Publications by authors named "Willems M"

This research investigated the impact of New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) on 2000-meter rowing ergometer performance and cognitive abilities. Nine trained male rowers from Iran's national team participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study, undergoing three sessions with NZBC (600 mg∙day-1), placebo (PL), and control (CL) treatments over seven days, followed by a 14-day washout period. Participants completed a 2000-meter ergometer test provided self-reported ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and completed a cognitive function assessment five minutes following the rowing exercise.

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Oncostatin M (OSM) is a cytokine with the unique ability to interact with both the OSM receptor (OSMR) and the leukemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFR). On the other hand, OSMR interacts with IL31RA to form the interleukin-31 receptor. This intricate network of cytokines and receptors makes it difficult to understand the specific function of OSM.

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Pigmentation is orchestrated by hundreds of genes involved in cellular functions going from early developmental fate of pigment cells to melanin synthesis. The Two Pore Channel 2 (TPC2) a Ca2+ and Na+ channel acidifies melanosomal pH and thus inhibits pigmentation. A young patient was recently reported with generalized hypopigmentation but uneventful ocular examination, caused by the de novo heterozygous TPCN2 variant c.

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Background: Aarskog-Scott syndrome (AAS) is a rare condition with multiple congenital anomalies, caused by hemizygote variants in the gene. Its description was based mostly on old case reports, in whom a molecular diagnosis was not always available, or on small series. The aim of this study was to better delineate the phenotype and the natural history of AAS and to provide clues for the diagnosis and the management of the patients.

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Unlabelled: Intake of New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) extract for 7 days has been shown to improve high-intensity intermittent running (HIIR) performance.

Objectives: We examined the repeat response of NZBC extract on HIIR performance.

Methods: Sixteen active males (age: 23 ± 3 yrs, height: 179 ± 5 cm, mass: 79 ± 11 kg, V˙O: 55.

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New Zealand black currant extract (NZBC) has been shown to increase fat oxidation during exercise and decrease the postexercise blood pressure in men and women. The change in fat oxidation by NZBC has also been shown to be correlated to body composition in men and women. There has never been a comparison of sex responses within the same study.

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Marfan syndrome (MFS) is a well-characterized rare genetic connective tissue disorder. The features of MFS are primarily skeletal, ocular, and cardiovascular and are mainly caused by single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) in the FBN1 gene (MIM#134797) located on chromosome 15q21.1.

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Musculoskeletal modelling pipelines typically use generic models scaled to individual's anthropometry. The ability to represent variations in bone or joint geometry and alignment is highly limited. This may have a large effect, particularly when modelling contact between articular surfaces such as for the knee where articular contact mechanics are used to determine joint kinematics and the resulting cartilage contact pressures and locations.

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Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a powerful model for aging research due to its short lifespan and genetic malleability. Microfluidic devices offer an attractive approach enabling rapid monitoring of hundreds of cells during their entire replicative lifespan (RLS). Yet, key operational issues such as contaminations, cell loss, and cell-aggregates-dependent flow obstruction can hinder RLS experiments.

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Background: In mesothelioma (MPM), clinical evidence indicates that the absolute eosinophil count negatively correlates with overall survival and response to standard chemotherapy. Since eosinophils poorly infiltrate MPM tumours, we hypothesised that endocrine rather than paracrine pathways mediate the therapeutic response. We thus studied the effect of eosinophil-associated factors on response to chemotherapy in mesothelioma.

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Article Synopsis
  • Serum neurofilament light (sNfL) serves as a biomarker for neuro-axonal damage in multiple sclerosis (MS) but its clinical usage is still limited; this study assessed how its implementation affects clinical decisions at the MS Center Amsterdam.
  • Over the study period (August 2021-December 2022), sNfL was evaluated in various contexts, with a notable change in clinical decisions in 19.3% of cases, especially when assessing new symptoms or when higher sNfL levels were present.
  • The findings suggest that integrating sNfL into clinical practice improved decision-making certainty and potentially adjusted expectations regarding MRI activity, indicating its potential value in patient care while calling for further research
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  • - Microtubule affinity-regulating kinase 2 (MARK2) is crucial for neurons to develop properly, and variants in MARK2 have been linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental issues, with most being loss-of-function mutations.
  • - A study analyzed 31 individuals with MARK2 variants showing ASD along with unique facial features, finding that the loss of MARK2 disrupts early neuron development and leads to abnormal growth patterns in neural cells.
  • - Research using iPSC models and MARK2-deficient mice highlighted the link between MARK2 loss and issues in neuronal function, connecting it to the reduction of the WNT/β-catenin signaling pathway, while suggesting lithium as a potential treatment
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DDX17 is an RNA helicase shown to be involved in critical processes during the early phases of neuronal differentiation. Globally, we compiled a case-series of 11 patients with neurodevelopmental phenotypes harbouring de novo monoallelic variants in DDX17. All 11 patients in our case series had a neurodevelopmental phenotype, whereby intellectual disability, delayed speech and language, and motor delay predominated.

