Volume 85 No. 3 February 2019

Early Career Investigator

 

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Congratulations to Wei Perng, the Early Career Investigator for February. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she earned her BS, MPH, and PhD at the University of Michigan. She acquired her interest in the developmental origins of health and disease from her PhD adviser and has continued her own path in this field. Having worked with Project Viva, a prenatal cohort, she is now involved in the ELEMENT cohort, led jointly by investigators at the University of Michigan and the Mexican Institute of Public Health. Her focus is on metabolites and metabolic risk in pediatrics. Her advice? Be brave and join groups in which you are the least knowledgeable participant so that your learning curve will be the steepest. In a study reported in this issue, she and colleagues analyzed metabolite patterns and metabolic risk in adolescents. See https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-018-0232-4 and https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-018-0195-5

Waist-to-height ratios predict metabolic risk

 

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Vasquez et al. measured weight, height, and waist and hip circumference in 678 adolescents. The waist-to-height ratio was found to have the best sensitivity and specificity for predicting metabolic syndrome in both males and females. See https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-018-0257-8

Higher plasma cholesterol is associated with increased cerebellar volume

 

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Kamino et al. followed 60 preterm infants until 3 years of age. Early plasma cholesterol was associated with increased volume of the cerebellum. However, increased endogenous cholesterol synthesis was associated with a decrease in motor scores on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. More work is needed to understand these relationships. See https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-018-0260-0

Genetic contribution to anemia in pediatric chronic kidney disease

 

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Indigo molecular images/Getty

Atkinson et al. conducted genome-wide association studies of single-nucleotide polymorphisms in three cohorts of children with chronic kidney failure to determine genetic contributions to anemia. Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, they found two single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with hemoglobin in both European and Turkish children. See https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-018-0148-z

Maternal glycemia and obesity are determents of early-life adiposity

 

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Andersson-Hall et al. enrolled normal-weight and obese women as well as women with gestational diabetes during pregnancy, and followed their infants for 1 year to determine effects of glycemia and obesity on body fat composition. They found that both factors influenced early-life adiposity, especially in girls. See https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-018-0248-9

SNPs in T-box transcription factors are associated with congenital heart disease

 

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Wang et al. studied the association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 1285 control and 1241 children with congenital heart disease (CHD) in China. The G-to-T variation in the TBX2 3′ untranslated region increased the risk of CHD, most likely by providing binding sites for inhibitory microRNAs. For a professional illustration of this mechanism, see the article by Feng Wang in this issue.See https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-018-0181-y and https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-018-0244-0

Preterm infants lose vitamin carrier proteins in urine

 

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Charlton et al. investigated the developmental expression of megalin, an endocytic receptor for retinol-binding protein (RBP) and vitamin D–binding protein (VDBP) in preterm infants. They found that the expression of megalin correlates with gestational age, and that urinary concentrations of RBP and VDBP at birth were higher in 28- to 32-week premature infants than in those born at 38–40 weeks. See https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-018-0261-z