Agricultural and empowerment pathways from land ownership to women's nutrition in India

Land size is an important equity concern for the design of ‘nutrition‐sensitive’ agricultural interventions. We unpack some of the pathways between land and nutrition using a cross‐sectional baseline survey data set of 4,480 women from 148 clusters from the ‘Upscaling Participatory Action and Videos for Agriculture and Nutrition’ trial in Keonjhar district in Odisha, India. Variables used are household ln‐land size owned (exposure) and maternal dietary diversity score out of 10 food groups and body mass index (BMI; kg/m²) (outcomes); and mediators investigated are production diversity score, value of agricultural production, and indicators for women's empowerment (decision‐making in agriculture, group participation, work‐free time and land ownership). We assessed mediation using a non‐parametric potential outcomes framework method. Land size positively affects maternal dietary diversity scores [β 0.047; 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.011, 0.082)] but not BMI. Production diversity, but not value of production, accounts for 17.6% of total effect mediated. We observe suppression of the effect of land size on BMI, with no evidence of a direct effect for either of the agricultural mediators but indirect effects of β −0.031 [95% CI (−0.048, −0.017)] through production diversity and β −0.047 [95% CI (−0.075, −0.021)] through value of production. An increase in land size positively affects women's decision‐making, which in turn negatively affects maternal BMI. The positive effect of work‐free time on maternal BMI is suppressed by the negative effect of household land size on work‐free time. Agriculture interventions must consider land quality, women's decision‐making and implications for women's workload in their design.

Trisomy 18 in Kuwait

BACKGROUND

Trisomy 18 (Edwards' syndrome, T18) is the second most common trisomy in man. We describe 118 children with regular T18 who were ascertained clinically and cytogenetically in the Kuwait Medical Genetics Centre during 1980-1997.

METHODS

Ascertainment of T18 cases was performed shortly after birth. Chromosomal studies were carried out in addition to other relevant investigations. To investigate the factors associated with T18, a case-control study was carried out with 131 normal healthy newborns. Studied factors included maternal and paternal age, birth order, abortion, associated malformation, and survival. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to adjust for confounding between variables.

RESULTS

There was a preponderance of females among T18 cases (female:male ratio 2.1:1). The majority of T18 cases (53%) died before the second week of life. The most common associated anomalies were: congenital heart (38.1%) and gastrointestinal (25.4%). Multiplicity of malformations was also observed. Significant seasonal variation in T18 cases was detected with a peak in spring. Of the 118 T18 cases, 59 were delivered during 1994-1997 (average overall T18 birth prevalence rate 8.95 per 10 000 live births [95% CI: 6.66-11.23]). Concerning maternal age, 30.5% of the T18 cases' mothers were > or =35 years compared to 10.7% in the control group. The difference was statistically significant, P = 0.002. Logistic regression analysis showed that maternal age >30 years was a significant risk factor for T18, after adjusting for confounding with paternal age. Paternal age and abortion were not found to be significant risk factors.

CONCLUSION

Trisomy 18 birth prevalence rate is high in Kuwait with advanced maternal age as a significant risk factor.

Beta2-integrin, LFA-1, and TCR/CD3 synergistically induce tyrosine phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (pp125(FAK)) in PHA-activated T cells

Complete T cell activation requires not only a first signal via TCR/CD3 engagement but also a costimulatory signal through accessory receptors such as CD2, CD28, or integrins. Focal adhesion kinase, pp125(FAK) (FAK), was previously shown to be localized in focal adhesions in fibroblasts and to be involved in integrin-mediated cellular activation. Although signaling through beta1- or beta3-integrins induces tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK, there has been no evidence that activation of T cells through the beta2-integrin, LFA-1, involves FAK. We report here that crosslinking of LFA-1 induces tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK in PHA-activated T cells. Moreover, cocrosslinking with anti-LFA-1 mAb and suboptimal concentration of anti-CD3 mAb markedly increases tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK in an antibody-concentration-dependent and time-kinetics-dependent manner compared with stimulation through CD3 alone, which correlates well with enhanced proliferation of PHA-activated T cells. Furthermore, LFA-1beta costimulation with CD3 induces tyrosine phosphorylation of Syk associated with FAK. These results indicate, for the first time, that signals mediated by LFA-1 can regulate FAK, suggesting that LFA-1-mediated T cell costimulation may be involved in T cell activation at least partially through FAK.

