Holistic approach to human health and disease: life circumstances and inner processing.

Human body is dinamic, energetic system under the influences of food intake, environment, interpersonal relationships, inheritance, culture and human activities. The environmental and psychosocioeconomic factors affect the individual's health altering the performance of biological systems effecting disease risk and disease progression. The concerns in modern society are more and more devoted to stress and its influences on health.

Effects of internal and external environment on health and well-being: from cell to society.

Stem cell fate in cell culture depends on the composition of the culturing media. Every single cell in an organism is influenced by its microenvironment and surrounding cells. Biology, psychology, emotions, spirit, energy, lifestyle, culture, economic and political influences, social interactions in family, work, living area and the possibilities to expresses oneself and live full life with a sense of well-being have influence on people appearances.

Association of tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms on 8 candidate genes in dopaminergic pathway with schizophrenia in Croatian population.

Aim: To perform a comprehensive evaluation of association of common genetic variants in candidate genes in the dopaminergic pathway with schizophrenia in a sample from Croatian population.

Methods: A case-control association study was performed on 104 unrelated patients with schizophrenia recruited from a psychiatric hospital in Zagreb and 131 phenotypically normal Croatian subjects. Forty-nine tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tagSNPs) in 8 candidate genes in the dopaminergic pathway were identified from the HapMap database and tested for association.

Prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the interior of Croatia: the Baranja region.

Metabolic syndrome (MS), a constellation of metabolic risk factors associated with development of cardiovascular diseases and Type 2 diabetes (T2D), has emerged as a public health problem of enormous proportions in developed and developing countries. We have reported previously its prevalence in several island populations of the Eastern Adriatic coast of Croatia. In spite of leading a relatively traditional life style pattern including adherence to a Mediterranean diet, the prevalence of MS in these populations is high and comparable to that in developed nations.

Myopericarditis and sudden cardiac death due to physical exercise in male athletes.

In the period 1998-, we registered four sudden and unexpected cardiac deaths in male athletes due to myopericarditis during or after physical exercise. Three of them were professional soccer players and the fourth was engaged in swimming. One aged 29, had symptoms of tiredness, heart enlargement and left ventricular premature beats during training.

Metabolic syndrome in an island population of the eastern Adriatic coast of Croatia.

The metabolic syndrome, an assemblage of risk factors, viz., obesity, dyslipidemia, carbohydrate intolerance, and hypertension, associated with development of cardiovascular diseases and Type 2 diabetes, has become a major public health problem in the developed countries. However, data on its prevalence in worldwide populations, particularly in non-industrialized societies is sparse.

Murine spermatogonial stem cells: targeted transgene expression and purification in an active state.

A 400 bp fragment of the spermatogonia-specific Stra8 locus was sufficient to direct gene expression to the germinal stem cells in transgenic mice. A fractionation procedure was devised, based on immunomagnetic sorting of cells in which the promoter drives the expression of a surface functionally neutral protein tag. The purified cells expressed the known molecular markers of spermatogonia Rbm, cyclin A2 and EP-Cam, and the beta1- and alpha6-integrins characteristic of the stem cell fraction.