Self-sampling of capillary blood for safety monitoring of DMARD therapy in patients with rheumatic disease: a feasibility and method-comparison study.

Our study aimed to compare the quality of patient self-collected capillary samples with venous blood samples. Additionally, we assessed whether patients with rheumatic disease are both capable of and willing to perform capillary self-sampling through subjective and objective assessments. This research explores the future potential of at-home self-sampling.

Re-evalution of the measurement of haptoglobin in human plasma samples.

Haptoglobin (Hp) is an abundant plasma protein scavenging hemoglobin (Hb) CD163 on macrophages. This process consumes Hp, which therefore negatively correlates to hemolysis. However, exact measurements of Hp plasma levels are complicated by different phenotypes (Hp1-1, Hp2-1, and Hp2-2) forming different oligomeric states with differences in immunoreactivity.

Haptoglobin-related protein in human plasma correlates to haptoglobin concentrations and phenotypes.

Haptoglobin-related protein (Hpr) is a plasma protein with high sequence similarity to haptoglobin (Hp). Like Hp, Hpr also binds hemoglobin (Hb) with high affinity, but it does not bind to the Hb-Hp receptor CD163 on macrophages. The Hpr concentration is markedly lower than Hp in plasma and its regulation is not understood.

Platelet parameters and leukocyte morphology is altered in COVID-19 patients compared to non-COVID-19 patients with similar symptomatology.

In this nested case-control study, we evaluated haematological and morphological parameters of hospitalised patients with real-time polymerase chain reaction verified COVID-19 infection compared to patients with similar symptomatology but without COVID-19 infection. Seventy-four COVID-19 positive and 228 COVID-19 negative patients were evaluated with routine haematological parameters. Severe disease was defined as death and/or need of intensive care treatment.

Verification of the hemolysis index measurement: imprecision, accuracy, measuring range, reference interval and impact of implementing analytically and clinically derived sample rejection criteria.

Automated spectrophotometric measurement of hemolysis index (HI) allows rapid and cost-effective assessment of hemolysis interference. We evaluated the analytical performance of HI on two different platforms. Further, the impact of implementing analytically and clinically derived sample rejection criteria was investigated.

Prenatal Exposures to Perfluoroalkyl Acids and Associations with Markers of Adiposity and Plasma Lipids in Infancy: An Odense Child Cohort Study.

Background: Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAA) are repellants that cross the placental barrier, enabling interference with fetal programming. Maternal PFAA concentrations have been associated with offspring obesity and dyslipidemia in childhood and adulthood, but this association has not been studied in infancy.

Objectives: We investigated associations between maternal PFAA concentrations and repeated markers of adiposity and lipid metabolism in infancy.

Birth Season and Infection Risk Among Children Under 5 Years Old: A Study of Hospital Admissions and Short Message Service-reported Symptoms at Home.

Background: The season in which a child is born may affect the immune system development and thereby influence the risk of infections. In this study, we examined the associations between birth season and the risk of hospital admission or symptoms associated with a wide range of infections.

Methods: This study is a prospective cohort study of 2434 children with an average follow-up of 3.

Content of n-3 LC-PUFA in Breast Milk Four Months Postpartum is Associated with Infancy Blood Pressure in Boys and Infancy Blood Lipid Profile in Girls.

Blood pressure (BP) and blood lipid profile (BLP) have been shown to track from childhood into adulthood, and n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs) in breast milk have been suggested as mediators of the beneficial long-term effect of breastfeeding on BP and BLP. We aimed to investigate associations between n-3 LC-PUFA content in breast milk at 4 months postpartum and offspring BP and BLP in early life. BP and BLP were measured at 4, 18, and 36 months.

Preadipocytes mediate lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation and insulin resistance in primary cultures of newly differentiated human adipocytes.

Recent data suggest that proinflammatory cytokines secreted from adipose tissue contribute to the morbidity associated with obesity. However, characterization of the cell types involved in inflammation and how these cells promote insulin resistance in human adipocytes are unclear. We simulated acute inflammation using the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to define the roles of nonadipocytes in primary cultures of human adipocytes.

Trans-10,cis-12 CLA increases adipocyte lipolysis and alters lipid droplet-associated proteins: role of mTOR and ERK signaling.

Lipid droplet-associated proteins play an important role in adipocyte triglyceride (TG) metabolism. Here, we show that trans-10,cis-12 conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), but not cis-9,trans-11 CLA, increased lipolysis and altered human adipocyte lipid droplet morphology. Before this change in morphology, there was a rapid trans-10,cis-12 CLA-induced increase in the accumulation of perilipin A in the cytosol, followed by the disappearance of perilipin A protein.