Mechanisms of Melatonin in Obesity: A Review

Obesity and its complications have become a prominent global public health problem that severely threatens human health. Melatonin, originally known as an effective antioxidant, is an endogenous hormone found throughout the body that serves various physiological functions. In recent decades, increasing attention has been paid to its unique function in regulating energy metabolism, especially in glucose and lipid metabolism. Accumulating evidence has established the relationship between melatonin and obesity; nevertheless, not all preclinical and clinical evidence indicates the anti-obesity effect of melatonin, which makes it remain to conclude the clinical effect of melatonin in the fight against obesity. In this review, we have summarized the current knowledge of melatonin in regulating obesity-related symptoms, with emphasis on its underlying mechanisms. The role of melatonin in regulating the lipid profile, adipose tissue, oxidative stress, and inflammation, as well as the interactions of melatonin with the circadian rhythm, gut microbiota, sleep disorder, as well as the α7nAChR, the opioidergic system, and exosomes, make melatonin a promising agent to open new avenues in the intervention of obesity

Investigating the Daytime Visibility Requirements of Pavement Marking Considering the Influence of CCT and Illuminance of Natural Light

Pavement marking in daylight with poor quality cannot provide a reference for drivers to specify their own position relative to nearby vehicles. Luminance and Correlated color temperature (CCT) of sunlight is of importance for daytime visibility of in-service pavement markings, which lacks detailed consideration. This paper aims to explore the daytime visibility requirements of in-service pavement markings considering the influence of natural light characteristics. Based on analyzing the mechanism and impact factors of daytime visibility of pavement markings, a subjective scale of pavement markings state in the drivers’ field of view was proposed and a short and bold line was recommended as the standard state. Thirty-six tested drivers were randomly selected to detect white and yellow markings of both 15 cm and 20 cm width under 2000 to 23,000 lx and 5500 to 8500 K for outdoor natural light environment. The luminance contrast of the pavement marking to the surrounding road surface ranged from 0 to 10. The result indicated that the natural light with 2000 to 3000 lx and 7500 to 8500 K is the most unfavorable light environment for drivers to recognize pavement markings during daytime. The detection distance is becoming longer with the increase of luminance contrast. The detection distance does not increase with the increase of luminance contrast when the luminance contrast of white markings is greater than 4 and that of yellow markings is greater than 3. The model was established expressing the relationship between luminance contrast and Qd contrast. The preview time 3.65 s was selected to calculate the minimum requirements of Qd at speeds of 60, 80, 100 km/h, respectively, for different types of markings. The results can provide scientific evidence for quality evaluation and maintenance management of pavement markings in service for daytime visibility

Monochromatic Light Pollution Exacerbates High-Fat Diet-Induced Adipocytic Hypertrophy in Mice

Light pollution worldwide promotes the progression of obesity, which is widely considered a consequence of circadian rhythm disruptions. However, the role of environmental light wavelength in mammalian obesity is not fully understood. Herein, mice fed a normal chow diet (NCD) or a high-fat diet (HFD) were exposed to daytime white (WL), blue (BL), green (GL), and red light (RL) for 8 weeks. Compared with WL and RL, BL significantly increased weight gain and white adipose tissue (WAT) weight, and it disrupted glucose homeostasis in mice fed with HFD but not NCD. The analysis of WAT found that BL significantly aggravated HFD-induced WAT hypertrophy, with a decrease in IL-10 and an increase in NLRP3, p-P65, p-IκB, TLR4, Cd36, Chrebp, Srebp-1c, Fasn, and Cpt1β relative to WL or RL. More interestingly, BL upregulated the expression of circadian clocks in the WAT, including Clock, Bmal1, Per1, Cry1, Cry2, Rorα, Rev-erbα, and Rev-erbβ compared with WL or RL. However, most of the changes had no statistical difference between BL and GL. Mechanistically, BL significantly increased plasma corticosterone (CORT) levels and glucocorticoid receptors in the WAT, which may account for the changes in circadian clocks. Further, in vitro study confirmed that CORT treatment did promote the expression of circadian clocks in 3T3-L1 cells, accompanied by an increase in Chrebp, Cd36, Hsp90, P23, NLRP3, and p-P65. Thus, daily BL, rather than RL exposure-induced CORT elevation, may drive changes in the WAT circadian clocks, ultimately exacerbating lipid dysmetabolism and adipocytic hypertrophy in the HFD-fed mice

