Clinical outcomes and costs for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus initiating insulin therapy in Greece: two-year experience from the INSTIGATE study.

Aims: To evaluate the quality of metabolic control, clinical outcomes, resource costs, and quality of life among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), who initiated insulin for the first time as part of routine clinical practice.

Methods: The INSTIGATE study is a prospective, multicentric, observational study of patients initiating insulin treatment. This sub-cohort analysis focuses on Hellenic outcomes.

Study comparing the effect of pioglitazone in combination with either metformin or sulphonylureas on lipid profile and glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (ECLA).

Objective: To explore whether the improvement of lipid profile and glycaemic control observed in randomized control trials with pioglitazone (PIO) is replicated under conditions of general clinical practice.

Research Design And Methods: We studied 2388 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) not adequately controlled by monotherapy on either metformin (MET) or sulphonylurea (SU). Addition of a second drug, according to the treating physician's choice, resulted in three groups, PIO + MET, PIO + SU and MET + SU, followed for twelve months, while efficacy and safety parameters were measured at baseline, at six and at twelve months.

Chorion gene activation and repression is dependent on BmC/EBP expression and binding to cognate cis-elements.

From the different cis-elements clustered on silkmoth chorion gene promoters, C/EBP binding sites predominate. Their sequence composition and dispersal vary amongst promoters of diverse developmental specificity. Occupancy of these sites by BmC/EBP was examined through Southwestern and ChIP assays modified to suit ovarian follicular cells.

BmCbZ, an insect-specific factor featuring a composite DNA-binding domain, interacts with BmC/EBPgamma.

A novel factor featuring a composite AT hook/basic region-leucine zipper DNA-binding domain was isolated from Bombyx mori follicular cells. Screening of EST databases derived from a variety of metazoans revealed the exclusive presence of BmCbZ homologues in insect species. BmCbZ characteristic features and gene organization are discussed, in comparison to other known bZIP factors.

A novel role for the Bombyx Slbo homologue, BmC/EBP, in insect choriogenesis.

One previously unidentified cDNA clone coding for a C/EBP factor, BmC/EBP, was isolated from Bombyx mori follicular cells. This is the first time that a C/EBP factor has been isolated and characterized in Lepidoptera. We provide information concerning structural features and developmental specificity, as well as in vitro interaction properties with chorion gene promoter modules.