Letter: value of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in women with breast cancer ( Br J Surg 2005; 92: 1363-1367)

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49516/1/5314_ftp.pd

Visually-guided Reaching Under Varying Cognitive and Motor Demand in Young Adult Females with a History of Concussions

Every day, vision guides one’s actions to help one successfully navigate through a complex environment. When our visual and motor systems interact efficiently, we may not fully appreciate how flawless and beneficial this process can be to our daily functioning. Yet, one’s available neural resources needed to successfully perform visually-guided movements do have limits. When an individual suffers a brain injury, such as a concussion, the available resources may be compromised. Examining the extent of this decreased resource pool requires challenging the cognitive abilities enough to observe a behavioral deficit. The purpose of this study was to examine the long-term effects of a history of concussions in young adult females on visuomotor behavior during a visually-guided reaching task of various complexities. We hypothesized that by manipulating an increase of both cognitive and motor demand, visuomotor behavior would decrease more in individuals with a history of concussion than those without a history of concussion. Twenty females without a history of concussion (age: 21.2 ± 2.16 years) and twenty females with a history of concussion (age: 22.3 ± 2.43 years) quickly and accurately performed a delayed reach to a previously cued location. To control for confounding factors, information was collected regarding the participants’ head injury history, lifestyles, and level of sports participation. The visually guided reaching task was manipulated by varying the complexities of cognitive and motor demand to alter attentional load. As both cognitive and motor load increased, task performance decreased for both groups (p \u3c .05). However, contrary to our primary hypothesis, no differences in task performance were found between the two experimental groups (p \u3e .05). While confounding variables of age, sex, time since last concussion (i.e. acute vs. long-term), stimulant use, sleep patterns, and prescription medication for mood disorders were either controlled or considered during the analysis, participants in the two groups did differ on level of sports participation (p \u3c .05), when accounting for this difference, still no changes in performance were identified (p \u3c .05) on the dependent measures. The young adult females with a history of concussion demonstrated no deficits in visuomotor behavior on an attention-mediated reaching task as compared to control participants. Future studies should include an assessment of both motivation and competitiveness of the participants. Furthermore, longitudinal studies are needed to assess if the normal declines in visuomotor behavior due to healthy aging are accentuated by a history of concussion

Remote concussion history does not affect visually-guided reaching in young adult females

Aim: We examined the long-term effects of concussions in young adult females on visuomotor behavior during a visually-guided reaching task of various complexities. Materials & methods: 20 females with a history of longer than 6 months since a concussion and 20 healthy females quickly and accurately performed a delayed reach to a previously cued target. Results: As both cognitive and motor load increased, task performance decreased for both groups (p \u3c 0.05). However, contrary to our primary hypothesis, no differences in task performance were found between the two experimental groups (p \u3e 0.05). Conclusion: The young adult females with a remote history of concussion demonstrated no deficits in visuomotor behavior on an attention-mediated reaching task as compared with control participants. Lay abstract: Current literature is inconclusive regarding the long-term effects of concussion. Some have argued that the differing results are due to many uncontrolled factors in study design. In this study, 20 females with a history of concussion more than 6 months ago and 20 healthy females performed a reaching task under different levels of difficulty. As the reaching task got harder, both groups had greater difficulty doing the task quickly and accurately (p \u3c 0.05). Surprisingly, however, no differences in reaching performance existed between the two groups (p \u3e 0.05). Young adult females with a remote history of concussion demonstrated no greater problems with complicated reaching tasks when compared with control participants when experimental conditions are tightly controlled

