Subcutaneous and total fat at L4-L5 and subcutaneous, visceral and total fat at L3-L4 are important contributors of fasting and postprandial adiponectin levels.

Objectives: Insulin resistance and central obesity have been implicated in the pathogenesis of hypoadiponectinemia in obesity. The aim of this study is to evaluate circulating post-prandial adiponectin in relation to glucose and insulin metabolism, indexes of insulin resistance and sensitivity and, indexes of body fat accumulation and distribution in obese men.

Methods: Twenty-eight non-diabetic men underwent an OGTT followed by an oral fat load and were studied at baseline and for 5 h post-prandially for serum adiponectin, glucose and insulin.

Abdominal adipose tissue distribution on MRI and diabetes.

Rationale And Objectives: To introduce a simple magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol for quantitative assessment of intraperitoneal, retroperitoneal, and subcutaneous adipose tissue (AT) and to compare AT distribution between diabetic and nondiabetic individuals.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-eight consecutive male diabetic patients (group A) and 38 males (who matched for body mass index [BMI]) without metabolic syndrome (group B) underwent abdominal MRI with a three-dimensional spoiled gradient echo T1-weighted sequence. The amounts of intraperitoneal, retroperitoneal, and subcutaneous AT were calculated on a workstation, after manual anatomic segmentation and were correlated with 10 anthropometric measurements.

The angiogenetic effect of intramuscular administration of b-FGF and a-FGF on cardiac muscle: the influence of exercise on muscle angiogenesis.

Although angiogenetic therapy using recombinant growth factors holds much hope for the treatment of ischaemic diseases, there are still many unanswered questions, including the method of administration, the correct dose of these factors, and the duration of the therapeutic approach. Exercise has also been suggested to induce neovascularizaiton in muscles. We evaluated the angiogenetic effects of the intramuscular administration of basic-fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF) and acidic-fibroblast growth factor (a-FGF) in rat heart, compared with rats who exercised daily.

The angiogenetic effect of intramuscular administration of VEGF on muscle. The influence of exercise on angiogenesis.

Unlabelled: Although angiogenetic therapy using recombinant growth factors holds much hope for the treatment of ischemic diseases, there are still unanswered questions including the method, doses or duration of therapeutic approach. We evaluated the angiogenetic effects of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) on rat heart and gastrocnemius muscles when this was administered intramuscularly and compared them to those obtained from rats, which exercised daily.

Conclusion: Both daily swimming exercise and intramuscular administration of VEGF increased angiogenesis in rat heart, even though exercise alone was the only one that increased angiogenesis quite significantly.