The prevalence of obesity has been increasing worldwide and has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, where well over 20% of the population have a body mass index (BMI) within the obese range. Obesity is associated with a wide spectrum of obstetric and perinatal complications, including increased risks of ...

Collagen XVIII can generate two fragments, NC11-728 containing a frizzled motif which possibly acts in Wnt signaling and Endostatin, which is cleaved from the NC1 and is a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis. Collagen XVIII and Wnt signaling have recently been associated with adipogenic differentiation and obesity in some animal models, ...

Obesity satisfies several criteria for a causal association with GORD and its complications including generally consistent association and some dose-response relationship. Abdominal obesity seems to explain a considerable part of this association operating mostly by increasing intragastric pressure, gastroesophageal gradient, TLOSR, and oesophageal acid exposure. Additional humoral mechanisms may be ...

BACKGROUND: The metabolic characteristics of obese Irish children are not well defined. We prospectively examined the relationship between the degree of obesity and glucose metabolism, insulin sensitivity and suspected non-alcoholic steatohepatosis (NASH) in a pilot study of obese Irish children. METHODS: We measured height, weight, body mass index (BMI), blood ...

Obesity is related to increased morbidity and mortality, and prevails worldwide. It has become an important health issue and requires urgent attention. In Taiwan, overweight and obesity are defined as body mass index > or = 24 and 27 kg m(-2), respectively. These cut-offs differ from Caucasian standards, as Asians ...

OBJECTIVE: To review evidence on the link between obesity and diabetes in pregnant women and the incidence of birth defects. In addition, the article offers recommendations for facilitating the broader scale implementation of evidence-based approaches to preventing obesity, particularly among pregnant women. METHODS: A review of the evidence, primarily from ...

Obesity and climate change are two problems currently challenging humanity. Although apparently unrelated, an epidemiological approach to both shows a similar environmental aetiology, based in modern human lifestyles and their driving economic forces. One way of analysing this is through inflammation (defined as '. . . a disturbance of function ...

Obesity and its physiological consequences are increasingly prevalent among women of reproductive age and are associated with infertility. To investigate, female mice were fed a high-fat diet until the onset of insulin resistance, followed by assessments of ovarian gene expression, ovulation, fertilization, and oocyte developmental competence. We report defects to ...

Obesity is characterized by an enhanced infiltration of macrophages to adipose tissues, which is closely associated with the low-grade inflammatory state and obesity-related pathologies such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. We showed here that dehydroabietic acid (DAA) is a potent PPARalpha/gamma dual activator. Furthermore, we examined the anti-inflammatory ...

Recent studies have shown that SNPs in the FTO gene predispose to childhood and adult obesity. In this study, we examined the association between variants in FTO and KIAA1005, a gene that maps closely to FTO, and obesity, as well as obesity related traits among 450 well characterised severely obese ...

The alarming increase in the prevalence of obesity in children in the United States and globally raises major concerns about its future adverse impact on public health. One outcome of this disturbing trend that is already evident is the rapidly increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes at all ages. This ...

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this review are (1) to examine the pathophysiologic relationship between type 2 diabetes and obesity, (2) to provide an overview of current and emerging treatments for type 2 diabetes and their effects on body weight. METHODS: A MEDLINE search was performed for literature published in the ...

Obesity is a common disorder, and related diseases such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer are a major cause of mortality and morbidity in Western-type societies. Development of obesity is associated with extensive modifications in adipose tissue involving adipogenesis, angiogenesis and extracellular matrix proteolysis. The fibrinolytic (plasminogen/plasmin) and ...

The purpose of this study was to assess the potential impact of weight loss up to a state of plateau on symptoms of depression. Eleven obese men (mean body mass index (BMI)=33.4 kg.m(-2), mean age=38 y) participated in this repeated-measures, within-subjects, clinical intervention. They were subjected to a weight-loss program ...

OBJECTIVE: To prospectively assess the relationship between circulating peptide YY (PYY), body weight, and glucose tolerance in severely obese subjects undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP). SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: The mechanisms accounting for the beneficial effects of RYGBP on body weight and glucose homeostasis are not well understood. METHODS: Prospective study ...

The increase of obesity and type 2 diabetes on a global scale has increased the interest in how to counteract this epidemic. Improved lifestyle in general is a fundamental approach, but other remedies such as specific weight reduction or diabetes preventive drugs and surgery have also been tested. One problem ...

