755 research outputs found
Cardiac natriuretic peptides in plasma increase after dietary induced weight loss in obesity
BACKGROUND: Cardiac natriuretic peptides are established biomarkers in heart disease, but are also affected by body mass index (BMI). The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of weight loss and changes in body composition following dietary intervention on plasma concentrations of the prohormones to A- and B-type natriuretic peptides (proANP and proBNP) and adrenomedullin (proADM). RESULTS: A total of 52 healthy obese subjects, 47 women and 5 men (BMI 36.5 ± 5.6 kg/m(2)) were randomised to either an intensive weight reduction programme using a combination of very low calorie diet (810 kcal/day) and conventional hypo-energetic diet (1200 kcal/day) for 52 weeks, or to a control group that was offered diet-related counselling. N-terminal proBNP (NT-proBNP), mid-regional proANP (MR-proANP) and proADM (MR-proADM) and body composition using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scanning were determined at baseline and after 52 weeks. Comparisons between groups were analysed using t-tests. Changes from the baseline within the groups were analysed with paired tests. Changes in the variables, delta (∆), were calculated as 52 weeks minus the baseline. In the intervention group, BMI decreased by almost 20% (31.6 ± 6.2 vs. 37.1 ± 6.1 kg/m(2); P <0.001) with a loss of body fat of 23.5 ± 15.5% (P < 0.001). Plasma concentrations of NT-proBNP and MR-proANP increased (from 55 ± 31 to 97 ± 55 pg/ml; P < 0.001, and from 59 ± 21 to 74 ± 26 pmol/L; P < 0.001), whereas MR-proADM decreased (from 573 ± 153 to 534 ± 173 pmol/L; P <0.001). Changes (Δ) in MR-proANP correlated with Δfat mass (r = −0.359; P = 0.011) and Δglucose (r = −0.495; P <0.001), while increases in NT-proBNP were primarily associated with reduced plasma glucose (r = −0.462; P <0.001). A modest but significant weight loss of 6% (P < 0.001) was found in the control group with no changes in plasma concentrations of NT-proBNP or MR-proANP, and a minor change in MR-proADM. CONCLUSIONS: Plasma NT-proBNP and MR-proANP concentrations increase and MR-proADM concentration decreases during weight loss, underlining the dynamic impact of BMI, body composition and glucose metabolism on these cardiovascular biomarkers
Diet in mangrove snails: preliminary data on gut contents and stable isotope analysis
International audienc
The high A_V Quasar Survey: A z=2.027 metal-rich damped Lyman-alpha absorber towards a red quasar at z=3.21
To fully exploit the potential of quasars as probes of cosmic chemical
evolution and the internal gas dynamics of galaxies it is important to
understand the selection effects behind the quasar samples and in particular if
the selection criteria exclude foreground galaxies with certain properties
(most importantly a high dust content). Here we present spectroscopic follow-up
from the 10.4-m GTC telescope of a dust-reddened quasar, eHAQ0111+0641, from
the extended High A_V Quasar (HAQ) survey. We find that the z=3.21 quasar has a
foreground Damped Lyman-alpha Absorber (DLA) at z=2.027 along the line of
sight. The DLA has very strong metal lines due to a moderately high metallicity
(with an inferred lower limit of 25% of the solar metallicity), but a very
large gas column density along the line-of-sight in its host galaxy. This
discovery is further evidence that there is a dust bias affecting the census of
metals, caused by the combined effect of dust obscuration and reddening, in
existing samples of z>2 DLAs. The case of eHAQ0111+0641 illustrates that dust
bias is not only caused by dust obscuration, but also dust reddening.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A. A few typos have
been correcte
Tracer Dispersion in a Self-Organized Critical System
We have studied experimentally transport properties in a slowly driven
granular system which recently was shown to display self-organized criticality
[Frette {\em et al., Nature} {\bf 379}, 49 (1996)]. Tracer particles were added
to a pile and their transit times measured. The distribution of transit times
is a constant with a crossover to a decaying power law. The average transport
velocity decreases with system size. This is due to an increase in the active
zone depth with system size. The relaxation processes generate coherently
moving regions of grains mixed with convection. This picture is supported by
considering transport in a cellular automaton modeling the experiment.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 1 Encapsulated PostScript and 4 PostScript available
upon request, Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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