MECHANISMS ASSOCIATED WITH AGING AND AGE-RELATED DISEASE IN DROSOPHILA Melanie Ann Jones, B.S. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2010. Director: Dr. Michael Grotewiel Associate Professor, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics Aging is an intrinsic ...

Several studies have identified an increased risk of cancer in type 2 diabetic patients and this is in accordance with the hypothesis that increased insulin levels might promote cancer. Thus, there is a great interest in exploring the possibility that antidiabetic therapies lowering insulin levels could decrease cancer incidence or cancer-related mortality. Recent observational studies have sho...

Obesity, hyperlipidemia, and insulin resistance are cardinal features of the metabolic syndrome and individually increase the risk for developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease, a risk that is amplified when they are simultaneously present. It is becoming increasingly clear that macrophages can infiltrate white adipose tissue (WAT) in the obese state, and their presence is associated with ...

The relative influence of genetics and the environment on factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) remains unclear. We performed model-fitting analyses to quantify genetic, common environmental, and unique environmental variance components of factors associated with CVD and MetS [waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose and insulin, h...

Atypical antipsychotics have become a common therapeutic option in both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. However, these medications come with a high risk of metabolic side effects, particularly dyslipidemia and insulin resistance. Therefore, identification of patients who are at increased risk for metabolic side effects is of great importance. The genetics of fatty acid metabolism is one are...

ône-third of population deal with sleep disorders which might be due to social, economic or medical problems. studies on twins have indicated the role of genetic factors in these disorders. monozygotic twins have a very similar hypnogram. â higher prevalence of some sleep disorders is reported in relatives of the patients with these disorders. genes also affect sleep disorders as well as some o...

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BACKGROUND Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) is an endogenous inhibitor of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, which was associated with insulin resistance. Dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH) is the major determinant of plasma ADMA. Examining data from the DIAGRAM+ (Diabetes Genetics Replication And Meta-analysis), we identified a variant (rs9267551) in the DDAH2 gene nominally asso...

We all age. The questions that surround this one of life’s certainties are: why are we aging?” “What are the mechanisms of aging?” “Can we delay aging?” “Can we continue to be productive even late in life?” The search for the fountain of youth started thousands of years ago. However, only recently have advances in the genetics of aging started to reveal some answers to these questions. Aging is...

OBJECTIVE In search of functional polymorphisms associated with the genetics of insulin resistance, we studied a variant in the promoter of PIK3CB, the gene coding for the catalytic p110beta subunit of phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase, a major effector of insulin action. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The rs361072 C/T variant was selected among single nucleotide polymorphisms of the PIK3CB reg...