Characteristics of lymphoedema, in particular midline lymphoedema, after treatment for prostate cancer: a retrospective study.

Background: Patients undergoing treatment for prostate cancer may develop lymphoedema of the midline region. This has a substantial impact on a patient's quality of life and its diagnosis is often delayed or missed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compare the characteristics of patients with leg and midline lymphoedema to patients with only leg lymphoedema.

Loss of hypothalamic Furin affects POMC to proACTH cleavage and feeding behavior in high-fat diet-fed mice.

Objective: The hypothalamus regulates feeding and glucose homeostasis through the balanced action of different neuropeptides, which are cleaved and activated by the proprotein convertases PC1/3 and PC2. However, the recent association of polymorphisms in the proprotein convertase FURIN with type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and obesity, prompted us to investigate the role of FURIN in hypothalamic neurons controlling glucose and feeding.

Methods: POMC-Cre mice were bred with Furin mice to generate conditional knockout mice with Furin-deletion in neurons expressing proopiomelanocortin (POMCFurKO), and Furin mice were used as controls.