Diagnosing and treating diabetic foot infections.

Foot infections are a common, complex and costly complication of diabetes. We have made considerable progress in establishing consensus definitions for defining infection. Similarly, we have learned much about the appropriate ways to diagnose both soft tissue and bone infections.

Expression of cytokine and chemokine mRNA and secretion of tumor necrosis factor-alpha by gallbladder epithelial cells: response to bacterial lipopolysaccharides.

Background: In addition to immune cells, many other cell types are known to produce cytokines. Cultured normal mouse gallbladder epithelial cells, used as a model system for gallbladder epithelium, were examined for their ability to express the mRNA of various cytokines and chemokines in response to bacterial lipopolysaccharide. The synthesis and secretion of the tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) protein by these cells was also measured.

Oophorectomy promotes islet amyloid formation in a transgenic mouse model of Type II diabetes.

Aims/hypothesis: In Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus, amyloid depletes islet mass. We previously found that 81% of male human islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) transgenic mice but only 11% of female mice developed islet amyloid, suggesting that either testosterone promotes or ovarian products protect against amyloid deposition.

Methods: We did a bilateral oophorectomy or sham procedure in female human IAPP transgenic mice (n = 11 and n = 8, respectively) and in female non-transgenic mice (n = 7 and n = 9, respectively) at 6-8 weeks of age.

Validation of whole-body magnetic resonance spectroscopy as a tool to assess murine body composition.

Objective: To evaluate proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) as a tool for the non-invasive assessment of murine body composition.

Design: Twenty C57/BL6 male mice with a wide range of body adiposities underwent both pre- and post-mortem whole-body MRS to assess body composition. MRS measures were compared to the results obtained by chemical carcass analysis, the current 'gold standard' for determination of body composition.

Sparfloxacin versus ciprofloxacin for the treatment of community-acquired, complicated skin and skin-structure infections.

Fluoroquinolones have been shown to be effective in the treatment of complicated skin and skin-structure infections, in part because of their broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against causative pathogens that are resistant to older antimicrobial agents. We enrolled 603 adult patients (>58% male, >85% white) in a double-masked, double-dummy, randomized, multicenter trial to compare the efficacy and tolerability of sparfloxacin (400-mg loading dose followed by 200 mg once daily) with those of ciprofloxacin (750 mg twice daily) for 10 days in the treatment of community-acquired, complicated skin and skin-structure infections. The primary efficacy variable was clinical response, based on assessment of signs and symptoms, in the clinically assessable population.

Safety profile of sparfloxacin, a new fluoroquinolone antibiotic.

The safety profile of sparfloxacin, a newer fluoroquinolone antibiotic, was examined through an integrated analysis of safety data from 6 multicenter phase III trials. These consisted of 5 double-masked, randomized, comparative trials of sparfloxacin (a 400-mg oral loading dose followed by 200 mg/d for 10 days) versus standard therapies (erythromycin, cefaclor, ofloxacin, clarithromycin, and ciprofloxacin) and I open-label trial (noncomparative) in patients with: community-acquired pneumonia (2 trials); acute bacterial exacerbations of chronic bronchitis (1 trial); acute maxillary sinusitis (2 trials, one of which was the noncomparative trial); and complicated skin and skin-structure infections (1 trial). Overall, 401 (25.

Reduced amylin release is a characteristic of impaired glucose tolerance and type 2 diabetes in Japanese Americans.

Islet amyloid is a characteristic feature of type 2 diabetes. Its major component is the normal beta-cell secretory product amylin, or islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP). To determine whether increased or disproportionate release of amylin may explain the propensity for amyloid deposition in type 2 diabetes, we measured plasma amylin-like immunoreactivity (ALI) and immunoreactive insulin (IRI) release in response to an oral glucose load in 94 Japanese-American subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT; n=56), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT; n=10), and type 2 diabetes (n=28) as defined by World Health Organization criteria.