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Topic Review
Diagnosis of Iron Deficiency Anaemia
Iron deficiency is a condition that results from long-term depletion of iron stores. It has several causes including haemorrhage, inadequate dietary intake and malabsorption syndromes.
  • 619
  • 12 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Berberine in Diabetes and Related Complications Treatment
Berberine (BBR) is an isoquinoline alkaloid that can be extracted from herbs such as Coptis, Phellodendron, and Berberis. BBR has been widely used as a folk medicine to treat various disorders. It is a multi-target drug with multiple mechanisms. Studies have shown that it has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and can also adjust intestinal microbial flora. 
  • 611
  • 12 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Adiponectin during Pregnancy and Gestational Diabetes
Pregnancy involves a range of metabolic adaptations to supply adequate energy for fetal growth and development. Gestational diabetes (GDM) is defined as hyperglycemia with first onset during pregnancy. GDM is a recognized risk factor for both pregnancy complications and long-term maternal and offspring risk of cardiometabolic disease development. Pregnancy changes maternal metabolism, GDM can be viewed as a maladaptation by maternal systems to pregnancy, which may include mechanisms such as insufficient insulin secretion, dysregulated hepatic glucose output, mitochondrial dysfunction and lipotoxicity. Adiponectin is an adipose-tissue-derived adipokine that circulates in the body and regulates a diverse range of physiologic mechanisms including energy metabolism and insulin sensitivity. In pregnant women, circulating adiponectin levels decrease correspondingly with insulin sensitivity, and adiponectin levels are low in GDM.
  • 610
  • 21 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Effects of Physical Activity and Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is one of the most widespread diseases worldwide. Lifestyle interventions, including diet and physical activity (PA), are fundamental non-pharmacological components of T2DM therapy. Exercise interventions are strongly recommended for people with or at risk of developing or already with overt diabetes, but adherence to PA guidelines in this population is still challenging. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of T2DM patients, driven by differing residual β-cell functionality, as well as the possibility of practicing different types and intensities of PA, has led to the need to develop tailored exercise and training plans.
  • 606
  • 17 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Complications of Obesity in Children
The increasing incidence of obesity in the pediatric population requires attention to its serious complications. It turns out that in addition to typical, well-known metabolic complications, obesity as a systemic disease carries the risk of equally serious, although less obvious, non-metabolic complications, such as cardiovascular diseases, polycystic ovary syndrome, chronic kidney disease, asthma, thyroid dysfunction, immunologic and dermatologic conditions, and mental health problems. They can affect almost all systems of the young body and also leave their mark in adulthood. In addition, obesity also contributes to the exacerbation of existing childhood diseases. 
  • 606
  • 28 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Autocrine IGF-II-Associated Cancers
The paraneoplastic syndrome referred in the literature as non-islet-cell tumor hypoglycemia (NICTH) and extra-pancreatic tumor hypoglycemia (EPTH) was first reported almost a century ago, and the role of cancer-secreted IGF-II in causing this blood glucose-lowering condition has been widely established. The landscape emerging, based on molecular and cellular findings, supports a broader role for IGF-II in cancer biology beyond its involvement in the paraneoplastic syndrome. In particular, a few key findings are constantly observed during tumorigenesis, (a) a relative and absolute increase in fetal insulin receptor isoform (IRA) content, with (b) an increase in IGF-II high-molecular weight cancer-variants (big-IGF-II), and (c) a stage-progressive increase in the IGF-II autocrine signal in the cancer cell, mostly during the transition from benign to malignant growth. An increasing and still under-exploited combinatorial pattern of the IGF-II signal in cancer is shaping up in the literature with respect to its transducing receptorial system and effector intracellular network. Interestingly, while surgical and clinical reports have traditionally restricted IGF-II secretion to a small number of solid malignancies displaying paraneoplastic hypoglycemia, a retrospective literature analysis, along with publicly available expression data from patient-derived cancer cell lines conveyed in the present perspective, clearly suggests that IGF-II expression in cancer is a much more common event, especially in overt malignancy.
  • 603
  • 08 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Regulators of Lipid Metabolism and Bone Marrow Adiposity
A variety of metabolic disorders are associated with a decrease in estradiol (E2) during natural or surgical menopause. Postmenopausal women are prone to excessive fat accumulation in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue due to the loss of E2 via abnormalities in lipid metabolism and serum lipid levels. In skeletal muscle and adipose tissue, genes related to energy metabolism and fatty acid oxidation, such as those encoding peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) and estrogen-related receptor alpha (ERRα), are downregulated, leading to increased fat synthesis and lipid metabolite accumulation. The same genes regulate lipid metabolism abnormalities in the bone marrow.
