Effect of age on body composition in healthy Beijing women

Objective:To explore the effect of age on body composition in healthy Beijing women. Methods:We measured body composition with dual-energy X-ray（GE Lunar Prodigy） in 316 healthy Beijing females aged 20 to 74 years（5-7 women per age）.Parameters provided by the software were as following:total body bone mineral content（BMC）,lean mass（LM）,fat mass and fat mass percentage（FM%）.Local regions measured included arm,leg,trunk,android region and gynoid region.Body mass index（BMI）,fat mass index（FMI）,free fat mass index（FFMI） and A/G were calculated.Volunteers were assigned to 6 groups according to age by every ten years a group. Results:BMC peaked during the 4th decade,LM peaked during the 5th decade,with a decline of 18.1%and 5.2%respectively at age 74 years.Total body fat mass and FM%showed a general increase with aging throughout the studied age range.Total body fat mass increased from（16±5） kg at age 20-29 years to（24±6）kg at age 70-74 years,while FM%increased from 31.3%to 39.5%.All local region FM%increased with aging at different extents. Android region FM%showed the largest raise extent（32.2%）.BMI increased gradually from 21.1 kg/m2 at age 20-29 years to 26.1 kg/m2 at age 70-74 years.FMI changed more obviously than FFMI.A/G increased from 0.85 at age 20-29 years to 1.02 at age 70-74 years.Different menstrual status in women of 40-59 years had obvious effect on A/G and BMC（P<0.05）,while it had no significant effect on BMI,body weight and waist circumference （P>0.05）. Conclusion:Aging has a great effect on body composition distribution in healthy Beijing women.

Study Biocompatibility and Osteogenic Differentiation Potential of Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hUCMSCs) with Gelatin Solvent

The human umbilical cord is a source of numerous Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs), making it as a potential source of allogeneic multipotent cell for bone tissue engineering. The aims of this study were to find: 1) Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hUCMSCs) phenotypic characterization, 2) The in-vitro osteogenic differentiation potential of hUCMSCs, 3) The cytotoxicity of gelatin solvent to hUCMSCs using 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. As a result, through characterization of hUCMSCs, the majority of target cells expressed specific MSCs markers, Cellular Differentiation (CD)73, smaller number of subpopulation expressed CD90 with only minimal subpopulation expressed CD105 and all negative MSCs markers. Osteoblastic differentiation was found in a significantly high number of cells when in vitro osteogenic differentiation of hUCMSCs with Alizarin Red staining was done. Biocompatibility analysis using the MTT assay showed that gelatin solvent and Alpha modification of minimum essential medium Eagle (α-MEM) was non-toxic for hUCMSCs in vitro. The study concluded that hUCMSCs isolated from human umbilical cord was capable of undergoing in vitro osteogenesis, indicating its potential as allogeneic stem cells for clinical application in bone tissue engineering.

Body mass index versus percentage body fat in Chinese, African-American and Caucasian postmenopausal women

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate in postmenopausal women whether the relationship between percentage body fat (PBF) and body mass index (BMI) differs between Asians living in Beijing (BA) and African-Americans (AA), and Caucasians (Ca) living in New York City. Methods: Healthy postmenopausal women (231 BA; 113 AA, 95 Ca), aged 50-80 years, were studied. Weight, height and PBF by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) were measured. The relationship between PBF and BMI was assessed by multiple regression analysis. Results: Race, reciprocal of BMI (1/BMI) and the interaction between race and 1/BMI were all significantly (P<0.05) related to PBF in this sample. The slope of the line relating 1/BMI to PBF was different for BA compared to AA (P=0.01) and Ca (P=0.003) while the slopes for AA and Ca were not different (P>0.05). At lower levels of BMI, Asians tended to have higher PBF comparable to AA and Ca, while at BMI >30 BA tended to have less PBF than the other groups. Conclusion: The relation between PBF and BMI in BA postmenopausal women differs from that of AA and Ca women in this sample.