Relationship of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate with overweight and insulin sensitivity in 12-16-year-old Spanish children

Automated temporalis muscle quantification and growth charts for children through adulthood

Lean muscle mass (LMM) is an important aspect of human health. Temporalis muscle thickness is a promising LMM marker but has had limited utility due to its unknown normal growth trajectory and reference ranges and lack of standardized measurement. Here, we develop an automated deep learning pipeline to accurately measure temporalis muscle thickness (iTMT) from routine brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We apply iTMT to 23,876 MRIs of healthy subjects, ages 4 through 35, and generate sex-specific iTMT normal growth charts with percentiles. We find that iTMT was associated with specific physiologic traits, including caloric intake, physical activity, sex hormone levels, and presence of malignancy. We validate iTMT across multiple demographic groups and in children with brain tumors and demonstrate feasibility for individualized longitudinal monitoring. The iTMT pipeline provides unprecedented insights into temporalis muscle growth during human development and enables the use of LMM tracking to inform clinical decision-making.

SULT genetic polymorphisms: physiological, pharmacological and clinical implications

INTRODUCTION

Cytosolic sulfotransferases (SULTs)-mediated sulfation is critically involved in the metabolism of key endogenous compounds, such as catecholamines and thyroid/steroid hormones, as well as a variety of drugs and other xenobiotics. Studies performed in the past three decades have yielded a good understanding about the enzymology of the SULTs and their structural biology, phylogenetic relationships, tissue/organ-specific/developmental expression, as well as the regulation of the SULT gene expression. An emerging area is related to the functional impact of the SULT genetic polymorphisms.

AREAS COVERED

The current review aims to summarize our current knowledge about the above-mentioned aspects of the SULT research. An emphasis is on the information concerning the effects of the polymorphisms of the SULT genes on the functional activity of the SULT allozymes and the associated physiological, pharmacological, and clinical implications.

EXPERT OPINION

Elucidation of how SULT SNPs may influence the drug-sulfating activity of SULT allozymes will help understand the differential drug metabolism and eventually aid in formulating personalized drug regimens. Moreover, the information concerning the differential sulfating activities of SULT allozymes toward endogenous compounds may allow for the development of strategies for mitigating anomalies in the metabolism of these endogenous compounds in individuals with certain SULT genotypes.

Metabolite profiling of sex developmental steroid conjugates reveals an association between decreased levels of steroid sulfates and adiposity in obese girls

Free and conjugated steroids coexist in a dynamic equilibrium due to complex biosynthetic and metabolic processes. This may have clinical significance related to various physiological conditions, including sex development involving the reproductive system. Therefore, we performed quantitative profiling of 16 serum steroids conjugated with glucuronic and sulfuric acids using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). All steroid conjugates were purified by solid-phase extraction and then separated through a 3-μm particle size C18 column (150mm×2.1mm) at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min in the negative ionization mode. The LC-MS-based analysis was found to be linear (r(2)>0.99), and all steroid conjugates had a limit-of-quantification (LOQ) of 10ng/mL, except for cholesterol sulfate and 17β-estradiol-3,17-disulfate (20ng/mL). The extraction recoveries of all steroid conjugates ranged from 97.9% to 110.7%, while the overall precision (% CV) and accuracy (% bias) ranged from 4.8% to 10.9% and from 94.4% to 112.9% at four different concentrations, respectively. Profiling of steroid conjugates corrected by adiposity revealed decreased levels of steroid sulfates (P<0.01) in overweight and obese girls compared to normal girls. The suggested technique can be used for evaluating metabolic changes in steroid conjugates and for understanding the pathophysiology and relative contributions of adiposity in childhood obesity.