Combined prognostic value of peak O(2) uptake and microvolt level T-wave alternans in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

Background: Despite the great improvement in clinical management of patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), sudden cardiac death (SCD) and death due to worsening heart failure (HF) remain a challenging problem. The assessment of oxygen consumption (peakVO(2)) has been recognized as an independent marker of mortality. Nevertheless peakVO(2) is not helpful in the risk stratification of SCD.

Advanced glycation end product levels in eye lenses, aorta, and tail tendon in transplanted diabetic inbred Lewis rats.

Background: Pancreatic islet transplantation in diabetes, by restoring euglycemia, should in time correct the abnormal accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) over target tissues, thus delaying the development of late diabetic complications.

Methods: Homologous islet transplantation was performed in inbred Lewis rats 15 days (TA), 4 months (TB), and 8 months (TC) after streptozotocin diabetes. Group TA was studied for 12 months and groups TB and TC were studied for 4 months after transplantation.

Effect of islet transplantation on neuroelectrophysiological abnormalities in diabetic inbred Lewis rats: comparison of primary versus secondary prevention.

Background: Neuroelectrophysiological abnormalities in diabetes indicate nervous function failure. Restoration of euglycemia by islet transplantation may prevent or reverse these abnormalities.

Methods: Pancreatic islets were transplanted in inbred Lewis rats after 15 days (Ta12, primary prevention) or 8 months (Tb12, secondary prevention) from streptozotocin-induced diabetes.

Reduction of advanced glycation end-product (AGE) levels in nervous tissue proteins of diabetic Lewis rats following islet transplants is related to different durations of poor metabolic control.

Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are irreversible compounds which, by abnormally accumulating over proteins as a consequence of diabetic hyperglycaemia, can damage tissues and thus contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. This study was performed to evaluate whether restoration of euglycaemia by islet transplantation modifies AGE accumulation in central and peripheral nervous tissue proteins and, as a comparison, in proteins from a non-nervous tissue. Two groups of streptozotocin diabetic inbred Lewis rats with 4 (T1) or 8 (T2) months disease duration were grafted into the liver via the portal vein with 1200-1500 islets freshly isolated from normal Lewis rats.

Early, but not advanced, glomerulopathy is reversed by pancreatic islet transplants in experimental diabetic rats: correlation with glomerular extracellular matrix mRNA levels.

In this study, we investigated 1) whether long-term restoration of euglycemia by means of pancreatic islet transplants is capable of preventing and/or reversing renal functional and structural alterations in an experimental model of insulin-deficient diabetes, and 2) whether changes in extracellular matrix (ECM) and cell turnover at the glomerular level and biochemical abnormalities associated with hyperglycemia correlate with the renal outcome after transplantation. Male Lewis rats, rendered diabetic by intravenous injection of streptozotocin, underwent homologous islet transplantation via the portal vein at 2 weeks (study A), at 4 months (study B), and at 8 months (study C) after the induction of diabetes and killed 12 months after transplantation in study A and 4 months after transplantation in studies B and C. Age-matched nondiabetic and untreated diabetic rats were used as control animals and were studied at 4, 8, and 12 months.