Minimizing artifactual elevation of lipid peroxidation products (F2-isoprostanes) in plasma during collection and storage.

F2-isoprostanes (F2-IsoP's) are reliable measures of in vivo lipid oxidation, but care is required to prevent artifactual elevation. We examined the effects of blood collection and storage on plasma F2-IsoP's. Blood was collected into EDTA/butylated hydroxytoluene/reduced glutathione (EDTA/BHT/GSH) or EDTA, at 4 °C or room temperature.

Moderators and mediators of behaviour change in a lifestyle program for treated hypertensives: a randomized controlled trial (ADAPT).

We aimed to examine moderators and mediators of behaviour change in a cognitive lifestyle program for drug-treated overweight hypertensives in Perth, Australia. We collected data at baseline, 4 months (post-intervention) and 1-year follow-up in a randomized controlled trial of a program that focused on weight loss, diet, and exercise. Mediation analysis used regression models that estimate indirect effects with bootstrapped confidence limits.

Dissociated flexor digitorum brevis myofiber culture system--a more mature muscle culture system.

Considerable knowledge regarding skeletal muscle physiology and disease has been gleaned from cultured myoblastic cell lines or isolated primary myoblasts. Such muscle cultures can be induced to differentiate into multinucleated myotubes that become striated. However they in general do not fully mature and therefore do not model mature muscle.

Changes in cognitive measures associated with a lifestyle program for treated hypertensives: a randomized controlled trial (ADAPT).

Cognitive changes are reported infrequently in programs targeting cardiovascular risk. We examined self-efficacy, behavioral barriers and health beliefs in a lifestyle program for drug-treated hypertensives that aimed to reduce blood pressure, antihypertensive drug needs and cardiovascular risk. In a randomized controlled trial, we compared usual care (controls) and a 4-month program focusing on weight loss, diet and exercise.

Long-term follow-up of participants in a health promotion program for treated hypertensives (ADAPT).

Background And Aims: Improvements in a lifestyle modification program for hypertensives were maintained 1 year later. Longer follow-up in such studies is limited; we therefore re-assessed participants after an additional 2 years in which there was no contact with program facilitators.

Methods And Results: Participants randomised to usual care (N=118) or a 4-month lifestyle program (N=123) were previously assessed after 4 months and 1 year.

A lifestyle program for treated hypertensives improved health-related behaviors and cardiovascular risk factors, a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To assess effects of a cognitively based program on health-related behaviors and cardiovascular risk factors in overweight drug-treated hypertensives.

Study Design And Setting: In a clinical trials center, volunteers, recruited by advertisement, were randomized to usual care (N=118) or to a 4-month program (N=123) incorporating weight loss; a low-sodium diet, high in fruit, vegetables, and fish; and increased physical activity. Diet, physical activity, weight, blood lipids, glucose, and insulin were measured at 4 and 16 months.

Novel slow-skeletal myosin (MYH7) mutation in the original myosin storage myopathy kindred.

Myosin storage myopathy (OMIM 608358), a congenital myopathy characterised by subsarcolemmal, hyaline-like accumulations of myosin in Type I muscle fibres, was first described by Cancilla and Colleagues in 1971 [Neurology 1971;21:579-585] in two siblings as 'familial myopathy with probable lysis of myofibrils in type I muscle fibres'. Two mutations in the slow skeletal myosin heavy chain gene (MYH7) have recently been associated with the disease in other families. We have identified a novel heterozygous Leu1793Pro mutation in MYH7 in DNA from paraffin sections of one of the original siblings.

Cloning and characterization of a novel zinc finger protein (rZFP96) in the rat corpus luteum.

The corpus luteum (CL) is a temporary organ involved in the maintenance of pregnancy. In the course of its life-cycle, the CL undergoes two distinct and consecutive processes for its inevitable removal through apoptosis: functional and structural luteolysis. We isolated a gene encoding for a novel rat zinc finger protein (ZFP), named rat ZFP96 (rZFP96) from an ovarian lambda cDNA library.

When contractile proteins go bad: the sarcomere and skeletal muscle disease.

The sarcomere is the functional unit of striated muscle contraction. Mutations in sarcomeric proteins are now known to cause around 20 different skeletal muscle diseases. The diseases vary in severity from paralysis at birth, to mild conditions compatible with normal life span.

Effects of a lifestyle programme on ambulatory blood pressure and drug dosage in treated hypertensive patients: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To assess effects of multifactorial lifestyle modification on antihypertensive drug needs in treated hypertensive individuals.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Research studies unit.

The combination of vitamin C and grape-seed polyphenols increases blood pressure: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: There is growing evidence that oxidative stress contributes to the pathogenesis of hypertension and endothelial dysfunction. Thus, dietary antioxidants may beneficially influence blood pressure (BP) and endothelial function by reducing oxidative stress.

Objective: To determine if vitamin C and polyphenols, alone or in combination, can lower BP, improve endothelial function and reduce oxidative stress in hypertensive individuals.

Hypertension research in the 21st century: where is the gold?

