The Association of Adipokines and Myokines in the Blood of Obese Children and Adolescents with Lipoprotein Lipase rs328 Gene Variants.

Obesity develops largely due to genetic factors, with the genetic polymorphism of lipid metabolism enzymes being of particular importance. However, it is still unclear how the genetic variants of one of the key enzymes in lipid transport, lipoprotein lipase (LPL), are associated with the endocrine function of mesenchymal tissues in obesity. The current study was aimed at the investigation of the LPL rs328 gene variant association with adipokines and myokines levels, as well as lipid metabolism indices in the blood of children and adolescents of both genders with obesity. We found that LPL polymorphism rs328 is not characterized by the differences in the levels of hormones, adipokines, and myokines and in the blood of healthy children and adolescents; however, it significantly affects these indices during obesity in gender-dependent manner. The shifts in hormones, adipokines, and myokines manifest mostly in the obese individuals with Ser447Ser genotype rather than with 447Ter genotype. Obese boys homozygous for Ser447Ser have more elevated leptin levels than girls. They also demonstrate lower adiponectin, apelin, prolactin, and osteocrine levels than those in obese girls with the same genotype. The gender-based differences are less pronounced in individuals with 447Ter genotype than in the homozygotes for 447Ser. Thus, we conclude that the polymorphism rs328 of the lipoprotein lipase gene is accompanied by the changes in hormones, adipokines, and myokines levels in the blood of children and adolescents with obesity in gender-dependent manner.

New Methodology of Human Health Express Diagnostics Based on Pulse Wave Measurements and Occlusion Test.

Nowadays, with the increase in the rhythm of life, the relevance of using express diagnostics methods for human health state estimation has significantly increased. We present a new express diagnostics method based on non-invasive measurements (the pulse wave shape, heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation of blood vessels and tissues). A feature of these measurements is that they can be carried out both in the hospital and at home. The new compact and portable optical hardware-software complex has been developed to measure tissue oxygen saturation. This complex makes it possible to reduce the measurement time from 60 min to 7-8 min, which reduces the likelihood of artifacts in the measurement process and increases its reliability. A new technique has been developed to carry out these measurements. A new optical sensor based on a line of charge-coupled devices has been developed to register a pulse wave in the far peripheral zone. The developed new technique for processing the pulse waveform and data on the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in the blood and tissues allows a person to obtain additional information about their state of health independently. It will help to make conclusions about taking the necessary measures. This additional information allows the attending physician to provide more effective control over the course of treatment of the patient at any time since the methods of express diagnostics proposed by us have no restrictions on the number of applications. The functional state of more than 300 patients was studied. The results of various measurements are presented.

The effect of Aronia melanocarpa extract on the phospholipid composition of the rat myocardium during stress.

The research was performed on 80 male rats of the Wistar line. Animals of two age groups were used: adults (10-12 months) and old (22-25 months). The obtained data show that the development of immobilization stress in adult and aged rats are accompanied by the formation of a characteristic complex of changes in the phospholipid composition of the myocardium. Intraperitoneal injection of the chokeberry extract (Aronia melanocarpa) at a dose of 0.2 g/kg 60 minutes before the immobilization has limited stress modulation of myocardial phospholipid composition in aged animals. Thus, the extract of Aronia melanocarpa increases the myocardial resistance to the injury effect of stress.

Expression of genes encoding IGF1, IGF2, and IGFBPs in blood of obese adolescents with insulin resistance.

