Publications by authors named "Melvin K S Leow"

Background: Phenotypic age (PhenoAge), a widely used marker of biological aging, has been shown to be a robust predictor of all-cause mortality and morbidity in different populations. Existing studies on biological aging have primarily focused on individual domains, resulting in a lack of a comprehensive understanding of the multi-systemic dysregulation that occurs in aging.

Methods: PhenoAge was evaluated based on a linear combination of chronological age (CA) and 9 clinical biomarkers in 952 multi-ethnic Asian women of reproductive age.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Current anti-obesity medications have limited effectiveness and side effects because they target the brain or digestive system, rather than directly addressing fat tissue.
  • This research presents a new therapy using Prussian blue nanoparticles applied through a skin patch that actively remodels white fat tissue, promoting weight loss and improved metabolism.
  • In tests on fat cells and obese mice, this therapy significantly reduced fat mass and improved metabolic health while showing promising safety outcomes, offering a potential new approach to treat obesity and related conditions like type 2 diabetes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In clinical endocrinology, it is often assumed that the results of thyroid hormone function tests (TFTs) before total thyroidectomy are considered euthyroid when the circulating concentrations of thyrotropin [TSH] and free thyroxine [FT4] are within the normal reference ranges. Postoperative thyroid replacement therapy with levothyroxine. The aim of L-T4 is to reproduce the preoperative euthyroid condition.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Climate change is increasing both seasonal temperatures and the frequency and severity of heat extremes. As the endocrine system facilitates physiological adaptations to temperature changes, diseases with an endocrinological basis have the potential to affect thermoregulation and increase the risk of heat injury. The effect of climate change and associated high temperature exposure on endocrine axis development and function, and on the prevalence and severity of diseases associated with hormone deficiency or excess, is unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Diabetes mellitus, particularly type 2 diabetes (T2DM), is a chronic condition that disrupts metabolism and is becoming increasingly common worldwide, primarily due to issues with insulin production and function.
  • - Genetic and epigenetic factors contribute significantly to T2DM, with enzymes called histone deacetylases (HDACs) playing key roles in insulin release, glucose metabolism, and various regulatory processes that affect diabetes progression.
  • - This review discusses the function of HDACs in T2DM, the potential of HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) as biomarkers and therapeutic targets, and their promising role in improving insulin sensitivity and protecting pancreatic β-cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Familial partial lipodystrophy (FPLD) is a genetic disorder that affects fat tissue and leads to early cardiometabolic issues, making diagnosis challenging due to a lack of clear criteria.
  • A pilot study involving 8 women with FPLD and 4 control participants aimed to identify clinical features and assess adipose tissue measurements for diagnostic purposes.
  • The results showed that women with FPLD had early diabetes onset, distinct adipose tissue characteristics like reduced thigh fat, and higher trunk-to-leg fat ratio, suggesting these measurements could help in identifying FPLD1 patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Through extensive multisystem phenotyping, the central aim of Project PICMAN is to correlate metabolic flexibility to measures of cardiometabolic health, including myocardial diastolic dysfunction, coronary and cerebral atherosclerosis, body fat distribution and severity of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. This cohort will form the basis of larger interventional trials targeting metabolic inflexibility in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Participants aged 21-72 years with no prior manifest atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) are being recruited from a preventive cardiology clinic and an existing cohort of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in an academic medical centre.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background/objective: Tumoral calcinosis (TC) is a rare, arcane, and debilitating disorder of phosphate metabolism manifesting as hard masses in soft tissues. Primary hyperphosphatemic TC has been shown to be caused by pathogenic variants in the genes encoding FGF23, GALNT3, and KLOTHO. We report a case of massive TC mechanistically associated with phosphatonin resistance associated with heterozygous alterations in the sterile alfa motif domain-containing protein-9 gene (), alfa 2-Heremans-Schmid glycoprotein gene (), FSHD region gene 2-family member-C gene (), and fibroblast growth factor receptor-4 gene ().

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: Quadriceps thickness (QT) and rectus femoris cross-sectional area (RF) are both used to evaluate muscle changes in critically ill children. However, their correlation and association with physical function has not been compared.

