Muscle hematoma: a critically important complication of alcoholic liver cirrhosis.

An iliopsoas hematoma can occur either spontaneously or secondary to trauma or bleeding tendency due to hemophilia and anticoagulant therapy. Although liver cirrhosis is commonly associated with coagulopathy, iliopsoas hematoma is very rare. We herein, present a case of bilateral iliopsoas hematoma in a patient with alcoholic cirrhosis, and review the literature on muscle hematoma associated with cirrhosis.

Effect of fasting on PPARgamma and AMPK activity in adipocytes.

We investigated the effects of fasting on gene expression and intracellular signals regulating energy metabolism in adipose tissue. Following fasting for 15h or 39h, epididymal fat pads were isolated from Wistar rats. PPARgamma mRNA levels decreased in the adipose tissues isolated from rats fasted for 39h, whereas adipocyte lipid-binding protein (aP2) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) mRNA levels increased.

Effect of dehydroepiandrosterone on insulin sensitivity in Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima-fatty rats.

In order to clarify the effect of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on improvement of insulin resistance, we examined the effects of overexpression of wild-type protein kinase C-zeta (wt-PKCzeta)/3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (wt-PDK1) and kinase-inactive PKCzeta/PDK1 (DeltaPKCzeta/DeltaPDK1) on DHEA-induced [(3)H]2-deoxyglucose (DOG) uptake using the electroporation method in rat adipocytes. Overexpression of wt-PKCzeta and wt-PDK1 significantly increased in DHEA-induced [(3)H]2-DOG uptake. Wortmannin completely suppressed DHEA-induced [(3)H]2-DOG uptake in wt-PKCzeta- and wt-PDK1-transfected adipocytes.

Platelet aggregation in obese and diabetic subjects: association with leptin level.

To clarify the relationship between serum leptin concentration and platelet aggregation mechanism, we investigated serum leptin concentration and agonist-induced platelet aggregation in eight obese subjects and eight non-obese and non-diabetic controls. In addition we also measured them in 15 type 2 diabetic subjects and 17 control subjects. Maximum platelets aggregation rate (MPAR) in control and diabetic subjects by adenosine diphosphate (ADP), collagen and thrombin were measured by aggregometer after pretreatment with 100 ng/ml leptin for 60 min.

TNFalpha reduces the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) via the production of ceramide and activation of atypical PKC.

Although tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) decreases the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), its mechanism is not understood. We evaluated the effect of ceramide, the second messenger of TNFalpha, on the expression of PPARgamma in primary cultured adipocytes. PPARgamma mRNA and aP2 mRNA levels were measured with real-time PCR.

[Effect of gamma-aminobutyric acid-rich germinated brown rice on indexes of life-style related diseases].

We examined the effects of gamma-aminobutyric acid-rich germinated brown rice (germinated brown rice) on principal indexes of life-style related diseases in 67 volunteers aged 71 +/- 8. They were divided into two groups; germinated brown rice group, which had an equal amount of the germinated brown rice to polished rice for 11 to 13 months, and control group, which had polished rice alone for the same period. Differences of indexes before and after the examination between the two groups were compared.