Martin Jj Ronis

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Full) at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans

People living with HIV (PLWH) represent a vulnerable population to adverse musculoskeletal outcomes due to HIV infection, antiretroviral therapy (ART) and at‐risk alcohol use. Developing measures to prevent skeletal degeneration in this group requires a grasp of the relationship between alcohol use and low bone mass in both the PLWH population and...

Tightly regulated and cell-specific NADPH-oxidases (Nox) represent one of the major sources of reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling molecules that are involved in tissue development and stem cell self-renewal. We have characterized the role of Nox4 in osteo-progenitors during postnatal bone development. Nox4 expression in bone and ROS generation...

Soy infant formula which is fed to over half a million infants per year contains isoflavones such as genistein, which have been shown to be estrogenic at high concentrations. The developing testis is sensitive to estrogens, raising concern that the use of soy formulas may result in male reproductive toxicity. In the current study, male White-Dutch...

Excessive ethanol consumption is a risk factor for osteopenia. Since a previous study showed that transgenic female mice with overexpression of catalase are partially protected from ethanol-mediated trabecular bone loss, we investigated the role of endogenous catalase in skeletal ethanol toxicity comparing catalase knockout to wild-type mice. We hy...

We have previously demonstrated promotion of diethylnitrosamine (DEN) initiated liver tumorigenesis after feeding diets high in fat or ethanol (EtOH) to male mice. This was accompanied by hepatic induction of the proto-oncogene PIKE (Agap2). Switch of dietary protein from casein to soy protein isolate (SPI) significantly reduced tumor formation in...

Estrogen deficiency and aging play critical roles in the pathophysiology of bone as the result of increased oxidative stress. It has been suggested that prevention of NADPH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate) oxidase (Nox)‐dependent accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) may be an approach to potentially minimize bone loss due to t...

We investigated whether in utero exposure to second‐hand cigarette smoke (SHS) would adversely affect cardiac structure/function in the exposed offspring fed a high‐fat diet. Pregnant mice (C57B1/6J) were exposed to SHS or air (4 hr/d) from gestational days 6–19. The male offspring (age: 65 days) from the SHS and air exposure groups were fed either...

Bone loss in response to alcohol intake has previously been hypothesized to be mediated by excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via NADPH oxidase (Nox) enzymes. Nox4 is one of several Nox enzymes expressed in bone. We investigated the role of Nox4 in the chondro-osteoblastic lineage of the long bones in mice during normal chow feed...

Skeletal toxicity has been reported following exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixtures. However, molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. We exposed groups of male 4–5-week-old Sprague–Dawley rats to 3,3′, 4, 4′, 5-pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB 126), a dioxin-like coplanar PCB congener by a single i.p. injection of 5 µmol/kg in soy oil...

Aim: This cross-sectional analysis of the New Orleans Alcohol Use in HIV (NOAH) study assesses whether current and lifetime alcohol use in people living with HIV (PLWH) are associated with greater liver disease and how hepatitis C-viral (HCV) co-infection (HIV/HCV+) modifies the association. Methods: Alcohol use was measured by Lifetime Drinking...

Background: Soy infant formula contains isoflavones, which are able to bind to and activate estrogen receptor (ER) pathways. The mammary gland is sensitive to estrogens, raising concern that the use of soy formulas may promote premature development. Objective: We aimed to determine if soy formula feeding increases mammary gland proliferation and...

Background HIV infection is now largely a chronic condition as a result of the success of antiretroviral therapy. However, several comorbidities have emerged in people living with HIV (PLWH), including alcohol use disorders and musculoskeletal disorders. Alcohol use has been associated with lower bone mineral density, alterations to circulating bon...

Impact statement: Estrogens are known to regulate body composition. In addition, reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by the action of NADPH oxidase (NOX) enzymes have been linked to obesity development. We examined development of obesity and adipose tissue injury in response to feeding "Western" diets high in fat and cholesterol in intact, ovar...

Accurate gene expression analysis of bone requires the ability to isolate RNA of good quality. Isolation of intact RNA from frozen bone tissue is problematic since RNA rapidly becomes degraded after thawing. Since we are interested in assessing gene expression from both bone marrow and mineralized bone, we aimed to develop improved simple, robust a...

