The ingestion of either green tea or black tea results in a major increase in the excretion of hippuric acid into urine.

To study the postprandial effects of changing the amylose-to-amylopectin ratio (Am:Ap) in the starch fraction of a meal, male volunteers were given hot mixed lunches (13% of energy as protein, 24% as fat, 6% as mono- and disaccharides, and 57% as polysaccharides) in which Am:Ap was either 0:100 or 45:55. The increase in Am:Ap resulted in a change in the shape of the glucose and insulin responses in the blood with significantly lower initial responses but a small increase for glucose and a decrease for insulin if averaged over the 6 h of the study. The rises in the concentration of free glycerol and free fatty acid that occurred after an initial drop were stronger at low Am:Ap. High-Am:Ap meals induced more satiety up to 6 h postprandially. There was no effect of Am:Ap on postprandial triacylglycerol in the blood or on breath hydrogen except for a weak trend toward a higher concentration at 6 h after the high-Am:Ap meals.

Background: High intakes of trans fatty acids (TFA) have been found to exert an undesirable effect on serum lipid pro®les, and thus may increase the risk for cardiovascular disease. Objective: Investigation of the association between TFA intake and serum lipids. Design: Cross-sectional study in eight European countries (Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden) among 327 men and 299 women (50 ± 65 y). Using a dietary history method, food consumption was assessed and TFA intake was calculated with recent ®gures on TFA levels of foods, collected in the TRANSFAIR study. Results: Mean ( AE s.d.) TFA intake was 2.40 AE 1.53 gaday for men and 1.98 AE 1.49 gaday for women (0.87 AE 0.48% and 0.95 AE 0.55% of energy, respectively), with the highest consumption in Iceland and the lowest in the Mediterranean countries. No associations were found between total TFA intake and LDL, HDL or LDLaHDL ratio after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors. Additional adjustment for other fatty acid clusters resulted in a signi®cant inverse trend between total TFA intake and total cholesterol (P trend`0 .03).The most abundantly occurring TFA isomer, C18:1 t, contributed substantially to this inverse association. The TFA isomers C14:1 t9, C16:1 t9 and C22:1 t were not associated or were positively associated with LDL or total cholesterol. Conclusions: From this study we conclude that at the current European intake levels of trans fatty acids they are not associated with an unfavourable serum lipid pro®le.

The sequence determination of the aA chains of a-crystallin from pig, horse, dog, cat, rabbit, rat and rhesus monkey is described. Most residues were placed by homology with the known bovine sequence, after amino acid analyses of tryptic and thermolytic peptides. Sequences were established, using the dansyl-Edman method, whenever peptides differed in composition from the homologous bovine peptides. The number of observed amino acid replacements among these mammalian aA chains is relatively small, but the rate at which substitutions have occurred varies greatly between the different evolutionary lineages. The amino acid replacements are not randomly distributed along the aA chain, most substitutions occurring in the C-terminal part of the chain. The rabbit, rat and monkey aA chains have four substitutions in common, indicating a phylogenetic relationship between these species.The comparative study of amino acid sequences of homologous proteins from different species contributes significantly to the understanding of evolutionary processes. It demonstrates the large variation in the rates of acceptance of amino acid substitutions in different families of proteins, and shows which positions in a given protein are variable or constant throughout evolution. These data can moreover be used to establish phylogenetic relationships and to calculate approximate times of divergence between different taxa. The number of proteins for which a considerable amount of comparative sequence data is available is still very limited. Additional data from different types of proteins are needed to extend our insight into the factors influencing the evolutionary changes.a-cry stallin is a suitable protein for comparative studies by virtue of its occurrence in the eye lenses of all classes of vertebrates, and the fact that it can be isolated relatively easily in considerable quantities. It is essentially built up of four polypeptide chains: aA,, aAz, aB, and aB, [I] of which aAl and probably also aB1 are in vivo derivatives of ctA, and aB2, respectively [2-41. The primary structures of aA2 and aBZ of bovine a-crystallin have recently been nyl; CNBr, cyanogen bromide. elucidated [5,6] and showed a high degree of homoPreliminary comparative studies of the aA chains of mammalian a-crystallins [7] indicated a slow rate of evolution of this protein. In this paper we report the complete sequences of the a-crystallin A chains from pig, horse, dog, cat, rabbit, rat and rhesus monkey.logy. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDUREPooled adult lenses of each species were used. a-Crystallin was obtained from the water-soluble lens proteins by gel filtration on . The aA chains were isolated by column chromatography in 7 M urea on SE-Sephddex at pH 3.2 [l], or on CM-cellulose at pH 5.0 [9]. Acrylamide gel electrophoresis was carried out in Tris -glycine buffer, pH 8.5, containing 6 M urea [lo].The ctA chains were aminoethylated and digested with 1 (w/w) trypsin in 0.1 M NH,HCO,, pH 8.9, for 1 11 at 37 "C. The pH was lowered to 6.5 with 1 N HC1 and the insoluble peptide...

Colonic fermentation of dietary carbohydrates and fiber might produce a protective effect against the development of large bowel cancer. Resistant starch, ie, starch that escapes small bowel digestion, is a candidate fermentable substrate that has been hitherto little studied. We supplemented 19 healthy volunteers with 15 g native amylomaize (Hylon-VII) three times a day, containing 28 g type II resistant starch, or with dextrins as a placebo for 7 d in a crossover design. Pre-experimentally, 11 subjects regularly produced breath methane and 8 did not. Resistant starch increased 24-h integrated excretion of breath hydrogen. The mean rise relative to placebo was 35% (P = 0.03) for all subjects and 60% for eight subjects not producing methane (P = 0.02). The 11 methane producers showed a 93% increase in breath-methane excretion on resistant starch (P = 0.03). Continued consumption of 28 g type II resistant starch/d is well tolerated and increases colonic fermentation in healthy volunteers.