OBJECTIVE: The development of obesity and its metabolic complications is associated with dys-regulation of various intrinsic mechanisms, which control basic metabolic processes via changes in the expression of numerous regulatory genes. The main goal of this work was to study the association between the expression of insulin-like growth factors (IGF1 and IGF2) and IGF-binding proteins and insulin resistance in obese adolescents for evaluation of possible contribution of these genes in development of insulin resistance. METHODS: The expression of IGF1, IGF2, and IGFBPs mRNA was measured in blood of obese adolescents with normal insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance in comparison with the normal (control) individuals. RESULTS: In the blood of obese adolescents with normal insulin sensitivity the expression of IGFBP4, IGFBP5 and HTRA1 genes was down-regulated, but IGFBP2 and IGFBP7 genes up-regulated as compared to control (normal) group. At the same time, no significant changes in IGF1 and IGF2 gene expressions in this group of obese adolescents were found. Insulin resistance in obese adolescents led to up-regulation of IGF2, IGFBP2, and IGFBP7 gene expressions as well as to down-regulation of the expression of IGF1, IGFBP5 and HTRA1 genes in the blood in comparison with the obese patients, which have normal insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, the level of IGFBP4 gene expression was similar in both groups of obese adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this investigation provide evidence that insulin resistance in obese adolescents is associated with gene specific changes in the expression of IGF1, IGF2, IGFBP2, IGFBP5, IGFBP7, and HTRA1 genes and these changes possibly contribute to the development of glucose intolerance and insulin resistance.

Positioning Information Privacy in Intelligent Transportation Systems: An Overview and Future Perspective.

Today, the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are already in deep integration phase all over the world. One of the most significant enablers for ITS are vehicle positioning and tracking techniques. Worldwide integration of ITS employing Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) and European standard for vehicular communication, known as ETSI ITS-G5, brings a variety of options to improve the positioning in areas where GPS connectivity is lacking precision. Utilization of the ready infrastructure, next-generation cellular 5G networks, and surrounding electronic devices together with conventional positioning techniques could become the solution to improve the overall ITS operation in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication scenario. Nonetheless, effective and secure communication protocols between the vehicle and roadside units should be both analyzed and improved in terms of potential attacks on the transmitted positioning-related data. In particular, said information might be misused or stolen at the infrastructure side conventionally assumed to be trusted. In this paper, we first survey different methods of vehicle positioning, which is followed by an overview of potential attacks on ITS systems. Next, we propose potential improvements allowing mutual authentication between the vehicle and infrastructure aiming at improving positioning data privacy. Finally, we propose a vision on the development and standardization aspects of such systems.

Possible role of alteration of aldehyde's scavenger enzymes during aging.

Apoptosis in tissues is induced by different kind of signals including endogenous aldehydes, such as 4-hydroxy-2, 3-nonenal. The accumulation rate of aldehydes in the cell is affected by conditions of oxidative stress. In the cell, aldehydes can be metabolized by various isoforms of aldehyde dehydrogenase, aldehyde reductase, and glutathione-S-transferase. There is evidence suggesting that the catalytic properties of these enzymes change during ontogenesis, and that aging is accompanied by their reduced activities. These functional changes may contribute substantially to the alteration in the organism sensitivity to damaging action of stress factors during aging, to age-related modulation of the action of endogenous aldehydes as a signal for apoptosis, and finally, to the origin of diseases associated with aging. In this context, the stimulation of enzymes' expression, and the activation of the catalytic properties of enzymes responsible for catabolism of endogenous aldehydes could become a perspective direction in increasing the organism resistance to the action of damaging factors during aging.

Age-dependent differences in the stimulation of lipid peroxidation in the heart of rats during immobilization stress.

In order to investigate the possible reasons for age-related decrease in myocardium resistance to stress, we carried out a study of lipid peroxidation (LPO) stimulation features in the myocardium of adult (10-12 months) and aged (22-25 months) male Wistar rats during immobilization stress. In our studies of ascorbate-dependent LPO and induced chemiluminescence, we found that immobilization stress is accompanied by decreased efficiency in the induction of free radical processes in the heart of aged rats. An important cause of this phenomenon may be age-dependent changes in the catalytical properties of the cytosolic superoxide dismutase. The pathophysiological consequences of stress-related, age-dependent decreased efficiency of induction of free radical processes in the heart are discussed.