Accessing Mole-Scanning through Community Pharmacy: A Pilot Service in Collaboration with Dermatology Specialists.

Early identification and treatment of malignant melanoma is crucial to prevent mortality. The aim of this work was to describe the uptake, profile of users and service outcomes of a mole scanning service in the community pharmacy setting in the UK. In addition, health care costs saved from the perspective of general practice were estimated.

Hypothalamic gene expression during voluntary hypophagia in the Sprague-Dawley rat on withdrawal of the palatable liquid diet, Ensure.

Sprague-Dawley rats over-consume calories over a 10 week period and develop diet-induced obesity (c. 100 g body weight differential vs controls) when fed a control pellet diet supplemented with chocolate Ensure liquid. Subsequent withdrawal of Ensure immediately reduces caloric intake by more than 50%, and results in weight loss, despite control pellet being available ad libitum.

Early and persistent up-regulation of hypothalamic orexigenic peptides in rat offspring born to dams fed a high-carbohydrate supplement during gestation.

Maternal diet ingested during gestation can profoundly alter production and action of hypothalamic neuropeptides involved in feeding and body weight regulation. In this study, we set out to simulate, in a rat model, modifications to feeding habit often observed in pregnant women. Gestating dams were fed a restricted normal diet with the opportunity to complete their energy requirements with either a high-fat (HF) or a high-carbohydrate (HC) diet.

Ingestion of Carbohydrate-Rich Supplements during Gestation Programs Insulin and Leptin Resistance but not Body Weight Gain in Adult Rat Offspring.

Prenatal nutritional conditions can predispose to development of obesity and metabolic syndrome in adulthood. Gestation with its important modifications in hormonal status is a period of changes in normal feeding habits with pulses of consumption or avoidance of certain categories of food. We tried to mimic in an animal model some changes in food consumption patterns observed in pregnant women.

Repletion of TNFα or leptin in calorically restricted mice suppresses post-restriction hyperphagia.

The causes of post-restriction hyperphagia (PRH) represent a target for drug-based therapies to prevent obesity. However, the factors causing PRH are poorly understood. We show that, in mice, the extent of PRH was independent of the time under restriction, but depended on its severity, suggesting that PRH was driven by signals from altered body composition.

Photoperiodic regulation of satiety mediating neuropeptides in the brainstem of the seasonal Siberian hamster (Phodopus sungorus).

Central regulation of energy balance in seasonal mammals such as the Siberian hamster is dependent on the precise integration of short-term satiety information arising from the gastrointestinal tract with long-term signals on the status of available energy reserves (e.g. leptin) and prevailing photoperiod.

Programming of hypothalamic neuropeptide gene expression in rats by maternal dietary protein content during pregnancy and lactation.

Epidemiological studies show a link between low birthweight and increased obesity. In contrast, slow growth during the lactation period reduces obesity risk. The present study investigates the potential underlying mechanisms of these observations.

Putting the diet back into diet-induced obesity: diet-induced hypothalamic gene expression.

A wealth of detailed mechanistic information relating to obesity and body weight regulation has emerged from study of single gene mutation models, and continues to be generated by engineered rodent models targeting specific genes. However, as an early step in translational research, many researchers are turning to models of diet-induced obesity. Interpretation of data generated from such models is not aided by the variety of diets and rodent strains employed in these studies and a strong case could be made for rationalisation.

Hypothalamic neuropeptide gene expression during recovery from food restriction superimposed on short-day photoperiod-induced weight loss in the Siberian hamster.

Previously, 40% food restriction of male Siberian hamsters over 21 days in short-day (SD) photoperiod induced characteristic changes in expression of hypothalamic arcuate nucleus energy balance genes; mRNAs for neuropeptide Y, agouti-related peptide, and leptin receptor were upregulated, and those of proopiomelanocortin and cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript were depressed. The present study examined the effect of refeeding hamsters for 6 days (approximately 50% recovery of weight differential) or 19 days (resumption of appropriate weight trajectory). Hyperphagia continued throughout refeeding, but differences in fat pad weights and leptin levels had disappeared after 19 days.

Solid and liquid obesogenic diets induce obesity and counter-regulatory changes in hypothalamic gene expression in juvenile Sprague-Dawley rats.