Legislative Documents

Also, variously referred to as: House bills; House documents; House legislative documents; legislative documents; General Court documents

A Retrospective Study of the Characteristics and Clinical Significance of A-Waves in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

A-wave was observed in patients with motor neuron disease (1). However, data on the characteristics and clinical significance of A-waves in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have been scarce. The F-wave studies of 83 patients with ALS and 63 normal participants which were conducted previously at the Department of Neurology in Peking Union Medical College Hospital were retrospectively reviewed to determine the occurrence of A-waves in ALS. A-waves occurred more frequently in ALS patients than in normal controls. For the median and peroneal nerves, the frequencies of nerves with A-waves and frequencies of patients with A-waves were comparable between the ALS patients and normal controls. For the ulnar and tibial nerves, the frequencies of nerves with A-waves and frequencies of patients with A-waves were significantly increased in the ALS patients compared with those of the normal participants. Disease progression rate was slower in the ALS patients with A-waves (0.73 ± 0.99) than that in the ALS patients without A-waves (0.87 ± 0.55, P = 0.007). No correlations were found between the amplitudes of F-waves with A-waves and those of A-waves in the ulnar nerves (r = 0.423, P = 0.149). No correlations were found between the persistence of F-waves with A-waves and the persistence of A-waves in the ulnar nerves as well (r = 0.219, P = 0.473). The occurrence of A-waves may indicate dysfunction of lower motor neurons and possibly imply a relatively slower degenerative process

Burden of the global energy price crisis on households

The Russia–Ukraine conflict has triggered an energy crisis that directly affected household energy costs for heating, cooling and mobility and indirectly pushed up the costs of other goods and services throughout global supply chains. Here we bridge a global multi-regional input–output database with detailed household-expenditure data to model the direct and indirect impacts of increased energy prices on 201 expenditure groups in 116 countries. On the basis of a set of energy price scenarios, we show that total energy costs of households would increase by 62.6–112.9%, contributing to a 2.7–4.8% increase in household expenditures. The energy cost burdens across household groups vary due to differences in supply chain structure, consumption patterns and energy needs. Under the cost-of-living pressures, an additional 78 million–141 million people will potentially be pushed into extreme poverty. Targeted energy assistance can help vulnerable households during this crisis. We emphasize support for increased costs of necessities, especially for food

Correlation of Creatine Kinase Levels with Clinical Features and Survival in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

ObjectiveTo evaluate serum creatine kinase (CK) levels of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients and to explore the relationship between CK levels and the clinical characteristics and survival prognosis of ALS patients.MethodsWe analyzed the CK levels of 185 ALS patients who underwent long-term follow-up. The relationship between CK levels and clinical features including sex, age, disease duration, site of onset, body mass index (BMI), serum creatinine (Cr), and spontaneous electromyographic activity was analyzed by univariate analysis and multiple linear regression. Kaplan–Meier and Cox proportional hazards models were used to explore whether CK levels were independently correlated with survival prognosis of ALS.ResultsBaseline serum CK was raised in 43% of participants. The median CK level was 160 U/L (range: 20–2,574 U/L), and 99% of patients had a baseline serum CK level less than 1,000 U/L. CK levels were significantly higher in male patients than in female patients [204 (169) versus 117 (111) U/L, p < 0.001] and in patients with limb onset ALS than with bulbar onset ALS (p < 0.001). CK levels were also correlated with serum Cr (p = 0.011) and the spontaneous potential score of electromyography (EMG) (p = 0.037) but not correlated with age (p = 0.883), disease duration (p = 0.116), or BMI (p = 0.481). Log CK was independently correlated with survival of ALS patients (HR = 0.457, 95% confidence interval 0.221–0.947, p = 0.035) after adjusting for age, sex, site of onset, serum Cr, and BMI.ConclusionSerum CK levels of ALS patients were correlated with sex, site of onsite, serum Cr, and spontaneous activity in EMG. Serum CK could be an independent prognostic factor for survival of ALS patients