Intramuscular Injection of miR-1 Reduces Insulin Resistance in Obese Mice.

The role of microRNAs in metabolic diseases has been recognized and modulation of them could be a promising strategy to treat obesity and obesity-related diseases. The major purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that intramuscular miR-1 precursor replacement therapy could improve metabolic parameters of mice fed a high-fat diet. To this end, we first injected miR-1 precursor intramuscularly in high-fat diet-fed mice and evaluated glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, and adiposity.

Deletion of growth hormone receptor in hypothalamic neurons affects the adaptation capacity to aerobic exercise.

The hypothalamus mediates important exercise-induced metabolic adaptations, possibly via hormonal signals. Hypothalamic leptin receptor (LepR)- and steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1)-expressing neurons are directly responsive to growth hormone (GH) and deletion of GH receptor (GHR) in these cells impairs neuroendocrine responses during situations of metabolic stress. In the present study, we determined whether GHR ablation in LepR- or SF1-expressing cells modifies acute and chronic metabolic adaptations to exercise.

[The role of radiology in assessing patients with pathological obesity submitted to modified Mason's vertical gastroplasty. A study of 322 cases].

Purpose: Mason's vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG) is one the most popular surgical techniques for the treatment of morbid obesity because it is effective and easy to perform and presents a low incidence of long-term complications. We report our personal results in 322 Mason's VBG patients who were followed-up radiologically.

Material And Methods: 322 patients submitted to modified Mason's VBG underwent radiological follow-up, preferably with single contrast, to assess the shape and volume of the pouch and the presence of postoperative complications.

[The role of the radiological hemithorax examination in closed trauma of the chest].

January, 1992, to September, 1994, a hundred and seventy-eight blunt chest trauma patients were examined with plain chest films and detailed rib studies. The patients were subdivided into three groups according to: a) the presence/absence of rib fractures correlated with clinical data; b) the depiction of rib fractures and/or thoracic complications; c) treatment customization in the presence/absence of rib fractures. In our series of patients the clinical data and the presence of rib fractures were poorly correlated.

[Incidence of dilatation of residual cystic duct in liver transplantation. Our experience with 152 cases].

In our series of patients, we studied the incidence of residual cystic duct mucocele, which is still considered a rare complication in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). 152 OLTs were performed in 138 patients in the II Surgery Dept. of Bologna University, May 1986 to June 1994; a termino-terminal choledocho-choledochal anastomosis was performed in 145 of them.

[Imaging technics in the indications for laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Echotomography and cholangiography compared].

March 1991 through October 1992, in the Clinica Chirurgica II of the Bologna University, 59 patients were submitted to laparoscopic cholecystectomy; the age range was 25 to 76 years and the mean 50 years. In no patient stones bigger than 35 mm were observed and 31% of the subjects were treated with litholysis before surgery. Fifty-eight patients were affected with single or multiple cholelithiasis, 1 had adenomyomatosis and 4 patients had associated choledocholithiasis treated with preoperative ERCP.