A profile of Colorado nurse--midwives: implications for health care.

Nurse-midwives provide significant health care to underserved and vulnerable women, yet there is limited information about the nature of nurse-midwifery practices and compensation for services. This study reports the results of a Colorado statewide survey of nurse-midwives (N = 217). Electronic survey was utilized to detail practice in seven areas: demographics, type of practice, compensation, leadership, legislative priorities,teaching involvement, and practice satisfaction. Responses (N = 114) were analyzed using SPSS 13.0. Results found wide variation in compensation and practice types. Respondents largely worked in urban settings, cared for low to moderate risk patients, and were generally older and White. Restriction from medical staff membership, prescriptive authority constraints, and liability issues were practice limitations. While teaching a wide variety of learners, nurse-midwives do limited mentoring of nurse-midwifery students, a finding which is concerning given the decreasing numbers of nurse-midwives. Findings are compared to known national data, with implications for the provision of health care services detailed.

A muscle-liver-fat signalling axis is essential for central control of adaptive adipose remodelling.

Skeletal muscle has a pleiotropic role in organismal energy metabolism, for example, by storing protein as an energy source, or by excreting endocrine hormones. Muscle proteolysis is tightly controlled by the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal signalling axis via a glucocorticoid-driven transcriptional programme. Here we unravel the physiological significance of this catabolic process using skeletal muscle-specific glucocorticoid receptor (GR) knockout (GRmKO) mice. These mice have increased muscle mass but smaller adipose tissues. Metabolically, GRmKO mice show a drastic shift of energy utilization and storage in muscle, liver and adipose tissues. We demonstrate that the resulting depletion of plasma alanine serves as a cue to increase plasma levels of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) and activates liver-fat communication, leading to the activation of lipolytic genes in adipose tissues. We propose that this skeletal muscle-liver-fat signalling axis may serve as a target for the development of therapies against various metabolic diseases, including obesity.