PGC1α in Skeletal Muscle Mediates Anti-Obesity Effects of Soy Isoflavones.

Obesity, a factor increasing the risk of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension, can be reduced by the intake of soy isoflavones. In this study, we investigated whether skeletal muscle PGC1α, a transcriptional activator known to promote a variety of exercise-related metabolic processes, is involved in the anti-obesity effects of soy isoflavones using skeletal muscle-specific PGC1α knockout mice. The results showed that the intake of soy isoflavones reduced white adipose tissue weight and increased expression of energy metabolism-related genes such as mitochondrial function, lipolysis, and fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle.

Health Promotion Effects of Soy Isoflavones.

Soybeans contain several physiologically active ingredients, such as soy phytosterol, soyasaponin, soy protein, and lecithin, and are therefore expected to express the functionalities of said ingredients. Among them, soy isoflavones have been studied in recent years for their various functions, including their obesity-preventing effect, blood glucose level reducing effect, osteoporosis and breast cancer risk reduction, and anti-oxidative effect, and several health promoting effects and disease preventing effects are expected. For example, it has been determined that soy isoflavones reduce body and fat weight in experiments in which mice were fed a diet containing soy isoflavones in studies on anti-obesity.

FOXO1 suppresses PGC-1β gene expression in skeletal muscles.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1β (PGC-1β) is a transcriptional regulator whose increased expression activates energy expenditure-related genes in skeletal muscles. However, how PGC-1β is regulated remains largely unclear. Here, we show that PGC-1β gene expression is negatively correlated with the expression of a transcription factor, forkhead box protein O1 (FOXO1), whose expression is increased during muscle atrophy.

Screening dataset of food components that enhance transcriptional activity of PGC1-beta.

PGC-1β is a transcriptional co-activator of nuclear receptors, which acts to increase energy expenditure. PGC-1β fused to GAL4 DNA-binding domain transfected in HEK293T cells showed a reporter luciferase activity. We screened food-derived and natural compounds using a reporter assay system to measure the transcriptional activity of PGC-1β.

Genistein, daidzein, and resveratrols stimulate PGC-1β-mediated gene expression.

PGC-1β is a transcriptional co-activator of nuclear receptors such as the estrogen receptor-related receptor (ERR). Transgenic overexpression of PGC-1β in mice increases energy expenditure and suppresses high-fat diet-induced obesity. In this study, we screened various food-derived and natural compounds using a reporter assay system to measure the transcriptional activity of PGC-1β.

The 1-min animal test as a mental status screening examination in patients with diabetes.

Background: Detecting and treating dementia at an early stage are important. Although the Revised Hasegawa Dementia Scale (HDS-R) is commonly used to detect dementia, it takes about 10 min to complete. In contrast, the 1-min animal test (OMAT) takes only 1 min to complete and may be a helpful screening test for general practitioners in deciding whether to proceed with administering further diagnostic tests such as the HDS-R.

Circularly polarised luminescence of pyrenyl di- and tri-peptides with mixed d- and l-amino acid residues.

Multiple pyrenes as pendants of enantioimpure di-/tripeptides (abbreviated as N-LD-C, N-DL-C, N-LLD-C and N-DDL-C) showed pyrene-origin CPL and CD signals, which were associated with conflicting CPL-/CD-signs, compared to the corresponding enantiopure di-/tri-peptides.