Publications by authors named "Mullen G"

In humans, perinatal exposure to an elevated omega-6 (n6) relative to omega-3 (n3) Fatty Acid (FA) ratio is associated with the likelihood of childhood obesity. In mice, we show perinatal exposure to excessive n6-FA programs neonatal Adipocyte Stem-like cells (ASCs) to differentiate into adipocytes with lower mitochondrial nutrient oxidation and a propensity for nutrient storage. Omega-6 FA exposure reduced fatty acid oxidation (FAO) capacity, coinciding with impaired induction of beige adipocyte regulatory factors PPARγ, PGC1α, PRDM16, and UCP1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The global obesity epidemic, with its associated comorbidities and increased risk of early mortality, underscores the urgent need for enhancing our understanding of the origins of this complex disease. It is increasingly clear that metabolism is programmed early in life and that metabolic programming can have life-long health consequences. As a critical metabolic organ sensitive to early-life stimuli, proper development of adipose tissue (AT) is crucial for life-long energy homeostasis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Adipose tissue, a central player in energy balance, exhibits significant metabolic flexibility that is often compromised in obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Mitochondrial dysfunction within adipocytes leads to inefficient lipid handling and increased oxidative stress, which together promote systemic metabolic disruptions central to obesity and its complications. This review explores the pivotal role that mitochondria play in altering the metabolic functions of the primary adipocyte types, white, brown, and beige, within the context of obesity and T2D.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Titanium-45 (Ti) is a radionuclide with excellent physical characteristics for use in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, including a moderate half-life (3.08 h), decay by positron emission (85%), and a low mean positron energy of 0.439 MeV.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) is the gold-standard treatment for large and complex renal stones. Though associated with higher stone-free rates compared to other minimally invasive stone procedures, this comes at the expense of increased morbidity including postoperative pain and discomfort. We describe our enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol for PCNL with emphasis on the use of erector spinae plane blocks to improve patient satisfaction and reduce postoperative opioid use and bother.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Postoperative infection and sepsis account for the most common complications following percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), as high as 14% in low-risk patients. Although the American Urological Association (AUA) recommends perioperative antibiotics for 24 hours or less for PCNL, practice patterns vary regarding duration of antibiotic therapy. We aimed to compare the efficacy of 24-hour antibiotic coverage short-course protocol of antibiotic prophylaxis for PCNL.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Incorporating spirometry into low-dose CT lung cancer screenings can help identify individuals with undiagnosed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), although the effects of this approach are not fully understood.
  • A study involving 2,391 participants found that 8.4% met criteria for referral to a respiratory team, with a significant number receiving new COPD diagnoses and treatments after further assessment.
  • The research underscores the need for accurate postbronchodilator spirometry tests to confirm airflow obstruction before diagnosing and treating COPD, while also revealing challenges in using these screening results effectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cell labelling agents that enable longitudinal tracking of administered cells will support the clinical development of cell-based therapies. Radionuclide imaging with gamma and positron-emitting radioisotopes can provide quantitative and longitudinal mapping of cells . To make this widely accessible and adaptable to a range of cell types, new, versatile and simple methods for directly radiolabelling cells are required.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Establishing metabolic programming begins during fetal and postnatal development, and early-life lipid exposures play a critical role during neonatal adipogenesis. We define how neonatal consumption of a low omega-6 to -3 fatty acid ratio (n6/n3 FA ratio) establishes FA oxidation in adipocyte precursor cells (APCs) before they become adipocytes. , APCs isolated from mouse pups exposed to the low n6/n3 FA ratio had superior FA oxidation capacity, elevated beige adipocyte mRNAs Ppargc1α, Ucp2, and Runx1, and increased nuclear receptor NR2F2 protein.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To prospectively analyse robotically administered transperitoneal transversus abdominis plane (robot-assisted transversus abdominis plane [RTAP]) compared with both ultrasonography-guided transversus abdominis plane (UTAP) and local anaesthesia (LA) with regard to pain control and narcotic use in patients undergoing robot-assisted prostatectomy (RARP) or robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN).