Liver cancer results in a high degree of mortality, especially among men. Since fatty liver disease is a risk factor for development of hepatocellular carcinoma, we investigated the role of dietary fat type in tumor promotion by high fat diets in mice after initiation with the chemical carcinogen diethyl nitrosamine. Tumor incidence and multiplicit...

Background: During the postnatal feeding period, formula-fed infants have higher cholesterol synthesis rates and lower circulating cholesterol concentrations than their breastfed counterparts. Although this disparity has been attributed to the uniformly low dietary cholesterol content of typical infant formulas, little is known of the underlying m...

Chronic alcohol consumption increases bone resorption and decreases bone formation. A major component of ethanol (EtOH) pathology in bone is the generation of excess reactive oxygen species (ROS). The ROS-generating NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) is proposed to drive much of the EtOH-induced suppression of bone formation. Here, 13-week old male WT and NOX4...

Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk for metabolic syndrome, a risk factor for heart disease. In this study, we investigated whether in utero exposure to second hand cigarette smoke would adversely affect cardiac structure/function in the exposed offspring fed a high‐fat diet. Pregnant mice (C57B1/6J) were exposed...

The symposium, “Role of Nutrition in Alcoholic Liver Disease”, was held at the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism Congress on 9 October 2017 in Crete, Greece. The goal of the symposium was to highlight recent advances and developments in the field of alcohol and nutrition. The symposium was focused on experimental and clinical a...

Diethylnitrosamine-treated male mice were assigned to 4 groups: a casein-based 35% high fat ethanol liquid diet (EtOH), an EtOH diet made with soy protein isolate protein (EtOH/SOY), an EtOH liquid diet supplemented with genistein (EtOH/GEN) and a chow group. EtOH feeding, final concentration 5% (v/v), continued for 16 wks. EtOH increased incidence...

Soy infant formula contains many phytochemicals, including phytoestrogens, which are structurally similar to estradiol (E2). As a result of their potentially estrogenic properties, soy infant formulas have been the subject of concern with regards to reproductive toxicity. To address these concerns regarding male reproductive development, we fed mal...

Soy infant formula contains many phytochemicals, including phytoestrogens, which are structurally similar to estradiol (E2). The mammary gland is particularly sensitive to estrogens, and there are concerns that use of soy‐based infant formulas may potentially have adverse effects on mammary tissue development. In this study, we fed female piglets a...

We established a mouse model of developmental nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) by feeding a high polyunsaturated fat liquid diet to female glutathione-S-transferase 4-4 (Gsta4(-/-))/peroxisome proliferator activated receptor α (Ppara(-/-)) double knockout 129/SvJ mice for 12 weeks from weaning. We used it to probe the importance of lipid peroxid...

Background: Chronic alcohol consumption leads to increased fracture risk and an elevated risk of osteoporosis by decreasing bone accrual through increasing osteoclast activity and decreasing osteoblast activity. We have shown that this mechanism involves the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by NADPH oxidases. It was hypothesize...

We present a method using a combination of enzymatic deconjugation and targeted LC-MRM-MS analysis for analyzing all common bile acids (BAs) in piglet urine, and in particular, for detecting conjugated BAs either in the absence of their standards, or when present in low concentrations. Initially, before enzymatic deconjugation, 19 un-conjugated BAs...

Alcoholic liver disease is a significant contributor to global liver failure. In murine models, chronic ethanol consumption dysregulates PTEN/Akt signaling. Hepatospecific deletion of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTENLKO) mice possess constitutive activation of Akt(s) and increased de novo lipogenesis resulting in increa...

Effects of PTENLKO and EtOH on hepatic PTEN and Akt expression. (A) Cytosolic extracts from PF and EtOH-fed PTENf/f/PTENLKO groups were analyzed via SDS PAGE, Western blotted and probed for PTEN, pSer473 Akt, and total Akt. (B) Quantification of the Western blots presented in S1A Fig (actin normalized). Data are means± SEM as analyzed by students t...

Pathway analysis of up/downregulated oxidative stress proteins in PF/EtOH fed PTENf/f/PTENLKO mice. Proteins identified in Fig 4 were examined using KEGG pathway analysis as previously described [49]. (XLSX)

Several studies have shown that the development and function of the neonatal immune system is enhanced by breast feeding compared to formula feeding. It is important to understand the interaction between infant feeding regimens and the developing GI tract, to identify the protective components of breast milk and mechanisms attributed in immune syst...

