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Background: Osteoporosis (OP) is one of the diseases that endanger the health of the elderly population. Klotho protein is a hormone with anti-aging effects. A few studies have discussed the relationship between Klotho and OP. However, there is still a lack of research on larger populations. This study aims to evaluate the association between OP and Klotho in American postmenopausal women. Methods: This is a retrospective study. We searched the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database and collected data of 3 survey cycles, finally involving 871 postmenopausal women over 50 years old in the present study. All participants took dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry examination and serum Klotho testing at the time of investigation. After adjusting the possible confounding variables, a multivariate regression model was employed to estimate the relationship between OP and Klotho proteins. Besides, the P for trend and restricted cubic spline (RCS) were applied to examine the threshold effect and calculate the inflection point. Results: Factors influencing the occurrence of OP included age, ethnicity, body mass index and Klotho levels. Multivariate regression analysis indicated that the serum Klotho concentration was lower in OP patients than that in participants without OP (OR[log2Klotho] = 0.568, P = 0.027). The C-index of the prediction model built was 0.765, indicating good prediction performance. After adjusting the above-mentioned four variables, P values for trend showed significant differences between groups. RCSs revealed that when the Klotho concentration reached 824.09 pg/ml, the risk of OP decreased drastically. Conclusion: Based on the analysis of the data collected from the NHANES database, we propose a correlation between Klotho and postmenopausal OP. A higher serum Klotho level is related to a lower incidence of OP. The findings of the present study can provide guidance for research on diagnosis and risk assessment of OP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations of body mass index (BMI) with insulin resistance and β-cell function in subjects with normal glucose tolerance. A cross-sectional study was carried out in Fujian province by multistratified sampling from July 2007 to May 2008. The sample consisted of 2931 subjects aged from 20 to 79 years. The questionnaires, physical examinations, and laboratory tests were obtained from all the participants. The homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index was used to estimate insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion was assessed using the HOMA-β index, and β-cell function was quantified as the ratio of the incremental insulin to glucose responses over the first 30 minutes during the oral glucose tolerance test (ΔI30/ΔG30). Another measure was adjusted for insulin sensitivity as it modulates β-cell function ([ΔI30/ΔG30]/HOMA-IR). Associations of BMI with morbidities were estimated using multiple logistic regression analysis. Relationships of BMI to insulin resistance and β-cell function were assessed using multiple linear regression analysis and analysis of covariance. The age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of overweight and obesity was 23.04% (27.44% in men and 18.40% in women) and 2.65% (2.75% in men and 2.55% in women), respectively. After adjustment for covariables, BMI was independently associated with morbidity conditions; and there were increasing trend for odds ratios of morbidities across the BMI categories. There were independent differences for HOMA-IR, HOMA-β, and ΔI30/ΔG30 between the normal-weight, overweight, and obese groups except for (ΔI30/ΔG30)/HOMA-IR. Body mass index was significantly and independently associated with HOMA-IR, HOMA-β, and ΔI30/ΔG30 in the multiple linear regression analysis. Body mass index was an independent risk factor for hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome, as well as the indexes of insulin resistance and β-cell function. It is imperative that the whole society pay more attention to the identification and intervention of overweight and obesity to prevent obesity-related diseases at the very early stage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Thyroid dysfunction is one of the prevalent endocrine disorders. The relationship between lifestyle factors and thyroid dysfunction was not clear and some of the factors seemed paradoxical. Methods: We conducted this population-based study using data from 5154 She ethnic minority people who had entered into the epidemic survey of diabetes between July 2007 to September 2009. Life style information was collected using a standard questionnaire. Body mass index (BMI), Blood pressure and serum TSH, TPOAb, triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and high–density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) were collected. Results: The study showed that people who drank, had higher education or suffered from insomnia have lower incidence of hyperthyroidism. On the other hand, smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, undergoing weight watch and chronic headache were associated with decreased incidence of hypothyroidism. Using multivariable logistic regression analysis, we found that alcohol consumption was associated with decreased probability of hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, as well as positive TPOAb. The amounts of cigarettes smoked daily displayed a positive correlation with hyperthyroidism among smokers. Accordingly, smoking seemed to be associated with decreased risk for hypothyroidism and positive TPOAb. Exercise and maintaining a healthy weight might have a beneficial effect on thyroid health. Interestingly, daily staple amount showed an inverse correlation with incidence of positive TPOAb. Conclusions: Within the Chinese She ethnic minority, we found associations between different lifestyle factors and the incidence of different thyroid diseases. Understanding the nature of these associations requires further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objectives: Two large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAs) have identified multiple variants associated with blood pressure (BP) or hypertension. The present study was to investigate whether some variations were associated with BP traits and hypertension or even prehypertension in adult She ethnic minority of China. Methods: The population of the present study comprised 4460 (1979 males and 2481 females, respectively) unrelated she ethnic minority based on a cross-sectional study from Ningde City in Fujian province of China. There were 1692 hypertensives, 1600 prehypertensives and 1168 normotensive controls, respectively. We genotyped 7 variants in CYP17A1, PLEKHA7, CACNB2, ATP2B1, TBX3-TBX5, CSK-ULK3 and SH2B3 reported by the previous GWAs on Europeans. All analyses were performed in an additive genetic model. Results: As the minor allele of rs653178 in/near SH2B3 was very rare with the frequency of 0.018, we excluded this single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the further analyses. Of the other 6 loci, linear regression analyses revealed that rs11191548 in CYP17A1 and rs11014166 in CACNB2 were significantly associated with systolic BP (β =−1.17, P =0.002 and β =−0.50, P =0.006, respectively), while only SNP rs11191548 was significantly associated with diastolic BP (β =−0.56, P =0.002) after adjusted by age, sex and BMI. Two variants in CACNB2 and PLEKHA7 were found to be significantly related to hypertension (odds ratios [OR] and (95% confidence interval [CI]): 0.79 (0.65–0.97) and 1.19 (1.01–1.41), respectively) in logistic regression analyses after adjusted by age, sex and BMI. In addition, we found that combined risk alleles of the 6 SNPs increased risk of hypertension in a stepwise fashion (P for trend<0.001). However, none of the 6 SNPs was significantly associated with BMI or prehypertension status. While logistic analysis showed that subjects with cumulative risk alleles more than 9 had significantly higher risk for prehypertension (adjusted OR: 3.10, P <0.001) compared with those with risk alleles less than 4. Conclusions: We replicated that variations in CYP17A1, CACNB2 and PLEKHA7 were related to BP traits and/or hypertension in She population. In addition, although we failed to observe single gene associated with prehypertension, we first found that conjoint effect of multiple risk alleles on BP might increase the risk of progressing to prehypertension. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]