Silymarin Reduced Insulin Resistance in Non-Diabetic Women with Obesity.

Silymarin has ameliorated obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2DM), and insulin resistance (IR) in combination with standard therapy, diet, or exercise in recent studies. Obesity and IR are the main risk factors for developing T2DM and other metabolic disorders. Today, there is a need for new strategies to target IR in patients with these metabolic diseases.

Effect of Dietary Fatty Acids on MicroRNA Expression Related to Metabolic Disorders and Inflammation in Human and Animal Trials.

Dietary fatty acids (DFAs) play key roles in different metabolic processes in humans and other mammals. DFAs have been considered beneficial for health, particularly polyunsaturated (PUFAs) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). Additionally, microRNAs (miRNAs) exert their function on DFA metabolism by modulating gene expression, and have drawn great attention for their potential as biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Multisystemic alterations in humans induced by bisphenol A and phthalates: Experimental, epidemiological and clinical studies reveal the need to change health policies.

A vast amount of evidence indicates that bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates are widely distributed in the environment since these compounds are mass-produced for the manufacture of plastics and plasticizers. These compounds belong to a large group of substances termed endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC). It is well known that humans and living organisms are unavoidably and unintentionally exposed to BPA and phthalates from food packaging materials and many other everyday products.

Maternal adiposity is associated with inflammatory gene expression in leukocytes at term human pregnancy: A pilot study.

Background: Human labor is associated with an inflammatory process that takes place at the maternal-fetal interface, where leukocytes infiltrate and contribute to the local production of effector molecules such as cytokines, chemokines, MMPs, etc. This process may be altered by a low-grade chronic inflammation, characteristic of obesity, resulting in adverse pregnancy outcomes. In this cross-sectional pilot study, we analyzed the relationship between maternal adiposity and inflammation-related gene expression in leukocytes from six healthy women with term pregnancies without labor.

Silymarin is an ally against insulin resistance: A review.

Silymarin is obtained from the Milk thistle plant Silybum marianum and has been used over the centuries to treat principally liver disease, although it has also been studied for its beneficial effects in cardioprotection, neuroprotection, immune modulation, and cancer among others. Importantly, silymarin's active component silybin is a flavonolignan that exhibits different activities such as; scavenger, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and recently revealed, insulin-sensitizing properties which have been explored in clinical trials in patients with insulin resistance. In this review, we summarize the most relevant research of silymarin's effect on lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, focusing the attention on insulin resistance, which is well known to play a crucial role in metabolic disease progression.

A trypsin-based method for isolating leukocytes from human choriodecidua suitable for immunophenotyping and transcriptome studies.

Leukocytes found at the human maternal-fetal interface participate in the inflammatory process associated with both preterm and term labor; therein, effective methods for their isolation that allow further phenotypic and functional analyses are necessary. Leukocyte isolation is usually carried out through scraping or enzyme digestion of the choriodecidua, however both methods usually limit the use of downstream immunophenotyping or transcriptomic techniques. Here we describe an isolation method based on gentle trypsin digestion that yields a leukocyte-enriched cell mixture with high lymphocyte viability, although less viable myeloid cells.