Intervertebral Disc and Adipokine Leptin-Loves Me, Loves Me Not.

Leptin-the most famous adipose tissue-secreted hormone-in the human body is mostly observed in a negative connotation, as the hormone level increases with the accumulation of body fat. Nowadays, fatness is becoming another normal body shape. Fatness is burdened with numerous illnesses-including low back pain and degenerative disease of lumbar intervertebral disc (IVD).

Chemerin Blood Levels are Associated with MRI Measured Volumes of Abdominal Adipose Tissue Compartments and Lifestyle Choices.

Obesity is a low-grade chronic inflammatory state, in which a cytokine chemerin with its immunometabolic modulation has an important role. We aimed to study in a healthy population relationships between serum chemerin levels, lifestyle choices and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessed volumes of abdominal visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous (SAT) adipose tissues, which have different cytokine expression profiles. Overall, 73 healthy participants undertook lifestyle questionnaire and underwent anthropometric measurements along with MRI scanning of abdominal SAT and VAT.

Analysis of biomechanical properties of patellar ligament graft and quadruple hamstring tendon graft.

Introduction: Two types of transplant are commonly used in the surgical management of anterior cruciate ligament lesions: the central part of the patellar ligament and quadruple tendons of the gracilis muscle and semitendinosus muscle.

Aims: The aim of this study was to determine the biomechanical characteristics of patellar ligament transplants and transplants of the quadruple tendons of the hamstring muscles under tensile force in the laboratory, and to compare the results in each group of samples.

Materials And Methods: The study comprised 160 specimens: 40 specimens of gracilis muscle tendons, 40 of semitendinosus muscle tendons, 40 of quadruple tendons and 40 of the patellar ligament, approximately equally distributed according to sex, age (50-70 years) and the side of the body from which the specimen had been taken.

Transcardial gradient of adiponectin, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α in overweight coronary artery disease patients.

Background: Obesity is associated with coronary artery disease (CAD), where epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) express proatherogenic cytokines (i.e., interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)) and decreases production of beneficial adiponectin.

Extended Eversion Carotid Endarterectomy: Computation of Hemodynamics.

Background: Stroke prevention includes surgery for significant stenosis of internal carotid artery (ICA). Consensus on a standard approach lacks and one alternative approach is eversion carotid endarterectomy (eCEA). To overcome disadvantages of eCEA, we developed extended-eversion carotid endarterectomy (exeCEA).

Arterial tree asymmetry reduces cerebral pulsatility.

With each heartbeat, pressure wave (PW) propagates from aorta toward periphery. In cerebral circulation, at the level of circle of Willis (CW), four arteries and four PWs converge. Since the interference is an elemental property of the wave, PWs interfere at the level of CW.

Epicardial Adipose Tissue Is Nonlinearly Related to Anthropometric Measures and Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue.

Introduction. Adipose tissue is the largest endocrine organ, composed of subcutaneous (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT), the latter being highly associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). Expansion of epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is linked to CAD.

Emigration-related attitudes of the final year medical students in Croatia: a cross-sectional study at the dawn of the EU accession.

Aim: To investigate the emigration-related attitudes of final year medical students in Croatia at the dawn of the EU accession in 2013.

Methods: All final-year medical students at four Croatian medical schools (Zagreb, Rijeka, Split, and Osijek) were invited to participate in a cross-sectional survey on emigration attitudes.

Results: Among 260 respondents (response rate 61%), 90 students (35%) reported readiness for permanent emigration, expecting better quality of life (N=22, 31%), better health care organization (N=17, 24%), more professional challenges (N=10, 14%), or simply to get a job (N=8, 11%), while the least common expectation were greater earnings (N=7, 10%).

Expression of leukocyte adhesion-related glycosyltransferase genes in acute coronary syndrome patients.

Introduction: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is caused by destabilization and rupture of atherosclerotic plaque in the coronary artery via mechanisms affecting leukocyte signaling, rolling, adhesion, extravasation and inflammation-promoting factors. The majority of cellular communication takes place on the membrane surface that is covered with glycoproteins and glycolipids synthesized by glycosyltransferases. The aim of this study was to determine the mRNA expression of leukocyte adhesion-related glycosyltransferases in patients during the onset and the chronic phase of ACS and to compare the expression with matching subjects without coronary disease.

