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Baseline β-cell mass is established during the early postnatal period when β-cells expand. In this study, we show that heterozygous ablation of Insm1 decreases baseline β-cell mass and subsequently impairs glucose tolerance. When exposed to a high-fat diet or on an ob/ob background, glucose intolerance was more severe in Insm1+/lacZ mice compared with Insm1+/+ mice, although no further decrease in the β-cell mass was detected. In islets of early postnatal Insm1+/lacZ mice, the cell cycle was prolonged in β-cells due to downregulation of the cell cycle gene Ccnd1 Although Insm1 had a low affinity for the Ccnd1 promoter compared with other binding sites, binding affinity was strongly dependent on Insm1 levels. We observed dramatically decreased binding of Insm1 to the Ccnd1 promoter after downregulation of Insm1 expression. Furthermore, downregulation of Ccnd1 resulted in a prolonged cell cycle, and overexpression of Ccnd1 rescued cell cycle abnormalities observed in Insm1-deficient β-cells. We conclude that decreases in Insm1 interfere with β-cell specification during the early postnatal period and impair glucose homeostasis during metabolic stress in adults. Insm1 levels are therefore a factor that can influence the development of diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work investigates the adsorption of As(V) onto the dried powder of alligator weed root as bio-sorbent, using acid pre-treated alligator weed root powder as the reference. The isotherm study suggested there is a favorable As(V) adsorption happened on the AWR surface. The batch adsorption experimental results indicated that the ionic strength has little impact on the adsorption, while the solution pH has a significant effect on the adsorption with apparent inhibition appearing in both extreme acidic and alkaline pH region. In addition, the properties of the biosorbent were characterized by various techniques including SEM-EDS, FT-IR, and ICP detection. The analysis results suggested that the metals including Mn, Fe, and Al enrich over the alligator weed root surface in the morphology of metal (hydro) oxide. Based on the nature of the biosorbent and As(V) besides the adsorption performance, the metal (hydro) oxides over biosorbent surface is suggested as the essential role to drive the adsorption. With the metal (hydro) oxides denuded in the pre-treatment, the biosorbent loses its adsorption capability for As(V) totally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Management of giant complex thrombosed aneurysms of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) is challenging. Most giant MCA aneurysms possess some unfavorable features, such as incorporation of key MCA branches, efferent or perforating vessels originating from the sac, mural calcifications, intraluminal thrombi, or fusiform configurations. Due to these peculiar features, traditional clipping or simple endovascular coiling is generally not able to treat these aneurysms. Consequently, multiple revascularizations are needed for trapping the aneurysms. Here we used a simpler, low-flow double-bypass (frontal and parietal branch of superficial temporal artery-M4 MCA bypasses) over the high-flow saphenous vein or radial artery bypass grafts to manage unruptured giant thrombosed MCA aneurysm with preexisting ischemic injury., (Copyright © 2024 Copyright: © 2024 Neurology India, Neurological Society of India.)

Background and Objective: Re-vascularization is an effective treatment for moyamoya disease (MMD) patients, including direct re-vascularization, indirect re-vascularization and combined re-vascularization, in which combined re-vascularization is particularly widely used. At present, there are few reports on the analysis of epilepsy after combined re-vascularization surgery. To analysis the risk factors of epilepsy in adult MMD patients after combined re-vascularization., Material and Methods: Patients with MMD who underwent combined re-vascularization in the Department of Neurosurgery of the First People's Hospital of Yunnan Province from January 2015 to June 2020 were included. Their pre-operative and post-operative complication-related indicators were collected. Finally, logistic regression was used to analyze the clinical risk factors of epilepsy in MMD patients after operation., Results: The incidence of epilepsy after combined re-vascularization was 15.5%. Univariate analysis showed that pre-operative ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, pre-operative epilepsy, pre-operative history of diabetes, the location of the bypass recipient artery (frontal or temporal lobe), post-operative new cerebral infarction, hyper-perfusion syndrome, and post-operative intra-cranial hemorrhage were the clinical risk factors of epilepsy in MMD patients (all P < 0.05). Multi-variate logistic regression analysis showed that pre-operative epilepsy, the location of the bypass recipient artery, new cerebral infarction, hyper-perfusion syndrome, and post-operative intra-cranial hemorrhage (all P < 0.05) were independent risk factors for post-operative epilepsy in MMD patients., Conclusions: Pre-operative epilepsy, the location of the bypass recipient artery, new cerebral infarction, hyper-perfusion syndrome, and intra-cranial hemorrhage may have a causal relationship with epilepsy in adult MMD patients. It is suggested that some risk factors could be intervened to reduce the incidence of post-operative epilepsy in MMD patients., Competing Interests: None

Objective: To compare the thickness of subepithelial reticular basement membrane (BM) in asthmatic patients and healthy subjects and to compare the BM thickness to inflammatory mediators and cytokines., Methods: Fiberoptic bronchoscopy with bronchial biopsy was performed on 20 stable asthmatics and 10 normal subjects. The subepithelial reticular BM thickness was measured. Levels of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), interleukin 5 (IL-5 ), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha ) in sputum were measured by immunoassay. The relationship between ECP, IL-5, TNF alpha and BM thickness was estimated by the spearman rank correlation., Results: The mean BM thickness was significantly higher in asthmatic patients (10.1 +/- 2.6) microm than in normal subjects (4.4 +/- 1.2) microm (P < 0.005). In asthmatic patients, the ECP (144 +/- 80) microgram/L and the IL-5 (17 +/- 4) microgram/L levels in sputum were positively correlated with BM thickness (r = 0.569, P < 0.005 and r = 0.466 P < 0.005, respectively ). Sputum TNF-alpha (53 +/- 36) microgram/L showed no significant correlation with BM thickness (r = 0.254 P > 0.05)., Conclusions: Airway remodeling is a distinctive and characteristic pathologic finding of asthma. Airway remodeling is related to levels of sputum ECP and IL-5, but not that of TNF-alpha.