Obesity and insulin resistance are associated with an increase of cardiovascular risk factors, including adipocytokines. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of low-calorie diet on serum lipids, adipokines, insulin resistance and body composition in obese women. It was a clinical trial with class I obese women aged 30-45 years submitted to hypocaloric diet for 90 days. Dietary in...

PURPOSE The inflammatory state of adipose tissue in obese subjects may be the most important factor linking increased adipose tissue mass to insulin resistance. Chemerin is a newly discovered adipokine that plays an important role in macrophage infiltration into adipose tissue and may contribute to the development of inflammation and insulin resistance. We examined the effects of 12 weeks of ae...

Myostatin is a secreted protein that acts as a potent inhibitor of skeletal muscle growth. Inactivation of myostatin increases muscle mass and decreases insulin resistance. The aim of this study was to determine if the improvement in insulin resistance after resistance training is associated with a decline in serum levels of myostatin. A sample of 19 obese-overweight women (age= 23.2±3.4 yr, bo...

results saffron extracts markedly (p < 0.05) decreased the serum total cholesterol (tc, 90 ± 9.3), triglyceride (tg, 99 ± 10.5), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (ldl-c, 27 ± 1.1) in obese rats, while they increased the serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (hdl-c, 68 ± 2.2). the atherosclerosis-index (ldl/hdl, 0.39 ± 0.5), atherogenic index (tc/hdl, 1.32 ± 4.2), and the liver enzym...

Dysfunctional cross talk between adipose tissue and liver tissue results in metabolic and inflammatory disorders. As an insulin sensitizer, rosiglitazone (Rosi) improves insulin resistance yet causes increased adipose mass and weight gain in mice and humans. Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) reduces adipose mass and body weight gain but induces hepatic steatosis in mice. We examined the combined e...

The present study was conducted to compare serum leptin and insulin resistance levels between Korean postmenopausal long-term semi-vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Subjects of this study belonged to either a group of postmenopausal vegetarian women (n = 54), who maintained a semi-vegetarian diet for over 20 years or a group of non-vegetarian controls. Anthropometric characteristics, serum lepti...

Conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) improve insulin sensitivity in insulin-resistant rodents. However, the effects of these fatty acids on insulin secretion are not known but are of importance to completely understand their influence on glucose homeostasis. We therefore examined islet function after dietary supplementation consisting of 1% CLAs in combin...