Osthole improves glucose and lipid metabolism via modulation of PPARα/γ-mediated target gene expression in liver, adipose tissue, and skeletal muscle in fatty liver rats.

Context: Osthole may be a dual agonist of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) α/γ and ameliorate the insulin resistance (IR), but its mechanisms are not yet understood completely.

Objective: We investigated the effects of osthole on PPARα/γ-mediated target genes involved in glucose and lipid metabolism in liver, adipose tissue, and skeletal muscle in fatty liver and IR rats.

Materials And Methods: The rat model was established by orally feeding high-fat and high-sucrose emulsion for 9 weeks.

PPARα/γ agonists and antagonists differently affect hepatic lipid metabolism, oxidative stress and inflammatory cytokine production in steatohepatitic rats.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) α/γ may control lipid metabolism and inflammatory response by regulating the downstream target genes, and play a crucial role in the process of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) formation, but the difference and interaction between PPARα and PPARγ are poorly understood. The rat model with NASH was established by orally feeding high-fat and high-sucrose emulsion for 6weeks. The results shown that after the model rats were simultaneously treated with PPARα/γ agonists, the total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and inflammatory cytokine levels in serum and hepatic tissue, the hepatic steatosis and inflammatory cellular infiltration were decreased, and were consistent with the results of hepatic lipogenic gene and nuclear factor (NF)-κB protein expressions.

Identification of cranial nerves near large vestibular schwannomas using superselective diffusion tensor tractography: experience with 23 cases.

Background: The preservation of the facial nerve (FN) and acoustic function in large vestibular schwannoma (VS) surgery is challenging because of nerve course uncertainties and morphological deviations. Preoperative diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) has been proposed to predict the FN location. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this technique for identifying the FN, cochlear nerve (CN) and trigeminal nerve (TN) in large VSs.

Highly sensitive and selective fluorescent chemosensor for Ni(2+) based on a new poly(arylene ether) with terpyridine substituent groups.

A new poly(arylene ether) (PAET) with terpyridine substituent groups has been synthesized which shows a turn-off fluorescent response in the presence of Ni(2+) over other cations and allows discrimination of these cations from each other on the basis of the extent of quenching.

Lipid signal in evaluation of intracranial meningiomas.

Background: Using magnetic resonance imaging, diagnosis of malignant meningioma from benign meningioma with atypical features is uncertain. We evaluated the value of lipid signal in differentiating intracranial meningiomas.

Methods: 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) using a point resolved spectroscopy (TR/TE 1000/144 ms) sequences were performed on 34 patients on a 3.