Metabolic syndrome has been described as the association of insulin resistance, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and obesity. Its prevalence increased dramatically, mainly in developed countries. Animal ...models are essential to understand the pathophysiology of this syndrome. This review presents the murine models of metabolic syndrome the most often used in pharmacological studies. The most common metabolic syndrome models exhibit a non-functional leptin pathway, or metabolic disorders induced by high fat diets. In a first part, and after a short introduction on leptin, its receptor and mechanism of action, we provide a detailed description of each model: SHROB, SHHF, JCR:LA-cp, Zucker, ZDF, Wistar Ottawa Karlsburg W, and Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty rats, ob/ob, db/db, agouti yellow and Mc4R KO mice. The second part of this review is dedicated to metabolic syndrome models obtained by high fat feeding.
When the 2013 Global Burden of Disease Study ranked the top causes of global disability and deaths, it was no surprise to many of us that diet-related, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) topped the ...list.2 Simultaneously, as the world looks to curb and reduce climate emissions and protect major freshwater, land, and ocean resources, our food systems are now responsible for an estimated 32% of global emissions--more than from all land, sea, and air transport combined.3 Agriculture is also the world's single largest consumer of freshwater, undermining the resilience of land-based ecosystems, which function as critical carbon sinks and habitats for biodiversity, and the largest source of nitrogen and phosphorus loading, causing eutrophication of freshwater and marine systems and emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas.4 If we can get it right on food, we will have come a long way to getting it right for people and the planet.
This study examines how stem cells and stem cell research are portrayed on websites deemed to be purveyors of distorted and dubious information.
Content analysis was conducted on 224 articles from ...2015 to 2016, compiled by searching with the keywords 'stem cell(s)' on a list of websites flagged for containing either 'fake' or 'junk science' news.
Articles contained various exaggerated positive and negative claims about stem cells and stem cell science, health and science related conspiracy theories, and statements promoting fear and mistrust of conventional medicine.
Findings demonstrate the existence of organized misinformation networks, which may lead the public away from accurate information and facilitate a polarization of public discourse.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created communication challenges exacerbated by the circulation of misinformation and the politicization of science. The case of hydroxychloroquine is an illustrative ...example, with the drug being aggressively promoted as a cure even while emerging evidence demonstrated the contrary. This research analyzed how hydroxychloroquine discussions took place on Twitter from 21 to 28 April 2020, a key period in developments around the drug. We collected, in real time, tweets with “hydroxychloroquine” over this period, which resulted in a dataset of nearly one million tweets from over 350,000 Twitter accounts. Our content analysis provides specific details of how hydroxychloroquine was promoted and critiqued, and which accounts were tweeting. Findings showed a highly polarized environment with active bots and conspiracy propagators, where political perspectives dominated the Twittersphere in the place of science-focused discussions.
ObjectiveThe spread of misinformation has accompanied the coronavirus pandemic, including topics such as immune boosting to prevent COVID-19. This study explores how immune boosting is portrayed on ...the internet during the COVID-19 pandemic.DesignContent analysis.MethodsWe compiled a dataset of 227 webpages from Google searches in Canada and the USA using the phrase ‘boost immunity’ AND ‘coronavirus’ on 1 April 2020. We coded webpages for typology and portrayal of immune boosting and supplements. We recorded mentions of microbiome, whether the webpage was selling or advertising an immune boosting product or service, and suggested strategies for boosting immunity.ResultsNo significant differences were found between webpages that appeared in the searches in Canada and the USA. The most common types of webpages were from news (40.5%) and commercial (24.7%) websites. The concept of immune boosting was portrayed as beneficial for avoiding COVID-19 in 85.5% of webpages and supplements were portrayed as beneficial in 40% of the webpages, but commercial sites were more likely to have these portrayals. The top immune boosting strategies were vitamin C (34.8%), diet (34.4%), sleep (34.4%), exercise (30.8%) and zinc (26.9%). Less than 10% of the webpages provide any critique of the concept of immune boosting.ConclusionsPairing evidence-based advice for maintaining one’s health (eg, healthy diet, exercise, sleep) with the phrase immune boosting and strategies lacking in evidence may inadvertently help to legitimise the concept, making it a powerful marketing tool. Results demonstrate how the spread of misinformation is complex and often more subtle than blatant fraudulent claims.
Media coverage affects policy and debates around organ donation and transplantation. We performed a content analysis of stories in the Canadian popular press with a focus on organ donation and ...transplantation. We built a data set of articles published between Jan. 1, 2000, and May 7, 2019, that included 2082 articles, and we assessed their headlines and lead paragraphs to determine the stories' focus and tone. The most common topics were recipients and donors (46.4%), policy (31.6%) and raising awareness/funds (26.6%). The tone of the articles was positive in 39.1%, neutral in 34.4%, and negative in 26.5%. The strong focus on patients in the reporting may be clouding critical policy discussions. Health communicators and policy-makers should continually assess how to create engaging messaging that remains accurate.
The layered Ruddlesden–Popper crystal structure can host a broad range of functionally important behaviors. Here we establish extraordinary configurational disorder in a layered Ruddlesden–Popper ...(RP) structure using entropy stabilization assisted synthesis. A protype A 2CuO4 RP cuprate oxide with five cations on the A-site sublattice is designed and fabricated into epitaxial single crystal films using pulsed laser deposition. When grown on a near lattice matched substrate, the (La0.2Pr0.2Nd0.2Sm0.2Eu0.2)2CuO4 film features a T′-type RP structure with uniform A-site cation mixing and square-planar CuO4 units. These observations are made with a range of combined characterizations using X-ray diffraction, atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements. It is further found that heteroepitaxial strain plays an important role in crystal phase formation during synthesis. Compressive strain over ∼1.5% results in the formation of a non-RP cubic phase consistent with a CuX 2O4 spinel structure. The ability to manipulate configurational complexity and move between 2D layered RP and 3D cubic crystal structures in cuprate and related materials promises to enable flexible design strategies for a range of functionalities, such as magnetoresistance, unconventional superconductivity, ferroelectricity, catalysis, and ion transport.
...for immunocompetent children and adults, the administration of booster dose(s) is not routinely given in Italy to sustain long-term immunity in the general population, while is recommended in ...immunocompromised patients when level of antibody falls below the protective threshold (10 mIU/ml) 3. ...due to the biological association between HBV and hepatitis delta virus (HDV, a defective hepatotropic RNA virus which requires the concomitant presence of HBV to replicate), an added benefit we have achieved is that, according to the SEIEVA data, the incidence of hepatitis delta has also declined significantly in Italy (from 3.89 per 1,000,000 in 1990 to zero per 1,000,000 in 2020) following the implementation of hepatitis B vaccination 9. ...vaccination has clearly proven to be very successful in Italy, resulting in remarkable progress towards the control and prevention of hepatitis B. Our findings compare well with data coming from previously highly endemic countries (e.g. Taiwan, the Gambia, and Alaska) where the impact of vaccination in term of reduction in incidence of the disease, in carrier rate, and in HBV-related mortality has been highly impressive.
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