The influence of physical activity on selected biochemical parameters - what do physically active people know about it?

Introduction and purpose. Physical activity is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle, and the far-reaching benefits of practising it are invaluable. Raising awareness in this regard seems to be a key element in the prevention of civilization diseases. This study aimed to assess the knowledge of amateur athletes about the influence of physical effort on changes in selected biochemical parameters. Material and methods. In the study that was conducted using the questionnaire method and electronically using the proprietary form, one hundred physically active people participated. The survey consisted of single-choice and multiple-choice questions as well as open-ended questions. It collected information on (1) demographic and social characteristics, (2) anthropometric measurements, (3) type and duration of physical activity, (4) frequency and time of the training, (5) existing diseases and (6) knowledge about glucose, insulin, lipid profile, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), creatine kinase. The key questions concerned the influence of physical activity on the studied biochemical parameters. Results. The vast majority of respondents revealed a good knowledge of insulin and insulin resistance, carbohydrate metabolism and creatine kinase. The average results of correct answers amounted to 90%, 79% and 71%. The knowledge of the issues related to the lipid profile, and both ALT and AST was slightly worse. Here the distribution of the proper answers was respectively 62% and 60%. Conclusions. Properly conducted education on the influence of physical activity on selected biochemical parameters could be the best solution to broaden the knowledge on this subject

Neopterin in patients with chronic kidney disease and patients with coronary artery disease

Abstract Neopterin, a marker of stimulated cellular immune response, levels increase during many disorders. A number of different features of neopterin prompted us to study its serum concentration in patients with all stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and patients with coronary artery disease (CARD). To the best of our knowledge this is the first study that evaluates and compares the serum neopterin concentration in those diseases taken together as one study. One hundred and twenty five subjects, divided into five groups, were included in the study. The first three groups consisted of patients with different stages of CKD. CARD patients without CKD and healthy volunteers as controls were also studied. Serum neopterin concentration was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA, BRAHMS, Hennigsdorf/Berlin, Germany) according to the manufacturers' instructions. We have found that patients with the most advanced stage of CKD had fifteen times higher serum neopterin than patients from other studied groups. Interestingly, in the CKD1-2, CKD3-4 and CARD patients without CKD, serum neopterin concentrations were similar to those obtained from healthy volunteers. Serum urea and serum ferritin appeared to be significant independent predictors of serum neopterin concentration after adjustment for urea, CA-IMT, peripheral systolic blood pressure, ferritin, hsCRP, HD vintage, BMI and eGFR, explaining 95.89% of serum neopterin variations. In conclusion, it seems that despite the existence of many factors that may influence serum neopterin, those derived from impaired renal function and immunological disturbances coming from hemodialysis treatment are crucial. In this study, we observed that the more impaired the renal function, higher is the increase in serum neopterin concentration

Grzybicze zapalenie otrzewnej spowodowane przez Asperillus flavus i Candida albicans — opis dwóch przypadków

Fungal peritonitis is a relatively rare, diagnostically dif­ficult, and burdened with a high risk of death, compli­cation of peritoneal dialysis. The occurrence of this complication in most cases makes it impossible to continue treatment with peritoneal dialysis due to irre­versible changes in the peritoneal membrane. The di­agnostic difficulty is due to the fact that the identifica­tion of the fungus in dialysate takes time. In the case of very severe pain, cloudy dialysate, no improvement after empiric therapy, the dialysis catheter should be removed as soon as possible and antifungal therapy should be used. To the occurrence of fungal peritonitis predisposes previous treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics and reduction of immunity. High mortality up to 53% of cases requires fast targeted treatment. The article presents descriptions of 2 cases

Transferrin changes in haemodialysed patients

Transferrin (Tf) is a glycoprotein responsible for iron transport in the human body. Physiologically in reaction with Concanavalin A, Tf occurs in four distinct variants Tf1, Tf2, Tf3 (apo-Tf) and Tf4. It was reported recently that Tf is changing, particularly during acute phase response, taking place among others in end-stage renal disease. In this study, we wanted to find the answer to three main questions: firstly, how Tf is changing in patients treated with maintenance haemodialysis (mHD), secondly, whether there are any Tf changes in the course of mHD treatment, and thirdly, what factors can affect Tf microheterogeneity in these patients. Studies were performed on 80 haemodialysed patients and 21 healthy volunteers. The Tf concentration was determined by the rocket immunoelectrophoresis, and its microheterogeneity was assessed by the ConA crossed immunoaffinity electrophoresis. During the annual observation of the distribution of the Tf variants, we have found both changes of the percentage contents of all Tf variants in the whole Tf concentration and a significant decrease in Tf2, Tf3 and Tf4 serum concentrations. Moreover, we found that decrease in the renal function, duration of mHD, and inflammation may contribute to these above-mentioned changes, which are probably the factors that should be taken into account when explaining the mechanisms of persistence of anaemia in haemodialysed patients

Proteomic Profiling of Leukocytes Reveals Dysregulation of Adhesion and Integrin Proteins in Chronic Kidney Disease-Related Atherosclerosis

