Adolescents’ Estimation of Energy Content of Standard Portion Size of Foods and Its Association with Body Mass Index

The purpose of this study is to identify the adolescents’ knowledge of the energy content of the standard portion size of foods and to investigate the association between their knowledge and energy intake and also body mass index (BMI). A total of 251 middle school adolescents participated in this study. Participants’ knowledge was assessed based on their estimation of the energy content of the standard portion size of foods. To estimate the energy intake of the subjects, 24-hr recall was used. The percentage of participants who accurately estimated (that is within 20% of the true value) the energy content of the standard portion size was calculated for each of the 32 typical foods. The food for which the most participants revealed the accurate estimation was cooked rice (39.5%). The proportion of students who overestimated the energy contents was highest for vegetables (98%), and oils and sugar (90%). The female students were more likely than males to provide the accurate estimation of energy contents for standard portion size of foods. After adjusting for age and sex, the estimation level ([estimation value/true value] × 100) of the energy content of some foods had a significant positive relationship with BMI, but had no significant relationship with reported energy intake. From these results, we concluded that the knowledge of energy content of food was poor among middle-school adolescents, with some gender difference, and that their estimation of the calorie contents of foods increased along with their BMI.

Optimal culture conditions for the generation of natural killer cell-induced dendritic cells for cancer immunotherapy

Dendritic cell(DC)-based vaccines continue to be considered an attractive tool for cancer immunotherapy.DCs require an additional signal from the environment or other immune cells to polarize the development of immune responses toward T helper 1(Th1)or Th2 responses.DCs play a role in natural killer(NK)cell activation,and NK cells are also able to activate and induce the maturation of DCs.We investigated the types of NK cells that can induce the maturation and enhanced function of DCs and the conditions under which these interactions occur.DCs that were activated by resting NK cells in the presence of inflammatory cytokines exhibited increased expression of several costimulatory molecules and an enhanced ability to produce IL-12p70.NK cell-stimulated DCs potently induced Th1 polarization and exhibited the ability to generate tumor antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses.Our data demonstrate that functional DCs can be generated by coculturing immature DCs with freshly isolated resting NK cells in the presence of Toll-like receptor agonists and proinflammatory cytokines and that the resulting DCs effectively present antigens to induce tumor-specific T-cell responses,which suggests that these cells may be useful for cancer immunotherapy.

Identification of novel HLA-A 0201-restricted epitopes from anterior gradient-2 as a tumor-associated antigen against colorectal cancer

Anterior gradient-2 （AGR2） promotes tumor growth, cell migration and cellular transformation and its enhanced expression is almost completely restricted to malignant tissues, thus making AGR2 an interesting target for the development of immunotherapeutic strategies. We investigated whether the AGR2 molecule comprises human leukocyte antigen （HLA）-A 0201-binding epitopes recognized by human cytotoxic T lymphocytes （CTLs）, which could be targeted in dendritic cell （DC）-based cancer immunotherapy against colorectal cancer （CRC）. We reviewed the sequence of AGR2 for peptides that could potentially bind to HLA-A 0201 with the aid of a computer-based program. Five candidate peptides with different binding scores were synthesized and tested. These peptides were then assessed for their immunogenicity to elicit specific immune responses mediated by CTLs in vitro by means of enzyme-linked immunospot assays and CTL assays. AGR2 was highly expressed in several CRC cell lines, including DK01, DLD1, KM 12C, HCT-8 and HT-29. DCs pulsed with AGR2-P2 （aa 11-19; LLVALSYTL） or AGR2-P4 （aa 127-135; RIMFVDPSL） generated potent CTLs that could lyse T2 cells pulsed with AGR2-P2 or AGR2-P4 and HLA-A0201＋ AGR2-positive CRC cell lines in a strong dose-dependent and HLA-A 0201-restricted manner. In conclusion, these novel epitopes derived from AGR2 protein may be attractive candidates for DC-based immunotherapy for CRC.