This case -control study, conducted in Zhejiang, China during 1999 -2000, investigated whether dietary factors have an aetiological association with ovarian cancer. Cases were 254 patients with histologically confirmed epithelial ovary cancer. The 652 controls comprised 340 hospital visitors, 261 non-neoplasm hospital outpatients without long-term diet modifications and 51 women recruited from the community. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to measure the habitual diet of cases and controls. The risks of ovarian cancer for the dietary factors were assessed by adjusted odds ratios based on multivariate logistic regression analysis, accounting for potential confounding demographic, lifestyle, familial factors and hormonal status, family ovarian cancer history and total energy intake. The ovarian cancer risk declined with increasing consumption of vegetables and fruits but vice versa with high intakes of animal fat and salted vegetables. The adjusted upper quartile odds ratio compared to the lower quartile was 0.24 (0.1 -0.5) for vegetables, 0.36 (0.2 -0.7) for fruits, 4.6 (2.2 -9.3) for animal fat and 3.4 (2.0 -5.8) for preserved (salted) vegetables with significant dose-response relationship. The risk of ovarian cancer also appeared to increase for those women preferring fat, fried, cured and smoked food. British Journal of Cancer (2002) Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer in women and the leading cause of death among gynecological cancers (Kristensen and Trope, 1997). However, little is known of its aetiological factors (World Cancer Research Fund, 1997). Dietary factors, especially vegetables, fruits and fat intake, have been suggested to influence ovarian cancer risk (Snowdon, 1985;La Vecchia et al, 1987;Shu et al, 1989;Tzonou et al, 1993;Risch et al, 1994;Kushi et al, 1999;Parazzini et al, 2000). Shu et al (1989) found a significant positive dose-response relationship between intake of fat from animal sources and ovarian cancer, and a somewhat protective effect from vegetables, in a case -control study in China. The aim of this case -control study is to further assess the association between dietary factors and epithelial ovarian cancer, which accounts for more than 90% of all ovarian malignancies (Cotran et al, 1999). MATERIALS AND METHODS Study design and participantsA case -control study was conducted in Hangzhou, China, between July 1999 and June 2000. Two hundred and fifty-five hospital patients with epithelial carcinoma of the ovary were identified. To ensure complete ascertainment of cases, all medical records and laboratory pathology reports were reviewed during the period of the study. Pathological diagnoses were based on the International Histological Classification of Ovarian Tumours (Cotran et al, 1999;Underwood, 2000). A total of 254 patients (non-response rate 0.04%) participated in the study. Inclusion criteria for cases were defined to be women under 75 years of age, who were residents (at least 10 years residence in Zhejiang province) and who had been histopatho...

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Oscillospira is a common yet rarely cultivated gut bacterial genus. Recently human gut microbiota studies have demonstrated its underlying significance for host health. However, little is known about Oscillospira-related host information and the links between Oscillospira and other members of the gut microbial community. To study the ecology of Oscillospira and gain insights into Oscillospira-related host physiological conditions, we analyzed data from the Guangdong Gut Microbiome Project, one of the largest gut microbiota database currently. Data of 6376 participants were analyzed. We studied the prevalence and relative abundance of Oscillospira as well as the profiles of associated microbial communities. We found that Oscillospira is closely related to human health because its abundance was positively correlated with microbial diversity, high density lipoprotein, and sleep time, and was inversely correlated with diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, triglyceride, uric acid and Bristol stool type. Moreover, random forest analysis with five-fold cross validation showed Oscillospira could be a predictor of low BMI and constipation in the subset. Overall, in this study, we provide a basic understanding of Oscillospira-related microbiota profile and physiological parameters of the host. Our results indicate Oscillospira may play a role in aggravating constipation.

Maternal antibodies transported across the placenta can provide vital immunity against infectious pathogens for infants. We here examine maternal antibody (MA) levels and their association with neonatal antibody levels. Pregnant women of gestational age ≥35 weeks were enrolled at a Guangzhou China hospital and mother-infant paired sera were collected. Measles IgG antibody was detected using ELISA assay, neutralizing antibodies titers against coxsackievirus A16 (CA16), enterovirus 71 (EV71), PV I-III and HIV-1 were performed. 711 mother-infant pairs were enrolled and positive relationships for paired serums were found (r: 0.683–0.918). 81.6%, 87.0%, and 82.3% of mothers, and 87.3%, 72.7%, and 72.2% of newborns were positive for measles, CA16 and EV71 antibodies respectively. The highest Neonatal: maternal ratio (NMR) was found in measles (1.042) and the ratios for the other pathogens ranged from 0.84 to 1.00. Linear regressions showed that log(NMR) decreased by a factor of 0.04–15.43 as log(MA) levels increased. A second analysis restricted to maternal positive measles sera revealed that MA measles of was still inversely associated with NMR. Low NMR was found in high MA HIV + serums among 22 paired sera. MA levels appear to play a role determining transplacental antibody transfer; further study is needed to reveal the mechanism.

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