Sarcopenia, loss of muscle mass and function, is a common feature of aging. Oxidative damage and apoptosis are likely underlying factors. Autophagy, a process for the degradation of cellular constituents, may be a mechanism to combat cell damage and death. We investigated the effect of age on autophagy and apoptosis in plantaris muscle of male Fischer 344 rats that were either fed ad libitum, or mild, life-long calorie restricted (CR) alone or combined with life-long voluntary exercise. Upstream autophagy-regulatory proteins were either upregulated with age (Beclin-1) or unchanged (Atg7 and 9). LC3 gene and protein expression pattern as well as LAMP-2 gene expression, both downstream regulators of autophagy, however, suggested an age-related decline in autophagic degradation. Atg protein expression and LC3 and LAMP-2 gene expression were improved in CR rats with or without exercise. The age-related increase in oxidative damage and apoptosis were attenuated by the treatments. Both, oxidative damage and apoptosis correlated negatively with autophagy. We conclude that mild CR attenuates the age-related impairment of autophagy in rodent skeletal muscle, which might be one of the mechanisms by which CR attenuates age-related cellular damage and cell death in skeletal muscle in vivo.

This study compared the results of two methods of behavioral treatment in combination with a very-low-calorie-diet in the treatment of obesity. Subjects were 28 male and 106 female patients admitted to the medically supervised fasting program at Risk Factor Clinic in Portland, Oregon. Subjects were matched by gender, percent over ideal body weight, and age. Subject group I received a smorgasbord of behavioral techniques from various group leaders in a 60-minute weekly session. Presentation was didactic and theoretical and subjects were accountable to themselves for utilization of the techniques. Subject group II participated in 90-minute weekly sessions with a primary leader facilitating a problem solving and educational session in which patients were continually encouraged to participate. Subjects set goals and made weekly commitments to facilitate skill acquisition and behavior change. The leader collected data from patients each week on program compliance and physical activity.

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Obesity is considered to be a worldwide epidemic disease characterized by an accumulation of AT. Increased adiposity can perturb normal metabolic functions and lead to the development of diseases like insulin resistance and other metabolic disorders. A large amount of clinical studies have been shown that changes in inflammatory signaling in adipose tissue cells, increased infiltration of immune cells into AT as well as stress of endoplasmic reticulum belong to the key molecular steps leading to the development of metabolic disturbances associated with this disease. Adverse metabolic effects of AT accumulation can be diminished by calorie restriction resulting in weight loss. In addition, stress of endoplasmic reticulum could be alleviated by chemical chaperones including bile acids. These two approaches for the treatment of obesity or the obesity-associated disturbances were basis for this PhD thesis. In the first part of this work, we studied inflammation status of gluteal in comparison with abdominal AT and differentiation and secretory capacity of adipocytes after weight loss in obese patients. We revealed that inflammatory profile of gluteal AT, estimated by mRNA level of macrophages and cytokines as markers of inflammatory status of the body, did not explain the different clinical impact of...

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Cancer is a leading cause of death in the United States and the world. Based on the literature, the side effects of prolonged use of cancer treatment pose a threat to the patient's treatment compliance and efficacy. This study aims to determine the extent to which calorie restriction and fasting can improve the efficacy of cancer treatments, tolerability of cancer treatments, and compliance with cancer treatments through a systematic review. The search for studies involved the use of key terms and extenders based on population, intervention, comparator, outcomes, and study designs (PICOS) framework including participants receiving cancer treatment, dietary interventions, and cancer treatment outcomes. All search results were uploaded to Covidence® software and two independent blinded reviewers screened the studies, and three independent reviewers extracted the data. Studies were first screened based on the title and abstract, and then they were screened based on the full text. If the synthesized data had similar characteristics and there were enough studies available, then the meta-analysis would be performed. While Riedinger et al., Voss et al., and de Groot et al. did not find any significant difference in treatment efficacy between fasting and control groups, the earlier study done by de Groot et al. showed that the effects of fasting can show significant improvement in decreasing the amount of DNA damage in noncancerous cells. Regarding the effects of fasting and calorie restriction on patient tolerability when receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy, all studies covering the effect demonstrate a trend suggesting that there is no significant difference between the dietary intervention groups and control groups. Overall, there is not enough information from these studies to conclude the effect of fasting on treatment compliance.

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Eggplant grafting implemented implemented in two field sites in the Philippines, in Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan are used as proofs of concept to illustrate and validate the feasibility of an impact assessment framework for determining the nutritional impact of technology-oriented agricultural activities. Nutritional impacts are assessed by disaggregating the market demand curve into demand curves by income groups using their separate price elasticities of demand. Considering only price effects, the increase in yields following a per unit cost reduction due to eggplant grafting has positive effects on the daily caloric intake per capita in the different income classes with the greatest impact on the lowest income class for both sites. Net increases in calorie intake ranges between 0.09 and 0.6 kilocalories per capita per day. / Master of Science