193 research outputs found
Bronchogenic cyst associated with pericardial defect: Case report and review of the literature
Partial defect of the pericardium combined with bronchogenic cyst is a very rare congenital anomaly. We describe the case of a 32-year-old man with a partial defect of the left pericardium and a bronchogenic cyst arising from the border of the pericardial defect. The cyst was successfully resected with the harmonic scalpel by three-port videothoracoscopic approach
Insulin signalling and the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism
The epidemic of type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In both disorders, tissues such as muscle, fat and liver become less responsive or resistant to insulin. This state is also linked to other common health problems, such as obesity, polycystic ovarian disease, hyperlipidaemia, hypertension and atherosclerosis. The pathophysiology of insulin resistance involves a complex network of signalling pathways, activated by the insulin receptor, which regulates intermediary metabolism and its organization in cells. But recent studies have shown that numerous other hormones and signalling events attenuate insulin action, and are important in type 2 diabetes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62568/1/414799a.pd
Aging affects attunement in perceiving length by dynamic touch
Earlier studies have revealed age-dependent differences in perception by dynamic touch. In the present study, we examined whether the capacity to learn deteriorates with aging. Adopting an ecological approach to learning, the authors examined the process of attunement—that is, the changes in what informational variable is exploited. Young and elderly adults were trained to perceive the lengths of unseen, handheld rods. It was found that the capacity to attune declines with aging: Contrary to the young adults, the elderly proved unsuccessful in learning to detect the specifying informational variables. The fact that aging affects the capacity to attune sets a new line of research in the study of perception and perceptual-motor skills of elderly. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for the ongoing discussions on the ecological approach to learning
The Insulin-Mediated Modulation of Visually Evoked Magnetic Fields Is Reduced in Obese Subjects
BACKGROUND: Insulin is an anorexigenic hormone that contributes to the termination of food intake in the postprandial state. An alteration in insulin action in the brain, named "cerebral insulin resistance", is responsible for overeating and the development of obesity. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To analyze the direct effect of insulin on food-related neuronal activity we tested 10 lean and 10 obese subjects. We conducted a magnetencephalography study during a visual working memory task in both the basal state and after applying insulin or placebo spray intranasally to bypass the blood brain barrier. Food and non-food pictures were presented and subjects had to determine whether or not two consecutive pictures belonged to the same category. Intranasal insulin displayed no effect on blood glucose, insulin or C-peptide concentrations in the periphery; however, it led to an increase in the components of evoked fields related to identification and categorization of pictures (at around 170 ms post stimuli in the visual ventral stream) in lean subjects when food pictures were presented. In contrast, insulin did not modulate food-related brain activity in obese subjects. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We demonstrated that intranasal insulin increases the cerebral processing of food pictures in lean whereas this was absent in obese subjects. This study further substantiates the presence of a "cerebral insulin resistance" in obese subjects and might be relevant in the pathogenesis of obesity
Leptin receptor Gln223Arg polymorphism and breast cancer risk in Nigerian women: A case control study
Successful Weight Loss Surgery Improves Eating Control and Energy Metabolism: A Review of the Evidence
Eating behavior is determined by a balance of memories in terms of reward and punishment to satisfy the urge to consume food. Refilling empty energy stores and hedonistic motivation are rewarding aspects of eating. Overfeeding, associated adverse GI effects, and obesity implicate punishment. In the current review, evidence is given for the hypothesis that bariatric surgery affects control over eating behavior.Moreover, any caloric overload will reduce the feeling of satiety. Durable weight loss after bariatric surgery is probably the result of a new equilibrium between reward and punishment, together with a better signaling of satiation due to beneficial metabolic changes.We propose to introduce three main treatment goals for bariatric surgery: 1) acceptable weight loss, 2) improvement of eating control, and 3) metabolic benefit. To achieve this goal, loss of 50% to 70% of excess weight will be appropriate (i.e. 30% to 40% loss of initial weight), depending on the degree of obesity prior to operation
Blood Glucose Levels Regulate Pancreatic β-Cell Proliferation during Experimentally-Induced and Spontaneous Autoimmune Diabetes in Mice
