Rola insuliny i wybranych adipocytokin u pacjentek z zespołem policystycznych jajników (PCOS)

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrinopathy in women of reproductive age. It is manifested by hyperandrogenism, polycystic ovaries on ultrasound, oligomenorrhoea and anovulation. PCOS patients are more vulnerable to metabolic disorders: insulin resistance, obesity, endothelium dysfunction, atherosclerosis, and activation of proinflammatory factors. This association shows that PCOS might be an ovarian manifestation of a metabolic syndrome. Insulin resistance is also strongly correlated with reproductive failure. Approximately 100 factors, secreted in adipose tissue, are responsible for its regulation. Adipocytokines have been found to play an important role in regulating insulin sensitivity. Abnormal levels of adipokines are detected in patients with insulin resistance. Studies indicate that these factors, and their different activity in PCOS women, may affect changes observed in their metabolism and, especially, may participate in the development of insulin resistance. There are several adipokines whose role has been thoroughly investigated and many that we still know very little about, for example apelin and visfatin. Counseling PCOS patients about the possibility of developing metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular diseases should be a standard of care.Zespół policystycznych jajników (PCOS) jest najczęstszą endokrynopatią wśród kobiet w wieku rozrodczym. Manifestuje się hiperandrogenizmem, obrazem policystycznych jajników w ultrasonografii, zaburzeniami miesiączkowania o typie rzadkich miesiączek lub zaburzeniami owulacji. Pacjentki z PCOS są bardziej narażone na zaburzenia metaboliczne: insulinooporność, otyłość, nieprawidłowości endothelium, miażdżycę i aktywację czynników prozapalnych. Te zależności mogą świadczyć o tym, że PCOS może być jajnikową postacią zespołu metabolicznego. Insulinooporność silnie koreluje również z zaburzeniami rozrodu. Istnieje około 100 czynników produkowanych przez tkankę tłuszczową, odpowiedzialnych za funkcje regulacyjne. Adipocytokiny są ważnymi czynnikami regulującymi wrażliwość organizmu na insulinę. U pacjentek z insulinoopornością zauważalne są nieprawidłowe poziomy adipocytokin. Badania pokazują, że te czynniki i ich odmienna aktywność u kobiet z PCOS, może mieć wpływ na zmiany w ich metabolizmie, a w szczególności w rozwoju insulinooporności. Istnieje wiele adipokin, których rola jest dobrze poznana, lecz nadal rola wielu z nich jest niedostatecznie zbadana: między innymi apeliny i wisfatyny. Ocena czynników ryzyka zaburzeń metabolicznych, cukrzycy oraz choroby sercowo-naczyniowej powinna być standardem u kobiet z PCOS

Determinants of emotional problems and mood disorders in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence and severity of emotional problems among Polish women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and seek factors which increase the risk of their occurrence. Material and methods: The study group consisted of 82 women (aged 18–48), who were diagnosed with PCOS based on the Rotterdam criteria. During hospitalization, the patients completed a number of questionnaires, providing their sociodemographic data and information concerning the inconvenience of disease-associated symptoms. The question­naires included the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory (MSEI). Data obtained during medical examinations (blood tests, transvaginal ultrasound, height and body mass measurements) were analyzed. Results: Out of 82 women, the results detected risk for depression in 42 (51.22%), mild depressive disorders in 32, moderate disorders in 8, and severe disorder in 2 patients. No statistically significant correlation between BDI or state anxiety and the level of the analyzed hormones, insulin resistance, or infertility treatment, was found. General self-esteem, trait anxi­ety, and marital status were associated with the occurrence of depression symptoms. BMI was associated with the level of state anxiety during hospitalization. Conclusions: Women with PCOS are at risk for mood and anxiety disorders. Disease-related somatic factors are not directly associated with the risk for disorder occurrence. However, severity of depression symptoms has been shown to be influenced by permanent psychological characteristics of the studied women, i.e. self-esteem, trait anxiety, and life situation (marital status). Therefore, it is recommended to include interviews about patient life situation and screening questionnaires for assessing depression into the diagnostic procedures in PCOS patients. Patients should be referred for a psychological or psychiatric consultation, if needed

Transport properties of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at finite coupling

Gauge theory-string theory duality describes strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric SU(n) Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature in terms of near extremal black 3-brane geometry in type IIB string theory. We use this correspondence to compute the leading correction in inverse 't Hooft coupling to the shear diffusion constant, bulk viscosity and the speed of sound in the large-n N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory plasma. The transport coefficients are extracted from the dispersion relation for the shear and the sound wave lowest quasinormal modes in the leading order alpha'-corrected black D3 brane geometry. We find the shear viscosity extracted from the shear diffusion constant to agree with result of [hep-th/0406264]; also, the leading correction to bulk viscosity and the speed of sound vanishes. Our computation provides a highly nontrivial consistency check on the hydrodynamic description of the alpha'-corrected nonextremal black branes in string theory.Comment: 19 pages, LaTe