Formula feeding in infants is associated with increased risk of upper respiratory tract infections, allergies and gut dysfunction possibly by compromising gut immune system. We hypothesized that formula feeding alters the host microbiome, resulting in morphology changes and modulation of large intestine immune response. This hypothesis was tested i...

In this study, diethylnitrosamine-treated male mice were assigned to 3 groups: a 35% high fat ethanol liquid diet (EtOH) with casein as the protein source, the same EtOH liquid diet with soy protein isolate as the sole protein source (EtOH/SPI) and a chow group. EtOH feeding continued for 16 wks. As expected, EtOH increased the incidence and multip...

Background Breastfeeding is associated with a variety of positive health outcomes in children and is recommended exclusively for the first 6 months of life; however, 50–70 % of infants in the US are formula-fed. To test the hypothesis that immune system development and function in neonates and infants are significantly influenced by diet, 2-day old...

There are concerns regarding reproductive toxicity from consumption of soy foods, including an increased risk of endometriosis and endometrial cancer, as a result of phytoestrogen consumption. In this study, female rats were fed AIN93G diets made with casein (CAS) or soy protein isolate (SPI) from postnatal day (PND) 30, ovariectomized on PND 50 an...

Supplementary material

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Supplementary material

Chronic alcohol consumption induces hepatic oxidative stress resulting in production of highly reactive electrophilic α/β-unsaturated aldehydes that have the potential to modify proteins. A primary mechanism of reactive aldehyde detoxification by hepatocytes is through GSTA4-driven enzymatic conjugation with GSH. Given reports that oxidative stress...

Effects of intact and processed bovine milk proteins on development of chemically induced mammary tumors in female rats were compared. AIN-93G diets were made with 20% casein (CAS), casein hydrolysate (CASH), intact whey protein (IWP), or whey protein hydrolysate (WPH). Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were fed the diets starting at Gestational Day 4....

Bone remodeling is age-dependently regulated and changes dramatically during the course of development. Progressive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been suspected to be the leading cause of many inflammatory and degenerative diseases, as well as an important factor underlying many effects of aging. In contrast, how reduced ROS sig...

In the United States, the increase in hepatocellular cancer incidence rates can be partially attributed to increased prevalence of risk factors associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome. Previously we have shown high fat feeding increases tumor progression in DEN‐treated male mice, which was related to hepatic TNFa signaling and macrophage rec...

Alcohol is a well-established risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma, and the mechanisms by which alcohol liver cancer is complex. It has been suggested that ethanol (EtOH) metabolism may enhance tumor progression by increasing hepatocyte proliferation. To test this hypothesis, ethanol (EtOH) feeding of male mice began 7 weeks post-injection of t...

To test the significance of lipid peroxidation in the development of alcoholic liver injury, an ethanol (EtOH) liquid diet was fed to male 129/SvJ mice (WT) and glutathione S-transferase A4-4 null (GSTA4-/-) mice for 40 d. GSTA4-/- mice were crossed with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α null mice (PPARα-/-) and effects of EtOH in the re...

Chronic consumption by experimental animals of a typical Western diet high in saturated fats and cholesterol during postnatal life has been demonstrated to impair skeletal development. However, underlying mechanism by which high fat, energy dense diets affect bone forming cell phenotypes is poorly understood. Here, we show that male weanling rats f...

Background: Chronic ethanol (EtOH) administration to experimental animals induces hepatic oxidative stress and up-regulates mitochondrial biogenesis. The mechanisms by which chronic EtOH up-regulates mitochondrial biogenesis have not been fully explored. In this work, we hypothesized that oxidative stress is a factor that triggers mitochondrial bi...

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) are generally accepted as the preferred techniques for detecting and quantitating analytes of interest in biological matrices on the basis of the rule that one chemical compound yields one LC-peak with reliable retention time (Rt.). However,...

Differences in trace element composition and bioavailability between breast milk and infant formulas may affect metal homeostasis in neonates. However, there is a paucity of controlled studies in this area. Here, piglets were fed soy infant formula (soy), cow's milk formula (milk), or were allowed to suckle from the sow from PND2 to PND21. Serum ir...

Chronic alcohol consumption results in bone loss through increased bone resorption and decreased bone formation. These effects can be reversed by estradiol (E2) supplementation. Soy diets are suggested to have protective effects on bone loss in men and women, as a result of the presence of soy protein-associated phytoestrogens such as genistein (GE...

Hepatospecific deletion of PTEN results in constitutive activation of Akt and increased lipogenesis. In mice, the addition of a high fat diet (HFD) downregulates lipogenesis. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a HFD on hepatocellular damage induced by deletion of PTEN. 12 Week old male flox/flox hepatospecific PTEN mice (PTENf/f)...

A blueberry (BB) supplemented diet has been previously shown to significantly stimulate bone formation in rapidly growing male and female rodents. Phenolic acids (PAs) are metabolites derived from polyphenols found in fruits and vegetables as a result of the actions of gut bacteria, and they were found in the serum of rats fed BB-containing diet. W...

Although alcohol effects within the liver have been extensively studied, the complex mechanisms by which alcohol causes liver cancer are not well understood. It has been suggested that ethanol (EtOH) metabolism promotes tumor growth by increasing hepatocyte proliferation. In this study, we developed a mouse model of tumor promotion by chronic EtOH...

It has been suggested that the beneficial effects of soy protein isolate (SPI) on bone quality are due to either stimulation of estrogenic signaling via isoflavones or through a novel and as yet uncharacterized nonestrogenic pathway. In our study, SPI-fed rat serum inhibited the osteoblastic cell senescence pathway. This effect was accompanied by s...

In the first year of life, the major infant food choices have traditionally been breast milk (BM), cow’s milk formula (MF) or soy formula (SF). Studies examining the effects of infant formula on early life skeletal development are extremely limited. We have enrolled 120 healthy 6‐month‐old infants who were fed BM (n=40), MF (n=40) or SF (n=40), and...

Concerns have been raised regarding the safety of soy infant formula based on phytochemical components such as genistein, structurally similar to estradiol (E2). To examine potential estrogenic actions on male development, we fed weanling male rats casein‐based or soy protein isolate (SPI)‐based diets (PND21‐PND33) and neonatal male piglets cow’s m...

Isoflavones are phytochemical components of soy diets that bind weakly to estrogen receptors (ERs). To study potential estrogen‐like actions of soy in the mammary gland, we fed weanling male and female Sprague‐Dawley rats a casein diet from PND21 to PND33, the same diet substituting soy protein isolate (SPI) for casein, or the casein diet supplemen...

Alcohol abuse is associated with the development of fatty liver disease and also with significant osteopenia in both genders. In this study, we examined ethanol-induced pathology in response to diets with differing fat/carbohydrate ratios. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed intragastrically with isocaloric liquid diets. Dietary fat content was eithe...

Background: In bone, NADPH oxidase (NOX)-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) superoxide and/or hydrogen peroxide are an important stimulus for osteoclast differentiation and activity. Previously, we have demonstrated that chronic ethanol (EtOH) consumption generates excess NOX-dependent ROS in osteoblasts, which functions to stimulate nuclear fa...

Isoflavones are phytochemical components of soy diets that bind weakly to estrogen receptors (ERs). To study potential estrogen-like actions of soy in the mammary gland during early development, we fed weanling male and female Sprague-Dawley rats a semi-purified diet with casein as the sole protein source from PND21 to PND33, the casein diet supple...

The risk of obesity in adulthood is strongly influenced by maternal body composition. Here we examined the hypothesis that maternal obesity influences white adipose tissue (WAT) transcriptome and increases propensity for adipogenesis in the offspring, prior to the development of obesity, using an established model of long-term metabolic programming...

In order to characterize the actions of xenoestrogens, it is essential to possess a solid portrait of the physiological effects of exogenous estradiol. We assessed effects of three doses of exogenous estradiol (E2) (0.1, 1.0 and 10 µg/kg/day) given between postnatal days 21 and 33 on the mammary gland morphology and gene expression profiles of male...

Previous studies have demonstrated that weanling rats fed AIN-93G semi-purified diets supplemented with 10% whole blueberry (BB) powder for two weeks beginning on postnatal day 21 (PND21) significantly increased bone formation at PND35. However, the minimal level of dietary BB needed to produce these effects is, as yet, unknown. The current study e...

In both rodents and humans, excessive consumption of a typical Western diet high in saturated fats and cholesterol is known to result in disruption of energy metabolism and development of obesity and insulin resistance. However, how these high-fat, energy-dense diets affect bone development, morphology, and modeling is poorly understood. Here we sh...

