Central and South American pitvipers, belonging to the genera Bothrops and Bothriechis, have independently evolved arboreal tendencies. Little is known regarding the composition and activity of their venoms. In order to close this knowledge gap, venom proteomics and toxin activity of species of Bothriechis, and Bothrops (including Bothriopsis) were investigated through established analytical me...

Depression and type 2 diabetes (T2D) contribute significantly to global burden of disease and often co-occur. Underpinning type 2 diabetes is poor glycaemic control and glucose is also an obligatory substrate for brain metabolism, with potential implications for cognition, motivation and mood. This research aimed to examine the relationships between fasting plasma glucose and depressive symptom...

Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are consumed globally, and have been associated with adverse health outcomes, including weight gain, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes (T2D), and cardiovascular disease (CVD). There is global variation in beverage formulation in terms of glucose and fructose concentration, which may pose unique health risks linked to glycemic control for Australian consumers....

There is a body of evidence linking inflammation, altered lipid metabolism, and insulin resistance. Our previous research found that insulin sensitivity decreased after a four-week diet high in dairy compared to a control diet and to one high in red meat. Our aim was to determine whether a relationship exists between changes in insulin sensitivity and inflammatory biomarkers, or with lipid spec...

The limited Australian measures to reduce population sodium intake through national initiatives targeting sodium in the food supply have not been evaluated. The aim was, thus, to assess if there has been a change in salt intake and discretionary salt use between 2011 and 2014 in the state of Victoria, Australia. Adults drawn from a population sample provided 24 h urine collections and reported ...

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to determine the association between dietary patterns and cognitive function and to examine how classification systems based on food groups and food items affect levels of association between diet and cognitive function. The present study focuses on the older segment of the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab) sample (age 60+) th...

Lipidomic approaches are now widely used to investigate the relationship between lipid metabolism, health and disease. Large-scale lipidomics studies typically aim to quantify hundreds to thousands of lipid molecular species in a large number of samples. Consequently, high throughput methodology that can efficiently extract a wide range of lipids from biological samples is required. Current met...

Heparan sulfate (HS) catabolism begins with endo-degradation of the polysaccharide to smaller HS oligosaccharides, followed by the sequential action of exo-enzymes to reduce these oligosaccharides to monosaccharides and inorganic sulfate. In mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIA (MPS IIIA) the exo-enzyme, N-sulfoglucosamine sulfohydrolase, is deficient resulting in an inability to hydrolyze non-reduc...

The objective of this cross-sectional questionnaire study was to assess associations of a self-report index of sun protection habit strength with sunscreen use in sporting environments and outdoor physical activity. Participants (n = 234) in field hockey, soccer, tennis and surf sports in Queensland, Australia, completed a self-administered survey on sun protection during organized sport, and d...

The objective of this study was to determine the concordance between data extracted from two Clinical Decision Support Systems regarding diabetes testing and monitoring at Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services in Australia. De-identified PenCAT and Communicare Systems data were extracted from the services allocated to the intervention arm of a diabetes care trial, and intra-class corr...

Objectives: To determine the feasibility of using the activPAL3TM activity monitor, and, to describe the activity patterns of residential aged care residents. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Randomly selected aged care facilities within 100 km of the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Participants: Ambulatory, older (≥60 years) residential aged care adults without cognitive impairment. Measur...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Previous studies have shown that preventive treatment with the antioxidant, ebselen, in experimental models of type 1 diabetic nephropathy resulted in an attenuation of structural and functional damage in the kidney. However, evidence for the effectiveness of ebselen in late-intervention studies is lacking. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effects of ebselen in attenuating...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Patients with type 1 diabetes have antibodies to ZnT8 protein is encoded by SLC30A8. The C-allele of the R325 W variant in SLC30A8 is associated with type 2 diabetes and reduced beta-cell function in non-diabetic subjects. Our aim was to assess the prevalence of ZnT8 autoantibodies (ZnT8A) in patients with adult-onset diabetes, and to characterize associations between ZnT8...

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the current prevalence and epidemiology of isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) among adult populations from different ethnic groups in Xinjiang province and to further establish a theoretical basis for developing personalized therapeutic strategies for hypertensive populations. METHODS: To analyze the prevalence and risk factors of ISH in different ethnic groups in X...

Diabetic women carry a 2-4 times increased risk of a hypertensive pregnancy compared to non-diabetic people. This risk is related to presence of diabetic nephropathy, but also poor glycaemic control. Efforts to improve glycaemic control have decreased perinatal morbidity and mortality related to diabetic nephropathy. Despite good glycaemic control, overt nephropathy is associated with a variety...

OBJECTIVE: We estimated trends in prescription medication costs in out-patients with type 1 diabetes by various stages of diabetic nephropathy (DN), before the development of end-stage renal disease, between 1995 and 2005. METHODS: Patients with normo- (n = 1,334), micro- (n = 206), and macroalbuminuria (n = 365) were identified from the Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy (FinnDiane) database. All...

Meal-fed conscious rabbits normally exhibit postprandial elevation in blood pressure, heart rate (HR) and locomotor activity, which is abolished by consumption of a high-fat diet (HFD). Here, we assessed whether the cardiovascular changes are attributable to the increased caloric intake due to greater fat content or to hyperphagia. Rabbits were meal-fed during the baseline period then maintaine...

Consumption of a high-fat diet (HFD) by rabbits results in increased blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA) within 1 wk. Here, we determined how early this activation occurred and whether it was related to changes in cardiovascular and neural 24-h rhythms. Rabbits were meal-fed a HFD for 3 wks, then a normal-fat diet (NFD) for 1 wk. BP, HR, and RSNA we...

PURPOSE/AIM: To investigate the association between retinal vascular tortuosity and traditional- and vascular-related risk factors in persons with diabetes. METHODS: We recruited 224 diabetic patients. Retinal vascular tortuosity was measured from fundus photographs. Association of tortuosity with the following factors was assessed after adjusting for significant co-factors: diabetes dur...

BACKGROUND: Excessive sitting time is linked to cardiovascular disease morbidity. To date, no studies have accurately measured sitting time patterns in people with stroke. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the amount and pattern of accumulation of sitting time, physical activity, and use of time in people with stroke compared with age-matched healthy peers. DESIGN:...