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Background: Adequate intakes of fruit and vegetables are recommended for optimum health in children. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether consuming fruit and vegetables >3 times per day is beneficial to bone mass in children. Design: Fifty-six white females (Tanner stage 2) recorded dietary intake on 3 independent days. The numbers of servings of fruit and vegetables were recorded for each day and tallied, and the subjects were divided into 2 consumption groups for analysis (low consumption: measured serum parathyroid hormone and 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Twenty-four-hour urine samples were assessed for calcium, sodium, and creatinine. Results: After adjustment for age, body mass index, and physical activity, those children who reported consuming [greater than or equal to] 3 servings fruit and vegetables/d had more bone area of the whole body (6.0%; P = 0.03) and radius (8.3%; P = 0.03), lower urinary calcium excretion (2.6 [+ or -] 0.2 compared with 1.8 [+ or -] 0.3 mg/kg; P = 0.04), and lower parathyroid hormone (19.6 [+ or -] 1.9 compared with 25.0 [+ or -] 1.6 pg/mL; P = 0.01) than did those children who reported consuming Conclusions: High fruit and vegetable intakes have beneficial effects on the bone area of the radius and whole body in early pubertal girls. The lower urinary calcium output associated with higher fruit and vegetable intakes may be a modulating factor. KEY WORDS Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, children, bone mass, urinary calcium excretion

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a disease characterized by pancreatic insufficiency that afflicts newborns and is fatal in many cases. When a timely diagnosis of CF is made, the infant may be given the necessary pancreatic enzymes to ensure proper growth, but the effect of feeding human milk or formula on the growth of these infants is unknown. A group of 65 infants with CF were divided into either the human milk-fed (41 infants) or the formula-fed group (24 infants). Birth weight and length measurements were obtained and subsequent measurements of weight and height were recorded at 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. There was no significant difference in standardized height or weight measurements between the two groups from birth to 24 months. In addition, no distinction in growth patterns between pancreatic sufficient and nonsufficient infants in either group could be made. It appears that infants with CF who are fed human milk are as likely to grow as fast as infants with CF who are fed formula. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Intrinsic susceptibility imaging and immunohistochemistry analysis were used to validate a combined endpoint of oxygen enhancement plus MR-derived perfusion as a biomarker of tumor hypoxia in mouse and patient studies.

The rostral nucleus of the solitary tract (NST) is the first central site of taste information processing. Specific anatomical subdivisions of the NST receive taste afferent input and contain interneurons and projection neurons that engage ascending or premotor taste pathways. The forebrain projects to the NST and can influence taste responses, but the anatomical relationship between forebrain inputs and the subdivisions of the NST and their cellular elements is not understood. To evaluate this, in this study, we used cholera toxin B (CTb) as a retrograde and anterograde marker. CTb was injected into the rostral NST to label, by retrograde transport, the sources of forebrain inputs. Cells were labeled bilaterally in the lateral and paraventricular hypothalamic nuclei, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, central nuclei of the amygdala, and the agranular and dysgranular divisions of insular cortex. Within the medulla, labeled cells were located in the parvicellular reticular formation and spinal trigeminal nuclei. In addition, labeled cells and anterograde axonal labeling were present in the rostral NST contralateral to the injections. Injections of CTb centered in the dysgranular insular cortex, the site of most forebrain‐NST cells, labeled axon endings confined to the rostral NST. These endings were concentrated in the rostral central and ventral subdivisions. Corticofugal endings in the rostral central subdivision are positioned to influence microcircuits that include taste afferent synapses, presumed inhibitory interneurons, and neurons that project to the parabrachial nucleus. The many corticofugal endings in the ventral subdivision synapse among premotor neurons that ultimately influence salivatory and oromotor outflow. Intramedullary CTb labeling after NST injection indicates that the rostral central subdivision also receives projections from the contralateral rostral NST. J. Comp. Neurol. 422:429–447, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.