Subjects/patients And Methods: Patients undergoing RARP or RAPN were randomized in a single-blind 2:2:1 fashion to RTAP:UTAP:LA, with the study powered to evaluate superiority of UTAP to LA and non-inferiority of RTAP to UTAP. We compared time to deliver the block, operating room time, postoperative pain scores using the visual analogue scale, and intra-operative and postoperative analgesia consumption.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The pO threshold of an ideal PET hypoxia tracer for radiotherapy planning in cancer would match those observed in clinically and biologically relevant processes such as radioresistance and HIF1α expression. To identify such tracers, we directly compared uptake in vitro of hypoxia PET tracers ([F]FMISO, [Cu]CuATSM, and analogues [Cu]CuATS, [Cu]CuATSE, [Cu]CuCTS, [Cu]CuDTS, [Cu]CuDTSE, [Cu]CuDTSM) with levels of radioresistance and HIF1α expression in cultured cancer cells under identical hypoxic conditions ranging from extreme hypoxia to normoxia. Pimonidazole uptake was also compared as a marker of hypoxia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Prostate cancer remains a major cause of male mortality. Genetic alteration of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway is one of the key events in tumor development and progression in prostate cancer, with inactivation of the PTEN tumor suppressor being very common in this cancer type. Extensive evaluation has been performed on the therapeutic potential of PI3K/AKT/mTOR inhibitors and the resistance mechanisms arising in patients with PTEN-mutant background.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: The da Vinci SP® Surgical System received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for urological procedures in 2018.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Swimming analysts aid coaches and athletes in the decision-making by providing evidence-based recommendations. The aim of this narrative review was to report the best practices of swimming analysts that have been supporting high-performance athletes. It also aims to share how swimming analysts can translate applied research into practice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A missense mutant, unc-17(e245), which affects the Caenorhabditis elegans vesicular acetylcholine transporter UNC-17, has a severe uncoordinated phenotype, allowing efficient selection of dominant suppressors that revert this phenotype to wild-type. Such selections permitted isolation of numerous suppressors after EMS (ethyl methanesulfonate) mutagenesis, leading to demonstration of delays in mutation fixation after initial EMS treatment, as has been shown in T4 bacteriophage but not previously in eukaryotes. Three strong dominant extragenic suppressor loci have been defined, all of which act specifically on allele e245, which causes a G347R mutation in UNC-17.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * A total of 49 patients were involved, with no serious adverse events (AEs) reported and only minor AEs like pruritus occurring, illustrating that the procedure was safe.
  • * The findings showed that the imaging led to a management change in 42.9% of patients overall, with the highest change observed in patients with prior treatments (75% in Group C), indicating its effectiveness compared to other PSMA tracers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Children frequently present with head injuries to acute care settings. Although international paediatric clinical practice guidelines for head injuries exist, they do not address all considerations related to triage, imaging, observation versus admission, transfer, discharge and follow-up of mild to moderate head injuries relevant to the Australian and New Zealand context. The Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT) set out to develop an evidence-based, locally applicable, practical clinical guideline for the care of children with mild to moderate head injuries presenting to acute care settings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose Of Review: To review the efficacy and safety of mirabegron in men with overactive bladder (OAB) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

Recent Findings: Numerous studies have shown mirabegron to be efficacious and safe in treating symptoms of OAB. More recent studies evaluating the use of mirabegron in men with OAB and BPH have also shown the medication to be effective with few adverse side effects when used as monotherapy or in combination therapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hexahistidine tags (His-tags), incorporated into recombinant proteins to facilitate purification using metal-affinity chromatography, are useful binding sites for radiolabeling with [Tc(CO)] and [Re(CO)] for molecular imaging and radionuclide therapy. Labeling efficiencies vary unpredictably, and the method is therefore not universally useful. To overcome this, we have made quantitative comparisons of radiolabeling of a bespoke Celluspots array library of 382 His-tag-containing peptide sequences with [Tc(CO)] and [Re(CO)] to identify key features that enhance labeling.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Percutaneous management of large bladder calculi with the use of a laparoscopic entrapment sac is a minimally invasive procedure that may have advantages over open cystolithotomy and transurethral cystolithotripsy, as well as standard percutaneous cystolithotomy. We first performed this procedure in 2008, and refined it after our initial publication in 2013 by changing the position from lithotomy to supine by using a urethral catheter postoperatively instead of a suprapubic (SP) catheter, by using ultrasound guidance for access, and by changing the procedure from being inpatient to outpatient. Our objective is to assess the continued feasibility of percutaneous entrapment sac cystolithotomy (PESC) and describe modifications that simplify the technique (mPESC), comparing outcomes and complications.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A major challenge facing the genetics of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is the large and growing number of candidate risk genes and gene variants of unknown functional significance. Here, we used to systematically functionally characterize ASD-associated genes in vivo. Using our custom machine vision system, we quantified 26 phenotypes spanning morphology, locomotion, tactile sensitivity, and habituation learning in 135 strains each carrying a mutation in an ortholog of an ASD-associated gene.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: The aim of this scoping review was to map evidence gathered through systematic reviews regarding adult attachment and mental health difficulties. This review highlights established, emerging, and inconsistent findings, suggesting areas for future research, and implications for theory and practice.

Methods: A systematic search for meta-analyses and systematic reviews measuring adult attachment and concerning mental health difficulties was conducted.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: To determine whether heterogeneity of cardiac scar, as assessed by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) texture analysis, may provide insight into better risk stratification for patients with previous myocardial infarction (MI).

Materials And Methods: Patients with previous MI (n=76) were followed for a median of 371.5 days after late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) CMR.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Research regarding adolescent internet use and mental health is sparse. However, awareness of a young person's internet use is becoming increasingly recognised as an important element of clinical assessment and intervention, and requires the development of an evidence base. The aim of the present study was to better understand the internet use of young people experiencing mental health difficulties and to contrast it with those who currently report no concerns.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To examine the outcomes of sexual function in postmenopausal women and women with a history of breast cancer treated with endocrine therapy who were experiencing the symptoms of GSM for which they were treated with fractional microablative CO laser.

Materials And Methods: From July 2015 to October 2016, a retrospective chart review of women who underwent fractional microablative CO laser therapy (MonaLisa Touch, DEKA) for GSM was conducted. Several validated questionnaires were used to assess changes in symptoms and sexual function including the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), the Wong-Baker Faces Scale (WBFS), and the Female Sexual Distress Scale-Revised (FSDSR).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF