International journal of obesity : journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Sleep restriction increases the neuronal response to unhealthy food in normal-weight individuals.
Sleep restriction alters responses to food. However, the underlying neural mechanisms for this effect are not well understood. ⋯ This inverse relationship between insula activity and food intake and enhanced activation in brain reward and food-sensitive centers in response to unhealthy foods provides a model of neuronal mechanisms relating short sleep duration to obesity.
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Comparative Study
Ultrasound-guided peripheral regional anaesthesia: a feasibility study in obese versus normal-weight women.
In particular, obese patients may profit from peripheral regional anaesthesia due to avoidance of general anaesthesia. Currently, ultrasound (US) guidance is described as the golden standard in regional anaesthesia, but no studies have so far evaluated the US behaviour of peripheral nerve structures in obese versus normal-weight patients. To be able to perform such studies, it is necessary to develop new and more objective methods to quantify nerve visibility by US. We therefore designed a prospective, observational, comparative and blinded study to investigate the visibility of peripheral nerves in obese versus normal-weight patients by using a novel method based on histogram grey-scale values. ⋯ The novel technique of comparing histogram grey-scale values to determine the visibility of the peripheral nerve in different patient categories was found feasible. Median nerves are appropriately visible by US in both normal and obese subjects, whereas sciatic nerves are less visible in obese as compared with normal-weight women. Our results serve as the rationale behind difficulties in peripheral regional anaesthesia in obese patients.
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Multicenter Study
Longitudinal association of telomere length and obesity indices in an intervention study with a Mediterranean diet: the PREDIMED-NAVARRA trial.
Telomeres are nucleoprotein structures that protect the ends of eukaryote chromosomes. Shorter telomere length (TL) is associated with some age-related human disorders, but its relationship with obesity or adiposity parameters remains unclear. ⋯ Our research suggests that TL is inversely associated with changes in obesity parameters. The assessment of TL can provide further insights for biological pathways leading to adiposity. We show for the first time an improvement of obesity indices when an increase in TL is observed after a 5-year Mediterranean diet intervention.
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Recent studies suggest human neck brown adipose tissue (BAT) to consist of 'brown adipocyte (BA)-like' or beige adipocytes. However, little is known about their thermogenic function. Within the beige adipocyte transcriptome, fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF21) is a gene whose protein product acts as an adipokine, regulating cold-induced thermogenesis in animals. Here, we explored (i) the adipogenic potential, thermogenic function and FGF21 secretory capacity of beige adipocytes derived from human neck fat and (ii) the role of FGF21 in modulating adipose bioenergetics. ⋯ This study provides first evidence of inducible functional thermogenic beige adipogenesis in human neck fat. FGF21 holds promise as a cold-induced beige adipokine with metabolic benefits of therapeutic relevance through browning of white adipose tissue.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Weight maintenance and additional weight loss with liraglutide after low-calorie-diet-induced weight loss: the SCALE Maintenance randomized study.
Liraglutide, a once-daily human glucagon-like peptide-1 analog, induced clinically meaningful weight loss in a phase 2 study in obese individuals without diabetes. The present randomized phase 3 trial assessed the efficacy of liraglutide in maintaining weight loss achieved with a low-calorie diet (LCD). ⋯ Liraglutide, with diet and exercise, maintained weight loss achieved by caloric restriction and induced further weight loss over 56 weeks. Improvements in some cardiovascular disease-risk factors were also observed. Liraglutide, prescribed as 3.0 mg per day, holds promise for improving the maintenance of lost weight.