It has been postulated that chronic exposure to high levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), in particular from dietary sources, can impair insulin secretion. In the present study, we investigated the cross-sectional relationship between AGEs and acute insulin secretion during an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) and following a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in heal...

AIMS: To examine the association between impaired fasting glucose (IFG)/type 2 diabetes and mortality as well as to explore any interactions with dietary intake patterns in a Chinese population. METHODS: We followed 2849 Chinese adults aged 20 years and older for 10 years. Fasting plasma glucose was measured at baseline in 2002. Dietary patterns were constructed using factor analysis. Ha...

AIMS: To evaluate the effect of cumulative smoking on the development of diabetic nephropathy. METHODS: Study included 3613 patients with type 1 diabetes, participating in the Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy Study. The 12-year cumulative risk of microalbuminuria, macroalbuminuria and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) was estimated for current, ex- and nonsmokers. Cox regression analyses, with ...

AIMS: Although oxygen is commonly used to treat various medical conditions, it has recently been shown to worsen vascular function (arterial stiffness) in healthy volunteers and even more in patients in whom vascular function might already be impaired. The effects of oxygen on arterial function in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) are unknown, although such patients display disturbed vascu...

AIMS: Cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction, evaluated as baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), could be acutely corrected by slow breathing or oxygen administration in patients with type 1 diabetes, thus suggesting a functional component of the disorder. We tested this hypothesis in patients with the type 2 diabetes with or without renal impairment. METHODS: Twenty-six patients with type 2 diabe...

AIMS: Dietary fats have been shown to promote the translocation of bacterial endotoxins from the gut into circulation, which may induce systemic inflammation and modulate the inflammatory response of circulating immune cells. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the postprandial milieu on inflammation and the inflammatory response of antigen presenting cells in the context of t...

It is believed that diabetes risk scores need to be ethnic specific. However, this prerequisite has not been tested. We examined the performance of several risk models, developed in various populations, in a Europid and a South Asian population. The performance of 14 published risk prediction models were tested in two prospective studies: the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab)...

Adiponectin and urinary adiponectin excretions have been ascribed a function in glomerular physiology and seem to indicate vascular disease in diabetes. The aim of this study was to compare the urinary excretion of albumin and adiponectin as predictors for decline of renal function in patients with type 2 diabetes and early kidney disease. Over 141 patients were screened for renal function (est...

CD2-associated protein (CD2AP) is essential for podocyte function. CD2AP mutations have been found in patients with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a disease histologically resembling diabetic nephropathy and often progressing to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). We hypothesised that variations in the CD2AP gene may contribute to susceptibility to glomerular injury in diabetes and investigate...

To investigate whether pre-eclampsia (PE) or pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) predicts the development of severe diabetic retinopathy (SDR) in type 1 diabetes. Altogether, 203 women with type 1 diabetes who were followed during pregnancy were re-examined within the Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy Study. After excluding patients with pre-pregnancy hypertension and those who had had laser treatm...

PURPOSE: Physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior may influence the physical and mental health of breast cancer survivors; however, few studies have objectively measured these behaviors in this population. We used accelerometers to measure the PA and sedentary time levels of breast cancer survivors and examined the demographic, behavioral, and medical correlates of these behaviors using...

PURPOSE: Engaging in positive health behaviours can improve quality of life amongst cancer survivors, whether this facilitates return to work is unknown. We examined associations of health behaviours with return to work outcomes following a diagnosis of colorectal cancer in middle-aged men and women (45-64 years). METHODS: We recruited 239 participants through the Queensland Cancer Regis...

PURPOSE: Research conducted on the general population indicates self-reported measures of physical activity and sedentary behaviour are inaccurate when compared with objective measures; however, it is not clear if this also applies to cancer survivors. In this study, we compared accelerometer-based and self-reported measures of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) and sed...

Invasive phytoplasmas wreak havoc on coconut palms worldwide, leading to high loss of income, food insecurity and extreme poverty of farmers in producing countries. Phytoplasmas as strictly biotrophic insect-transmitted bacterial pathogens instigate distinct changes in developmental processes and defence responses of the infected plants and manipulate plants to their own advantage; however, lit...

PURPOSE: Type 2 diabetes has been associated with an increase in inflammatory and endothelial biomarkers, which are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes-related complications. This study examined the effects of high-intensity progressive resistance training (PRT) with moderate weight loss (WL) versus WL alone on inflammatory and endothelial biomarkers in o...

PURPOSE: Regular engagement in resistance exercise training elicits many health benefits including improvement to muscular strength, hypertrophy and insulin sensitivity, though the underpinning molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence 8 weeks of resistance exercise training has on leukocyte genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expre...

OBJECTIVES: Initiatives to reduce office-workplace sitting are proliferating, but the impact of pre-existing musculoskeletal symptoms on their effectiveness has not been determined. We assessed the influence of musculoskeletal symptoms on the outcomes of a workplace sitting intervention. METHODS: Baseline and 3-month data from a cluster-randomized controlled trial of a workplace sitting ...

Peripheral neuropathy is a major consequence of diabetes mellitus with up to 50 % of patients showing clinically significant neural injury during the disease course. Hearing loss (as defined by impaired sound detection thresholds) is a recognized symptom of DM, but the possibility of auditory neuropathy (AN) has not been explored in this population. This pilot study investigated peripheral audi...

Epilepsy is a frequent neurological disorder, although onset and progression of seizures remain difficult to predict in affected patients, irrespective of their epileptogenic condition. Previous studies in animal models as well as human epileptic brain tissue revealed a remarkably diverse pattern of gene expression implicating epigenetic changes to contribute to disease progression. Here we map...

PURPOSE: A phytochemical- and mineral-rich filtered sugarcane molasses concentrate (FMC), when added to carbohydrate-containing foods as a functional ingredient, lowers postprandial blood glucose and insulin responses. We hypothesised that this beneficial effect would also occur if FMC was administered as an oral supplement taken before a meal. METHODS: This study measured the postprandi...