Deforming baryons into confining strings

We find explicit probe D3-brane solutions in the infrared of the Maldacena-Nunez background. The solutions describe deformed baryon vertices: q external quarks are separated in spacetime from the remaining N-q. As the separation is taken to infinity we recover known solutions describing infinite confining strings in ${\mathcal{N}}=1$ gauge theory. We present results for the mass of finite confining strings as a function of length. We also find probe D2-brane solutions in a confining type IIA geometry, the reduction of a G_2 holonomy M theory background. The relation between these deformed baryons and confining strings is not as straightforward.Comment: 1+13 pages. LaTeX. 3 Figures. Factor of 2N fixed to N for the IIA background. Minor changes to tex

Supertubes

It is shown that a IIA superstring carrying D0-brane charge can be `blown-up', in a {\it Minkowski vacuum} background, to a (1/4)-supersymmetric tubular D2-brane, supported against collapse by the angular momentum generated by crossed electric and magnetic Born-Infeld fields. This `supertube' can be viewed as a worldvolume realization of the sigma-model Q-lump.Comment: Revision includes mention of some configurations dual to the supertub

Bosonic Description of Spinning Strings in 2+12+1 Dimensions

We write down a general action principle for spinning strings in 2+1 dimensional space-time without introducing Grassmann variables. The action is written solely in terms of coordinates taking values in the 2+1 Poincare group, and it has the usual string symmetries, i.e. it is invariant under a) diffeomorphisms of the world sheet and b) Poincare transformations. The system can be generalized to an arbitrary number of space-time dimensions, and also to spinning membranes and p-branes.Comment: Latex, 12 page

D-branes on a Deformation of SU(2)

We discuss D-branes on a line of conformal field theories connected by an exact marginal deformation. The line contains an SU(2) WZW model and two mutually T-dual SU(2)/U(1) cosets times a free boson. We find the D-branes preserving a U(1) isometry, an F-flux quantization condition and conformal invariance. Away from the SU(2) point a U(1) times U(1) symmetry is broken to U(1) times Z_k, i.e. continuous rotations of branes are accompanied by rotations along the branes. Requiring decoupling of the cosets from the free boson at the endpoints of the deformation breaks the continuous rotation of branes to Z_k. At the SU(2) point the full U(1) times U(1) symmetry is restored. This suggests the occurrence of phase transitions for branes at angles in the coset model, at a semiclassical level. We also discuss briefly the orientifold planes along the deformation line.Comment: 19 pages, latex, 5 figures, references adde

5d Black Hole as Emergent Geometry of Weakly Interacting 4d Hot Yang-Mills Gas

We demonstrate five-dimensional anti-de Sitter black hole emerges as dual geometry holographic to weakly interacting N=4 superconformal Yang-Mills theory. We first note that an ideal probe of the dual geometry is the Yang-Mills instanton, probing point by point in spacetime. We then study instanton moduli space at finite temperature by adopting Hitchin's proposal that geometry of the moduli space is definable by Fisher-Rao "information geometry". In Yang-Mills theory, the information metric is measured by a novel class of gauge-invariant, nonlocal operators in the instanton sector. We show that the moduli space metric exhibits (1) asymptotically anti-de Sitter, (2) horizon at radial distance set by the Yang-Mills temperature, and (3) after Wick rotation of the moduli space to the Lorentzian signature, a singularity at the origin. We argue that the dual geometry emerges even for rank of gauge groups of order unity and for weak `t Hooft coupling.Comment: Latex, 3 .eps figures; v2. typos corrected + minor change

Loop Operators and the Kondo Problem

We analyse the renormalisation group flow for D-branes in WZW models from the point of view of the boundary states. To this end we consider loop operators that perturb the boundary states away from their ultraviolet fixed points, and show how to regularise and renormalise them consistently with the global symmetries of the problem. We pay particular attention to the chiral operators that only depend on left-moving currents, and which are attractors of the renormalisation group flow. We check (to lowest non-trivial order in the coupling constant) that at their stable infrared fixed points these operators measure quantum monodromies, in agreement with previous semiclassical studies. Our results help clarify the general relationship between boundary transfer matrices and defect lines, which parallels the relation between (non-commutative) fields on (a stack of) D-branes and their push-forwards to the target-space bulk.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

N = 2 SCFTs: An M5-brane perspective

Inspired by the recently discovered holographic duality between N=2 SCFTs and half-BPS M-theory backgrounds, we study probe M5-branes. Though our main focus is supersymmetric M5-branes whose worldvolume has an AdS_n factor, we also consider some other configurations. Of special mention is the identification of AdS_5 and AdS_3 probes preserving supersymmetry, with only the latter supporting a self-dual field strength.Comment: 27 page