To determine if dietary fat type influences nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), male SD rats were overfed low (5%) or high (70%) fat diets containing olive oil (OO), corn oil (CO) or echium oil (EO) using total enteral nutrition (TEN) for 21 d. Overfeeding 5% CO or 5% EO diets resulted in less steatosis than 5% OO (P< 0.05). Significant diffe...

To determine if there was a beneficial effect of dietary medium chain triglycerides (MCT) on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), male rats were isocalorically overfed diets containing 10–70% total energy as corn oil or a 70% fat diet in which corn oil was replaced with increasing concentrations of saturated fat (18:82, beef tallow:MCT oil) fr...

We have previously reported that feeding soy protein isolate (SPI) diet to pre‐pubertal animals had a beneficial effect on bone accretion. However, it currently remains unclear whether the positive effects of SPI diet on bone in early life will persist to adulthood. In the present study, we fed postnatal day (PND) 24 weanling female rats with SPI d...

The current study was designed to determine if the NADPH-oxidase NOX2 plays a role in development of obesity after high fat feeding. Wild type (WT) mice and mice lacking the essential cytosolic NOX2 system component p47phox (P47KO mice) were fed AIN-93G diets or high fat diets (HFD) containing 45% fat and 0.5% cholesterol for 13 weeks from weaning....

Metabolic syndrome is often accompanied by development of hepatic steatosis and less frequently by non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) leading to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Replacement of corn oil with medium chain triacylglycerols (MCT) in the diets of alcohol-fed rats has been shown to protect against steatosis and alcoholic live...

Chronic ethanol consumption is a prominent cause of liver disease worldwide. Dysregulation of an important lipid uptake and trafficking gene, liver fatty-acid binding protein, may contribute to alterations in lipid homeostasis during early-stage alcoholic liver. We have reported the detrimental effects of ethanol on the expression of L-FABP and hyp...

Soy foods have been suggested to have both positive health benefits and potentially adverse effects as a result of their content of phytoestrogens. However, studies on the estrogenicity of soy foods are lacking. Here we directly compared the effects of soy protein isolate (SPI), the protein in soy infant formula, with those of 17β-estradiol (E2), o...

To determine if dietary fat composition affects the progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), male Sprague-Dawley rats were overfed low (5%) or high (70%) fat diets with different fat sources: olive oil (OO), corn oil (CO) or echium oil (EO) using total enteral nutrition (TEN) for 21 d. Overfeeding of the 5% CO diet resulted in less...

Chronic alcohol abuse results in decreased bone mineral density (BMD), which can lead to increased fracture risk. In contrast, low levels of alcohol have been associated with increased BMD in epidemiological studies. Alcohol's toxic skeletal effects have been suggested to involve impaired vitamin D/calcium homeostasis. Therefore, dietary vitamin D...

Flavonoids, found in a wide diversity of plant foods from fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices, essential oils, and beverages, have the most potential of dietary components for promotion of bone health beyond calcium and vitamin D. Recent epidemiological studies show flavonoid consumption to have a stronger association with bone than general fru...

Ovariectomy (OVX)-induced bone loss has been linked to increased bone turnover and higher bone matrix collagen degradation as the result of osteoclast activation. However, the role of degraded collagen matrix in the fate of resident bone-forming cells is unclear. In this report, we show that OVX-induced bone loss is associated with profound decreas...

Previous reports suggest that beneficial effects of soy on bone quality are due to the estrogenic actions of isoflavone phytochemicals associated with the protein. However, mechanistic studies comparing the effects of soy diet and estrogens on bone, particularly in rapidly growing animals are lacking. We studied the effects of short term feeding of...

NADPH oxidase (Nox) enzymes, have been implicated in regulation of adipocyte differentiation and inflammation in a variety of tissues. We examined the effects of feeding AIN‐93G or a “Western diet” (WD) (45% fat, 0.5% cholesterol) on development of obesity and “metabolic syndrome” in wild type (WT) mice or p47phox −/− mice in which Nox enzymes 1–3...

Excessive consumption of high fat/high cholesterol “Western” diets during postnatal life results in increased energy intake, development of obesity and systemic insulin resistance. However, how this diet impairs bone development and remodeling is not well understood, and no effective dietary interventional strategy has emerged. In the current study...

