Topic Review
β-Glucan
β-glucans are complex polysaccharides that are found in several plants and foods, including mushrooms. β-glucans display an array of potentially therapeutic properties. 
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  • 07 Feb 2021
Topic Review
β-Cell Regeneration
β-cell number and/or function is reduced in diabetes. Thus, inducing the formation of new β-cells has been a major goal of diabetes research. However, the pathway(s) by which new β-cells form when preexisting β-cells are decreased in number or cease to function has remained obscure. Many pathways have been proposed, but definitive evidence, particularly in humans, has been lacking. Replication of preexisting β-cells, neogenesis from ducts, redifferentiation from β-cells that dedifferentiated under metabolic stress, and transdifferentiation from other cell types, particularly within the islet, are the major mechanisms that have been proposed for generating increased numbers of functional β-cells. 
  • 326
  • 14 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Xenoestrogens and Phytoestrogens in Cancers
According to Global Cancer Statistics 2020, the burden of cancer incidence and mortality is rapidly growing worldwide. The epidemiological features of cancer reflect both the aging and growth of the population and the changes in the prevalence and distribution of the main cancer risk factors, several of which are particularly associated with the environment. Exogenous estrogens, such as synthetic industrial estrogenic compounds (xenoestrogens) and estrogenic molecules from plants (phytoestrogens), are environmental factors that potentially cause various cancers through their interactions with cellular signaling processes involving estrogen signaling pathways.
  • 385
  • 25 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Wnt Signaling to Vascular Complications in T2DM
Vascular complications are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). These vascular abnormalities result in a chronic hyperglycemic state, which influences many signaling molecular pathways that initially lead to increased oxidative stress, increased inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction, leading to both microvascular and macrovascular complications. Endothelial dysfunction represents the initial stage in both types of vascular complications; it represents “mandatory damage” in the development of microvascular complications and only “introductory damage” in the development of macrovascular complications. Increasing scientific evidence has revealed an important role of the Wnt pathway in the pathophysiology of the vascular wall. It is well known that the Wnt pathway is altered in patients with T2DM. 
  • 387
  • 04 Jul 2022
Topic Review
White Fat Browning Associate with Obesity
Obesity is negatively associated with the increase in social productivity and endangers people’s health. It is caused by the excessive energy consumption as well as the collection and an excessive level of triglycerides and lipids, which are stored in adipocytes.  Studying the signal transduction pathways of the white fat browning might provide novel ideas for the treatment of obesity and alleviation of obesity-related glucose and lipid metabolism disorders.
  • 549
  • 26 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Vitamin D in the Context of Evolution
For at least 1.2 billion years, eukaryotes have been able to synthesize sterols and, therefore, can produce vitamin D when exposed to UV-B. Vitamin D endocrinology was established some 550 million years ago in animals, when the high-affinity nuclear receptor VDR (vitamin D receptor), transport proteins and enzymes for vitamin D metabolism evolved. This enabled vitamin D to regulate, via its target genes, physiological process, the first of which were detoxification and energy metabolism. In this way, vitamin D was enabled to modulate the energy-consuming processes of the innate immune system in its fight against microbes. In the evolving adaptive immune system, vitamin D started to act as a negative regulator of growth, which prevents overboarding reactions of T cells in the context of autoimmune diseases. When, some 400 million years ago, species left the ocean and were exposed to gravitation, vitamin D endocrinology took over the additional role as a major regulator of calcium homeostasis, being important for a stable skeleton.
  • 294
  • 29 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Vitamin D in Cardiovascular Risk and Disease
Beyond its key role in calcium homeostasis, vitamin D has been found to significantly affect the cardiovascular (CV) system. In fact, low vitamin D levels have been associated with increased CV risk, as well as increased CV morbidity and mortality. The majority of effects of this molecule are related directly or indirectly to its antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. Generally, vitamin D insufficiency is considered for 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels between 21–29 ng/mL (corresponding to 52.5–72.5 nmol/L), deficiency as 25(OH)D levels less than 20 ng/mL (<50 nmol/L), and extreme deficiency as 25(OH)D less than 10 ng/mL (<25 nmol/L). However, the definition of an optimal vitamin D status, as defined by 25(OH)D, remains controversial for many extra-bone conditions, including CV disease. 
  • 209
  • 15 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Vitamin D Deficiency
Vitamin D was found to counteract insulin resistance via  participation in the maintenance of normal resting reactive oxygen species level and regulation of Ca2+ level in many cell types. Both genomic and non-genomic action of vitamin D is directed to insulin signaling. Thereby, vitamin D  reduces the extent of pathologies associated with insulin resistance such as oxidative stress and inflammation. Therefore, the beneficial actions of vitamin D include an improvement of glucose and lipid metabolism in insulin-sensitive tissues, and in consequence the diminish of insulin resistance.
  • 1.0K
  • 30 Sep 2020
Topic Review
Vitamin D and SIRT1 in Non-Communicable Diseases
Vitamin D and SIRT1 have direct and indirect influence of the regulation of transcription and epigenetic changes and are related to cytoplasmic signaling pathways such as PLC/DAG/IP3/PKC/MAPK, MEK/Erk, insulin/mTOR/cell growth, proliferation; leptin/PI3K-Akt-mTORC1, Akt/NFĸB/COX-2, NFĸB/TNFα, IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, and AMPK/PGC-1α/GLUT4, among others. Several vitamin D metabolites are generated in the liver, the kidney, and in other tissue types, which are then excreted in the urine. The most investigated and important forms are 24-hydroxylated (i.e., 24,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, 1,24,25-trihydroxyvitamin D3); these forms are converted from 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, respectively. CYP24A1 24-hydroxylase enzyme, which is responsible for these conversions—similarly to CYP27B1, a multicomponent enzyme in the mitochondria—is regulated by calcium, phosphorus, and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 through VDR, the receptor of vitamin D. Long-term imbalance in this system or an inappropriate amount of cytochrome P450 enzymes—which control the production, regulation, and degradation of vitamin D—can cause vitamin D insufficiency-related diseases. Thus, abnormally elevated levels of CYP24A1 can create a deficit in vitamin D levels, since this enzyme is uniquely responsible for the catabolism of vitamin D. Elevated levels of CYP24A1 are observed in breast, prostate, esophageal, colon, and lung cancers, genetically linked hypophosphatemia, diabetic nephropathy, and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Deficiency of vitamin D can also develop due to an inadequate amount of sun exposure and insufficient nutritional supplementation, or it can appear as a result of certain diseases, e.g., diabetes, cancer, chronic kidney disease, or genetically linked hypophosphatemia.
  • 300
  • 28 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Viruses and Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is characterised by the chronic immune-mediated destruction of pancreatic β-cells, with affected individuals requiring lifelong exogenous insulin. An interplay between genetics and environmental factors such as the virome is suggested to regulate immune tolerance, with environmental, lifestyle or dietary exposures currently being investigated as either accelerating or protective. The hypothesised role of viral infections in the initiation of IA and the progression to T1D is supported by a large body of epidemiological and animal model-based evidence, beginning almost a century ago.
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  • 03 Aug 2021
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