A progressive loss of functional nephrons defines chronic kidney disease (CKD). Complications related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) are the principal causes of mortality in CKD; however, the acceleration of CVD in CKD remains unresolved. Our study used a complementary proteomic approach to assess mild and advanced CKD patients with different atherosclerosis stages and two groups of patients with different classical CVD progression but without renal dysfunction. We utilized a label-free approach based on LC-MS/MS and functional bioinformatic analyses to profile CKD and CVD leukocyte proteins. We revealed dysregulation of proteins involved in different phases of leukocytes' diapedesis process that is very pronounced in CKD's advanced stage. We also showed an upregulation of apoptosis-related proteins in CKD as compared to CVD. The differential abundance of selected proteins was validated by multiple reaction monitoring, ELISA, Western blotting, and at the mRNA level by ddPCR. An increased rate of apoptosis was then functionally confirmed on the cellular level. Hence, we suggest that the disturbances in leukocyte extravasation proteins may alter cell integrity and trigger cell death, as demonstrated by flow cytometry and microscopy analyses. Our proteomics data set has been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE repository with the data set identifier PXD018596.Peer reviewe

Preeclampsia with Intrauterine Growth Restriction Generates Morphological Changes in Endothelial Cells Associated with Mitochondrial Swelling—An In Vitro Study

Pregnancy complicated by preeclampsia (PE) and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) promotes endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction. Our in vitro study aimed to evaluate the endothelial cell morphology after acute and chronic exposition to medium supplemented with serum taken from healthy pregnant women and women with IUGR and IUGR with PE. In the same condition, ECs viability, proliferation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and serum concentration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were also measured. Pregnant women with IUGR and IUGR with PE-delivered babies with reduced body mass and were characterized in elevated blood pressure, urine protein loss, and reduced level of VEGF. The 24 hours of exposition did not exert any morphological changes in ECs, except the reduction in cell viability, but prolonged exposition resulted in significant morphological changes concerning mostly the swelling of mitochondria with accompanying ROS production, cell autophagy, reduced cell viability, and proliferation only in complicated pregnancies. In conclusion, the sera taken from women with IUGR and IUGR with PE show a detrimental effect on ECs, reducing their viability, proliferation, and generating oxidative stress due to dysfunctional mitochondria. This multidirectional effect might have an adverse impact on the cardiovascular system in women with IUGR and PE

The Crosstalk between SARS-CoV-2 Infection and the RAA System in Essential Hypertension—Analyses Using Systems Approach

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has affected and continues to affect millions of people across the world. Patients with essential arterial hypertension and renal complications are at particular risk of the fatal course of this infection. In our study, we have modeled the selected processes in a patient with essential hypertension and chronic kidney disease (CKD) suffering from COVID-19, emphasizing the function of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone (RAA) system. The model has been built in the language of Petri nets theory. Using the systems approach, we have analyzed how COVID-19 may affect the studied organism, and we have checked whether the administration of selected anti-hypertensive drugs (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and/or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs)) may impact the severity of the infection. Besides, we have assessed whether these drugs effectively lower blood pressure in the case of SARS-CoV-2 infection affecting essential hypertensive patients. Our research has shown that neither the ACEIs nor the ARBs worsens the course infection. However, when assessing the treatment of hypertension in the active SARS-CoV-2 infection, we have observed that ARBs might not effectively reduce blood pressure; they may even have the slightly opposite effect. On the other hand, we have confirmed the effectiveness of arterial hypertension treatment in patients receiving ACEIs. Moreover, we have found that the simultaneous use of ARBs and ACEIs averages the effects of taking both drugs, thus leading to only a slight decrease in blood pressure. We are a way from suggesting that ARBs in all hypertensive patients with COVID-19 are ineffective, but we have shown that research in this area should still be continued

Interrelations between Iron and Vitamin A—Studied Using Systems Approach

A deficiency of vitamin A (VAD) and iron is the most common nutritional problem affecting people worldwide. Given the scale of the problem, the interactions between vitamin A and iron levels are widely studied. However, the exact mechanism of the impact of vitamin A on the regulation of iron metabolism remains unclear. An extremely significant issue becomes a better understanding of the nature of the studied biological phenomenon, which is possible by using a systems approach through developing and analyzing a mathematical model based on a Petri net. To study the considered system, the t-cluster analysis, the significance analysis, and the analysis of the average number of transition firings were performed. The used analyses have allowed distinguishing the most important mechanisms (both subprocesses and elementary processes) positively and negatively regulating an expression of hepcidin and allowed to distinguish elementary processes with a higher frequency of occurrence compared to others. The analysis also allowed to resolve doubts about the discrepancy in literature reports, where VAD leads to positive regulation of hepcidin expression or to negative regulation of hepcidin expression. The more detailed analyses have shown that VAD more frequently positively stimulates hepcidin expression and this mechanism is more significant than the mechanism inhibiting hepcidin expression indirectly by VAD