Type 1 diabetes mellitus is caused by immune-mediated destruction of pancreatic beta-cells leading to insulin deficiency, impaired intermediary metabolism, and elevated blood glucose concentrations. While at autoimmune diabetes onset a limited number of beta-cells persist, the cells' regenerative potential and its regulation have remained largely unexplored. Using two mouse autoimmune diabetes models, this study examined the proliferation of pancreatic islet ss-cells and other endocrine and non-endocrine subsets, and the factors regulating that proliferation.We adapted multi-parameter flow cytometry techniques (including DNA-content measurements and 5'-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine [BrdU] incorporation) to study pancreatic islet single cell suspensions. These studies demonstrate that beta-cell proliferation rapidly increases at diabetes onset, and that this proliferation is closely correlated with the diabetic animals' elevated blood glucose levels. For instance, we show that when normoglycemia is restored by exogenous insulin or islet transplantation, the beta-cell proliferation rate returns towards low levels found in control animals, yet surges when hyperglycemia recurs. In contrast, other-than-ss endocrine islet cells did not exhibit the same glucose-dependent proliferative responses. Rather, disease-associated alterations of BrdU-incorporation rates of delta-cells (minor decrease), and non-endocrine islet cells (slight increase) were not affected by blood glucose levels, or were inversely related to glycemia control after diabetes onset (alpha-cells).We conclude that murine beta-cells' ability to proliferate in response to metabolic need (i.e. rising blood glucose concentrations) is remarkably well preserved during severe, chronic beta-cell autoimmunity. These data suggest that timely control of the destructive immune response after disease manifestation could allow spontaneous regeneration of sufficient beta-cell mass to restore normal glucose homeostasis
Cancer Risk in Diabetic Patients Treated with Metformin: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
BACKGROUND: A growing body of evidence has suggested that metformin potentially reduces the risk of cancer. Our objective was to enhance the precision of estimates of the effect of metformin on the risk of any-site and site-specific cancers in patients with diabetes. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We performed a search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov for pertinent articles published as of October 12, 2011, and included them in a systematic review and meta-analysis. We calculated pooled risk ratios (RRs) for overall cancer mortality and cancer incidence. Of the 21,195 diabetic patients reported in 6 studies (4 cohort studies, 2 RCTs), 991 (4.5%) cases of death from cancer were reported. A total of 11,117 (5.3%) cases of incident cancer at any site were reported among 210,892 patients in 10 studies (2 RCTs, 6 cohort studies, 2 case-control studies). The risks of cancer among metformin users were significantly lower than those among non-metformin users: the pooled RRs (95% confidence interval) were 0.66 (0.49-0.88) for cancer mortality, 0.67 (0.53-0.85) for all-cancer incidence, 0.68 (0.53-0.88) for colorectal cancer (n = 6), 0.20 (0.07-0.59) for hepatocellular cancer (n = 4), 0.67 (0.45-0.99) for lung cancer (n = 3). CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The use of metformin in diabetic patients was associated with significantly lower risks of cancer mortality and incidence. However, this analysis is mainly based on observational studies and our findings underscore the more need for long-term RCTs to confirm this potential benefit for individuals with diabetes
Sensing the fuels: glucose and lipid signaling in the CNS controlling energy homeostasis
The central nervous system (CNS) is capable of gathering information on the body’s nutritional state and it implements appropriate behavioral and metabolic responses to changes in fuel availability. This feedback signaling of peripheral tissues ensures the maintenance of energy homeostasis. The hypothalamus is a primary site of convergence and integration for these nutrient-related feedback signals, which include central and peripheral neuronal inputs as well as hormonal signals. Increasing evidence indicates that glucose and lipids are detected by specialized fuel-sensing neurons that are integrated in these hypothalamic neuronal circuits. The purpose of this review is to outline the current understanding of fuel-sensing mechanisms in the hypothalamus, to integrate the recent findings in this field, and to address the potential role of dysregulation in these pathways in the development of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus
HE-LHC: The High-Energy Large Hadron Collider: Future Circular Collider Conceptual Design Report Volume 4
In response to the 2013 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (EPPSU), the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study was launched as a world-wide international collaboration hosted by CERN. The FCC study covered an energy-frontier hadron collider (FCC-hh), a highest-luminosity high-energy lepton collider (FCC-ee), the corresponding 100 km tunnel infrastructure, as well as the physics opportunities of these two colliders, and a high-energy LHC, based on FCC-hh technology. This document constitutes the third volume of the FCC Conceptual Design Report, devoted to the hadron collider FCC-hh. It summarizes the FCC-hh physics discovery opportunities, presents the FCC-hh accelerator design, performance reach, and staged operation plan, discusses the underlying technologies, the civil engineering and technical infrastructure, and also sketches a possible implementation. Combining ingredients from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the high-luminosity LHC upgrade and adding novel technologies and approaches, the FCC-hh design aims at significantly extending the energy frontier to 100 TeV. Its unprecedented centre-of-mass collision energy will make the FCC-hh a unique instrument to explore physics beyond the Standard Model, offering great direct sensitivity to new physics and discoveries
- …