This paper presents a signpost for hypertension research, emphasizing areas most likely to yield major clinical and public health benefits. Specific questions are posed in the context of fetal and maternal precursors of cardiovascular disease, vascular biology, resistant hypertension, antihypertensive drugs, primary aldosteronism, lifestyle and genetic interactions and translational research. Worldwide increasing rates of obesity and diabetes demonstrate the need for a global approach to cardiovascular risk and the need for more effective use of existing knowledge.

Direct effects of interleukin-6 on liver progenitor oval cells in culture.

Following acute injury, liver is usually regenerated from hepatocytes by a process that is dependent on interleukin (IL)-6. If this pathway is impaired, restoration of the liver mass and ultimately the survival of the animal are dependent on recruitment of cells from a precursor cell population, either a stem cell or an oval cell. Importantly, oval cells are also implicated in tumorigenesis.

G2 cell cycle arrest, down-regulation of cyclin B, and induction of mitotic catastrophe by the flavoprotein inhibitor diphenyleneiodonium.

Because proliferation of eukaryotic cells requires cell cycle-regulated chromatid separation by the mitotic spindle, it is subject to regulation by mitotic checkpoints. To determine the mechanism of the antiproliferative activity of the flavoprotein-specific inhibitor diphenyleneiodonium (DPI), I have examined its effect on the cell cycle and mitosis. Similar to paclitaxel, exposure to DPI causes an accumulation of cells with a 4N DNA content.

Associations between blood pressure and overweight defined by new standards for body mass index in childhood.

Background: Using data from a longitudinal study of young Australians, we applied recent international standards for overweight and obesity to examine associations with blood pressure (BP) and to determine the prevalence and degree of tracking of overweight and obesity. We also aimed to examine socioeconomic status in relation to these variables.

Methods: BP, height, and weight were measured at 3-year intervals from age 9 to 18, and then at 25 years of age in a Western Australian cohort.

Fate of multipotent neural precursor cells transplanted into mouse retina selectively depleted of retinal ganglion cells.

In some parts of the CNS, depletion of a particular class of neuron might induce changes in the microenvironment that influence the differentiation of newly grafted neural precursor cells. This hypothesis was tested in the retina by inducing apoptotic retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death in neonatal and adult female mice and examining whether intravitreally grafted male neural precursor cells (C17.2), a neural stem cell (NSC)-like clonal line, become incorporated into these selectively depleted retinae.

Effect of a statin on hepatic apolipoprotein B-100 secretion and plasma campesterol levels in the metabolic syndrome.

Objective: We aimed to study the effect of atorvastatin, a statin, on cholesterol synthesis and absorption and VLDL-apoB metabolism in obese men with the metabolic syndrome.

Methods: A total of 25 dyslipidaemic obese men were randomized to atorvastatin (n=13) (40 mg/day) or matching placebo (n=12) for 6 weeks. Hepatic secretion and fractional catabolic rate (FCR) of VLDL-apoB was measured using an intravenous bolus of d(3)-leucine before and after treatment.

Measurement and application of arterial stiffness in clinical research: focus on new methodologies and diabetes mellitus.

The excess risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus remains largely unexplained. Arterial stiffness, an early feature of diabetic vasculopathy involving several mechanisms, results in impaired arterial compliance, and has recently been proposed as a powerful independent predictor of cardiovascular disease. Increased arterial stiffness can contribute to the development and progression of hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy and dysfunction, and to decreased myocardial perfusion, all of which are highly prevalent in Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonists inhibit basal as well as low-density lipoprotein and platelet-activating factor-stimulated human monocyte chemoattractant protein-1.

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is a potent chemotactic agent for monocytes and other cells and is thought to be involved in atherosclerosis, recruiting monocytes to the subendothelial space or to the site of inflammation. Angiotensin II has been demonstrated, at least in animal models, to stimulate MCP-1 expression. We investigated the effect of the angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor antagonists irbesartan and losartan on MCP-1 production by freshly isolated human monocytes.

Randomized controlled trial of the effect of n-3 fatty acid supplementation on the metabolism of apolipoprotein B-100 and chylomicron remnants in men with visceral obesity.

Background: Lipid abnormalities may contribute to the increased risk of atherosclerosis and coronary disease in visceral obesity. Fish oils lower plasma triacylglycerols, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood.

Objective: We studied the effect of fish oils on the metabolism of apolipoprotein B-100 (apo B) and chylomicron remnants in obese men.

Development of visual projections follows an avian/mammalian-like sequence in the lizard Ctenophorus ornatus.

Development of primary visual projections was examined in a lizard Ctenophorus ornatus by anterograde and retrograde tracing with DiI and by GAP-43 immunohistochemistry. Visual pathway development was essentially similar to that in birds and mammals and thus differed from patterns in fish or amphibians. A number of features characterised the development as mammalian-like.

Role of automated measurements in understanding lifestyle effects on blood pressure.

Ambulatory measurements are increasingly used to evaluate the effects of different aspects of lifestyle on blood pressure. Such measurements provide greater statistical power than casual measurements and are particularly useful for assessing diurnal variations, 24-hour load and variability, and both acute and sustained effects of common behaviours. Concomitant heart rate and biochemical and genetic measurements can provide clues as to the mechanisms underlying the effects of lifestyle on blood pressure in different target populations.