Circulating IGF-I levels are associated with increased biventricular contractility in top-level rowers.

Background: The intensive physical activity is often associated with cardiac changes.

Objectives: (i) To evaluate the IGF-I system and myocardial structure and function by standard Doppler echocardiography and Tissue Doppler in athletes and sedentary controls; and (ii) to determine any relationship between IGF-I system and echocardiographic parameters.

Methods: Nineteen male top-level rowers and 19 age-matched healthy sedentary male controls underwent blood determination of fasting serum IGF-I, IGFBP-3 and acid-labile subunit levels and standard Doppler echocardiography combined with pulsed Tissue Doppler of posterior septal wall, left ventricular (LV) lateral mitral annulus and right ventricular (RV) tricuspid annulus.

Lycopene, quercetin and tyrosol prevent macrophage activation induced by gliadin and IFN-gamma.

Oxidative stress plays an important role in inflammatory process of celiac disease. We have studied the effect of the lycopene, quercetin and tyrosol natural antioxidants on the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) gene expression in RAW 264.7 macrophages stimulated by gliadin in association with IFN-gamma.

Parapharyngeal ectopic thyroid: the possible persistence of the lateral thyroid anlage. Clinical case report.

The accessory midline thyroids are ascribed to an arrest of migration of the median thyroid anlage, while the lateral ectopic thyroids have induced a hypothesis of the presence of lateral thyroid anlage. We report the case of a 67-year-old man who presented with dyspnea and dysphagia of 1 year's duration. The clinical examination and radiological investigations (CT and MRI) showed a solid heterogeneous mass in the right parapharyngeal space.

Sarcoglycans in human skeletal muscle and human cardiac muscle: a confocal laser scanning microscope study.

Sarcoglycans are a subcomplex of transmembrane proteins which are part of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex. They are expressed in the skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle. Although numerous studies have been conducted on the sarcoglycan subcomplex in skeletal and cardiac muscle, the manner of the distribution and localization of these proteins along the nonjunctional sarcolemma is not clear.

Olive oil and rapeseed oil differ in their effect on plasma low-density lipoprotein metabolism in the guinea-pig.

The effects of olive oil and rapeseed oil, two different high-oleic-acid oils, on plasma LDL and hepatic cholesterol metabolism were compared in guinea-pigs. Animals were fed on semipurified diet containing 150 g fat/kg as either olive oil (OL), rapeseed oil plus 100 g palm oil/kg (C-P) or olive oil plus 350 g safflowerseed oil/kg (OL-S). Olive oil was enriched with safflowerseed oil (OL-S diet) to increase linoleic acid and to decrease palmitic acid concentrations, in order to evaluate whether differences in plasma LDL concentrations were due to intrinsic effects of the specific oil (rapeseed or olive oil) or to differences in the content of specific fatty acids.