The rat placentation site is organized into distinct zones, the labyrinth (L), junctional (J) and metrial gland (MG) compartments. We utilized massively parallel sequencing (RNA‐seq) to assess mRNA expression profiles for each zone of the late‐gestation rat placenta (dpc18.5). In addition, we elucidated gene expression changes in the L, J and MG pl...

Adult offspring from obese (OB) rat dams gain greater body weight and fat mass than controls when fed HFD. At PND21, we examined energy expenditure (EE) (indirect calorimetry), hepatic gene expression (microarrays), and changes in genome‐wide and global DNA methylation (enrichment‐coupled DNA sequencing, Illumina), coupled with specific signaling p...

Nutritional status is a critical factor that influences bone development. We previously reported that weanling rats fed AIN‐93G semi‐purified diets supplemented with 10% whole blueberry (BB) powder for only two weeks beginning on postnatal day 21 (PND21) significantly promoted bone formation. However, whether there is an effect of BB diet on bone a...

Concerns regarding increased endometrial cancer risk have been raised in women who consume soy products as the result of the estrogenicity of phytochemical components such as the isoflavones genistein and daidzein. Female Sprague‐Dawley rats (N = 20/group) were fed AIN‐93G diets with casein or SPI as the protein source from PND30. On PND50, rats we...

Epidemiological studies show that maternal obesity during intrauterine and early postnatal life increases the risk of low bone mass and fracture later in life. Here, we show that bone development is inhibited in gestational embryonic day 18.5 (E18.5) embryos from rat dams made obese by feeding a high-fat diet (HFD). Moreover, fetal rat osteogenic c...

In the U.S. formula feeding remains more popular than breast-feeding. In the current study, neonatal piglets were breast fed and compared with those fed commercially available milk-based formula (milk) or soy-based formula (soy) from postnatal day 2 (PND2) until death at PND21 (the usual age of weaning). Liver weights were greater in formula-fed pi...

Distraction osteogenesis (DO) is an orthopedic protocol, which induces direct new bone formation as a result of the stimulating effects of mechanical distraction. Chronic ethanol exposure has been demonstrated to inhibit bone formation in rodent models of DO. Further, it has been demonstrated that (1) tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF) blockers are prot...

Real-time PCR primer sequences. (DOC)

Real-time PCR analysis for Myh2, 4, 7 (myosin 2, 4, 7) and ALP mRNA expression in isolated control neonatal rat calvarial cells after cells were treated with control vehicle, 2% diet animal serum from casein control (Cas) and blueberry (BB) for 24 h and 48 h. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM (triplicates). Means with different letters differ signif...

In vitro cell culture model. (A), in vitro cell culture experimental design. (B), After calvarial cells treated one time with 2% of PBS (control), serum from three weeks of sham operated (Sham), OVX and long term BB plus OVX (BB-OVX) rats for 3d, cell cultures were switched to a regular medium until to last passage 9 (p9). Total cell numbers were c...

Original housekeeping gene normalized microarray data. 1.5 fold up- or down-regulated genes are presented. (TIF)

Serum from BB diet animals prevents OVX-induced osteoblastic cell senescence. (A), After ST2 cells treated one time with 2% of PBS (control), serum from three weeks of sham operated (Sham), OVX and long term BB plus OVX (BB-OVX) rats for 3d, cell cultures were switched to a regular medium until to last passage 9 (p9). Total cell numbers were counte...

Experimental design. (A), Diagramed experimental design, including age, diet duration, diet switch and ovariectomy surgery time. (B). Body weight information. Experimental animals were weighed every other day. (TIF)

Triple staining of immune-staining for myosin and Runx2 and SABG activity staining in long bone sections from four different diet groups 3 weeks after OVX. Pictures are showing typical bone surface area from sagittal section under 10 x magnifications, Green stains for myosin, red stains for Runx2 and blue stains for SABG and DAPI staining for nucle...

Appropriate nutrition during early development is essential for maximal bone mass accretion; however, linkage between early nutrition, childhood bone mass, peak bone mass in adulthood, and prevention of bone loss later in life has not been studied. In this report, we show that feeding a high quality diet supplemented with blueberries (BB) to pre-pu...

In utero exposure to maternal obesity increases the offspring's risk of obesity in later life. We have also previously reported that offspring of obese rat dams develop hepatic steatosis, mild hyperinsulinemia, and a lipogenic gene signature in the liver at postnatal day (PND)21. In the current study, we examined systemic and hepatic adaptations in...