cancer-associated antibodies. Specifically, it is unknown whether the quantity of antibodies or the types of proteins recognized change with disease progression.

METHODS: A peptide microarray spanning the amino acid sequences of the gene products of 1611 prostate cancer-associated genes was synthesized. Serum samples from healthy male volunteers (n=15) and patients with prostate cancer (n=85) were used to probe the array. These samples included patients with various clinical stages of disease: newly …

Epilepsy Risk Prediction Model For Patients With Tuberous Sclerosis Complex, Laura S Farach, Melissa A Richard, Philip J Lupo, Mustafa Sahin, Darcy A Krueger, Joyce Y Wu, Elizabeth M Bebin, Kit Sing Au, Hope Northrup, Tacern Study Group

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Individuals with tuberous sclerosis complex are at increased risk of epilepsy. Early seizure control improves developmental outcomes, making identifying at-risk patients critically important. Despite several identified risk factors, it remains difficult to predict. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the combined risk prediction of previously identified risk factors for epilepsy in individuals with tuberous sclerosis complex.

METHODS: The study group (n = 333) consisted of individuals with tuberous sclerosis complex who were enrolled in the Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Autism Center of Excellence Research Network and UT TSC Biobank. The outcome was defined as having an epilepsy diagnosis. …

Positive Information Facilitates Response Inhibition In Older Adults Only When Emotion Is Task-Relevant, Samantha E Williams, Eric J Lenze, Jill D Waring

Open Access Publications

Emotional information is integral to everyday life and impacts a variety of cognitive abilities including response inhibition, a critical skill for maintaining appropriate and flexible behaviour. However, reported effects of emotion on response inhibition are inconsistent in younger adults, and very limited in older adults. Effects of aging are especially relevant because emotion regulation improves with aging despite declining inhibitory control over neutral information. Across three studies, we assessed the impact of emotional facial expressions on response inhibition in younger and older adults while manipulating attention to task stimuli. Emotional faces (versus neutral faces) altered response inhibition only when task …

Sequence Analysis In Bos Taurus Reveals Pervasiveness Of X-Y Arms Races In Mammalian Lineages, Jennifer F Hughes, Colin Kremitzki, Catrina Fronick, Tina A Graves-Lindsay, Lucinda Fulton, Wesley C Warren, Richard K Wilson, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Studies of Y Chromosome evolution have focused primarily on gene decay, a consequence of suppression of crossing-over with the X Chromosome. Here, we provide evidence that suppression of X-Y crossing-over unleashed a second dynamic: selfish X-Y arms races that reshaped the sex chromosomes in mammals as different as cattle, mice, and men. Using super-resolution sequencing, we explore the Y Chromosome of

A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial Evaluating Effects Of Lebrikizumab On Airway Eosinophilic Inflammation And Remodelling In Uncontrolled Asthma (Clavier), Cary D Austin, Kaharu Sumino, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: The anti-interleukin 13 (IL-13) monoclonal antibody lebrikizumab improves lung function in patients with moderate-to-severe uncontrolled asthma, but its effects on airway inflammation and remodelling are unknown. CLAVIER was designed to assess lebrikizumab's effect on eosinophilic inflammation and remodelling.

OBJECTIVE: To report safety and efficacy results from enrolled participants with available data from CLAVIER.

METHODS: We performed bronchoscopy on patients with uncontrolled asthma before and after 12 weeks of randomized double-blinded treatment with lebrikizumab (n = 31) or placebo (n = 33). The pre-specified primary end-point was relative change in airway subepithelial eosinophils per mm

RESULTS: There was a baseline …

Altered Capicua Expression Drives Regional Purkinje Neuron Vulnerability Through Ion Channel Gene Dysregulation In Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1, Ravi Chopra, David D Bushart, John P Cooper, Dhananjay Yellajoshyula, Logan M Morrison, Haoran Huang, Hillary P Handler, Luke J Man, Warunee Dansithong, Daniel R Scoles, Stefan M Pulst, Harry T Orr, Vikram G Shakkottai

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Selective neuronal vulnerability in neurodegenerative disease is poorly understood. Using the ATXN1[82Q] model of spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1), we explored the hypothesis that regional differences in Purkinje neuron degeneration could provide novel insights into selective vulnerability. ATXN1[82Q] Purkinje neurons from the anterior cerebellum were found to degenerate earlier than those from the nodular zone, and this early degeneration was associated with selective dysregulation of ion channel transcripts and altered Purkinje neuron spiking. Efforts to understand the basis for selective dysregulation of channel transcripts revealed modestly increased expression of the ATXN1 co-repressor Capicua (Cic) in anterior cerebellar Purkinje neurons. Importantly, …

