37 research outputs found
Kynurenine is a novel endothelium-derived vascular relaxing factor produced during inflammation
Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases
The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of
aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs)
can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves
excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological
concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can
lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl
radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic
inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the
involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a
large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and
inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation
of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many
similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e.
iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The
studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic
and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and
lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and
longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is
thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As
systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have
multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent
patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of
multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the
decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference
Mining the human phenome using allelic scores that index biological intermediates
J. Kaprio ja M-L. Lokki työryhmien jäseniä.It is common practice in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to focus on the relationship between disease risk and genetic variants one marker at a time. When relevant genes are identified it is often possible to implicate biological intermediates and pathways likely to be involved in disease aetiology. However, single genetic variants typically explain small amounts of disease risk. Our idea is to construct allelic scores that explain greater proportions of the variance in biological intermediates, and subsequently use these scores to data mine GWAS. To investigate the approach's properties, we indexed three biological intermediates where the results of large GWAS meta-analyses were available: body mass index, C-reactive protein and low density lipoprotein levels. We generated allelic scores in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, and in publicly available data from the first Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. We compared the explanatory ability of allelic scores in terms of their capacity to proxy for the intermediate of interest, and the extent to which they associated with disease. We found that allelic scores derived from known variants and allelic scores derived from hundreds of thousands of genetic markers explained significant portions of the variance in biological intermediates of interest, and many of these scores showed expected correlations with disease. Genome-wide allelic scores however tended to lack specificity suggesting that they should be used with caution and perhaps only to proxy biological intermediates for which there are no known individual variants. Power calculations confirm the feasibility of extending our strategy to the analysis of tens of thousands of molecular phenotypes in large genome-wide meta-analyses. We conclude that our method represents a simple way in which potentially tens of thousands of molecular phenotypes could be screened for causal relationships with disease without having to expensively measure these variables in individual disease collections.Peer reviewe
Science Through Time: Understanding the Archive at Rennix Gap Bog, a Sub-alpine Peatland in Kosciuszko National Park, New South Wales, Australia
Rennix Gap Bog is a sub-alpine topogenic peatland that contains up to 2 m of organic-rich sediments
that have built up over the last approximately 12,000 years. This paper summarises the research and
teaching activities that have been undertaken at the site, which has included consideration of the sediment
stratigraphy, radiometric dating, palynology, charcoal analyses, dendrochronology and recently, the
testate amoebae community composition has been documented. Much of this work is unpublished but has
relevance for any future research and provides a long-term context for many contemporary environmental
issues, including for issues of relevance to the management of fire in this landscape and vegetation more
broadly. In the contemporary environment, the surface of the bog is vegetated with a complex mosaic of
Carex fen, sub-alpine Sphagnum shrub bog and Poa costiniana tussock grassland. Pollen analysis suggests
that this vegetation has been relatively stable for 10,000 years and prior to that the site was surrounded by
sparse vegetation, similar to the alpine herb-grass community of contemporary higher altitude ecosystems.
Charcoal analyses suggest that fire activity has varied through time but increased significantly in the historic
period. Rennix Gap Bog has not only attracted considerable research but has also been an invaluable,
accessible, site for field-based teaching and learning
Appropriate neck circumference cut-off points for metabolic syndrome in Turkish patients with type 2 diabetes
Neck circumference is a valuable tool for identifying metabolic syndrome and obesity in Chinese elder subjects: a community-based study
Effects of Concord grape juice on ambulatory blood pressure in prehypertension and stage 1 hypertension123
Background: Consumption of flavonoid-containing foods may be useful for the management of hypertension
Non-antioxidant molecular functions of α-tocopherol (vitamin E)
Abstractα-Tocopherol (the major vitamin E component) regulates key cellular events by mechanisms unrelated with its antioxidant function. Inhibition of protein kinase C (PKC) activity and vascular smooth muscle cell growth by α-tocopherol was first described by our group. Later, α-tocopherol was shown to inhibit PKC in various cell types with consequent inhibition of aggregation in platelets, of nitric oxide production in endothelial cells and of superoxide production in neutrophils and macrophages. α-Tocopherol diminishes adhesion molecule, collagenase and scavenger receptor (SR-A and CD36) expression and increases connective tissue growth factor expression