Animal and human tissue Na,K-ATPase in obesity and diabetes: A new proposed enzyme regulation.

Background: Na,K-ATPase is a membrane enzyme that energizes the Na-pump, hydrolyzing ATP and wasting energy as heat. It may play a role in thermogenesis, energy balance, and obesity development. Regulation of the enzyme by insulin is controversial.

Effect of in vitro glucose and diabetic hyperglycemia on mouse kidney protein synthesis: relevance to diabetic microangiopathy.

To test the possible roles of diabetic hyperglycemia, we studied the in vitro effect of increasing glucose concentrations (5.0-27.5 mmol/L) on protein synthesis (PS) of the kidneys from "adult" male albino Swiss mice.

A mild form of Alstrom disease associated with metabolic syndrome and very high fasting serum free fatty acids: two cases diagnosed in adult age.

Alstrom syndrome (ALMS) is a very rare genetic autosomal recessive disease, characterized by early-onset severe abdominal obesity, impaired glucose tolerance or type 2 diabetes with insulin resistance, acanthosis nigricans, hyperlipidemia, childhood progressive retinal degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa and neurosensory hearing loss or deafness, cardiomyopathy, and other endocrine disorders. Genetic studies locate the ALMS gene on chromosome 2p12-13. The aim of this paper is to describe and discuss two unrelated cases of a mild ALMS form diagnosed after the age of 40 and 60, respectively, in adult fertile female patients.

Low fasting serum triglyceride level as a precocious marker of autoimmune disorders.

The authors recently reported the occurrence of low fasting serum triglyceride (TG) and high free fatty acid (FFA) levels in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. TG estimation in diverse groups of patients with autoimmune disease or hyperactive immune response confirmed the occurrence of a similar decrease of TG. In some patients, serum FFA level was also evaluated.

A clinical variant of familial Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome.

Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS) is an autosomal recessive inherited disease consisting of (1) partial oculocutaneous albinism (with nystagmus, strabism, and visual acuity loss), (2) platelet storage pool deficiency (with bleeding diathesis), and (3) disorder of "ceroid" metabolism with a multisystem tissue lysosomal ceroid deposition. HPS is less uncommon in Puerto Rico, where the most important studies have been performed, but is a very rare disease in Europe. HPS basic defect remains unknown, even if an HPS-causing gene was identified in chromosome segment 10q23-q23.

Low fasting serum triglyceride and high free fatty acid levels in pulmonary fibrosis: a previously unreported finding.

Objective: The authors describe here the occurrence of low fasting serum triglyceride (TG) and high free fatty acid (FFA) levels in pulmonary fibrosis, a finding that has never been reported before.

Patients And Methods: TGs were measured in: (a) 44 patients (3 male and 41 female; mean age SEM: 63.06 +/- 4.