Anemocheck-Lrs: An Optimized, Color-Based Point-Of-Care Test To Identify Severe Anemia In Limited-Resource Settings, Marina S Perez-Plazola, Erika A Tyburski, Luke R Smart, Thad A Howard, Amanda Pfeiffer, Russell E Ware, Wilbur A Lam, Patrick T Mcgann

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Severe anemia is common and frequently fatal for hospitalized patients in limited-resource settings. Lack of access to low-cost, accurate, and rapid diagnosis of anemia impedes the delivery of life-saving care and appropriate use of the limited blood supply. The WHO Haemoglobin Colour Scale (HCS) is a simple low-cost test but frequently inaccurate. AnemoCheck-LRS (limited-resource settings) is a rapid, inexpensive, color-based point-of-care (POC) test optimized to diagnose severe anemia.

METHODS: Deidentified whole blood samples were diluted with plasma to create variable hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations, with most in the severe (≤ 7 g/dL) or profound (≤ 5 g/dL) anemia range. Each …

A Praziquantel Treatment Study Of Immune And Transcriptome Profiles In Schistosoma Haematobium-Infected Gabonese Schoolchildren, Lucja A Labuda, Ayola A Adegnika, Bruce A Rosa, John Martin, Ulysse Ateba-Ngoa, Abena Serwaa Amoah, Honorine Mbenkep Lima, Lynn Meurs, Moustapha Mbow, Mikhael D Manurung, Jeannot F Zinsou, Hermelijn H Smits, Peter G Kremsner, Makedonka Mitreva, Maria Yazdanbakhsh

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Although Schistosoma haematobium infection has been reported to be associated with alterations in immune function, in particular immune hyporesponsiveness, there have been only few studies that have used the approach of removing infection by drug treatment to establish this and to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms.

METHODS: Schistosoma haematobium-infected schoolchildren were studied before and after praziquantel treatment and compared with uninfected controls. Cellular responses were characterized by cytokine production and flow cytometry, and in a subset of children RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) transcriptome profiling was performed.

RESULTS: Removal of S haematobium infection resulted in increased schistosome-specific cytokine responses that were …

Young Versus Aged Microbiota Transplants To Germ-Free Mice: Increased Short-Chain Fatty Acids And Improved Cognitive Performance, Juneyoung Lee, Venugopal R Venna, David J Durgan, Huanan Shi, Jacob Hudobenko, Nagireddy Putluri, Joseph Petrosino, Louise D Mccullough, Robert M Bryan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Aging is associated with cognitive decline and decreased concentrations of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the gut. SCFAs are significant in that they are protective to the gut and other organs. We tested the hypothesis that the aged gut microbiome alone is sufficient to decrease SCFAs in the host and produce cognitive decline. Fecal transplant gavages (FTGs) from aged (18–20 months) or young (2–3 months) male C57BL/6 mice into germ-free male C57BL/6 mice (N = 11 per group) were initiated at ~3 months of age. Fecal samples were collected and behavioral testing was performed over the study period. Bacterial community …

Β-Cell Impairment And Clinically Meaningful Alterations In Glycemia In Obese Youth Across The Glucose Tolerance Spectrum, Joon Young Kim, Hala Tfayli, Fida Bacha, Sojung Lee, Nour Gebara, Silva Arslanian

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background/aims: In obese youth, it is not clear what degree of β-cell impairment translates to glucose dysregulation commensurate with shifts from normal glucose tolerance (NGT) to impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) to type 2 diabetes. We aimed to investigate the quantitative relationship between β-cell (clamp-measured disposition index [DI]) and OGTT glucose area under the curve (G-AUC) in obese youth across the spectrum of glucose tolerance.

Methods: Data from 152 youth (58 African-American [AA] and 94 American-White [AW]; 73 NGT, 48 IGT, and 31 type 2 diabetes) who completed a 3-h hyperinsulinemic (80 mu/m2/min)-euglycemic clamp, and a 2-h hyperglycemic (225 mg/dL) clamp …

Geff: Graph Embedding For Functional Fingerprinting, Kausar Abbas, Enrico Amico, Diana Otero Svaldi, Uttara Tipnis, Duy Anh Duong-Tran, Mintao Liu, Meenusree Rajapandian, Jaroslaw Harezlak, Beau M Ances, Joaquín Goñi

2020-Current year OA Pubs

It has been well established that Functional Connectomes (FCs), as estimated from functional MRI (fMRI) data, have an individual fingerprint that can be used to identify an individual from a population (subject-identification). Although identification rate is high when using resting-state FCs, other tasks show moderate to low values. Furthermore, identification rate is task-dependent, and is low when distinct cognitive states, as captured by different fMRI tasks, are compared. Here we propose an embedding framework, GEFF (Graph Embedding for Functional Fingerprinting), based on group-level decomposition of FCs into eigenvectors. GEFF creates an eigenspace representation of a group of subjects using one …

