Integration of Nutrition, Biochemistry and Radiochemistry Parr RM & Fjeld CR. (1994). HUMAN HEALTH AND NUTRITION: HOW ISOTOPES ARE HELPING TO OVERCOME “HIDDEN HUNGER”. IAEA BULLETIN

1. RADIOCHEMISTRY
HUMAN HEALTH AND NUTRITION:
HOW ISOTOPES ARE HELPING TO
OVERCOME “HIDDEN HUNGER”
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2. OVER
NUTRITION
-
UNDER NUTRITION
Industrialized World
- Less fiber and
complex
carbohydrates, and
more alcohol
- Obesity,
hypertension,
cardiovascular
diseases, diabetes
mellitus, etc.
- Immense social
and health care
costs
Developing Countries
- Mainly of poor people
- More than 780 million people (20%
developing world) are
undernourished.
- 190 million children under five
years of age suffer from proteinenergy malnutrition.
- Every day, 40 000 children under
the age of five die.
- Some 2000 million people more
than 100 developing countries
suffer from micronutrient
deficiencies
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3. Many problems are
not new…
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4. Nutritional problems underlying these
trends are generally nor related to an
absolute deficiency of food – to overt
hunger. In most cases, they are caused by
insufficient quality of food, or lack of
variety, leading to deficiencies of vitamins
and essential minerals.
The WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
(WHO) has coined the term “hidden
hunger” to describe these problems
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5. The work of the IAEA is contributing to
efforts directed at overcoming hidden hunger
and other nutrition problems.
The rationale for the IAEA's involvement is
twofold. First, adequate nutrition is an
essential component of any strategy for
improving health, and the IAEA's Statute
specifically identifies "enlarging the
contribution of atomic energy to peace, health
and prosperity" as the major objective of
programmes.
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6. Second, isotope techniques have a wide
variety of applications — some of them
unique — for targeted research in human
nutrition, for assessing nutritional status,
and for monitoring the effectiveness of
nutritional intervention programmes.
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7. Micronutrient Malnutrition: Vitamin
and Mineral deficiencies
Play a wide role in health and development.
Micronutrient deficiencies can cause harm from
the moment of conception because they influence
the regulation of growth and other physiological
processes.
Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional
deficiency in the world today. In infancy and
childhood, it can impair learning and the ability
to resist disease.
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8. Iodine deficiency affects production of the
thyroid hormones that govern the development
and function of the brain and nervous system
and regulate body heat and energy. (Reduce both
physical and mental capacity, cause
miscarriages, mental retardation in children)
Vitamin-A deficiency is the most common
cause of childhood blindness, reduces the
effectiveness of the immune system, and retards
growth and development.
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9. Radiochemistry
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10. Antígenos (Ag): sustancias, generalmente de
gran tamaño, capaces de estimular el sistema
inmunológico de un animal y originar una
respuesta dirigida específicamente contra él.
Anticuerpo (Ac): grupo de proteínas llamadas
inmunoglobulinas, producidas por linfocitos B y
su progenie (células plasmáticas) que se
combinan específicamente con los antígenos.
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11. RIA - RADIOINMUNOASSAY
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12. Radiochemistry
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13. ELISA (Enzyme-Linked
ImmunoSorbent Assay)
Se basa en el uso de antígenos o
anticuerpos marcados con una
enzima, de forma que los conjugados
resultantes tengan actividad tanto
inmunológica como enzimática.
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14. Radiochemistry
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15. Radiochemistry
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16. Radiochemistry
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17. Radiochemistry
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18. Isotope Techniques in Studies of
Micronutrient Malnutrition
Many micronutrients, both vitamins and trace
elements, that are of crucial importance in
human nutrition can be studied with the use of
isotope techniques.
Iron. Of fundamental importance in any study
of iron nutrition is the actual uptake of iron by
the body (e.g. from a foodstuff or meal) in a
metabolically active form.
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19. IRON
- Amount absorbed depends on the source of iron (vegetal or
meat) and presence of other substances (Vitamin C, tannin,
etc.)
-The incorporation of radioactive iron isotopes (iron-55 and
iron-59) into red blood cells following extrinsic labelling of
the food or diet to be tested and feeding it to select test
subjects. Blood samples are taken over a period of 2-4 weeks
and processed for counting with a liquid scintillation
counter.
- Recently, in some countries, the use of stable isotopes (iron54, -57, and -58) measured by mass spectrometry has come to
be regarded as a preferable technique because of the absence
of a radiation dose, (permits studies on children and women)
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20. IRON
- Isotope methods are also useful for assessing
the iron status of individuals and populations
based on measurements of serum ferritin. Low
serum ferritin reflects depleted body iron stores
and is the most specific finding for iron
deficiency. Immunoassay - either
radioimmunoassay (RIA) or an enzyme-based
assay (ELISA) - is the only technique currently
available for measuring ferritin.
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21. Iodine. usually identified from measurements of
urinary iodine excretion. However, useful additional
information on the nutritional iodine status of a
person or population can sometimes be obtained by
looking at the levels of thyroid-related hormones in
blood serum. Iodine deficiency of moderate to severe
degree results in changes in the pattern of secretion,
and therefore serum concentrations, of
thyroid hormones.
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22. IODINE
- Immunoassay is the technique of choice for
such determinations. It relies on the use of
antibodies as specific binding agents to detect a
diversity of analytes (in this case, thyroid-related
hormones such as T3, T4
and TSH). A high degree of specificity,
sensitivity and robustness is provided. RIA and
ELISA are the two applicable forms of
immunoassay.
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23. Vitamin-A. Isotope methods for studying vitamin-A
are not yet as well developed as for the other
micronutrients just mentioned. However, there is no
doubt that they will have uniquely valuable
applications in assessing vitamin-A status, e.g. from
measurements of plasma clearance of a test dose of
isotopically labelled retinol. For human studies,
deuterium is usually chosen as the isotopic label.
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24. In increasing ways, stable and
radioactive isotopes are
contributing to research of
serious nutritional problems
affecting human health
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25. BIBLIOGRAFÍA
-IAEA BULLETIN, 4/1994. Human Health and
Nutrition: How Isotopes are Helping to Overcome
“Hidden Hunger”. PARR, Robert M. and FJELD,
Carla R.
- http://ehu.es/biomoleculas/isotopos/ria.htm
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26. GRACIAS
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