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Background and objectives: Diabetic nephropathy is the most common cause of kidney failure. High serum concentrations of advanced glycated end products, oxidative stress, and hypertension are three important risk factors for diabetic nephropathy. As individual administration of lipoic acid or pyridoxine is not effective in improving diabetic nephropathy, the present study was designed to investigate the effects of combined administration of lipoic acid and pyridoxine on albuminuria, oxidative stress, blood pressure, serum advanced glycated end products, nitric oxide and endothelin-1 in patients with diabetic nephropathy. Materials and methods: The study was a double-blind randomized clinical trial, in which 38 patients with diabetic nephropathy (23 females and 15 males) were randomly assigned to either a supplement-taking group or a placebo group. The patients in the supplement group received 800 mg lipoic acid and 80 mg pyridoxine daily for 12 weeks, while the placebo group received placebos. At baseline and at the end of week 12, a urine sample and 8 ml blood were collected from each patient after a 12- to 14-hour fast and serum pentosidine, carboxymethyl lysine, malondialdehyde, endothelin-1, nitric oxide, glucose, urinary albumin, systolic and diastolic blood pressures were measured. Results: The serum concentrations of pentosidine and carboxymethyl lysine decreased significantly in the supplement-taking group at the end of week 12 as compared to the baseline values (P<0.05). The combined supplement also brought about significant reductions in the serum malondialdehyde (25%), systolic blood pressure (2 mmHg) and urinary albumin concentration (74 mg/g creatinine) the reductions were significantly different from the placebo group values (P<0.05). On the other hand, the serum nitric oxide concentration increased significantly in the supplement-taking group as compared to the placebo group (P<0.05). No significant differences were observed between the two groups in the mean changes of serum endothelin-1, glucose or diastolic blood pressure. Conclusion: The results indicate that combined administration of lipoic acid and pyridoxine reduces significantly serum pentosidine, carboxymethyl lysine, malondialdehyde, systolic blood pressure and urinary albumin concentration, and increases serum nitric oxide. This treatment may, thus, have an effective role in retarding the progression of diabetic nephropathy.

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Background and objectives: The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is associated with overweight and obesity. It is also considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes. Almost one-third of Iranian adults are afflicted with MetS, with a higher prevalence among women. In this study the relationship of dietary pattern with the metabolic syndrome among non-menopausal women (18-50 yr) in District 13 of Tehran was determined. Materials and Methods: This was a nested case-control study using the Tehran Lipid Glucose Study (TLGS) data on 920 non-menopausal women (18-50 yrs) as the case group. The control group was an equal number of subjects matched for age. Dietary intakes were assessed with a 168-iteme semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (26 food groups). Using factor analysis, the predominant food patterns were identified. The odds ratio of MetS (defined according to the International Diabetes Federation guidelines) and its components was calculated using logistic regression, after adjusting for confounding variables. Results: Two predominant dietary patterns were identified. The desirable food pattern was characterized by the consumption of raw vegetables, fruits, starchy vegetables, olives, fried vegetables, low-fat d high-fat dairy products, legumes, nuts, eggs, oil, whole grains, fish, and chicken. In the undesirable food pattern the widely consumed food items included soft drinks, commercial fruit juices, cookies and high-sugar sweets, ready-to-eat foods, mayonnaise, snacks (potato chips and puffed corn), oil, pickles, organ meats, refined grains, meat, and salt. After adjustment for various confounding variables (energy intakes, energy expenditure, education level, job, family history of diabetes or stroke, smoking, and BMI), the desirable food pattern was found to be inversely associated with MetS (odds ratio=0.87 95% confidence interval: 0.16-0.73, P-value <0.001) and hyperglycemia (odds ratio=0.34 95% confidence interval: 0.13-0.87, P-value <0.05). No associations were observed between MetS and the undesirable food pattern, and of the components of MetS only triglyceride level was associated with this food pattern (odds ratio=2.17 95% confidence interval: 1.09- 4.32, P-value <0.001). Conclusion: The desirable food pattern is significantly inversely associated with the metabolic syndrome, whereas the undesirable food pattern has no association. Keywords: Metabolic syndrome, Food pattern, Non-menopause women, Factor analysis