Rosiglitazone influences adipose tissue distribution without deleterious impact on heart rate variability in coronary heart disease patients with type 2 diabetes

Heart rate variability during auricular acupressure at the left sympathetic point on healthy volunteers: a pilot study

Introduction

This research is a pilot, single-blinded study investigating heart rate variability (HRV) during auricular acupressure at the left sympathetic point (AH7) in healthy volunteers.

Methods

There were 120 healthy volunteers with hemodynamic indexes (heart rate, blood pressure) within normal ranges, randomly divided into two groups AG and SG (in each group having a gender ratio 1:1, aged 20-29), to receive either auricular acupressure using ear seed (AG) or sham method using adhesive patches without seed (SG) at the left sympathetic point while lying in a supine position. Acupressure intervention lasted 25 min, and HRV was recorded by a photoplethysmography device-namely, Kyto HRM-2511B and Elite appliance.

Results

Auricular acupressure at the left Sympathetic point (AG) led to a significant reduction in heart rate (HR) (p < 0.05) and a considerable increase in HRV parameters demonstrated by HF (High-frequency power) (p < 0.05), compared to sham auricular acupressure (SG). However, no significant changes in LF (Low-frequency power) and RR (Respiratory rate) (p > 0.05) were observed in both groups during the process.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that auricular acupressure at the left sympathetic point may activate the parasympathetic nervous system while a healthy person is lying relaxed.

Autophagy in Adipocyte Browning: Emerging Drug Target for Intervention in Obesity

Autophagy, lipophagy, and mitophagy are considered to be the major recycling processes for protein aggregates, excess fat, and damaged mitochondria in adipose tissues in response to nutrient status-associated stress, oxidative stress, and genotoxic stress in the human body. Obesity with increased body weight is often associated with white adipose tissue (WAT) hypertrophy and hyperplasia and/or beige/brown adipose tissue atrophy and aplasia, which significantly contribute to the imbalance in lipid metabolism, adipocytokine secretion, free fatty acid release, and mitochondria function. In recent studies, hyperactive autophagy in WAT was observed in obese and diabetic patients, and inhibition of adipose autophagy through targeted deletion of autophagy genes in mice improved anti-obesity phenotypes. In addition, active mitochondria clearance through activation of autophagy was required for beige/brown fat whitening – that is, conversion to white fat. However, inhibition of autophagy seemed detrimental in hypermetabolic conditions such as hepatic steatosis, atherosclerosis, thermal injury, sepsis, and cachexia through an increase in free fatty acid and glycerol release from WAT. The emerging concept of white fat browning–conversion to beige/brown fat–has been controversial in its anti-obesity effect through facilitation of weight loss and improving metabolic health. Thus, proper regulation of autophagy activity fit to an individual metabolic profile is necessary to ensure balance in adipose tissue metabolism and function, and to further prevent metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. In this review, we summarize the effect of autophagy in adipose tissue browning in the context of obesity prevention and its potential as a promising target for the development of anti-obesity drugs.

GVS-12 attenuates non-alcoholic steatohepatitis by suppressing inflammatory responses via PPARγ/STAT3 signaling pathways

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a type of fatty liver disease, is characterized by excessive inflammation and fat accumulation in the liver. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) agonist rosiglitazone has great potential in protecting against the development of NASH. However, long-term usage of rosiglitazone probably leads to many adverse reactions. In this research, GVS-12 was designed and synthesized as a PPARγ agonist with high selectivity, evidenced by increasing the activity of the PPARγ reporter gene and promoting the mRNA expression of the PPARγ responsive gene cluster of differentiation 36 (CD36). It was noteworthy that GVS-12 could ameliorate dysfunction and lipid accumulation by down-regulating the mRNA expression of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in the liver of high fat diet (HFD)-induced rats and palmitic acid (PA)-stimulated hepatocellular carcinoma G2 (HepG2) cells. Moreover, PPARγ siRNA (siPPARγ) markedly diminished GVS-12 induced the down-regulation of mRNA expression of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in PA-stimulated HepG2 cells. Additionally, GVS-12 could reduce the phosphorylation level of STAT3 and up-regulate the protein expression of a suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3), which could be reversed by siPPARγ. In detail, SOCS3 siRNA (siSOCS3) diminished the inhibitory effect of GVS-12 on the mRNA expression of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α. In conclusion, GVS-12 suppressed the development of NASH by down-regulating the mRNA expression of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α via PPARγ/STAT3 signaling pathways.

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a type of fatty liver disease, is characterized by excessive inflammation and fat accumulation in the liver.