Endocrine Abstracts

Background and Aim: Betatrophin has been observed to play an important role in regulating lipid and glucose metabolism, at least in adults. FGF21 is one of the members of endocrine arm of FGF family and its actions as a glucose and lipids metabolism regulator. FGF21 is rapidly emerging as an attractive target in the treatment of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. They may serve as both risk factors and biomarkers of chronic metabolic disorders. This study aimed to investi...

Kale (Brassica oleracea species) is considered a functional food whose macronutrient and phytochemical contents are considered beneficial and as such widely considered as a superfood. In the present 6-week cross-over trial with a 2-week washout period we compared the beneficial effects of freeze-dried kale over peas among Arab women with obesity. A total of 124 Saudi women with obesity were allocated to receive either freeze-dried kale (n=62) or freeze-dried peas (<em...

Numerous studies have identified several extra-skeletal health outcomes to be associated with vitamin D deficiency, yet a definitive causal link is yet to be discovered. Our recent 3D LC-nESI-FTMS proteomic analysis among normal and overweight but apparently healthy adult Saudis identified apolipoproteins, a known independent cardiovascular risk factor, as one of the serological molecular signatures that modulate vitamin D levels. The present interventional study aims to compa...

We studied the association between RBP4 and various markers related to insulin resistance and diabetic complications as well as inflammatory markers in Saudi population suffering from type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. Patients with type 2 diabetes were divided into 3 groups according to the type of treatment and involvement of coronary artery disease. Serum TNF-α, insulin, CRP, resistin, leptin and adiponectin were analysed in all samples. RBP4 plasma levels inc...

Background: Prediabetes (PD) is a significant risk factor diabetes mellitus (DM) and as such, behavioral interventions are the primary management for PD. High blood glucose levels alter circulating NLRP3 inflammasome complex activity and correlated interleukins (ILs). There is limited data available on the activity of NLRP3 inflammasome and ILs in sera of patients with PD that may or may have not developed DM. This interventional study assessed the effects of NLRP3 inflammasom...

Background: Our previous study revealed a high prevalence of abnormal mineralization markers namely low 25 hydroxyvitamin D (47.9%); high serum alkaline phosphatase (3.7%) and low calcium-phosphate product (9.8%) suggestive of biochemical signs of osteomalacia (OM, defined as any two of these risk factors). OM was more prevalent in girls (11.2%) compared to boys (5.0%). In this follow-up study, we aimed to evaluate if biochemical OM was associated with low intakes of calcium a...

Background and aims: Current evidence highlights that dietary cholesterol, trans-fatty acids and saturated fatty acids (SFAs) are all known to increase the levels of systemic atherogenic lipoproteins and cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to observe the direct effect of dietary change, via a calorie-restricted diet on i) cardio-metabolic profile and ii) a high-fat meal challenge pre- and post-3-month intervention.Methods: T2DM subjects (Sa...

Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (LpPLA2) is a member of the phospholipaseA2 super family of enzymes, and is upregulated in arterial inflammation, obesity and cardiovascular disease. The other isoforms, iPLA2 and cPLA2, appear to contribute to inflammation through production of lipid mediators. The role of PLA2 in human adipose tissue (AT) is unclear, therefore we sought to i) characterise PLA2 isoforms in lean, obese, T2DM abdominal subcutaneous (AbdSc) and omental (Om...

Background: Previous genome wide association studies in Caucasian and South Asian populations have identified over 35 loci for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk. However, little is known about the contribution of these loci in T2DM from a Saudi Arabian population. In this study we investigated for the first time, the association of 38 previously identified T2DM risk loci (32 loci from Caucasian and six loci from South Asian populations) in 1166 T2DM patients and 1235 health...

Objective: Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increased risk of type two diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease reduced through Vitamin D3 supplementation. However to the best of our knowledge, no research has determined the effect of vitamin D3 supplementation in conjunction with existing pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches to the DMT2 population. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of vitamin D3 supplementation in a co...