27 research outputs found
Editorsâ Introduction: An Overview of the Educational Administration and Leadership Curriculum: Traditions of Islamic Educational Administration and Leadership in Higher Education
This chapter provides an overview of several topics relevant to constructing an approach to teaching educational administration and leadership in Muslim countries. First, it places the topic in the context of the changing nature and critiques of the field that argue for a greater internationalisation to both resist some of the negative aspects of globalisation and to represent countriesâ traditions in the professional curriculum. Then, it identifies literature that presents the underlying principles and values of Islamic education that guide curriculum and pedagogy and shape its administration and leadership including the Qurâan and Sunnah and the classical educational literature which focuses on aims, values and goals of education as well as character development upon which a âgoodâ society is built. This is followed by a section on the Islamic administration and leadership traditions that are relevant to education, including the values of educational organisations and how they should be administered, identifying literature on the distinctive Islamic traditions of leadership and administrator education and training as it applies to education from the establishment of Islam and early classical scholars and senior administrators in the medieval period who laid a strong foundation for a highly sophisticated preparation and practice of administration in philosophical writings and the Mirrors of Princes writings, and subsequent authors who have built upon it up to the contemporary period. The final section provides an overview of the chapters in this collection
Role of heme oxygenase-carbon monoxide pathway in pathogenesis of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy in the rat
Empagliflozin improves left ventricular diastolic function in db/db mice without altering cardiac expression of enzymes relevant for ketone body or branched chain amino acid catabolism
Empagliflozin improves left ventricular diastolic function of db/db mice.
Objectives: Investigation of the effect of SGLT2 inhibition by empagliflozin on left ventricular function in a model of diabetic cardiomyopathy.Background: SGLT2 inhibition is a new strategy to treat diabetes. In the EMPA-REG Outcome trial empagliflozin treatment reduced cardiovascular and overall mortality in patients with diabetes presumably due to beneficial cardiac effects, leading to reduced heart failure hospitalization. The relevant mechanisms remain currently elusive but might be mediated by a shift in cardiac substrate utilization leading to improved energetic supply to the heart.Methods: We used db/db mice on high-fat western diet with or without empagliflozin treatment as a model of severe diabetes. Left ventricular function was assessed by pressure catheter with or without dobutamine stress.Results: Treatment with empagliflozin significantly increased glycosuria, improved glucose metabolism, ameliorated left ventricular diastolic function and reduced mortality of mice. This was associated with reduced cardiac glucose concentrations and decreased calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMKII) activation with subsequent less phosphorylation of the ryanodine receptor (RyR). No change of cardiac ketone bodies or branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolites in serum was detected nor was cardiac expression of relevant catabolic enzymes for these substrates affected.Conclusions: In a murine model of severe diabetes empagliflozin-dependent SGLT2 inhibition improved diastolic function and reduced mortality. Improvement of diastolic function was likely mediated by reduced spontaneous diastolic sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) calcium release but independent of changes in cardiac ketone and BCAA metabolism
Increased expression of urokinase during atherosclerotic lesion development causes arterial constriction and lumen loss, and accelerates lesion growth
Overexpression of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) in endothelial cells can decrease intravascular thrombosis. However, expression of uPA is increased in atherosclerotic human arteries, which suggests that uPA might accelerate atherogenesis. To investigate whether elevated uPA expression accelerates atherogenesis, we cloned a rabbit uPA cDNA and expressed it in carotid arteries of cholesterol-fed rabbits. uPA gene transfer increased artery-wall uPA activity for at least 1 week, with a return to baseline by 2 weeks. One week after gene transfer, uPA-transduced arteries were constricted, with significantly smaller lumens and thicker walls, but no difference in intimal or medial mass. Two weeks after gene transfer, uPA- and control-transduced arteries were morphologically indistinguishable. By 4 weeks, however, uPA-transduced arteries had 70% larger intimas than control-transduced arteries (P < 0.01) and smaller lumens (P < 0.05). Intimal lesions appeared to be of similar composition in uPA- and control-transduced arteries, except that degradation of elastic laminae was evident in uPA-transduced arteries. These data suggest that elevated uPA expression in atherosclerotic arteries contributes to intimal growth and constrictive remodeling leading to lumen loss. Antagonists of uPA activity might, therefore, be useful in limiting intimal growth and preventing constrictive remodeling. Overexpression of uPA in endothelial cells to prevent intravascular thrombosis must be reconsidered, because this intervention could worsen underlying vascular disease