Getting Credit Where Credit Is Due

I am excerpting briefly from author Michael Domjan in the April 2008 Observer on the Psychological Science web site, but the article about credit for work in science in the age of interdisciplinary work is very interesting!

It says, "These days, the term “credit crisis” invokes thoughts of Wall Street and financial debt. But in the scientific enterprise, structural changes are affecting core issues of intellectual credit and indebtedness as well as taking responsibility when problems arise. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary have almost become buzz words, but they signify much more than just fashionable labels. Their commonplace use reflects the fact that deep understanding of a problem often requires the coordinated efforts of a range of scientists who are expert at different levels of analysis and employ different specialized techniques. When teams apply for grants and research awards, it may be difficult to name the principal investigator (PI). Beginning in February 2007, the National Institutes of Health added a multiple principal investigator option for grant and award applications." Vist the web site to read more!

Tea Catechins Linked to Reduction of Cancers

Increased consumption of teas rich in catechins is associated with reduced risk of stomach, colon, and other gastrointestinal cancers. However, the effects of digestion on the anticancer activity of tea catechins have largely been ignored. A study by nutrition researchers at The Ohio State University and Purdue University found that the digestive process could both alter the structure of the tea catechins and their anticancer activity.

Results were presented April 7 at Experimental Biology 2008 in San Diego.

Using a model simulating gastric and small-intestinal digestion, the researchers treated gastric cancer cells and colon cancer cell lines with digested and undigested (parent) extracts of green, tea, black tea, and a combination of the most active tea catechins (EGCG/EGC).
In colon cells, digestion of both the green tea extracts and the catechin combination significantly reduced anticancer activity compared to undigested parent extracts. Black tea, on the other hand, showed the same anticancer activity for both parent and digested extracts.

Digestion and the type of tea made a difference in terms of anticancer activity. In addition, the anticancer activity of the tea extracts differed between gastric and colon cancer cell lines. In gastric cancer cells, the undigested extracts were 50 percent less effective than in colon cancer cells.

What does the new study show us?

First, says Dr. Bomser, it points out that better understanding the impact of digestion on tea could lead to changes in how we formulate products in order to protect and enhance their anticancer activity. It also could change how we prepare tea now. In a study from Dr. Ferruzzi’s laboratory published last November, for example, he found that adding citrus (such as lemon juice) or ascorbic acid to green tea protected the catechins from digestive degradation. Lemon juice caused 80 percent of tea’s catechins to remain available for the body to absorb.

Second, say the researchers, some of the digestive changes may impact anti-cancer activities. Work in Dr. Ferruzzi’s laboratory has shown that digestion can alter the structure of polyphenols, degrading and destroying some while forming others. His laboratory is currently identifying these new compounds and testing their own anticancer activity.

Third, the findings of digestive impact on tea catechins are likely also true for other bioactive compounds in foods. Dr. Bomser points out that the active compound in broccoli, for example, is not released until chewing and the digestive process begins. How do we formulate food to prevent degradation and perhaps enhance anti-cancer activity?

And fourth, say the researchers, the epidemiological findings of protective impact of teas rich in the unstable, easily degraded catechins may indicate that other compounds in tea are responsible, in part, for this anticancer activity. Further research is necessary to identify these compounds and to understand the impact of digestion on their anticancer activity.

Experimental Biology 2008 - Freshman 15 Update

The “freshman 15” - the rapid weight gain believed to afflict many new college students when they begin school - appears to be a bit of an urban legend: a cautionary tale often told but not well substantiated.

Now a study of 36 freshmen reports an average gain of only 1.9 pounds during the first semester, with women gaining slightly more than men, and an average gain of only 4.8 pounds for the entire freshman year (with males gaining an average of 5.4 pounds and women gaining an average of 3.2 pounds).

Some students lost weight. But even when only those who gained were considered, the average weight gain was 5.8 pounds, a long way from the often-popularized 15.

Dr. Sareen Gropper presented the study at the Experimental Biology 2008 meeting in San Diego.

The 36 freshman (26 females and 10 males) were weighed and their body composition and shape measured when they began college and then again at the end of the fall semester and the end of the spring semester. The urban legend is correct in the sense that a majority of freshmen in the study (71.4 percent) did gain weight, notes Dr. Gropper, but only 21 percent gained five pounds or more.

The largest gainers in the fall semester were a woman who gained nine pounds and a male who gained 10 pounds. For the academic year, the largest weight gains observed were 13 pounds for one male and 12 pounds for one female. No one gained the freshman 15. Dr. Gropper and colleagues have begun a larger study of 240 students who entered Auburn in the fall semester of 2007.

She and her colleagues are following the 240 students throughout their freshman and beginning of their sophomore years, with questionnaires that examine factors that might contribute to the gain, however small, that the majority of college freshman appear to experience. The researchers also are collecting data on weight changes throughout the year, including five, 10, even 15+ pound losses within the first year of school.

Unique to this study is a 3-D whole body scanner to collect information on body size and shape. This technology quickly captures exact body measurements, which can be visually displayed in cross sections of body areas like the bust, waist and hips to show where changes occur in measurements over time. Understanding where weight is deposited on the body helps assess the potential risk of diseases such as heart disease and metabolic syndrome.

Experimental Biology 2008: Ibuprofen Helps Build Muscle Mass

Scientists say taking daily recommended dosages of ibuprofen and acetaminophen caused a substantially greater increase over placebo in the amount of quadriceps muscle mass and muscle strength gained during three months of regular weight lifting.

Dr. Todd Trappe reported study results at Experimental Biology 2008 in San Diego on April 6.

Participants took three months of weight training, 15-20 minute sessions in a Human Performance Laboratory three times per week. The researchers knew from their own and other studies that training at this intensity and for this time period would significantly increase muscle mass and strength. They expected the placebo group to show such increases, as its members did, but they were surprised to find that the groups using either ibuprofen or acetaminophen did even better.

Over three months, says Dr. Trappe, the chronic consumption of ibuprofen or acetaminophen during resistance training appears to have induced intramuscular changes that enhance the metabolic response to resistance exercise, allowing the body to add substantially more new protein to muscle. Read more.