The endogenous cannabinoid system has been identified as playing a central role in the regulation of energy homeostasis, and its overactivity has been associated with obesity. Rimonabant is a selective endocannabinoid CB(1) receptor antagonist that has been shown to be an effective treatment for obesity and cardiometabolic risk factors. Studies ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Obesity has reached epidemic proportions throughout the world and poses significant health and economic burdens to both developed and developing societies. Most recent data from the NHANES study (2003-2004) report that 17.1% of US children are overweight and 32.2% of adults are obese, a significant increase compared ...

Increasing rates of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) follow the obesity 'epidemic', with 86% of patients with T2DM being overweight and over half being obese. Literature has highlighted that being overweight or obese increases the risk of diabetes. Weight loss for obese patients is associated with clinical improvements, although this evidence ...

Visfatin was recently identified as an adipocytokine and has insulin mimetic properties, but its role in adolescents remains largely unknown. In this study, we examined the impact of adolescent obesity on circulating visfatin levels and the relationship between visfatin and anthropometric indices, insulin sensitivity, and blood lipids in Chinese adolescents ...

A recent growing number of evidences shows that the increased prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes cannot be solely attributed to changes in the human genome, nutritional habits, or reduction of physical activity in our daily lives. Gut microflora may play an even more important role in maintaining human ...

BACKGROUND: Obesity and diabetes are metabolic disorders that affect a large amount of the elderly population and are related to increased cardiovascular risk. Tea intake has been associated with lower risk of mortality and morbidity in some, but not all studies. We evaluated the association between tea intake, blood glucose ...

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in many countries and is an established risk factor in many chronic illnesses, but its role in acute illness is less clear. Pancreatologists have long recognized obesity as a risk factor for a poor outcome in severe acute pancreatitis. There are now several studies that ...

Obesity is an important correlate of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels. We sought to examine the relations between parental obesity and the serum ALT and AST levels among offspring in a community-based sample. Participants (n = 1732) of the Framingham Offspring Study (50% women; mean age, ...

Excessive consumption of soft drinks has been argued as a key contributor to the epidemic of obesity in modern society. This is because they are characterized by high content of sugar, low satiety, and incomplete compensation for total energy. However, since obesity involves complex interactions of various factors, there must ...

<b>Background:</b> In the UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS), many subjects maintained glycemic goal (HbA_1c &lt; 7.0&#x0025;) at 9 years, showing that &#946; -cell function was preserved and that the initial decline in &#946; -cell function recovered with sulphonylureas. Moreover, obese subjects using high daily doses of insulin for several ...

Obesity is one of the most significant, and potentially most preventable, risk factors for the development of osteoarthritis, and numerous studies have shown a strong association between body mass index and osteoarthritis of the hip, knee, foot and hand. However, the mechanism(s) by which obesity contributes to the onset and ...

Evolutionary and developmental perspectives add considerably to our understanding of the aetiology of obesity and its related disorders. One pathway to obesity represents the maladaptive consequences of an evolutionarily preserved mechanism by which the developing mammal monitors nutritional cues from its mother and adjusts its developmental trajectory accordingly. Prediction of ...

It has been proposed that differences in adipocyte function and/or metabolism between obese and lean individuals may manifest themselves in functional adipose tissue abnormalities that lead to metabolic disorders in obesity. We studied lipogenesis and lipolysis of omental adipocytes from obese (OB) and non-obese (NOB) humans. The specific activity of ...

Genetic related health problems are often interrelated. Current practices to establish associations between diseases are expensive and rarely can reflect underlying molecular mechanisms, We propose a general framework to associate diseases by networking pathways. By applying our method on association study of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) and obesity, we ...

Abdominal obesity, especially visceral adipose tissue (VAT), increases the incidence of a cluster of metabolic disturbances (the so-called metabolic syndrome), type 2 diabetes, and associated cardiovascular risk. Not only is abdominal obesity a marker of a dysmetabolic profile, but VAT also appears to be a causal factor for morbidity and ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The aim of this study was to analyze thyroid hormones in female adolescents with obesity and anorexia nervosa (AN) before and after normalization of weight. METHODS: Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), fT3, and fT4 were determined in 100 obese girls, 32 normal-weight girls and 20 girls with AN aged 14-18 years ...

The clustering of cardiovascular risk factors was noted already a century ago, but it is only recently that a link between the CV risk cluster and insulin resistance has been postulated - a proposal which is not unanimously accepted. There is no doubt, however, that obesity per se impacts on ...