Do IL-1B and IL-1RN modulate chronic low back pain in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder?

The aim of this study was to analyze the association between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in IL1B (rs1143 634) and IL1RN (rs2234677) with chronic low back pain (LBP) in chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A total of 406 war veterans from 1991-1995 war in Croatia participated in this study. They were divided into four groups, according to psychiatric interview, psychometric testing and the presence of LBP, verified by the imaging of lumbar area, into: (i) war veterans suffering from PTSD and LBP (N = 102), (ii) war veterans suffering from PTSD only (N = 108), (iii) war veterans suffering from LBP only (N = 99) and (iv) healthy controls (N =97).

Function of circle of Willis.

Nearly 400 years ago, Thomas Willis described the arterial ring at the base of the brain (the circle of Willis, CW) and recognized it as a compensatory system in the case of arterial occlusion. This theory is still accepted. We present several arguments that via negativa should discard the compensatory theory.

Identification of person and quantification of human DNA recovered from mosquitoes (Culicidae).

Mosquitoes (Culicidae) are widespread insects and can be important in forensic context as a source of human DNA. In order to establish the quantity of human DNA in mosquitoes' gut after different post-feeding interval and for how long after taking a bloodmeal the human donor could be identified, 174 blood-engorged mosquitoes (subfamily Anophelinae and Culicinae) were captured, kept alive and sacrificed at 8h intervals. Human DNA was amplified using forensic PCR kits (Identifiler, MiniFiler, and Quantifiler).

Croatia is a safe tourist destination - study of foreign citizen mortality in Splitsko-dalmatinska and Primorsko-goranska County during the period 2001-2010.

Aim: To investigate the mortality rate of foreign citizens in Croatia.

Methods: Data were collected from the Departments for Forensic Pathology in Split and Rijeka, which are the autopsy centers of the counties with approximately 35% of total foreign visitors, as well as from the Croatian Central Bureau for Statistics for the period 2001-2010. The mortality rate (number of deaths of members of each nationality per 100000 entrances ratio) and standardized mortality ratio (ratio between the observed and expected number of deaths) were calculated, and χ(2) goodness of fit test was used for statistical analyses.

Genetic parameters of five new European Standard Set STR loci (D10S1248, D22S1045, D2S441, D1S1656, D12S391) in the population of eastern Croatia.

Aim: To establish allele frequencies and genetic parameters in eastern Croatia population and to compare them with those in other populations. The second aim was to compare the genetic profiles obtained with different forensic kits amplifying the same genetic markers.

Methods: Blood samples of 217 unrelated individuals from eastern Croatia were genotyped using AmpFlSTR NGM kit.

Dendritic morphology and spine density is not altered in motor cortex and dentate granular cells in mice lacking the ganglioside biosynthetic gene B4galnt1 - A quantitative Golgi cox study.

Gangliosides are characteristic plasma membrane constituents of vertebrate brain used as milestones of neuronal development. As neuronal morphology is a good indicator of neuronal differentiation, we analyzed how lack of the ganglioside biosynthetic gene Galgt1 whose product is critical for production of four major adult mammalian brain complex gangliosides (GM1, GD1a, GD1b and GT1b) affects neuronal maturation in vivo. To define maturation of cortical neurons in mice lacking B4galnt1 we performed a morphological analysis of Golgi-Cox impregnated pyramidal neurons in primary motor cortex and granular cells of dentate gyrus in 3, 21 and 150 days old B4galnt1-null and wild type mice.

Evaluation of the reliability of DNA typing in the process of identification of war victims in Croatia.

Aiming to estimate the frequency of various types of errors that can occur in the large-scale process of identification, we identified and compared genotypes of 911 parent-child pairs in the database of 3498 relatives of people that disappeared during the 1991/1992 war in Croatia. Genotypes of 891 pairs (97.8%) were matching, while 20 pairs did not match in one or more loci.

Population substructure can significantly affect reliability of a DNA-led process of identification of mass fatality victims.

Aiming to evaluate the effects of population substructure on the reliability of a DNA correspondence in the process of human identification, we used the model of "in silico" constructed populations with and without substructure. Effects of population substructure were evaluated at the level of locus heterozygosity, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and mini-haplotype distribution. Inbreeding in a subpopulation of 100 individuals through 10 generations did not significantly alter the level of heterozygosity and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.