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Background: Dysregulation of adipocyte function occurs in obesity. Meteorin-like protein (Metrnl) is a newly discovered modulator of inflammation, metabolism, and differentiation of human adipocytes. The dietary supplement Chlorella Vulgaris (CV) reduces hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, and oxidative stress in clinical trials.

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Objective: To analyze the lymphocyte subsets in individuals with Kabuki syndrome for better characterizing the immunological phenotype of this rare congenital disorder.

Methods: We characterized the immunological profile including B-, T- and natural killer-cell subsets in a series (N = 18) of individuals with Kabuki syndrome.

Results: All 18 individuals underwent genetic analysis: 15 had a variant in KMT2D and 3 a variant in KDM6A.

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New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) is known to alter exercise-induced physiological and metabolic responses with chronic (i.e., 7 days) dosing.

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Article Synopsis
  • Pathogenic variants in a specific gene lead to an autosomal dominant syndrome characterized by developmental delays and heart issues.
  • The study focused on two variants near the splice site of exon 7, which were predicted to either skip exon 7 or activate an alternative splice site, affecting protein function.
  • RNA analysis confirmed these variants led to intron retention, causing a frameshift and early termination of protein translation, emphasizing the need for both predictive and experimental methods to understand genetic variants' impacts.
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Purpose: Valproic acid or valproate is an effective antiepileptic drug; however, embryonic exposure to valproate can result in a teratogenic disorder referred to as fetal valproate syndrome (OMIM #609442). Currently there are no diagnostic biomarkers for the condition. This study aims to define an episignature biomarker for teratogenic antenatal exposure to valproate.

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  • The study investigates how the shape and alignment of the knee joint affect loading during walking in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA), using statistical shape models (SSM).
  • Findings indicate that specific knee joint features, like increased external rotation and reduced medial joint space, contribute to excessive loading on the medial compartment of the knee during gait.
  • The research offers valuable insights that could help assess the risk of developing and progressing medial KOA by linking anatomical knee features to loading patterns.
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Aims: To evaluate the effects of 12-week chlorella vulgaris (CV) combined with interval resistance training (IRT) on plasma levels of leptin, adiponectin and neuregulin-4 (Nrg-4) in obese men.

Methods: Obese men (n = 44, BMI of 32.1 ± 1.

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Article Synopsis
  • Tatton-Brown-Rahman syndrome (TBRS) is a genetic disorder characterized by overgrowth, intellectual disability, and distinct facial features, resulting from mutations in a gene that regulates DNA methylation.* -
  • A study of 24 French patients identified 17 new genetic variants, confirming that 100% showed intellectual disability, 96% had distinctive facial traits, and 87% exhibited overgrowth, alongside novel symptoms like hypertrichosis.* -
  • The findings enhance the understanding of TBRS's clinical presentation, aiding in diagnosis and patient care by clarifying its genetic and phenotypic diversity.*
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Chung-Jansen syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by intellectual disability, behavioral problems, obesity and dysmorphic features. It is caused by pathogenic variants in the PHIP gene that encodes for the Pleckstrin homology domain-interacting protein, which is part of an epigenetic modifier protein complex. Therefore, we hypothesized that PHIP haploinsufficiency may impact genome-wide DNA methylation (DNAm).

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Four weeks before competition in the 2023 Marathon des Sables, a 6-stage, ~250 km running event in the Sahara Desert, we examined the effects of a 7-day intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract (210 mg anthocyanins per day) on 1 h treadmill running-induced physiological and metabolic responses in the heat (~34 °C, relative humidity: ~30%) in non-acclimatized amateur female and male athletes (age: 23, 38 yrs, BMI: 24.2, 28.4 kg·m, body fat%: 29.

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Introduction: Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) have been implicated in multiple pathologic conditions, including atherogenesis, as documented in experimental mice studies, however, their role in atherosclerosis in humans remains unexplored.

Methods: Here, we identify ILCs and their dynamics in early, advanced, and complicated human carotid- and aortic atherosclerotic plaques, using a multiplex immunohistochemical quadruple-staining technique with prototypic transcription factors T-bet, GATA3, or RORgt for identification of the ILC1, ILC2 and ILC3 subsets, respectively, in combination with lineage markers CD3, CD20/ CD79a and CD56 to exclude other lymphoid cell types. ILC subsets were quantified, and to put this in perspective, their numbers were expressed as percentage of the total number of infiltrated lymphoid cells and related to the frequency of conventional T cells, B cells, NK cells, and NKT cells.

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