[Adiponectin levels in perimenopause].

Background: Adiponectin is an hormone produced exclusively in adipose tissue, that actively acts in carbohydrate and fat regulation processes.

Objective: To determine adiponectin levels in a women's group.

Patients And Method: Transversal study in 22 amenorrheal women with climacteric symptoms, and without estrogen therapy.

[Adiponectin concentrations during menstrual cycle].

Background: Adiponectin has a direct relationship with cellular sensibility grade to insulin action.

Objective: To determine adiponectin concentrations during the three phases of the menstrual cycle in young women, and to study the relationship with 17-beta estradiol and progesterone levels.

Patient And Methods: Longitudinal and prospective study that included 30 normal menstruating women aged between 19 and 36 years; none had received any hormonal therapy prior to this study.

[Oral or trandsdermanl hormone replacement therapy reduces interleukine-6 levels].

Objective: To compare the effect of oral and transdermal estrogen replacement therapy (ET) on circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6) in post-menopausal women.

Patients And Method: Prospective open trial study in 55 healthy hysterectomized postmenopausal women with a mean age of 52 years. Twenty-seven women received oral conjugated equine estrogens (0.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity and NADPH/NADP+ ratio in liver and pancreas are dependent on the severity of hyperglycemia in rat.

Hyperglycemia is associated with metabolic disturbances affecting cell redox potential, particularly the NADPH/NADP+ ratio and reduced glutathione levels. Under oxidative stress, the NADPH supply for reduced glutathione regeneration is dependent on glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. We assessed the effect of different hyperglycemic conditions on enzymatic activities involved in glutathione regeneration (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and glutathione reductase), NADP(H) and reduced glutathione concentrations in order to analyze the relative role of these enzymes in the control of glutathione restoration.

Expression of growth hormone receptor isoform exon-3-excluding and exon-3-retaining messenger RNAs in peripheral lymphocytes from normal and acromegalic subjects.

Aim: To determine the expression of two isoforms of the growth hormone (GH) receptor (GHR), which differ by the presence (GHR3+) or absence (GHR3-) of exon 3, and their correlation with circulating GH and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) in normal subjects and in acromegalic patients.

Methods: The expression of GHR isoforms was determined by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in lymphocytes from 12 normal subjects and from 11 patients with acromegaly. The levels of GHR mRNA were normalized to those of beta-actin, and ratios were calculated to assess the relative levels of expression.