Mig6 haploinsufficiency protects mice against streptozotocin-induced diabetes

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: EGF and gastrin co-administration reverses type 1 diabetes in rodent models. However, the failure of this to translate into a clinical treatment suggests that EGF-mediated tissue repair is a complicated process and warrants further investigation. Thus, we aimed to determine whether EGF receptor (EGFR) feedback inhibition by mitogen-inducible gene 6 protein (MIG6) limits the effectiveness of EGF therapy and promotes type 1 diabetes development. METHODS: We treated Mig6 (also known as Errfi1) haploinsufficient mice (Mig6 (+/-)) and their wild-type littermates (Mig6 (+/+)) with multiple low doses of streptozotocin (STZ), and monitored diabetes development via glucose homeostasis tests and histological analyses. We also investigated MIG6-mediated cytokine-induced desensitisation of EGFR signalling and the DNA damage repair response in 832/13 INS-1 beta cells. RESULTS: Whereas STZ-treated Mig6 (+/+) mice became diabetic, STZ-treated Mig6 (+/-) mice remained glucose tolerant. In addition, STZ-treated Mig6 (+/-) mice exhibited preserved circulating insulin levels following a glucose challenge. As insulin sensitivity was similar between Mig6 (+/-) and Mig6 (+/+) mice, the preserved glucose tolerance in STZ-treated Mig6 (+/-) mice probably results from preserved beta cell function. This is supported by elevated Pdx1 and Irs2 mRNA levels in islets isolated from STZ-treated Mig6 (+/-) mice. Conversely, MIG6 overexpression in isolated islets compromises glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Studies in 832/13 cells suggested that cytokine-induced MIG6 hinders EGFR activation and inhibits DNA damage repair. STZ-treated Mig6 (+/-) mice also have increased beta cell mass recovery. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Reducing Mig6 expression promotes beta cell repair and abates the development of experimental diabetes, suggesting that MIG6 may be a novel therapeutic target for preserving beta cell

Comparison of CT, PET, and PET/CT for Staging of Patients with Indolent Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

The aim was to investigate the potential impact of positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) as compared to PET and CT on the staging of patients with indolent lymphoma. PET/CTs from 45 patients with indolent lymphoma undergoing staging or restaging were studied. Clinical follow-up, additional imaging, and histology served as the gold standard. PET/CT correctly diagnosed 92 nodal regions as positive for lymphomatous involvement and 458 as disease free vs 68 and 449 for PET and 64 and 459 for CT, respectively. The respective sensitivities, specificities, and accuracies were 99%, 100%, and 99.8% for PET/CT, 68%, 97.5%, and 92.2% for PET, and 70%, 100%, and 94.7% for CT. PET/CT performed significantly better than PET (p < 0.001 for sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy) and CT (p < 0.001 for sensitivity and accuracy). PET/CT also correctly identified significantly more extra-nodal lesions (22) than CT (14) and PET (nine). PET/CT provides significantly more accurate information compared to PET and CT for the staging and re-staging of patients with indolent lymphoma

Hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic Clamps in Conscious, Unrestrained Mice

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by a defect in insulin action. The hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp, or insulin clamp, is widely considered the "gold standard" method for assessing insulin action in vivo. During an insulin clamp, hyperinsulinemia is achieved by a constant insulin infusion. Euglycemia is maintained via a concomitant glucose infusion at a variable rate. This variable glucose infusion rate (GIR) is determined by measuring blood glucose at brief intervals throughout the experiment and adjusting the GIR accordingly. The GIR is indicative of whole-body insulin action, as mice with enhanced insulin action require a greater GIR. The insulin clamp can incorporate administration of isotopic 2[14C]deoxyglucose to assess tissue-specific glucose uptake and [3-3H]glucose to assess the ability of insulin to suppress the rate of endogenous glucose appearance (endoRa), a marker of hepatic glucose production, and to stimulate the rate of whole-body glucose disappearance (Rd)

Enrichment of the exocytosis protein STX4 in skeletal muscle remediates peripheral insulin resistance and alters mitochondrial dynamics via Drp1

Mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in skeletal muscle insulin resistance. Syntaxin 4 (STX4) levels are reduced in human diabetic skeletal muscle, and global transgenic enrichment of STX4 expression improves insulin sensitivity in mice. Here, we show that transgenic skeletal muscle-specific STX4 enrichment (skmSTX4tg) in mice reverses established insulin resistance and improves mitochondrial function in the context of diabetogenic stress. Specifically, skmSTX4tg reversed insulin resistance caused by high-fat diet (HFD) without altering body weight or food consumption. Electron microscopy of wild-type mouse muscle revealed STX4 localisation at or proximal to the mitochondrial membrane. STX4 enrichment prevented HFD-induced mitochondrial fragmentation and dysfunction through a mechanism involving STX4-Drp1 interaction and elevated AMPK-mediated phosphorylation at Drp1 S637, which favors fusion. Our findings challenge the dogma that STX4 acts solely at the plasma membrane, revealing that STX4 localises at/proximal to and regulates the function of mitochondria in muscle. These results establish skeletal muscle STX4 enrichment as a candidate therapeutic strategy to reverse peripheral insulin resistance