Inflammation and disability as risk factors for mortality in elderly acute care patients.

Although the role of inflammation has been studied in specific diseases or in community living elderly, data in hospitalized acute care elderly patients are scarce. The present study was designed to determine the predictive value of sociodemographic, clinical and biological factors for mortality in acute care geriatric wards. Retrospective study was conducted in two acute care wards in a university-based geriatric hospital with elderly patients (n=224) consecutively admitted to acute care wards with available medical files.

Long-term protection of obese Zucker rat kidneys from fibrosis and renal failure with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/diuretic combination.

Some combinations of antihypertensive agents were shown to reduce proteinuria in patients with renal failure. However, preventive effects of such combinations on renal structure and function are presently unknown when treatment is administered before the onset of renal abnormalities. We thus investigated the long-term effects of an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor (perindopril)/diuretic (indapamide) combination (per/ind) in the Zucker rat, a classical model of chronic renal failure associated with obesity, hyperlipidemia, and insulin resistance.

High levels of myocardial antioxidant defense in aging nondiabetic normotensive Zucker obese rats.

Chronic renal failure often induces left ventricular hypertrophy. We assessed whether the heart is affected in the Zucker obese rat, a model of chronic renal failure associated with obesity, glucose intolerance, and insulin resistance without hypertension or hyperglycemia. After systemic blood pressure measurement, the heart, the aorta, and the kidneys were removed from anesthetized 9- and 13-mo-old Zucker obese and lean control male rats (n = 33, n = 24, n = 25, and n = 21, respectively).

Lipoprotein oxidation and plasma vitamin E in nondiabetic normotensive obese patients.

Objective: To correlate the susceptibility of low-(LDL) and very-low-density lipoprotein to oxidation in vitro and the concentrations of serum antibodies against malondialdehyde-modified LDL and plasma vitamin E with the anthropometric and laboratory characteristics of obesity.

Research Methods And Procedures: A total of 75 nondiabetic, normotensive obese patients were assigned to one of four groups according to their body mass index (BMI): moderately obese (30 View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Conjugated dienes: a critical trait of lipoprotein oxidizability in renal fibrosis.

Background: We assessed whether a differential oxidizability of apolipoprotein B (apo B)-containing lipoproteins (LDL and VLDL) may explain the oxidative stress that we had observed at the onset of renal fibrosis in Zucker obese (ZO) rats (Nephrol Dial Transplant 2000, 15: 467--476).

Methods: Ex vivo copper-induced oxidation of lipoproteins was performed in 1-, 3-, and 9-month-old ZO and age-matched lean (ZL) rats. LDL/VLDL oxidizability was determined by spectrophotometry at 234 nm by monitoring the formation of conjugated diene hydroperoxides.

Inflammation is probably not a prerequisite for renal interstitial fibrosis in normoglycemic obese rats.

We examined the role of inflammation in the development of renal interstitial fibrosis in Zucker obese rats, which rapidly present kidney lesions in the absence of hypertension and hyperglycemia. Type I and III collagens were quantified using a polarized light and computer-assisted image analyzer. The expression of mRNA encoding matrix components, adhesion molecules, chemokines, and growth factors was followed by RT-PCR.

Oxidative stress occurs in absence of hyperglycaemia and inflammation in the onset of kidney lesions in normotensive obese rats.

Background: Several factors favour the development of kidney lesions. We examined the role of oxidative stress in the onset of renal alterations that occur in Zucker obese (ZO) fa/fa rats.

Methods: Kidney structure, biological data, glycation parameters, advanced glycation end products (AGE), thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS), circulating antibodies anti-malondialdehyde (MDA)-modified low-density lipoprotein (LDL), antioxidant defenses (Cu/Zn and Mn superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities, glutathione level), were determined in plasma and/or kidney of young and old ZO rats and lean (ZL) Fa/fa littermates.

Charge heterogeneity of LDL in asymptomatic hypercholesterolemic men is related to lipid parameters and variations in the ApoB and CIII genes.

This study was carried out to examine the relationship between the charge on low density lipoproteins (LDLs) and lipid and clinical parameters in 104 asymptomatic dyslipidemic men and to identify biochemical and genetic factors that could contribute to the charge variability of LDL. LDL charge heterogeneity was evaluated by relative electrophoretic mobility (REM) on preformed 0.5% agarose gels and by chromatographic quantification of a minor electronegative LDL subfraction designated LDL(-).

The effect of high density lipoprotein subfractions on endothelial eicosanoid secretion.

Epidemiological, clinical, and experimental studies have demonstrated that high density lipoproteins (HDL) are protective against atherosclerosis. However, the respective influence of two main HDL subfractions (HDL2 and HDL3) on atherosclerosis process is not yet clear. The present study was designed to determine, which HDL subfraction was antiatherogenic in terms of eicosanoid release by human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC).

