The incidence of obesity has increased dramatically during recent decades. Obesity increases the risk for metabolic and cardiovascular diseases and may therefore contribute to premature death. With increasing fat mass, secretion of adipose tissue derived bioactive molecules (adipokines) changes towards a pro-inflammatory, diabetogenic and atherogenic pattern. Adipokines are involved in the regulation of appetite and satiety, energy expenditure, activity, endothelial function, hemostasis, blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, energy metabolism in insulin sensitive tissues, adipogenesis, fat distribution and insulin secretion in pancreatic β-cells. Therefore, adipokines are clinically relevant as biomarkers for fat distribution, adipose tissue function, liver fat content, insulin sensitivity, chronic inflammation and have the potential for future pharmacological treatment strategies for obesity and its related diseases. This review focuses on the clinical relevance of selected adipokines as markers or predictors of obesity related diseases and as potential therapeutic tools or targets in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.
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Plasma Adipsin as a Biomarker and Its Implication in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) activity is crucial to maintains blood glucose and ATP levels, which largely depends on the phosphorylation status by pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK) isoenzymes. Although it has been reported that PDC is phosphorylated and inactivated by PDK2 and PDK4 in metabolically active tissues including liver, skeletal muscle, heart, and kidney during starvation and diabetes, the precise mechanisms by which expression of PDK2 and PDK4 are transcriptionally regulated still remains unclear. Insulin represses the expression of PDK2 and PDK4 via phosphorylation of FOXO through PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Several nuclear hormone receptors activated due to fasting or increased fat supply, including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors, glucocorticoid receptors, estrogen-related receptors, and thyroid hormone receptors, also participate in the up-regulation of PDK2 and PDK4; however, the endogenous ligands that bind those nuclear receptors have not been identified. It has been recently suggested that growth hormone, adiponectin, epinephrine, and rosiglitazone also control the expression of PDK4 in tissue-specific manners. In this review, we discuss several factors involved in the expressional regulation of PDK2 and PDK4, and introduce current studies aimed at providing a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie the development of metabolic diseases such as diabetes.
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In the near future, the majority of patients with diabetes will be adults aged 65 or older. Unlike young adults with diabetes, elderly diabetic people may be affected by a variety of comorbid conditions such as depression, cognitive impairment, muscle weakness (sarcopenia), falls and fractures, and physical frailty. These geriatric syndromes should be considered in the establishment of treatment goals in older adults with diabetes. Although there are several guidelines for the management of diabetes, only a few are specifically designed for the elderly with diabetes. In this review, we present specific conditions of elderly diabetes which should be taken into account in the management of diabetes in older adults. We also present advantages and disadvantages of various glucose-lowering agents that should be considered when choosing a proper regimen for older adults with diabetes.
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This study aimed to investigate the association of diabetes duration with self-reported coronary heart disease (CHD) in Korea.
Among data from 34,145 persons compiled in the third Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2005, laboratory test and nutritional survey data from 5,531 persons were examined. The participants were asked to recall a physician's diagnosis of CHD (angina or myocardial infarction).
Age- and sex-adjusted relative risk for CHD was 1.51 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.64 to 3.59; not significant) for diabetes with duration of <1 year, 2.27 (95% CI, 1.14 to 4.54;
CHD prevalence increased with an increase in diabetes duration in Korean men and women. Recently detected diabetes (duration <1 year) was not significantly associated with CHD prevalence compared to non-diabetes. However, diabetes of a duration of >5 years was associated with an increase in CHD compared to non-diabetics after adjusting for several CHD risk factors.
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The aim of this study is to investigate the cardio-metabolic parameters and surrogate markers of insulin resistance in a discordant group of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) subjects who satisfy the Adults Treatment Panel (ATP) III criteria, but not the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria, for metabolic syndrome (MetS).
We assessed the prevalence of MetS in T2DM subjects (
The prevalence of MetS in the MetS
In this study, cardio-metabolic features of the subjects diagnosed with MetS using ATP III criteria, but not IDF criteria, are not significantly different from those of subjects diagnosed with MetS using both criteria.
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While many studies have shown the good efficacy and safety of exenatide in patients with diabetes, limited information is available about exenatide in clinical practice in Korean populations. Therefore, this retrospective cohort study was designed to analyze the effects of exenatide on blood glucose level and body weight in Korean patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
We reviewed the records of the patients with diabetes who visited Seoul St. Mary's Hospital and for whom exenatide was prescribed from June 2009 to October 2011. After excluding subjects based on their race/ethnicity, medical history, whether or not they changed more than 2 kinds of oral hypoglycemic agents with exenatide treatment, loss to follow-up, or whether they stopped exenatide therapy within 6 months, a total of 52 subjects were included in the final analysis.
The mean glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level and weight remarkably decreased from 8.5±1.7% to 6.7±1.0% (
These results suggest that a 6-month exenatide injection therapy significantly improved patients' HbA1c levels and body weights without causing serious adverse effects in Korean patients with type 2 diabetes.
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There is growing concern regarding the increased incidence of bladder cancer in diabetic patients using pioglitazone. This study aimed to investigate the association between bladder cancer and the use of pioglitazone in Korean diabetics.
This retrospective, matched case-control study included a case group (
The percentage of subjects who had ever used pioglitazone was significantly lower in the case group than in the control group (6.4% vs. 15.0%,
A relationship between pioglitazone use and incidence of bladder cancer was not observed in Korean diabetic patients. This suggests that the risk for bladder cancer in Korean diabetic subjects treated with pioglitazone might be different from that of Caucasian populations. Large-scale, well-designed and multi-center studies are needed to further evaluate this relationship.
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This study aimed to investigate whether stimulated C-peptide is associated with microvascular complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM).
A cross-sectional study was conducted in 192 type 2 diabetic patients. Plasma basal C-peptide and stimulated C-peptide were measured before and 6 minutes after intravenous injection of 1 mg glucagon. The relationship between C-peptide and microvascular complications was statistically analyzed.
In patients with retinopathy, basal C-peptide was 1.9±1.2 ng/mL, and stimulated C-peptide was 2.7±1.6 ng/mL; values were significantly lower compared with patients without retinopathy (
In patients with type 2 diabetes, the glucagon stimulation test was a relatively simple method of short duration for stimulating C-peptide response. Stimulated C-peptide values were associated with microvascular complications to a greater extent than basal C-peptides.
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