  • 596
  • 06 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Animal Model of Diabetes: Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rats
Laboratory Zucker Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) rat are derived from the Zucker Fatty strain. A spontaneous mutation that occurred in Zucker Fatty (ZF) rats resulted in a diabetic phenotype. The inbreeding of ZF rats carrying the desired mutation led to the development of a new strain called the Zucker Diabetic Fatty strain. The polyphenolic compounds analyzed in studies conducted using this animal model include pomegranate extracts and cocoa flavonols.
  • 595
  • 28 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Thyroid Hormone Activity in the Brain
Thyroid hormones (THs) are essential in normal brain development, and cognitive and emotional functions. THs act through a cascade of events including uptake by the target cells by specific cell membrane transporters, activation or inactivation by deiodinase enzymes, and interaction with nuclear thyroid hormone receptors. Several thyroid responsive genes have been described in the developing and in the adult brain and many studies have demonstrated a systemic or local reduction in TH availability in neurologic disease and after brain injury.
  • 591
  • 22 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Microvasculature Insulin Resistance in Skeletal Muscle
Insulin is a vascular hormone and regulates vascular tone and reactivity. Muscle is a major insulin target that is responsible for the majority of insulin-stimulated glucose use. Evidence confirms that muscle microvasculature is an important insulin action site and critically regulates insulin delivery to muscle and action on myocytes, thereby affecting insulin-mediated glucose disposal. Insulin via activation of its signaling cascade in the endothelial cells increases muscle microvascular perfusion, which leads to an expansion of the endothelial exchange surface area. Insulin’s microvascular actions closely couple with its metabolic actions in muscle and blockade of insulin-mediated microvascular perfusion reduces insulin-stimulated muscle glucose disposal.
  • 585
  • 15 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Rosmarinic Acid in Diabetes Mellitus and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Rosmarinic acid (RA) is a naturally occurring polyphenolic compound found in various plants. It belongs to the class of compounds known as phenolic acids, and is a derivative of caffeic acid and related to other bioactive compounds such as flavonoids. Polyphenolic compounds are highly effective against numerous diseases, such as peptic ulcers, carcinogenesis, ischaemic heart disease, tumour cell proliferation, hyperglycaemia, atherosclerosis, apoptosis, etc. Polyphenols demonstrate potent capabilities as anti-inflammatory, antiallergy, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiviral, and anticancer agents. RA is a functional component of numerous medicinal plants. Various studies have demonstrated a wide range of biological activities associated with RA.
  • 580
  • 25 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Obesity as a Circadian Disease
Obesity and other metabolic diseases are major public health issues that are particularly prevalent in industrialized societies where circadian rhythmicity is disturbed by shift work, jet lag, and/or social obligations. In mammals, daylight entrains the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) to a ≈24 h cycle by initiating a transcription/translation feedback loop (TTFL) of molecular clock genes. The downstream impacts of the TTFL on clock-controlled genes allow the SCN to set the rhythm for the majority of physiological, metabolic, and behavioral processes. The TTFL, however, is ubiquitous and oscillates in tissues throughout the body. Tissues outside of the SCN are entrained to other signals, such as fed/fasting state, rather than light input. This system requires a considerable amount of biological flexibility as it functions to maintain homeostasis across varying conditions contained within a 24 h day. In the face of either circadian disruption (e.g., jet lag and shift work) or an obesity-induced decrease in metabolic flexibility, this finely tuned mechanism breaks down. Indeed, both human and rodent studies have found that obesity and metabolic disease develop when endogenous circadian pacing is at odds with the external cues.
  • 576
  • 18 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter-2 Inhibitors on Diuretic Resistance in HF
Heart failure (HF) is a chronic disorder of the cardiovascular (CV) system and remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors are beneficial for patients suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) or established cardiovascular disease (CVD), mainly HF, by reducing CVD-related morbidity and mortality.
  • 566
  • 26 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Glucose-Lowering Therapy beyond Insulin in Type 1 Diabetes
The incidence and prevalence of Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is continuously increasing. According to estimates, it affects 15 out of 100,000 persons globally, displaying the highest rates in North America and Scandinavian countries and the lowest in Africa, however, the paucity of data in particular in low- and middle-income countries as well as the considerable number of potentially misclassified types of diabetes might impede reliable estimates.
  • 564
  • 17 Jun 2022
Topic Review
microRNA in Endocrine Disruptor-Induced Immunomodulation of Metabolic Health
Deteriorated metabolic health is rapidly becoming a serious public health burden across all genders, ages, and socioeconomic groups. Obesity is one of the leading causes of death, which impacts 35% of the US population and is predicted to increase to 42% by 2030. Additionally, medical expenditures for obesity-related conditions are expected to exceed 1 trillion USD by 2025. It is evident that the effort to treat and prevent obesity still requires improvement. Obesity has been primarily attributed to overnutrition, sedentary lifestyle, and genetic inheritance; however, it is unlikely that these are the only factors responsible for this exponential rise of the epidemic in recent years. Emerging evidence suggests that chronic exposure to environmental chemicals may contribute to the rapid rise in the prevalence of metabolic disorders. Additionally, disturbances during crucial developmental windows can promote subtle changes in gene expression, leading to modifications in biological and molecular processes. Ultimately, these modifications alter the developmental trajectory, leaving permanent, long-lasting metabolic dysfunction that may persist from adolescence to subsequent generations.
