Dietary essential amino acids for the treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.

Aims: Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, requiring novel therapeutic and lifestyle interventions. Metabolic alterations and energy production deficit are hallmarks and thereby promising therapeutic targets for this complex clinical syndrome. We aim to study the molecular mechanisms and effects on cardiac function in rodents with HFrEF of a designer diet in which free essential amino acids-in specifically designed percentages-substituted for protein.

The Adipose Organ Is a Unitary Structure in Mice and Humans.

Obesity is the fifth leading cause of death worldwide. In mice and humans with obesity, the adipose organ undergoes remarkable morpho-functional alterations. The comprehension of the adipose organ function and organization is of paramount importance to understand its pathology and formulate future therapeutic strategies.

Expression of Functional Cannabinoid Type-1 (CB) Receptor in Mitochondria of White Adipocytes.

Via activation of the cannabinoid type-1 (CB) receptor, endogenous and exogenous cannabinoids modulate important biochemical and cellular processes in adipocytes. Several pieces of evidence suggest that alterations of mitochondrial physiology might be a possible mechanism underlying cannabinoids' effects on adipocyte biology. Many reports suggest the presence of CB receptor mRNA in both white and brown adipose tissue, but the detailed subcellular localization of CB protein in adipose cells has so far been scarcely addressed.

Butyrylcholinesterase distribution in the mouse gastrointestinal tract: An immunohistochemical study.

Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) is a hydrolytic enzyme that together with acetylcholinesterase (AChE) belongs to the cholinesterase family. Whereas AChE has a well-established role in regulating cholinergic neurotransmission in central and peripheral synapses, the physiological role of BChE remains elusive. In this morphological immunohistochemical and double-label confocal microscopy study we investigated the distribution of BChE in the mouse gastrointestinal tract.