Sialic acid content of LDL in coronary artery disease: no evidence of desialylation in subjects with coronary stenosis and increased levels in subjects with extensive atherosclerosis and acute myocardial infarction: relation between desialylation and in vitro peroxidation.

We recently showed that sialic acid content of LDL was not a marker of early cardiovascular disease (Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 1995;15:334-339). Here, we investigated this parameter in patients with advanced coronary artery disease (CAD).

Oxidative modification of low-density lipoprotein by the human hepatoma cell line HepG2.

The human hepatoblastoma cell line HepG2 is a liver model commonly used for lipid metabolism studies. Numerous cell types have been found to oxidize low-density lipoprotein (LDL) but, to our knowledge, the effects of HepG2 cells on LDL have not been investigated. We found that LDL is modified by HepG2 cells through a peroxidative mechanism, as judged by an increase in TBARS content (which was prevented in the presence of the antioxidants vitamin E, 2,6-di-tertbutyl-cresol and probucol), increased degradation by J774 macrophages, decreased internalization by MRC5 fibroblasts, and aggregation of apo B.

Enhanced modifications of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) by endothelial cells from smokers: a possible mechanism of smoking-related atherosclerosis.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate LDL modifications by cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) from women smokers and non-smokers.

Methods: Modifications of LDL by HUVEC were studied by determining the values of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) and the percentage of the most electronegative oxidized LDL fraction (fraction C) by using an ion-exchange chromatographic method based on fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC). We also studied the cellular production of superoxide anion, the effect of various inhibitors and cysteine, and determined total intracellular glutathione content and cell growth.

A cytotoxic electronegative LDL subfraction is present in human plasma.

By using fast protein liquid chromatography, we isolated from human plasma a minor electronegative LDL subfraction designated LDL(-). After immunoaffinity chromatography against apolipoprotein (apo)(a) and apo A-I, LDL(-) represented 6.7 +/- 0.

Oxidative modifications of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) by the human endothelial cell line EA.hy 926.

Modifications of LDL by the EA.hy 926 cell line were compared to those generated by human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) index values (TBARS sample/TBARS cell-free control ratio) were 2.

[Charge heterogeneity of low density lipoproteins].

Traditionally, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) are separated with respect to their size, density and apolipoprotein composition. Fractionation of LDL according to their electrical charge is also interesting as modified LDL have been implicated in the onset of atherosclerosis. This review discusses possible mechanisms underlying charge heterogeneity of human plasma LDL, such as oxidation, glycation, conjugation with aldehydes, carbamylation and changes in sialic acid content and protein composition.

Characteristics of ten charge-differing subfractions isolated from human native low-density lipoproteins (LDL). No evidence of peroxidative modifications.

Native plasma low-density lipoproteins (LDL) were fractionated into ten subfractions with increasingly negative charges (LDL-1, the least electronegative, to LDL-10) using an anion-exchange column coupled to a fast protein-liquid chromatography system. Prior to fractionation, contaminating Lp(a) and apo A-I-containing lipoproteins were removed from LDL preparations by immunoaffinity chromatography. No significant difference in thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances, vitamin E or free aminogroup was found among subfractions, and no peptide with a higher molecular weight than apo B was observed on SDS-PAGE.

Evaluation of the sialic acid content of LDL as a marker of coronary calcification and extracoronary atherosclerosis in asymptomatic hypercholesterolemic subjects. PCVMETRA Group.

Recent studies have shown that the sialic acid content of LDL isolated from patients with angiographically demonstrated advanced coronary atherosclerosis is lower than that of LDL isolated from healthy subjects. These observations raise the question as to whether LDL sialic acid content could be used as an early marker of atherosclerosis. We screened for carotid, aortic, and femoral plaques by ultrasonography and for coronary calcifications by ultrafast computed tomography in 160 hypercholesterolemic subjects free of cardiovascular disease to investigate the relation between LDL sialic acid content and the prevalence of these early atherosclerotic lesions.

Reactivity of lecithin-cholesterol acyl transferase (LCAT) towards glycated high-density lipoproteins (HDL).

Hyperglycaemia in diabetic patients results in non-enzymatic glycation of plasma proteins, including lipoproteins such as high-density lipoproteins (HDL). We studied the effects of in vitro HDL glycation on the activity of lecithin-cholesterol acyl transferase (LCAT), a key enzyme in HDL plasma metabolism. LCAT was prepared from non-diabetic subjects and HDL by sequential density ultracentrifugation (in the density range of 1.

[Genetic variation in the apolipoprotein B gene].

It is well known that coronary heart disease (CHD) is multifactorial, with environmental and inherited risk factors both playing a role. Apolipoprotein B (apo B) is of major importance in lipoprotein metabolism and might play a central role in atherogenesis. The apo B gene is the obvious candidate gene to study the relations between lipid concentrations and CHD.