Melatonin supplementation plus exercise behavior ameliorate insulin resistance, hypertension and fatigue in a rat model of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

INTRODUCTION: The objective was to investigate the effects of melatonin and exercise on insulin resistance (IR), hypertension and fatigue syndrome in a rat model of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rats were divided into 5 groups namely normal control (NC), T2DM control group (DC), diabetes plus exercise (DE), diabetes plus oral melatonin supplement (DM) and diabetes plus melatonin and exercise (DME) groups. Melatonin was administered orally 5mg/kg twice daily and 40min swimming/day 5days/week were regimented after diabetes induction. RESULTS: Blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, insulin, IR, serum leptin, lipid profiles, inflammatory cytokines, lipid peroxidation increased significantly (P<0.01) while serum adiponectin, antioxidant activities (superoxide dismutase, glutathione), exercise performance significantly decreased (P<0.001) in the DC group compared with the control group. Combined effects of exercise and melatonin ameliorated markedly hypertension, IR, biochemical alteration induced by diabetes and significantly increased exercise performance (P<0.01). The expression glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4) mitochondrial biogenesis related proteins such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1α (PGC-1 α), nuclear respiratory factor (NRFs) and mitochondrial transcription factor-A were up-regulated skeletal and cardiac muscle in the DME group. CONCLUSION: Melatonin supplementation in combination with exercise behavior may ameliorate IR, hypertension and exercise performance or fatigue possibly by improving antioxidative activities, hyperlipidemia, inflammatory cytokines via up-regulation of GLUT4, PGC-1 α and mitochondrial biogenesis in T2DM rats.

Forensic genetic study of 29 Y-STRs in Korean population.

In this study, we compared two recently released commercial Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (Y-STR) kits: the PowerPlex Y23 System (PPY23) and Yfiler® Plus PCR amplification kit (YPlus). We performed validation studies, including sensitivity, tolerance to PCR inhibitors, and mixture analysis, and a population genetics study using 306 unrelated South Korean males. PPY23 and YPlus showed similar sensitivity, but PPY23 showed higher tolerance to humic acid than YPlus. Furthermore, the detection rate of unique minor alleles called from male/male mixtures was higher for PPY23 than for YPlus. Comparing the newly added loci, the mean values of gene diversity for PPY23 and YPlus were 0.6715 and 0.8158, respectively. The discrimination capacity in the 306 unrelated South Korean males for PPY23 was 0.9837, and that for YPlus was 0.9935. These results will inform the selection of suitable Y-STR kits based on the purpose of forensic DNA analysis.