The prevalence of overweight (body mass index, BMI, between 25 and 30 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI of 30 kg/m2 or higher) is increasing rapidly worldwide, especially in developing countries and countries undergoing economic transition to a market economy. One consequence of obesity is an increased risk of developing type II ...

The endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS) is a neuromodulatory system recently recognized to have a role in the regulation of various aspects of eating behavior and energy balance through central and peripheral mechanisms. In the central nervous system, cannabinoid type 1 receptors and their endogenous ligands, the endocannabinoids, are involved in ...

OBJECTIVE: In obese subjects, chronically elevated plasma concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) exert a marked risk to contract insulin resistance and subsequently type 2 diabetes. When NEFA is acutely increased due to i.v. infusion of lipid, glucose disposal during a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp is reduced. This effect has been explained ...

Obesity and type 2 diabetes have reached epidemic proportions worldwide. These metabolic disorders, particularly obesity, are characterised by increased basal sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity but an impaired sympathetic response to certain stimuli, such as insulin. Although targeting the SNS may seem an attractive avenue for the pharmacological prevention and ...

Obesity is associated with atherosclerotic risk factors, including reduced blood flow, endothelial dysfunction, lipid disorders and hyperinsulinemia. In recent years, several studies have demonstrated that elevated homocysteine is a risk factor for atherosclerosis. This study was aimed at determining whether any relationship between plasma viscosity and homocysteine levels in patients ...

The contribution of exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to the incidence of diabetes has received little attention until recently. A number of reports have emerged, however, concerning elevated diabetes in persons occupationally exposed to dioxin. United States (US) Air Force personnel in Vietnam who sprayed Agent Orange containing dioxin ...

Obesity is a condition that results from dysregulation of energy balance. Insulin, a component of the efferent pathway of the energy-regulatory circuit, promotes storage of energy substrates in adipose tissue and is, therefore, a potential target for pharmacotherapy. Somatostatin and its analogues (octreotide and lanreotide) bind to somatostatin subtype 5 ...

Insulin resistance and obesity are intimately related to a chronic low grade systemic inflammation. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) may influence the pathogenesis of obesity-related diseases. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of body's fat mass on the relationships between -174G/C IL-6 promoter gene polymorphism, IL-6 circulating level and ...

Obesity is defined as increased body weight caused by excessive accumulation of fat. Due to a very long period of undernutrition in human history, the contemporary human body regulation mechanisms seem to be biased in favor of preserving fat rather to eliminate it. At the highest risk are populations that ...

Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is central to the regulation of oxidative injury. The role of increased HO-1 expression and Heme oxygenase (HO) activity in mitigating the detrimental side effect of diabetes is examined. A review of the mechanism(s) of action is included. This may lead to the development of pharmacological and ...

BACKGROUND: Considering that a portion of the heterogeneity amongst previous replication studies may be due to a variable proportion of obese subjects in case-control designs, we assessed the association of genetic variants with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in large groups of obese and non-obese subjects. METHODS: We genotyped RETN, KCNJ11, ...

There has been an increase in the concern about preventing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), a disease with great and increasing prevalence. The prevalence of obesity, physical inactivity, Western processed diet, important risk factors for the development of T2DM, are also rising. Free fatty acids are increased in obesity and ...

The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs7566605 in the upstream region of the insulin-induced gene 2 (INSIG2) is associated with the obesity phenotype in many Caucasian populations. In Japanese, this association with the obesity phenotype is not clear. To investigate the relationship between rs7566605 and obesity in Japanese, we genotyped rs7566605 ...

Animal and cell culture data suggest a critical role for Munc18c and Syntaxin 4 proteins in insulin mediated glucose transport in skeletal muscle, but no studies have been published in humans. We investigated the effect of a 12 vs. 48 hr fast on insulin action and skeletal muscle Munc18c and ...

PURPOSE: To determine influence of Valproic Acid (VPA) treatment on oxidative status in non-obese and overweight epileptic children. METHODS: A prospective study was conducted at the Departments of Pediatrics, University of Chieti and Bologna. Thirty-one epileptic children were studied before and after 1 year of therapy with VPA. Also 31 ...

Some recent studies have reported a strong link between obesity and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, to date, the factors underlying this newly described comorbidity are still unclear and unexplored. In the present article, we proposed that the dopamine system and implicate dopamine genes contribute to explaining the association between ADHD ...

OBJECTIVE: It has been recognized that in addition to being overweight, abnormal fat distribution may be associated with the etiology of metabolic syndrome. Asian people are more prone to develop visceral obesity than people in western countries. The present study was initiated to evaluate the relationship between visceral obesity and ...