Genetics Of Smoking Behaviors In American Indians, Jeffrey A Henderson, Dedra S Buchwald, Barbara V Howard, Patricia Nez Henderson, Yafang Li, Rachel F Tyndale, Christopher I Amos, Olga Y Gorlova, Collaborative To Improve Native Cancer Outcomes (Cinco), A P50 Center For Population Health And Health Disparities Program Project Sponsored By The National Cancer Institute

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: The smoking behavior of American Indians (AI) differs from that of non-Hispanic whites (NHW). Typically light smokers, cessation interventions in AIs are generally less effective. To develop more effective cessation programs for AIs, clinicians, researchers, and public health workers need a better understanding of the genetic factors involved in their smoking behavior. Our aim was to assess whether SNPs associated with smoking behavior in NHWs are also associated with smoking in AIs.

METHODS: We collected questionnaire data on smoking behaviors and analyzed blood and saliva samples from two Tribal populations with dramatically different cultures and smoking prevalence, one in …

Association Of Visceral Adipose Tissue And Subclinical Atherosclerosis In Us-Born Mexican Americans But Not First Generation Immigrants, Clarence Gill, Miryoung Lee, Kristina P Vatcheva, Nahid Rianon, Beverly Smulevitz, David D Mcpherson, Joseph B Mccormick, Susan P Fisher-Hoch, Susan T Laing

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background Excess visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is a primary driver for the cardiometabolic complications of obesity; VAT-associated cardiovascular disease risk varies by race, but most studies have been done on Non-Hispanics. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical and metabolic correlates of VAT, its association with subclinical atherosclerosis, and the factors affecting this association in Mexican Americans. Methods and Results Participants (n=527) were drawn from the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort (CCHC), on whom a carotid ultrasound to assess carotid intima media thickness and a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan to assess for VAT were obtained. Those in the highest quartiles of …

The Fgf8 Subfamily (Fgf8, Fgf17 And Fgf18) Is Required For Closure Of The Embryonic Ventral Body Wall, Michael Boylan, Matthew J Anderson, David M Ornitz, Mark Lewandoski

Open Access Publications

The closure of the embryonic ventral body wall in amniotes is an important morphogenetic event and is essential for life. Defects in human ventral wall closure are a major class of birth defect and a significant health burden. Despite this, very little is understood about how the ventral body wall is formed. Here, we show that fibroblast growth factor (FGF) ligands FGF8, FGF17 and FGF18 are essential for this process. Conditional mouse mutants for these genes display subtle migratory defects in the abdominal muscles of the ventral body wall and an enlarged umbilical ring, through which the internal organs are …

Health And Disease Markers Correlate With Gut Microbiome Composition Across Thousands Of People., Ohad Manor, Chengzhen L Dai, Sergey A Kornilov, Brett Smith, Nathan D Price, Jennifer C Lovejoy, Sean M Gibbons, Andrew T Magis

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Variation in the human gut microbiome can reflect host lifestyle and behaviors and influence disease biomarker levels in the blood. Understanding the relationships between gut microbes and host phenotypes are critical for understanding wellness and disease. Here, we examine associations between the gut microbiota and ~150 host phenotypic features across ~3,400 individuals. We identify major axes of taxonomic variance in the gut and a putative diversity maximum along the Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes axis. Our analyses reveal both known and unknown associations between microbiome composition and host clinical markers and lifestyle factors, including host-microbe associations that are composition-specific. These results suggest potential opportunities …

Implementation Planning For Community-Based Point-Of-Care Hiv Testing For Infants: Recommendations From Community Leaders In Kenya., Lynton W. Macharia, Catherine Wexler, Melinda Brown, May Maloba, Ruby Angeline Pricilla, Natabhona M. Mabachi, Elizabeth Muchoki, Shadrack Babu, Martin Ochieng, Brad Gautney, Kathy Goggin, Sarah Finocchario-Kessler

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: Early infant diagnosis (EID) establishes the presence of HIV infection in HIV-exposed infants and children younger than 18 months of age. EID services are hospital-based, and thus fail to capture HIV-exposed infants who are not brought to the hospital for care. Point-of-care (POC) diagnostic systems deployed in the community could increase the proportion tested and linked to treatment, but little feasibility and acceptability data is available.

METHODS: Semi-structured interviews (n = 74) were conducted by a Kenyan team with community members (Community Health Workers/Volunteers [CHW/CHV], Traditional Birth Attendants [TBAs], community leaders) and parents of HIV-exposed infants at four study …