Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a female endocrinopathy characterized by hyperandrogenemia, insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and ...obesity. Hepassocin (HPS) is a hepatokine involved in energy and lipid metabolism. We aimed to investigate the role of HPS in metabolic dysfunction and its relationship with fatty liver in patients with PCOS.
A total of 45 newly diagnosed PCOS patients and 42 healthy women of similar age were included in the study. Routine anthropometric, biochemical, and hormonal information were recorded. Serum HPS and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were measured, and NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS) and Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) were calculated and correlated.
HPS and hsCRP values of the PCOS group were found to be significantly higher than controls (p=0.005, p<0.001, respectively). A positive correlation was found between both HPS and hsCRP and luteinizing hormone (LH) (p<0.001). No correlation was observed between HPS and NFS and FIB-4, however, only a weak negative correlation was observed between hsCRP and FIB-4. A negative correlation was found between HPS and BMI, waist circumference, fat ratio, and HbA1c (p<0.05). In multivariate regression analysis for HPS, R-squared is 0.898, and hsCRP, neck circumference, fat amount, and LH are significant factors.
NAFLD is an important dysmetabolic component of PCOS. Serum HPS is elevated in PCOS patients. We found a positive correlation between hsCRP and LH and a negative correlation between obesity indices, although we did not find an association between NFS and FIB-4, and HPS. In the future, large-scale molecular studies of HPS may be beneficial.
Background: Determining high blood pressure in childhood is an important step to reduce the risk of occurrence of high blood pressure-related diseases in adulthood. Aims: This study aimed to assess ...the association of blood pressure with dietary intake, physical activity, and anthropometric measurements in Turkish adolescents. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 370 students (202 females, 168 males) aged 14 to 18 years from one private and one public school in Kayseri, Turkey. Some anthropometric measurements and 24-hour dietary recall of the students were obtained. Their blood pressures were measured, and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index (KIDMED) were used. Results: The body mass index (BMI) mean and waist/height ratio of the hypertensive group were significantly higher than those of the prehypertensive group, whereas their daily potassium, calcium, and magnesium intakes were significantly lower than those of the normotensive group. The percentage of individuals with very low diet quality was higher in the hypertensive group than in the normotensive group (P > 0.05). The percentage of participants with sufficient physical activity was higher in the normotensive group than in the prehypertensive and hypertensive groups. Conclusion: Factors such as high BMI and waist/height rates; low calcium, magnesium, and potassium intakes with diet; insufficient physical activity; and low quality of diet might cause an increase in the blood pressure.
Purpose
Cushing syndrome (CS) is a well-known risk factor for cardiovascular morbidities. We aimed to evaluate endothelial and cardiovascular functions, endothelial mediators and pro-inflammatory ...cytokines in patients with CS before and after remission.
Methods
Adult patients with newly diagnosed endogenous CS were included. Metabolic body mass index (BMI), glucose, and lipid values and cardiovascular evaluation studies 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), flow-mediated dilation (FMD), and echocardiography were performed, and endothelial mediators asymmetric dimethyl arginine (ADMA) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) and pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) were measured. Control group was matched in terms of age, gender, and BMIs.
Results
Twenty-five patients, mean age 40.60 ± 14.04 years, completed the study. Compared to controls (
n
= 20) mean arterial pressure (MAP) and CIMT were higher (
p
< 0.005 and
p
= 0.012, respectively), and FMD (
p
< 0.001) and mitral E/A ratio (
p
= 0.007) lower in the patients during active disease. Baseline serum ADMA, ET-1, and IL-1β were similar between the groups, while TNF-α was lower in the patients (
p
= 0.030). All patients were in complete remission 1 year following surgery. BMI, LDL cholesterol, serum total cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, MAPs, and CIMT significantly decreased (
p
< 0.005), while there was no improvement in FMD (
p
= 0.11) following remission. There was no significant change in ADMA, IL-1β, and TNF-α levels, but ET-1 increased (
p
= 0.011).
Conclusions
Remission in CS improves some cardiovascular parameters. ADMA and ET-1 are not reliable markers for endothelial dysfunction in CS. Metabolic improvements may not directly reflect on serum concentrations of TNF-α and IL-1β following remission of CS.
This paper seeks to address the question 'How to measure different SMEs' performances comparatively?' An initial review reveals that the literature does not provide objective and explicit debate on ...the subject. Consequently, an approach is developed, informed by the literature, which is used to compare the performances of 37 SMEs. The consistency and reliability of the approach is tested, resulting in a ranking of the 37 firms according to their performances. Using cluster and factor analysis the paper demonstrates that leading indicators are somewhat redundant, and that lagging indicators have greater significance for the purpose of comparative measurement of different SMEs performances. Whilst the approach adopted here withstood internal and external validity tests and can be seen as a robust way of comparing SMEs performances, these results may be limited to this study.
