Activity

Ap2-miR-26a mice had a moderate decrease in body weight, body fat composition, epididymal white adipose (eWAT) weight and blood lipid levels, along with smaller adipocytes in eWAT. The favorable phenotype was not due to white adipose tissue browning (even after cold exposure) or adipogenesis or lipolysis. Ap2-miR-26a mice exhibited no significant metabolic phenotype under high-fat-diet feeding.

This study suggests that adipose-specific overexpression of miR-26a could moderately reduce visceral fat pad mass and lipid levels independent of white adipose tissue browning, adipogenesis and adipose lipolysis based on the gene expression level.

This study suggests that adipose-specific overexpression of miR-26a could moderately reduce visceral fat pad mass and lipid levels independent of white adipose tissue browning, adipogenesis and adipose lipolysis based on the gene expression level.The transcription factor GLIS3 is an important factor in hormone biosynthesis and thyroid development, and mutations in GLIS3 are relatively rare. TKI-258 Deletions of more than one of the 11 exons of GLIS3 occur in most patients with various extrathyroidal abnormalities and congenital hypothyroidism (CH), and only 18 missense variants of GLIS3 related to thyroid disease have been reported. The aim of this study was to report the family history and molecular basis of patients with CH who carry GLIS3 variants. Three hundred and fifty-three non-consanguineous infants with CH were recruited and subjected to targeted exome sequencing of CH-related genes. The transcriptional activity and cellular localization of the variants in GLIS3 were investigated in vitro. We identified 20 heterozygous GLIS3 exonic missense variants, including eight novel sites, in 19 patients with CH. One patient carried compound heterozygous GLIS3 variants (p.His34Arg and p.Pro835Leu). None of the variants affected the nuclear localization. However, three variants (p.His34Arg, p.Pro835Leu, and p.Ser893Phe) located in the N-terminal and C-terminal regions of the GLIS3 protein downregulated the transcriptional activation of several genes required for thyroid hormone (TH) biosynthesis. This study of patients with CH extends the current knowledge surrounding the spectrum of GLIS3 variants and the mechanisms by which they cause TH biosynthesis defects.Characterizing developmental changes in frontostriatal circuitry is critical to understanding adolescent development and can clarify neurobiological mechanisms underlying increased reward sensitivity and risk-taking and the emergence of psychopathology during this period. However, the role of striatal neurobiology in the development of frontostriatal circuitry through human adolescence remains largely unknown. We examined background connectivity during a reward-guided decision-making task (“reward-state”), in addition to resting-state, and assessed the association between age-related changes in frontostriatal connectivity and age-related changes in reward learning and risk-taking through adolescence. Further, we examined the contribution of dopaminergic processes to changes in frontostriatal circuitry and decision-making using MR-based assessments of striatal tissue-iron as a correlate of dopamine-related neurobiology. Connectivity between the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and ventral anterior cingulate, subgenual cingulate, and orbitofrontal cortices decreased through adolescence into adulthood, and decreases in reward-state connectivity were associated with improvements reward-guided decision-making as well as with decreases in risk-taking. Finally, NAcc tissue-iron mediated age-related changes and was associated with variability in connectivity, and developmental increases in NAcc R2′ corresponded with developmental decreases in connectivity. Our results provide evidence that dopamine-related striatal properties contribute to the specialization of frontostriatal circuitry, potentially underlying changes in risk-taking and reward sensitivity into adulthood.

The quality of education in medical anatomy is a fundamental pillar of good clinical practice. Current reforms of the medical curriculum have resulted in major methodological changes in the teaching and testing of anatomy. A number of recent studies have however described a decrease in positive metrics of anatomical knowledge among students so taught. It has been suggested that the reduced anatomical knowledge measured in these studies may endanger patient safety. As proxy measures of exam quality, evaluation of the levels of students ‘achievement in the examinations, assessment of the subjectively perceived level of question difficulty and analysis of exam satisfaction are each suitable parameters of investigation of medical education.

To address these issues with regard to medical education at the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, we have analyzed students’ levels of achievement in the anatomical Three Dimensional Multiple Choice (hereafter, 3D-MC)-examination of 2,015 students matriculated in medicalld be recommendable to rethink the development of anatomical testing strategies based on the existing evidence.Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is a serious clinical health problem caused by the damage of peripheral nerves which results in neurological deficits and permanent disability. There are several factors that may cause PNI such as localized damage (car accident, trauma, electrical injury) and outbreak of the systemic diseases (autoimmune or diabetes). While various diagnostic procedures including X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as well as other type of examinations such as electromyography or nerve conduction studies have been efficiently developed, a full recovery in patients with PNI is in many cases deficient or incomplete. This is the reason why additional therapeutic strategies should be explored to favor a complete rehabilitation in order to get appropriate nerve injury regeneration. The use of biomaterials acting as scaffolds opens an interesting approach in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering applications due to their ability to guide the growth of new tissues, adhesion and proliferation of cells including the expression of bioactive signals.