Objective: A high-protein diet may decrease food intake through regulating satiety and appetite hormones and can be an effective strategy for weight loss. Few studies exist on obese Chinese adolescents. Methods and Materials: 156 obese Chinese adolescents were enrolled and randomly assigned to one of two isoenergetic breakfasts, either with egg or steamed bread. Subsequent lunchtime food intake was recorded 4 h later. Appetite was assessed with a visual analog scale. Anorexigenic hormones peptide YY (PYY), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and orexigenic hormone ghrelin were determined with radioimmunoassay at 0, 30, and 180 min. Body weight was recorded. The tests were repeated 3 months later. Analysis was performed between two tests and then two groups. Pearson's correlation was used for association analysis. Results: Subsequent lunchtime food intake and body weight were decreased while satiety was increased in subjects on an egg breakfast, which is associated with an increase of serum PYY and GLP-1 (p < 0.001, respectively). There were strong correlations between weight loss, appetite, subsequent food intake and changes of appetite hormones. Conclusion: A high-protein breakfast promotes weight loss in obese Chinese adolescents, possibly through its regulation of satiety, subsequent food intake and appetite hormones.

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In vitro fertilization (IVF) is an important assisted reproductive technology in treating infertility, whose failure rate is still high. Studies suggested that uterine microbiota are related to women’s reproductive diseases and persisting intrauterine bacterial infectious conditions, such as chronic endometritis (CE), impairing the pregnant processes. However, the relationship between uterine microbiota and IVF outcomes is still an open question. In the present study, 94 patients diagnosed with infertility were enrolled and were divided into CE (E group, n = 25) and non-CE (NE group, n = 69) groups depending on the hysteroscopy and immunohistochemistry. Subsequently, E (Ep, n = 8 and Enp, n = 17) and NE (NEp, n = 41 and NEnp, n = 28) groups were divided into pregnancy and non-pregnancy groups depending on the IVF outcomes, respectively. The uterine fluids were collected and microbial profiles were examined through the V4 region of 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing. The results demonstrated that patients with CE had significantly lower clinical pregnancy rate compared with the non-CE patients (32 vs. 58.42%, p = 0.0014). The relative abundances of Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria were higher in the non-CE group, whereas high abundances of Actinobacteria and Fusobacteria were observed in the CE group at the phylum level. At the genus level, high relative abundances of Gardnerella were observed in the CE group and non-pregnancy groups, which significantly referred to the negative IVF outcome. In conclusion, CE may be a key factor for the negative outcome after IVF, of which the uterine microbiota plays a pivotal role, and the microbial diversity in uterine may serve as a biomarker to forecast the success of IVF outcome.

This prospective study was undertaken to evaluate the prognostic value of uterine perfusion on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin administration in patients who were undergoing intrauterine insemination. Uterine perfusion was evaluated by measuring the pulsatility index of the ascending branch of the uterine arteries on the day of administration of human chorionic gonadotropin. No pregnancy occurred when the pulsatility index of the ascending branch of the uterine arteries was more than 3. The fecundity rate was 18% when the pulsatility index was less than 2 and was 19.8% when the pulsatility index was between 2 and 3 (not significant). The continuing pregnancy rate was 18% when the pulsatility index was less than 2, compared with 12.1% when the pulsatility index was between 2 and 3 (P < 0.05). Our data suggest that the measurement of uterine perfusion on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin administration may have predictive value regarding fecundity and the continuation of pregnancy in intrauterine insemination.

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