Objective: To assess the associations between serum folate concentration and measures of adiposity in postmenopausal women. Design: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional analysis within the control segment of a randomized, crossover trial in which postmenopausal women (n ¼ 51) consumed 0 g (control), 15 g (one drink) and 30 g (two drinks) alcohol (ethanol)/day for 8 weeks as part of a controlled diet. Subjects in one treatment arm were crossed-over to another arm after a 2-to 5-week washout period. Body mass index (BMI) was measured, and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan administered to the women during the control (0 g alcohol) treatment, and a blood sample from this group was collected at baseline and week 8 of each diet period and analyzed for folate, B12, homocysteine and methylmalonic acid. Setting: This study was conducted at the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, MD, USA. Results: In multivariate analysis, women who were overweight had a 12% lower, and obese women had a 22% lower serum folate concentrations compared to normal weight women (P-trend ¼ 0.02). Vitamin B12 also decreased with increasing BMI (P-trend ¼ 0.08). Increased BMI, percent body fat, and absolute amounts of central and peripheral fat were all significantly associated with decreased serum folate, but were unrelated to serum B12, homocysteine or methylmalonic acid. Conclusions: Our data show that adiposity is associated with lower serum folate levels in postmenopausal women. With obesity at epidemic proportions, these data, if confirmed by prospective or randomized controlled studies, have important public health implications.

The Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO, https://www.iddo.org) has launched a clinical data platform for the collation, curation, standardisation and reuse of individual participant data (IPD) on treatments for two of the most globally important neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), schistosomiasis (SCH) and soiltransmitted helminthiases (STHs). This initiative aims to harness the power of data-sharing by facilitating collaborative joint analyses of pooled datasets to generate robust evidence on the efficacy and safety of anthelminthic treatment regimens. A crucial component of this endeavour has been the development of a Research Agenda to

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Reduced intracellular folate availability results in DNA damage, hypomethylation, and hyperhomocysteinemia, and has been implicated in risk for age‐associated diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease. Serum folate levels, routinely used to assess human folate status, do not distinguish between folate intake and uptake by metabolizing cells. Nucleated red cells avidly take up folate in the bone marrow but anucleated red cells also accumulate folate during circulation in folate rich serum. Serum folate concentration measured by microbological (L. casei) assay was a significant influence (p<0.0001 ANCOVA) on red cell folate concentration in healthy young (n = 50) and old (n = 60) human subjects (r = 0.503). Baseline SF/RCF% was higher (p<0.02) in old (3.4±2.7%) than young (2.5±1.2%) subjects. SF/RCF% rose higher in subgroups of old (8.06±1.14%; n=6) than young (3.95± 0.35%; n=5) subjects matched for baseline folate indices and supplemented (2 mg/day) for two weeks with folic acid (p<0.01). We propose that the SF/RCF% detects differences in folate uptake/retention and can be used to screen subjects to identify mechanisms of a presumptive age‐associated change in folate utilization. VA Grant HD14837