Associations between the levels of circulating inflammatory adipokines and the risk of type 2 diabetes in Chinese male individuals: A case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Whether the levels of circulating inflammatory adipokines affect the progression of type 2 diabetes (T2D) remains unclear. This study aimed to assess the association between circulating inflammatory adipokine levels and risk of T2D. METHODS: This case-control study involved 130 individuals consisting of 66 healthy controls (Control group) and 64 patients with T2D (T2D group) in Lishui Municipal Central Hospital from January 2017 to June 2017. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied to assess the associations between circulating inflammatory adipokine levels and the risk of T2D. RESULTS: There were significant differences in the levels of adiponectin (p = 0.013) and visfatin (p < 0.001) between the T2D and Control groups. In contrast, no significant differences in leptin (p = 0.113), TNF-α (p = 0.632), and IL-6 (p = 0.156) levels were found between the groups. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that elevated visfatin level was associated with an increased risk of T2D (OR: 3.543; 95% CI: 1.771-7.088; p < 0.001), while adiponectin (OR: 1.946; 95% CI: 0.925-4.094; p = 0.079), leptin (OR: 3.723; 95% CI: 0.788-17.583; p = 0.097), TNF-α (OR: 1.081; 95% CI: 0.911-1.281; p = 0.373), and IL-6 (OR: 0.878; 95% CI: 0.657-1.173; p = 0.379) were not associated with the risk of T2D. CONCLUSIONS: This study found elevated visfatin levels are associated with an increased risk of T2D, while adiponectin, leptin, TNF-α, and IL-6 are not. These findings should be further verified by a large-scale prospective study.

Severe hydrocephalus complicated with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo: one case report.

In this study, we reported one female patient diagnosed with severe hydrocephalus who presented with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). She presented with progressive headache and dizziness prior to hospitalization as chief complaints. She received Diagnostic Dix-Hallpike and Roll tests to make a definite diagnosis. The patient was cured after Gufoni maneuver and did not recur after 6-month follow-up. The diagnostic procedures of this female case prompted that prior to formal treatment, patients developing severe hydrocephalus complicated with BPPV should receive provocative test for positional dizziness, performed by experienced physicians from the Department of neurology and otolaryngology.

Neuroprotective effects of receptor imidazoline 2 and its endogenous ligand agmatine.

Receptor imidazoline 2 (I2) is one of the imidazoline receptors with high affinity for [³H]-idazoxan. Receptor I2, being classified into I(2A) and I(2B) subtypes, is mainly localized to the outer membrane of mitochondria in liver, kidney and brain. Receptor I2, displaying high similarity of sequence with monoamine oxidase-B (MAO-B), is structurally related to MAO-B, but the I2 imidazoline binding site (I2BS) with ligand is distinct from the catalytic site of MAO-B. Agmatine is the endogenous ligand of receptor I2. Accumulating evidence have revealed that the activation of receptors I2 may produce neuroprotective effects by increasing expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in astrocytes, inhibiting activity of MAO, reducing calcium overload in cells. Agmatine exerts neuroprotection against ischemia-hypoxia, injury, glutamate-induced neurotoxicity by activating imidazoline receptors, blocking N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, inhibiting all isoforms of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), and selectively blocking the voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCC). It would be expected that agmatine is one of the potential neuroprotective agents.