Better cardiorespiratory fitness associated with favourable metabolic control and health-related quality of life in youths with type 1 diabetes mellitus

OBJECTIVE

to explore the relationship among health-related quality of life (HRQoL), clinical variables, anthropometric measures, physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes.Furthermore, we aimed to find predictors of HRQoL and metabolic control.

METHODS

A total of 106 patients (sex ratio: 1:1) with mean HbA1c of 8.55 (± 1.44) % and diabetes duration of 5.15 (± 3.24) years were assessed. The average age was 13.22 (± 3.08) years.

RESULTS

We observed statistically significant negative medium correlation between HbA1c and VO2max (r = – 0.343; p = 0.000). There was statistically significant small positive correlation between the HRQoL and the maximal oxygen consumption (r = 0.208; p = 0.032). We found no significant correlation between the HbA1c and the patients' HRQoL. In the multiple linear regression analysis both the better metabolic control and the HRQoL was predicted by the VO2max, other variables had no effect. Physical activity level did not explain the HRQoL. Boys had significantly better HRQoL and less skinfold thickness than girls.

CONCLUSION

Better cardiorespiratory fitness associated with both favourable metabolic control and better HRQoL of diabetic youths.Regular aerobic exercise improves the young patients' physical fitness and overall health status, and perception of health-related quality of life, respectively.

A downstream regulatory element activates the bovine leukemia virus promoter

Recent studies demonstrated, that the R/U5 region of the Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) long terminal repeat (LTR) up-regulates the virus promoter. It is also known that this effect is independent from the BLV trans activator protein, p34tax, encoded by the virus genome. Deletions were constructed in the R/U5 region to localize the sequences responsible for this effect. The activity of the different constructs was determined in a transient expression system. Our results show that a 64 bp long sequence (called DAS), present at the 3 end of the R region, is involved in the activation. The in vivo results indicate that DAS could be divided into two independent but overlapping elements (DAS1,2). Sequence comparison allows the identification of three conservative boxes in these elements. Our results suggest, that these boxes are functional only together. The gel-shift assay with DAS2, in good agreement with the in vivo data, demonstrates that only the full length element forms a low mobility DNA-protein complex.