Objective
We investigated newly diagnosed patients with endogenous CS for molecular changes in skin by biopsy before and a year after treatment of CS.
Patients and methods
26 Patients with CS and 23 ...healthy controls were included. All the patients were evaluated before and a year after treatment. Skin biopsies were obtained from abdominal region before and a year after treatment in patients with CS and once from healthy volunteers. Total RNA was isolated from the skin biopsy samples and the real-time PCR system was used to determine the expression levels of 23 genes in the skin biopsy.
Results
Skin expression levels of HAS 1, 2 and 3 mRNAs were lower and COL1A2, COL2A1, COL3A1 mRNAs were higher in patients with CS than in normal controls. MMP-9, TIMP-1 and elastin mRNA expression levels were similar in two groups. Skin IL-1β mRNA expression level was significantly higher in patients with CS. None of these parameters changed significantly 12 months after treatment. Patients with CS showed higher skin GH and HSD11B1 mRNA expressions and lower GHR and IGF-1R mRNA expression compared to control. Expression levels of IGF-1, GR and HSD11B2 mRNA were similar in two groups. None of these parameters changed significantly 12 months after treatment.
Conclusion
CS is associated with increased expression levels of skin COL1A2, COL2A1, COL3A1 mRNAs (which are correlated with increased expression level of skin GH mRNA). Decreased skin HAS may cause decreased synthesis of HA that contributes to thinning of skin in CS. Increased local inflammatory cytokine and HSD11B1 mRNAs may be related to the acne formation in CS. Treatment of CS was not able to reverse these changes and ongoing changes were detected after treatment.
The 4He(4He,4He)4He* inelastic scattering was investigated at the MAGNEX facility of INFN - LNS, aiming at shedding light on the characteristics of the isoscalar monopole resonance of 4He which lies ...at an energy slightly higher than the proton emission threshold and slightly lower than the neutron emission threshold. A complementary elastic scattering measurement was also performed to study the initial state interaction and set accurate coupled channel calculations. Here, the experimental setup, the data reduction and the theoretical interpretation strategy are briefly described.
Abstract
Different reactions channels induced by the
18
O +
40
Ca collisions at 275 MeV incident energy are simultaneously measured and analysed consistently within the same reaction and structure ...frameworks within the NUMEN project. The project aims to provide data-driven information for the determination of the nuclear matrix elements involved in the neutrinoless double beta decay. In particular, the elastic and inelastic scattering, one- and two-proton transfer, one-neutron transfer, and single charge exchange reactions are explored. The full quantum-mechanical calculations, performed by including microscopic nuclear structure inputs, describe well all the experimental data, giving support to a multi-channel strategy for the analysis of heavy-ion induced direct reactions.
The study of heavy-ions induced double charge-exchange (HI-DCE) nuclear reactions is a promising way to access data-driven information on neutrino-less double-beta decay nuclear matrix elements. In ...the following, particular attention is given to the (18O,18Ne) and (20Ne,20O) HI-DCE reactions as tools for β+β+ and β−β− decays, respectively. The experiments are performed in Catania at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN-LNS). The MAGNEX magnetic spectrometer is used to momentum analyse the ejectiles of a large network of nuclear reactions. New preliminary experimental data for the 76Se(18O,18F)76As and 76Ge(20Ne,20F)76As single charge exchange (SCE) and for the 76Se(18O,18Ne)76Ge and 76Ge(20Ne,20O)76Se DCE nuclear reactions were also investigated.
Heavy-ion one-nucleon transfer reactions are promising tools to investigate single-particle configurations in nuclear states, with and without the excitation of the core degrees of freedom. An ...accurate determination of the spectroscopic amplitudes of these configurations is essential for the study of other direct reactions as well as beta-decays. In this context, the 76Se(18O,17O)77Se one-neutron transfer reaction gives a quantitative access to the relevant single particle orbitals and core polarization transitions built on 76Se. This is particularly relevant, since it provides data-driven information to constrain nuclear structure models for the 76Se nucleus.The excitation energy spectrum and the differential cross section angular distributions of this nucleon transfer reaction was measured at 275 MeV incident energy for the first time using the MAGNEX large acceptance magnetic spectrometer. The data are compared with calculations based on distorted wave Born approximation and coupled channel Born approximation adopting spectroscopic amplitudes for the projectile and target overlaps derived by large-scale shell model calculations and interacting boson-fermion model.These reactions are studied in the frame of the NUMEN project. The NUMEN (NUclear Matrix Elements for Neutrinoless double beta decay) project was conceived at the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare–Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (INFN-LNS) in Catania, Italy, aiming at accessing information about the nuclear matrix elements (NME) of neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) through the study of the heavy-ion induced double charge exchange (DCE) reactions on various 0νββ decay candidate targets. Among these, the 76Se nucleus is under investigation since it is the daughter nucleus of 76Ge in the 0νββ decay process.
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