Objectives: To compare QT with RF changes, and their association with physical function in critically ill children.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pharmacological agents used to treat or manage diseases can modify the level of heat strain experienced by chronically ill and elderly patients via different mechanistic pathways. Human thermoregulation is a crucial homeostatic process that maintains body temperature within a narrow range during heat stress through dry (i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) represents a pivotal scientific renaissance worthy as a strategy for obesity and diabetes since its re-discovery in adults over a decade ago. Equally compelling is the adoption of infrared thermography (IRT) in recent times as a precise and viable alternative methodology over the 'gold standard' PET-CT scan, given constraints of the latter's high ionizing radiation doses and costs. Unravelling BAT metabolic physiology in live humans has been challenging until recent rigorous validation of IRT against PET.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Thyroid hormones (TH), adiponectin and brown adipose tissue (BAT) are regulators of energy homoeostasis. Influence of BAT activity on the relationship between TH and adiponectin remains unexplored. The aim of the study was to identify the relationship between TH and adiponectin and to clarify the impact of active BAT on the metabolic effects of adiponectin before and after the correction of thyrotoxicosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Despite increased calorie and fat intake during the 8-week trial, participants showed no significant changes in total body fat mass, although women did experience a slight increase in lean mass and a reduction in fat percentages.
  • * The findings suggest that incorporating unsaturated fats can help prevent fat gain and support muscle maintenance in older Asian women, but more long-term research is necessary to validate these results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Branched chain amino acids (BCAA) supplementation is reported to aid in lean mass preservation, which may in turn minimize the reduction in resting metabolic rate (RMR) during weight loss. Our study aimed to examine the effect of BCAA supplementation to a hypocaloric diet on RMR and substrate utilization during a weight loss intervention.

Methods: A total of 111 Chinese subjects comprising 55 males and 56 females aged 21 to 45 years old with BMI between 25 and 36 kg/m were randomized into three hypocaloric diet groups: (1) standard-protein (14%) with placebo (CT), (2) standard-protein with BCAA, and (3) high-protein (27%) with placebo.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Muscle wasting is now recognized as a growing, debilitating problem in critically ill adults, resulting in long-term deficits in function and an impaired quality of life. Ultrasonography has demonstrated decreases in skeletal muscle size during pediatric critical illness, although variations exist. However, muscle protein turnover patterns during pediatric critical illness are unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) controls metabolic rate through thermogenesis. As its regulatory factors during the transition from hyperthyroidism to euthyroidism are not well established, our study investigated the relationships between supraclavicular brown adipose tissue (sBAT) activity and physiological/metabolic changes with changes in thyroid status.

Design: Participants with newly diagnosed Graves' disease were recruited.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To describe functional and skeletal muscle changes observed during pediatric critical illness and recovery and their association with health-related quality of life.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Single multidisciplinary PICU.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To determine the clinical metrics of functional assessments in pediatric critical illness survivors.

Design: Cross-sectional observational study.

Setting: PICU follow-up clinic.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Insulin resistance in obesity coincides with abnormalities in lipid profile and lipoprotein subclass distribution and size even before abnormalities in glucose homeostasis manifest. We aimed to assess this relationship in the absence of obesity. Insulin sensitivity (3-h intravenous glucose tolerance test and minimal modeling) and lipoprotein particle concentrations and sizes (proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) were evaluated in 15 insulin-resistant and 15 insulin-sensitive lean Asians of Chinese descent with normal glucose tolerance, matched on age, sex, and body mass index.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) supplementation has been shown to increase muscle mass or prevent muscle loss during weight loss.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the effects of a BCAA-supplemented hypocaloric diet on lean mass preservation and insulin sensitivity.

Methods: A total of 132 Chinese adults (63 men and 69 women aged 21-45 y, BMI 25-36 kg/m2) were block randomly assigned by gender and BMI into 3 hypocaloric diet (deficit of 500 kcal/d) groups: standard-protein (14%) with placebo (control, CT) or BCAA supplements at 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Context: Literature suggests that oncogenic osteomalacia is usually caused by a benign mesenchymal tumor secreting fibroblast growth factor subtype-23 (FGF-23), but the involvement of other phosphatonins has only been scarcely reported. We have previously published a seemingly typical case of oncogenic osteomalacia. Following curative neoplasm resection, we now report unique molecular characteristics and biology of this tumor.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF