BACKGROUND Intrauterine growth retardation due to maternal under-nutrition increases susceptibility to obesity and insulin resistance. We reported earlier in the offspring of mineral or vitamin restricted rat dams, a high body fat percentage and decreased insulin secretion to glucose challenge. This study determined whether or not central adiposity and altered adipocytokine profile were associa...

Hepatic insulin gene therapy (HIGT) ameliorates hyperglycemia in diabetic rodents, suggesting that similar approaches may eventually provide a means to improve treatment of diabetes mellitus. However, whether the metabolic and hormonal changes produced by HIGT benefit vascular function remains unclear. The impact of HIGT on endothelium-dependent vasodilation, nitrosyl-hemoglobin content (NO-Hb)...

In Western culture, excess visceral fat accumulation or obesity has reached epidemic proportions, resulting in metabolic syndrome. However, more than 10 years of research has shown that adipocytes also function as endocrine cells that release various bioactive substances, so called "adipocytokines or adipokines", that play a major role in the regulation of food intake, insulin sensitivity, ener...

AIMS Ramipril and candesartan have distinct mechanisms of action to improve endothelial function. Therefore, we hypothesized that combination therapy has additive beneficial effects to simultaneously improve endothelial dysfunction and adipocytokine profiles in patients with hypertension. METHODS AND RESULTS Thirty-four patients were given ramipril 10 mg and placebo, ramipril 10 mg and candes...

BACKGROUND Metformin is effective for the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome, but conflicting results regarding its effect on adipocytokine levels (adiponectin, resistin, visfatin, and leptin) in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome receiving metformin treatment have been reported. To provide high-quality evidence about the effect of metformin treatment on adipocytokines in patients with...

The adipocytokine apelin and its G protein-coupled APJ receptor were initially isolated from a bovine stomach and have been detected in the brain and cardiovascular system. Recent studies suggest that apelin can protect cardiomyocytes from ischemic injury. Here, we investigated the effect of apelin on apoptosis in mouse primary cultures of cortical neurons. Exposure of the cortical cultures to ...

Intramuscular fat (IMF) plays an important role in meat quality. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying IMF deposition in skeletal muscle have not been addressed for the sex-linked dwarf (SLD) chicken. In this study, potential candidate genes and signaling pathways related to IMF deposition in chicken leg muscle tissue were characterized using gene expression profiling of both 7-week-old ...

AIM Relationships between change of bone mineral density (BMD) and baseline adipocytokine and ghrelin levels over 12 months in prepubertal rhythmic gymnasts (RG) and age-matched untrained controls (UC) were studied. METHODS Adipocytokine, ghrelin, body composition, BMD and bone age values were measured in RG (8.0 ± 0.6 years; n = 33) and UC (8.2 ± 0.6 years; n = 35). RESULTS Increases in BM...

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between selected adipocytokines and Foxp3+ Treg cells in patients with asthma. Methods: The study included fifty-seven patients with asthma (30 with severe and 27 with mild to moderate asthma). The control group comprised 25 healthy volunteers. Asthma was diagnosed in accordance with GINA 2014 recommendation. The phenotype of CD4...