Low level of physical activity in women with rheumatoid arthritis is associated with cardiovascular risk factors but not with body fat mass - a cross sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As many patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have increased fat mass (FM) and increased frequency of cardiovascular diseases we evaluated if total physical activity (MET-hours) had impact on body composition and cardiovascular risk factors in women with RA.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Sixty-one out-ward RA women, 60.8 (57.3-64.4) years, answered a self-administered questionnaire, to estimate total daily physical activity during the previous year. Physical activity level was given as metabolic equivalents (MET) × h/day. Diet content was assessed by a food frequency questionnaire and body composition by whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Blood lipids and antibodies against phosphorylcholine (anti-PC) were determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Forty-one percent of the women had BMI > 25, 6% were centrally obese and 80% had FM% > 30%. The median (IQR) total physical activity was 40.0 (37.4-47.7), i.e. the same activity level as healthy Swedish women in the same age. Total physical activity did not significantly correlate with disease activity, BMI or FM%. Disease activity, BMI and FM% did not differ between those in the lowest quartile of total physical activity and those in the highest quartile. However, the women in the lowest quartile of physical activity had lower HDL (p = 0.05), Apo A1 (p = 0.005) and atheroprotective natural anti-PC (p = 0.016) and higher levels of insulin (p = 0.05) and higher frequency of insulin resistance than those in the highest quartile. Women in the lowest quartile consumed larger quantities of saturated fatty acids than those in the highest quartile (p = 0.042), which was associated with high oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This cross sectional study demonstrated that RA women with fairly low disease activity, good functional capacity, high FM and high frequency of central obesity had the same total physical activity level as healthy Swedish women in the same age. The amount of total physical activity was not associated with functional capacity or body composition. However, low total physical activity was associated with dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, low levels of atheroprotective anti-PC and consumption of saturated fatty acids, which is of interest in the context of increased frequency of cardiovascular disease in RA.</p

Genes Involved in Systemic and Arterial Bed Dependent Atherosclerosis - Tampere Vascular Study

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis is a complex disease with hundreds of genes influencing its progression. In addition, the phenotype of the disease varies significantly depending on the arterial bed. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We characterized the genes generally involved in human advanced atherosclerotic (AHA type V-VI) plaques in carotid and femoral arteries as well as aortas from 24 subjects of Tampere Vascular study and compared the results to non-atherosclerotic internal thoracic arteries (n=6) using genome-wide expression array and QRT-PCR. In addition we determined genes that were typical for each arterial plaque studied. To gain a comprehensive insight into the pathologic processes in the plaques we also analyzed pathways and gene sets dysregulated in this disease using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). According to the selection criteria used (>3.0 fold change and p-value <0.05), 235 genes were up-regulated and 68 genes down-regulated in the carotid plaques, 242 genes up-regulated and 116 down-regulated in the femoral plaques and 256 genes up-regulated and 49 genes down-regulated in the aortic plaques. Nine genes were found to be specifically induced predominantly in aortic plaques, e.g., lactoferrin, and three genes in femoral plaques, e.g., chondroadherin, whereas no gene was found to be specific for carotid plaques. In pathway analysis, a total of 28 pathways or gene sets were found to be significantly dysregulated in atherosclerotic plaques (false discovery rate [FDR] <0.25). CONCLUSIONS: This study describes comprehensively the gene expression changes that generally prevail in human atherosclerotic plaques. In addition, site specific genes induced only in femoral or aortic plaques were found, reflecting that atherosclerotic process has unique features in different vascular beds

Improved functionalization of oleic acid-coated iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles can providemultiple benefits for biomedical applications in aqueous environments such asmagnetic separation or magnetic resonance imaging. To increase the colloidal stability and allow subsequent reactions, the introduction of hydrophilic functional groups onto the particles’ surface is essential. During this process, the original coating is exchanged by preferably covalently bonded ligands such as trialkoxysilanes. The duration of the silane exchange reaction, which commonly takes more than 24 h, is an important drawback for this approach. In this paper, we present a novel method, which introduces ultrasonication as an energy source to dramatically accelerate this process, resulting in high-quality waterdispersible nanoparticles around 10 nmin size. To prove the generic character, different functional groups were introduced on the surface including polyethylene glycol chains, carboxylic acid, amine, and thiol groups. Their colloidal stability in various aqueous buffer solutions as well as human plasma and serum was investigated to allow implementation in biomedical and sensing applications.status: publishe