Objectives: Maternal obesity increases the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and is positively correlated with neonatal increasing adiposity in both young adult offspring. secreted factors from adipose tissue such as adipokines inflammatory cytokines may regulate fetal growth. This study investigated associations between maternal markers at late gestation, anthropometric characteristi...

Manganous superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) scavenges potentially toxic superoxide radicals produced in the mitochondria. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) was found to induce the messenger RNA for MnSOD, but not the mRNAs for other antioxidant or mitochondrial enzymes tested. The increase in MnSOD mRNA occurred rapidly and was blocked by actinomycin D, but not by cycloheximide. Induction of M...

Objective: The goal of this research was to determine the influence of 4 weeks aerobic training on gene expression of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the cardiac tissue of diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: In an experimental study, 30 male wistar rats were partitioned into three groups (n=10), d...

Ethanol impairs immune responses in humans and animal models, in vivo and in vitro. In particular, ethanol inhibits some key functions of human polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN). We investigated the impact of ethanol on cytokine production by highly purified PMN. In a time- and concentration-dependent manner, ethanol inhibited the production of interleukin (IL)-8 protein and mRNA and also hin...

Proinflammatory cytokines and their receptors are increased in the peripheral blood of patients with heart failure. We measured cytokines and their receptors in systemic artery (SA), coronary sinus (CS) and infra-renal inferior vena cava (IVC), in order to investigate their origin and influential factors. Thirty patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy were performed echocardiography at ...

BACKGROUND Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) has been reported to have an antiviral effect in vitro; however, its in vivo effect remains to be clarified. METHODS AND RESULTS To investigate the role of TNF-alpha in viral myocarditis using a murine model induced by encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV), we evaluated (1) plasma TNF-alpha levels by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), (2)...

Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is an important mechanism by which cells are eliminated during immune regulation and embryonic development. Aberrations in the signaling pathways leading to apoptosis may result in cancer, autoimmune diseases, or inflammatory disorders. In view of this, an understanding of the signaling capabilities of apoptosis-inducing or death receptors is essential to un...