Co-stimulation of T cells with CD2 augments TCR-CD3-mediated activation of protein tyrosine kinase p72syk, resulting in increased tyrosine phosphorylation of adapter proteins, Shc and Cbl

Complete T cell activation requires not only the first signal via TCR-CD3 engagement, but also a co-stimulatory signal through accessory receptors such as CD2, LFA-1 and CD28. However, the pathway of co-stimulatory signaling through accessory receptors is incompletely understood. We report here that CD2 provides a co-stimulus for activation of CD3-mediated syk/ZAP-70 family kinase, p72Syk (Syk), in Jurkat T cells. Although cross-linking of CD2 alone or any combination of CD2 with LFA-1alpha, LFA-1beta or CD28 did not induce tyrosine phosphorylation of Syk, co-cross-linking of CD2 with CD3 enhanced CD3-mediated tyrosine phosphorylation of Syk. Enhancement of tyrosine phosphorylation of Syk by CD2 co-stimulation was CD2 antibody concentration-dependent, and time course studies showed that CD2 co-stimulation enhanced Syk tyrosine phosphorylation by 30 s and through 5 min stimulation compared with the control. In vitro kinase assay revealed that co-cross-linking of CD2 with CD3 augmented Syk kinase activity using myelin basic protein as a substrate. Furthermore, CD2 co-stimulation with CD3 resulted in enhanced tyrosine phosphorylation of adapter proteins, such as Shc and Cbl, in an antibody concentration-dependent manner. Finally, CD2 provided a co-stimulatory signals for synthesis of IL-2 in Jurkat cells and phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-activated T cells and for proliferation of PHA-activated T cells. Taken together, these results indicate that CD2 is an important co-stimulatory receptor for CD3-mediated T cell activation and functions in concert with CD3.

[In situ detection of Epstein-Barr virus in the non-neoplastic gastric glands and infiltrated lymphocytes]

Recently, clonal EBV-DNA and/or EBV-encoded small RNA(EBER1) have been detected in some gastric carcinomas. We reported the first observation of EBV infection in gastric glands with intestinal metaplasia, and characterized the EBV-infected lymphocytes which infiltrated in gastric mucosa. To determine the cellular location of EBV, EBER1 in situ hybridization(ISH) with an EBER1 oligonucleotide probe was applied to paraffin sections of the non-neoplastic gastric mucosa in 80 cases of gastric carcinoma and 49 cases of gastric ulcer. Not only was EBER1 expression detected in the nucleus of gastric cancer cells(5 cases) but also in non-neoplastic gastric epithelial cells(3 cases) and in infiltrated lymphocytes(40 cases). A single or a few shedding non-neoplastic epithelial cells in 2 cases of EBV-associated gastric cancer showed EBER1 expression. In one case, EBER1 was observed in all of the epithelial cells of a few gastric glands with intestinal metaplasia, suggesting that the stem cells of the metaplastic gastric glands were infected with EBV. EBV DNA was also detected in the EBER1-positive metaplastic glands scratched from the paraffin section by a single cell PCR method with a BamHI W primer pair. However, immunohistochemical examination showed that these metaplastic glands lacked expression of EBNA2 and LMP-1. The observation of these rare EBV-infected metaplastic glands reinforces the pre-transformation EBV infection hypothesis for EBV-associated gastric carcinoma. The double staining using ISH and immunohistochemistry revealed that EBER1 positive lymphocytes showed a B cell marker of L26(< 50%) but not T cell markers of UCHL1 and OPD4.