PPAR-gamma-agonists' renal effects.

PPAR-gamma ligands, including thiazolidinediones, have recently become clinically available for treating insulin-resistant diabetes mellitus. Accumulating evidence suggests that these drugs not only significantly improve insulin sensitivity but also may have antiproteinuric effects in genetically obese diabetic rodents and patients with type II diabetes and diabetic nephropathy. Moreover, troglitazone reduced expression of ECM proteins and transforming growth factor-beta in glomeruli from streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

Review article: an unexpected virus-host interaction--the hepatitis C virus-diabetes link.

There is now consistent epidemiological evidence for an association between chronic hepatitis C and diabetes. Important, although so far limited longitudinal data, have documented an increased risk for diabetes in patients infected by hepatitis C virus (HCV) especially in those with metabolic risk factors such as a high BMI and older age. HCV encoded proteins might alter insulin signalling thus explaining impaired insulin sensitivity and the occurrence of glycaemic dysregulation even before the cirrhotic stage.

Sampling variability of liver biopsy in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Background & Aims: In nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the distinction between steatosis and steatohepatitis (NASH) and the assessment of the severity of the disease rely on liver histology alone. The aim of this study was to assess the sampling error of liver biopsy and its impact on the diagnosis and staging of NASH.

Methods: Fifty-one patients with NAFLD underwent percutaneous liver biopsy with 2 samples collected.

Anemia and diabetes.

World Health Organization statistics identify 150 million people with diabetes mellitus worldwide and suggest that this figure may double by 2025. In countries with a western lifestyle, the number of patients admitted for renal replacement therapy with diabetes as a co-morbid condition has increased significantly up to three to four times in a period of 10 years. Diabetes and renal failure are thus tightly linked diseases, and so is anemia.

[Role and modalities of insulin treatment in type 2 diabetics].

Introduction: The natural history of type 2 diabetes mellitus is characterized by an inescapable and gradual worsening of a decrease in insulin secretion. Thus after several years of progress, less than half of type 2 diabetic patients have good glycemic control. This explains the increase in insulin prescription to type 2 diabetic patients in France in recent years.