Pioglitazone, a thiazolidinedione, improves insulin sensitivity and thus reduces blood glucose. Clinical trials have suggested potential cardiovascular outcome benefits in association with pioglitazone; however, safety concerns are mounting, with recent data suggesting a link between pioglitazone and an increased risk of bladder cancer. There is thus a growing focus on the risk-benefit profile ...

We previously have reported that glucose deprivation specifically enhance cell killing by hyperthermia in the absence of oxygen. The present studies were carried out to evaluate the interplay of glucose and oxygen on cell killing by hyperthermia (37 to 42 degrees) for up to 4 hr under varying concentrations of glucose (0 to 1 mg/ml) and oxygen (0 to 21%). pH 7.4 was maintained in all trials. In...

The ability to successfully adapt to changing host conditions is crucial for full virulence of bacterial pathogens. Staphylococcus aureus has to cope with fluctuating oxygen concentrations during the course of infection. Hence, we studied the effect of oxygen on glucose metabolism in non-growing S. aureus COL-S cells by in vivo(13)C-NMR. Glucose catabolism was probed at different oxygen concent...

INTRODUCTION The avascular nature of the human intervertebral disc (IVD) is thought to play a major role in disc pathophysiology by limiting nutrient supply to resident IVD cells. In the human IVD, the central IVD cells at maturity are normally chondrocytic in phenotype. However, abnormal cell phenotypes have been associated with degenerative disc diseases, including cell proliferation and clus...

BACKGROUND Cardiac disease is the leading cause of mortality in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Pioglitazone has been associated with improved cardiac outcome but also with an elevated risk of heart failure. We determined the effects of pioglitazone on myocardial function in relation to cardiac high-energy phosphate, glucose, and fatty acid metabolism and triglyceride content in T2DM patients....