  • 560
  • 11 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Diabesity and Dietary Interventions
Diabesity, the intersection of obesity and diabetes, presents a global health crisis with profound implications. Addressing diabesity requires multifaceted strategies, with diet playing a pivotal role. 
  • 532
  • 28 Dec 2023
Topic Review
CKD Interplay with Comorbidities and Carbohydrate Metabolism
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) poses a global health challenge, engendering various physiological and metabolic shifts that significantly impact health and escalate the susceptibility to severe illnesses. It is impacting populations worldwide causing health complications and increasing the risk of serious illnesses, with high mortality rates. CKD is associated with different complex deleterious changes in a patient’s physiology and metabolic activity. They include deteriorating function and/or subsequent kidney failure, uremia, irregularities in metabolism of amino acid, lipids, minerals, and homocysteine (leads to malnutrition, anemia, vitamin deficiency, dementia, stroke and heart diseases), metabolic acidosis, insulin resistance, inflammatory and oxidative stress, dysfunction of skeletal muscle and many more. Further, other diseases or disease-causing factors (diabetes and hypertension) which coexist within CKD are associated with deteriorating the health and mortality.
  • 524
  • 09 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Adipokines in the Control of Pituitary Functions
The pituitary gland is a key endocrine gland in all classes of vertebrates, including mammals. The pituitary gland is an important component of hypothalamus–pituitary–target organ hormonal regulatory axes and forms a functional link between the nervous system and the endocrine system. In response to hypothalamic stimuli, the pituitary gland secretes a number of hormones involved in the regulation of metabolism, stress reactions and environmental adaptation, growth and development, as well as reproductive processes and lactation. In turn, hormones secreted by target organs at the lowest levels of the hormonal regulatory axes regulate the functions of the pituitary gland in the process of hormonal feedback. The pituitary also responds to other peripheral signals, including adipose-tissue-derived factors. These substances are a broad group of peptides known as adipocytokines or adipokines that act as endocrine hormones mainly involved in energy homeostasis. Adipokines, including adiponectin, resistin, apelin, chemerin, visfatin, and irisin, are also expressed in the pituitary gland, and they influence the secretory functions of this gland.
  • 522
  • 01 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Apelin/APJ System and Oxidative Stress
Oxidative stress is a condition characterized by an excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells and tissues, which overwhelms the normal dynamic homeostasis and the ability of a biological system to detoxify them. The imbalance between ROS and antioxidants exerts harmful effects on several cellular structures (proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids) and processes (protein phosphorylation, transcriptional factors activation, apoptosis, differentiation, and immunity), thus leading to cell and tissue damage. Mitochondria are the major intracellular site of energy metabolism regulation and therefore they are heavily involved in ROS production. Both enzymatic and non-enzymatic (oxygen reaction with organic compounds, cell exposure to ionizing radiations, mitochondrial respiration) reactions participate in ROS generation from both endogenous (inflammation, ischemia, immune cell activation, infections, cancer, aging) and exogenous (chemical drugs and solvents, smoke, radiations, alcohol) sources. As a consequence of apelin/APJ system characterization and evidence of its involvement in the regulation of many intracellular pathways and cell functions, it was not long before there was a demonstration of a close link between this axis and oxidative stress. In fact, not only the myocardial APLN gene expression and protein secretion have been shown to be upregulated by hypoxia via activation of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), but the crucial role of apelin in regulating oxidative stress-related processes was also revealed in many tissues and pathological conditions.
  • 519
  • 07 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Role of POMC Derivatives in Cardiovascular Function
Myocardial infarction (MI) is a significant contributor to CVD-related mortality. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a risk factor for MI. Stress activates the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA axis), sympathetic nervous system (SNS), and endogenous OPS. These pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) derivatives increase the blood glucose and cardiovascular response by inhibiting the PI3K/AkT insulin signaling pathway and increasing cardiac contraction. Sustained activation of the POMC derivatives may lead to developing myocardial infarction. Suffering from T2DM and stress increases the risk of developing CVD. T2DM is preceded by prediabetes, which is a state of blood glucose level being above normal but below the level of T2DM diagnosis. Research has shown that T2DM-related complications begin during prediabetes; therefore, there is a possibility of the dysregulation of the POMC derivatives during prediabetes and pathways that could lead to myocardial infarction.
  • 493
  • 17 Feb 2024
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