Association Between Insulin Resistance and Cardinal Rheological Parameters in Young Healthy Japanese Individuals During 75g Oral Glucose Tolerance Test.

Background: Insulin resistance is a well-known predictor and risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Higher hematocrit induced by higher insulin resistance affects blood rheology.

Objective: This study intended to reveal the association between indices of insulin resistance and hemorheological parameters during a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (75-g OGTT).

Prolonged plasma glucose elevation on oral glucose tolerance test in young healthy Japanese individuals.

Aims: This study aims to assess insulin secretion and resistance through oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) among young Japanese individuals.

Subjects And Methods: We enrolled 595 young healthy Japanese individuals aged 22-29 years. They underwent an OGTT, and their results were divided into 4 groups (I-IV), according to the time at which their plasma glucose concentration declined below the fasting glucose concentration (30, 60 or 120 minutes or never as groups I, II, III and IV, respectively).

Vaccination Status and Antibody Titers against Rubella and Measles among Japanese Female College Students Majoring in Childcare between 2015 and 2018.

In 2014, for the protection of medical workers against measles and rubella infection, the Japanese Society for Infection Prevention and Control (JSIPC) recommended either maintaining antibody titers of seroprotective range or two-dose vaccination. JSIPC defined antibody titers into 3 ranges: seroprotective as expected prevention of infection, seronegative as under detection levels, and seropositive as antibody titers ranged between seronegative and seroprotective. This study aimed to explore the association between the number of vaccine doses received and the antibody titers against measles and rubella among Japanese college students majoring in childcare.

Biological Antioxidant Potential Negatively Correlates With Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness.

Oxidative stress is a crucial factor in the pathogenesis and development of cardiovascular disease. Recently, simplified methods for the detection of reactive oxygen species (ROS) using the derivatives of reactive oxygen metabolites (d-ROMs) test as an index of ROS products and the biological antioxidant potential (BAP) test as an index of antioxidant potential have been utilized. These methods are easy to perform, quick, inexpensive since they use small equipment, and provide reliable results compared with established oxidative stress and antioxidant markers.

Fasting serum insulin levels and insulin resistance are associated with blood rheology in Japanese young adults without diabetes.

Objectives: To evaluate fasting serum insulin levels and insulin resistance, and their association with blood rheology, in Japanese young adults without diabetes.

Methods: Blood samples were analysed and blood rheology was estimated using haematological parameters. Whole blood passage time was measured using a Hitachi MC-FAN(©) microchannel array flow analyser.

Impaired blood rheology is associated with endothelial dysfunction in patients with coronary risk factors.

To investigate the relationship between blood rheology and endothelial function in patients with coronary risk factors, brachial arterial flow-mediated vasodilatation (FMD), an index of endothelial function and blood passage time (BPT), an index of blood rheology, and fasting blood cell count, glucose metabolism, and plasma fibrinogen, lipid, C-reactive protein, and whole blood viscosity levels were measured in 95 patients with coronary risk factors and 37 healthy controls. Brachial arterial FMD after reactive hyperemia was assessed by ultrasonography. BPT was assessed using the microchannel method.

Type 2 Iodothyronine Deiodinase Activity Is Required for Rapid Stimulation of PI3K by Thyroxine in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells.

Thyroid hormones (THs) exert a number of physiological effects on the cardiovascular system. Some of the nongenomic actions of T3 are achieved by cross coupling the TH receptor (TR) with the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase Akt (Akt) pathway. We observed that both T3 and T4 rapidly stimulated Akt phosphorylation and Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1 (Rac1) activation, which resulted in cell migration, in a PI3K-dependent manner in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs).

Relationship between carotid artery intima-media thickness and small dense low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations measured by homogenous assay in Japanese subjects.

Background: Small dense low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (sdLDL-C) concentrations correlate more strongly with coronary heart disease than other LDL-C and large LDL particle concentrations. We investigated the association between carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) and sdLDL-C concentrations in Japanese subjects.

Methods: Carotid artery IMT, blood pressure (BP), fasting plasma sdLDL-C, glucose metabolism, lipid, and C-reactive protein concentrations were measured in 97 native Japanese subjects.

Seroprevalence of measles- and mumps-specific immunoglobulin G among Japanese healthcare students increased during 2007-2012.

We evaluated the seroprevalence of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases among Japanese healthcare students to create immunization guidelines. Between 2007 and 2012, a total of 1746 Japanese medical, nursing, and paramedical students were serologically screened for measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) antibodies at the time of admission. In 2007, the seroprevalence of measles and mumps was 52.

A new enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system for human hepatic triglyceride lipase.

Background: The objective of this study was to establish a new sandwich based enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for measuring the protein mass of human hepatic triacylglyceride lipase (HTGL).

Method: Two mouse monoclonal antibodies raised against human HTGL were used for the sandwich ELISA. The post-heparin plasma (PHP) samples obtained at a heparin dose of 50 unit/kg from 124 normolipidemic subjects were used for this ELISA.

Tuberculosis screening using a T-cell interferon-γ release assay in Japanese medical students and non-Japanese international students.

Screening of medical students and international students for tuberculosis (TB) at the time of admission is a key strategy to control and prevent the spread of infection on university campus and teaching hospitals because of the high risk of exposure to TB patients. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen-specific T-cell interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) are specific latent tuberculosis detection methods used in such groups. Currently, in Japan, there are no guidelines and no baseline data on IGRAs to evaluate the risk of TB in these high-risk groups.

The characteristics of remnant lipoproteins in the fasting and postprandial plasma.

Background: Remnant-like lipoprotein particles (RLP) have been measured by cholesterol as RLP-C for CHD risk assessment in the fasting plasma. However, RLP-triglyceride (TG) is a better marker of the characteristics of remnant lipoproteins in the postprandial plasma, especially in plasma with TG concentrations <150 mg/dl.

Method: The RLP-TG and RLP-C concentrations in subjects undergoing a health check-up and in volunteers receiving an oral fat load were determined in the fasting and postprandial plasma.

Coculture with a human granulosa cell line enhanced the development of murine preimplantation embryos via SCF/c-kit system.

Purpose: To evaluate the effect on the coculture of murine embryos with a human ovarian granulosa tumor derived cell line (KGN cells).

Methods: We observed microscopically the growth of murine preimplantation embryos in the coculture system with KGN cells or in the presence with exogenous stem cell factor (SCF). The reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method was used to analyze the gene expression of SCF in KGN cells cocultured with murine embryos.

Vibration measurement of the tympanic membrane of guinea pig temporal bones using time-averaged speckle pattern interferometry.

"Time-averaged holography" and "holographic interferometry" enable recording of the complete vibration pattern of a surface within several seconds. The results appear in the form of fringes. Vibration amplitudes smaller than 100 nm are not readily measurable by these techniques, because such small amplitudes produce variations in gray level, but not fringes.