Systemic Glucoregulation by Glucose-Sensing Neurons in the Ventromedial Hypothalamic Nucleus (VMH).

The ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMH) regulates glucose production in the liver as well as glucose uptake and utilization in peripheral tissues, including skeletal muscle and brown adipose tissue, via efferent sympathetic innervation and neuroendocrine mechanisms. The action of leptin on VMH neurons also increases glucose uptake in specific peripheral tissues through the sympathetic nervous system, with improved insulin sensitivity. On the other hand, subsets of VMH neurons, such as those that express steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1), sense changes in the ambient glucose concentration and are characterized as glucose-excited (GE) and glucose-inhibited (GI) neurons whose action potential frequency increases and decreases, respectively, as glucose levels rise.

[Complete response of primary tumor in a case of advanced gastric cancer with liver metastasis treated by TS-1 plus divided administration of CDDP].

A 62-year-old female patient was hospitalized for general fatigue and appetite loss. Type 3 gastric cancer (moderate differentiated adenocarcinoma) with liver metastasis (S8) and direct invasion to the retro-peritoneal space and duodenal third portion was detected by endoscopic and radiographic examination. This case was judged to be unresectable from these findings.

Joint effects of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection and classic coronary risk factors on risk of acute myocardial infarction.

Background: Although not in itself strongly predictive of coronary heart disease, Chlamydia pneumoniae infection could interact with classic risk factors in determining risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Methods: We assessed C pneumoniae immunoglobulin (Ig) G and IgA titers and classic risk factors in 618 patients with AMI and in 967 controls.

Results: IgG titers were not related to AMI, but a significant association was seen between IgA titers and AMI.

Thyroid hormone augments GLUT4 expression and insulin-sensitive glucose transport system in differentiating rat brown adipocytes in culture.

The effects of triiodothyronine (T3) on differentiation-dependent expression of GLUT and responses of glucose transport to insulin and norepinephrine (NE) were investigated. Precursor cells of brown adipocytes isolated from the interscapular brown adipose tissue of newborn rats were cultured in the absence or presence of various concentrations of T3. Western bolt analysis revealed that treatment with T3 resulted in an increased expression of GLUT4, in a dose-dependent manner, whereas GLUT1 contents were unchanged.