Contemporary foods and beverages that constitute the diets of adults and children almost certainly contribute to the obesity problem. To develop a model of childhood obesity, we examined the effects of feeding juvenile rats 2 solid diets, either alone or in combination [nonpurified control diet (C), high-energy (HE), or C+HE] with or without the liquid supplement Ensure (EN). Rats were fed C until 4 wk of age and then were assigned to 1 of 6 weight-matched groups that were fed C, HE, C+HE, C+EN, HE+EN, or C+HE+EN for 5 wk.

Hypothalamic thyroid hormone catabolism acts as a gatekeeper for the seasonal control of body weight and reproduction.

Seasonal adaptations in physiology exhibited by many animals involve an interface between biological timing and specific neuroendocrine systems, but the molecular basis of this interface is unknown. In this study of Siberian hamsters, we show that the availability of thyroid hormone within the hypothalamus is a key determinant of seasonal transitions. The expression of the gene encoding type III deiodinase (Dio3) and Dio3 activity in vivo (catabolism of T(4) and T(3)) is dynamically and temporally regulated by photoperiod, consistent with the loss of hypothalamic T(3) concentrations under short photoperiods.

Brain responses to obesogenic diets and diet-induced obesity.

Rodent models of diet-induced obesity (DIO) mimic common human obesity more accurately than obese single-gene mutation lines, such as the ob/ob mouse. Sprague-Dawley rats sourced in the UK develop obesity when fed a high-energy diet, but susceptibility to DIO is normally distributed, as might be anticipated for a polygenic trait in an outbred population, in contrast to reports in the literature using ostensibly the same strain of rats sourced in the USA. Nevertheless, the responses of these rats to solid and liquid obesogenic diets are very similar to those reported elsewhere, and this model of DIO has much to commend it as a vehicle for the mechanistic study of susceptibility to DIO, development and reversal of obesity on solid and liquid diets and the response of peripheral and central energy balance systems to the development of obesity and to the obesogenic diets themselves.

Effect of flavour of liquid Ensure diet supplement on energy intake in male SD rats.

Outbred male Sprague-Dawley rats were provided with one of the four flavours of the liquid diet, Ensure, in addition to chow pellets, to examine whether differences in flavour lead to differences in energy intake i.e. degree of over-consumption.

Regulation of growth hormone secretagogue receptor gene expression in the arcuate nuclei of the rat by leptin and ghrelin.

The anorexigenic and orexigenic hormones leptin and ghrelin act in opposition to one another. When leptin signaling is reduced, as in the Zucker fatty rat, or when circulating ghrelin is increased during fasting, the effect of ghrelin becomes more dominant, indicating an influence of both hormones on ghrelin action. This effect could be mediated via the level of expression of ghrelin receptor (growth hormone secretagogue receptor [GHS-R]).

Hypothalamic gene expression is altered in underweight but obese juvenile male Sprague-Dawley rats fed a high-energy diet.

The incidence of obesity, with its associated health risks, is on the increase throughout the western world affecting all age groups, including children. The typical western diet is high in fat and sugar and low in complex carbohydrates. This study looks at the effects of feeding an equivalent high-energy (HE) diet to growing rats.

Normal distribution of body weight gain in male Sprague-Dawley rats fed a high-energy diet.

Objective: To investigate the effect of a high-energy (HE) diet on caloric intake, body weight, and related parameters in outbred male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats.

Research Methods And Procedures: Twenty-eight SD rats were fed either chow (C) for 19 weeks or HE diet for 14 weeks and then C for 5 weeks. Blood hormones and metabolites were assayed, and expression of uncoupling protein-1 and hypothalamic energy-balance-related genes were determined by Northern blotting and in situ hybridization, respectively.

Hypothalamic gene expression in sheep for cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript, pro-opiomelanocortin, neuropeptide Y, agouti-related peptide and leptin receptor and responses to negative energy balance.

Hypothalamic pathways involved in the regulation of energy balance have not been widely studied in ruminants to date. Here, we used in situ hybridisation to study the gene expression of a number of leptin-sensitive receptors and neuropeptides in the ovine hypothalamus. Gene expression was first localised for cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) and agouti-related peptide (AGRP).

Orexin gene expression and regulation by photoperiod in the sheep hypothalamus.

Hypothalamic orexin gene expression has not been reported in the ruminant. Here, we describe the localization of preproorexin mRNA in the ovine lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) and zona incerta (ZI) using in situ hybridization. The hypothalamic localization of the orexin gene expression was similar in sheep to rodent models.