I.Family Study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
Results obtained within I.Family have been featured in a paper published in a leading Journal.
Identification of new biomarkers of sugary and fatty food consumption in children useful to complement data of food-intake questionnaires
The development of new dietary-related biomarkers is crucial for nutrition research to enable a more accurate and objective assessment of food intake. In this sense, results obtained within the I.Family project, and published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, show that the expression levels of two genes (TAS1R3 and UCN2) in blood cells are associated to the frequency of consumption of sugary food (case of TAS1R3) and of fatty food (case of UCN2) in children, and hence may be considered as potential biomarkers of the intake of these types of food, to complement data of food intake questionnaires.
Notably, in the study, it is also shown that the expression levels of TAS1R3 in blood cells may predict the risk of accumulating excess fat over time more accurately than the measurement of sugary food consumption with questionnaires. These results are promising as the identification of new biomarkers able to assess the excessive consumption of foods potentially related to obesity development are of high value to implement early strategies for obesity prevention.
Paper information: TAS1R3 and UCN2 transcript levels in blood cells are associated with sugary and fatty food consumption in children. Priego T, Sánchez J, Picó C, Ahrens W, De Henauw S, Kourides Y, Lissner L, Molnár D, Moreno LA, Russo P, Siani A, Veidebaum T, Palou A; on behalf of the IDEFICS and the I.Family consortia. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2015 Jul 13:JC20151976. [Epub ahead of print]