Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Ewa Nowakowska-Zajdel.
The present study was designed to reveal the incidence of silent myocardial ischemia in asymptomatic elderly patients with impaired fasting glucose. Abnormal perfusion pattern was found in 13 of 48 (27.1%), who were finally considered to have a SMI. The evidence suggests that early and intensive detection may be needed as a part of routine care for this group.
Depressed patients, although viewed as chemically euthyroid, have alterations in the function of hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis including slight elevation of the serum thyroxine (T4), loss of the nocturnal TSH rise, blunted thyrotropin (TSH) response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) stimulation and predisposition to autoimmune thyroiditis. Both hypothyroid and depressed patients share a number of clinical features in common. This is the reason that some research workers use the "brain hypothyroidism" hypothesis to explain the pathogenesis of depression. They suggest that depression is a state of local hypothyroidism in brain with normal peripheral thyroid hormone concentrations as a result of brain type II deiodinase inhibition and impaired transport T4 across the blood brain barrier. This theory seems to be compatible with the serotonin deficiency hypothesis of depression. Some studies confirm the existence of classical feedback between serotoninergic and hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid systems. TRH remains under a constant inhibition by serotonin and reduced intracerebral serotonin concentration seen in depression will lead to increased TRH concentration in brain tissue. This mechanism is probably responsible for blunted TSH response to TRH stimulation.
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INTRODUCTION: Interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) is a cytokine with pleiotropic effects which, via different pathways, influences the secretion of certain cytokines and hormones. Growth hormone (GH) secreted from the pituitary has physiological effects on various target tissues. The question is how IFN-alpha administered in various types of disease influences GH secretion. This study investigated the acute effect of IFN-alpha on GH mRNA expression in the rat anterior pituitary. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to measure the cellular expression of GH mRNA by in situ hybridisation in the anterior pituitary after a single administration of IFN-alpha. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Rats were administered an intraperitoneal injection of IFN-alpha or saline. The rat pituitaries were taken 2 and 4 hours after IFN/saline administration and kept frozen until in situ hybridisation histochemistry. A 31-base(35)S-labelled oligonucleotide probe complementary to part of the exonic mRNA sequence coding for GH mRNA was used. All control and experimental sections were hybridised in the same hybridisation reaction. RESULTS: Acute administration of interferon alpha increased GH mRNA expression in the anterior pituitary in the 4-hour group in comparison with the control group, and there was no difference between the control group and the 2-hour rats. CONCLUSION: A single IFN-alpha administration was found to exert an influence on anterior pituitary GH mRNA expression. These observations may pave the way for presenting a possible new action of IFN-alpha.