Blood glucose levels in diabetic patients undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Introduction: To determine if hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) therapy has an effect on diabetic blood glucose levels (BGL) and, if so, the extent of this effect. Also, to examine factors that exacerbate any observed effect.

Methods: This was a retrospective review of prospectively collected quality data on diabetics undergoing HBO2.

Defects in muscle branched-chain amino acid oxidation contribute to impaired lipid metabolism.

Objective: Plasma levels of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) are consistently elevated in obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) and can also prospectively predict T2D. However, the role of BCAA in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and T2D remains unclear.

Methods: To identify pathways related to insulin resistance, we performed comprehensive gene expression and metabolomics analyses in skeletal muscle from 41 humans with normal glucose tolerance and 11 with T2D across a range of insulin sensitivity (SI, 0.

Influence of sex, estrous cycle, and estrogen on intracranial dural mast cells.

Background: The frequency of migraine headaches is higher in women than in men and in susceptible women attacks are related to changes in ovarian hormone levels. Intracranial mast cells (MCs) are likely to have a role in migraine headache genesis, and changes in the dural MC population might influence headache susceptibility. The present study thus tested the hypothesis that sex and ovarian hormones influence the density and phenotypic makeup of dural MCs.

Response to Brosch et al.

We would like to respond to Brosch et al. regarding our manuscript "Expression of the Splicing Factor Gene Is Reduced in Human Obesity and Contributes to Enhanced Lipogenesis" (Pihlajamäki et al., 2011b).

Expression of the splicing factor gene SFRS10 is reduced in human obesity and contributes to enhanced lipogenesis.

Alternative mRNA splicing provides transcript diversity and may contribute to human disease. We demonstrate that expression of several genes regulating RNA processing is decreased in both liver and skeletal muscle of obese humans. We evaluated a representative splicing factor, SFRS10, downregulated in both obese human liver and muscle and in high-fat-fed mice, and determined metabolic impact of reduced expression.

Increased SRF transcriptional activity in human and mouse skeletal muscle is a signature of insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance in skeletal muscle is a key phenotype associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) for which the molecular mediators remain unclear. We therefore conducted an expression analysis of human muscle biopsies from patients with T2D; normoglycemic but insulin-resistant subjects with a parental family history (FH(+)) of T2D; and family history-negative control individuals (FH(–)). Actin cytoskeleton genes regulated by serum response factor (SRF) and its coactivator megakaryoblastic leukemia 1 (MKL1) had increased expression in T2D and FH(+) groups.

Thyroid hormone-related regulation of gene expression in human fatty liver.

Context: Fatty liver is an important complication of obesity; however, regulatory mechanisms mediating altered gene expression patterns have not been identified.

Objective: The aim of the study was to identify novel transcriptional changes in human liver that could contribute to hepatic lipid accumulation and associated insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

Design: We evaluated gene expression in surgical liver biopsies from 13 obese (nine with type 2 diabetes) and five control subjects using Affymetrix U133A microarrays.