BACKGROUND Although human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related morbidity and mortality rates in patients treated with a combination of high active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) have declined, significant metabolic/vascular adverse effects associated with the long term use of HIV protease inhibitors (PIs) have emerged as a significant side effect. Here we illustrate that targeting the bile acid...

Elevated circulating homocysteine (Hcy) has been proposed to be associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). It is also reported that Hcy causes protein misfolding in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In this study, we used a high methionine diet (HMD)-fed mouse model and cultured primary hepatocytes to investigate the effects of Hcy on hepatic lipids metabolism. C57BL/6J mice recei...

BACKGROUND Hypercholesterolemia is a serious diseases associated with type-2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disorders and liver diseases. Humans seek for safe herbal medication such as karela (Momordica charantia/bitter melon) to treat such disorders to avoid side effect of pharmacotherapies widely used. METHODS Forty male Wistar rats were divided into four equal groups; control gr...

Edible and medicinal mushrooms contain bioactive compounds with promising effects on several cardiovascular risk biomarkers. However, strains of Ganoderma lucidum of Mexican origin have not yet been studied. Standardized extracts of G. lucidum (Gl) were given to C57BL/6 mice fed a high-cholesterol diet compared with the drug simvastatin. The effects of the extracts on serum biochemical paramete...

BACKGROUND Epidemiologic and experimental studies support an association between PM2.5 exposure and insulin resistance (IR). Innate immune cell activation has been suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of these effects. OBJECTIVES We sought to evaluate the role of CC-chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2) in PM2.5-mediated inflammation and IR. METHODS Wild-type C57BL/6 and CCR2-/- male mice wer...

Since individual cells from freshly isolated white adipose tissue (WAT) exhibit variable levels of fat accumulation, we attempted to determine which factor(s) cause this variation. We used primary WAT cells from adult mice and the mouse 3T3-L1 cell-line of preadipocytes for these studies. Cells were labeled with BODIPY (boron-dipyrromethene) lipid probe, a marker for fat accumulation in live ce...

The molecular mechanisms mediating acute regulation of insulin release by glucose are partially known. The process involves at least two pathways that can be discriminated on basis of their (in)dependence of closure of ATP-sensitive potassium (K+(ATP)) channels. The mechanism of the K+(ATP) channel-independent pathway was proposed to involve cataplerosis, the export of mitochondrial intermediat...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Citrus flavonoids have a variety of physiological properties such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammation, anti-cancer, and anti-obesity. We investigated whether bioconversion of Citrus unshiu with cytolase (CU-C) ameliorates the anti-adipogenic effects by modulation of adipocyte differentiation and lipid metabolism in 3T3-L1 cells. MATERIALS/METHODS Glycoside forms of Citrus...

Carbohydrate response element binding protein (ChREBP) is an important transcription factor that regulates a variety of glucose-responsive genes in hepatocytes. To date, only two natural isoforms, Chrebpα and Chrebpβ, have been identified. Although ChREBP is known to be expressed in pancreatic β cells, most of the glucose-responsive genes have never been verified as ChREBP targets in this organ...