BACKGROUND The nature of dietary fats and fasting concentrations of triglycerides affect postprandial hypertriglyceridemia and glucose homeostasis. OBJECTIVES The objectives were to examine the effects of meals enriched in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) or saturated fatty acids (SFAs) on postprandial lipid, glucose, and insulin concentrations and to examine the extent of β cell function ...

Many bacterial appendages have filamentous structures, often composed of repeating monomers assembled in a head-to-tail manner. The mechanisms of such linkages vary. We report here a novel protein oligomerization motif identified in the FadA adhesin from the Gram-negative bacterium Fusobacterium nucleatum. The 2.0 angstroms crystal structure of the secreted form of FadA (mFadA) reveals two anti...

PURPOSE Until recently, neuronal death in ischemic stroke infarction was ascribed exclusively to necrotic process. However, experimental animal models of cerebral ischemia suggest apoptosis to play a role in the pathogenesis of cerebral infarction. The aim of this study was to determine the level and monitor the dynamics of soluble Fas/APO 1 (sFas/APO 1) in serum and cerebrospinal fluid of acut...

Saturated fatty acids (SFAs) are known to suppress ruminal methanogenesis, but the underlying mechanisms are not well known. In the present study, inhibition of methane formation, cell membrane permeability (potassium efflux), and survival rate (LIVE/DEAD staining) of pure ruminal Methanobrevibacter ruminantium (DSM 1093) cell suspensions were tested for a number of SFAs. Methane production rat...

A recent study demonstrated that a single 50-min supplemental session that targeted the behavioral economic mechanisms of substance-free reinforcement and delayed reward discounting (Substance-Free Activity Session: SFAS) enhanced the efficacy of a standard alcohol brief motivational intervention (BMI) for college drinkers. The purpose of the current study was to conduct a randomized controlled...

Fat and physical inactivity are the most evident factors in the pathogenesis of obesity, and fat quality seems to play a crucial role for measures of glucose homeostasis. However, the impact of dietary fat quality on brain function, behavior, and sleep is basically unknown. In this study, mice were fed a diet supplemented with either monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) or saturated fatty acids ...

DNA damage triggers a network of signaling events that leads to cell cycle arrest or apoptosis. This DNA damage response acts as a mechanism to prevent cancer development. It has been reported that fatty acids (FAs) synthesis is increased in many human tumors while inhibition of fatty acid synthase (FASN) could suppress tumor growth. Here we report that saturated fatty acids (SFAs) play a negat...

BACKGROUND/AIM The goal of modern clinical and experimental researches in the field of sepsis is to find one or more sensitive parameters that could predict the severity of sepsis and its outcome. In this study we investigated and compared the relationship of initial soluble Fas (sFas) plasma levels as well as Acute Physiology, Age and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score in 58 septic...

BACKGROUND Anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity typically presents as congestive heart failure (CHF). As immuno-inflammatory activation and apoptosis are important mechanisms in the process of heart failure, the use of biomarkers that could detect cardiovascular toxicity before the clinical presentation is of great importance. We studied whether sTNF-a, sTNF-RI, sTNF-RII, Fas/FasLigand system a...

The plasma levels of soluble antiapoptotic Fas (sFas) and proapoptotic Fas-ligand (sFasl) proteins were studied in heart transplant recipients at one-month follow-up. The patients were treated with Neoral (n=18) or Tacrolimus (n=12) and concomitant immunosuppressive drugs. The sFas and sFasl levels were detected by ElISA. The values were related to treatment with Neoral or Tacrolimus in stable ...