Twenty years after its discovery, recombinant human leptin has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of patients with lipodystrophy. Beginning with a synthesis of the vast body of work on its discovery, dissection of mechanisms, and effects in experimental models , the focus of this book shifts to a consideration of the regulation and role of leptin in humans. The emphasis on human-level data is a unique feature of this book. The results of numerous studies indicate that leptin is indeed a regulated human hormone. Leptin provides a detailed account of the myriad physiological, hormonal, metabolic, immunological, mitogenic and inflammatory modulators and targets of leptin in a single volume. Next follows a comprehensive presentation of the therapeutic trials of recombinant leptin in patients with congenital leptin deficiency, lipodystrophy, hypothalamic amenorrhea, and other emerging areas, including leptin supplementation in leptin-replete subjects, leptin substitution for insulin in diabetic models, and novel combination regimens of leptin and other biogenic peptides. Unanswered questions and future directions in leptin research are highlighted in the Foreword by Dr. Jeffrey Friedman and throughout the volume. Identifying such questions helps direct research that could deepen understanding of the complex regulation of leptin under physiological and pathological conditions, a critical prerequisite to its rational deployment in the treatment of human disorders.

Despite the gains of the women's movement, women are still judged by what they look like--and men, by what they do. Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? offers hardy resistance to the narrow, random, and irrational appearance standards set for American women through an approach that is personal, eclectic, courageous, and funny. If you are interested in giving up your diet, throwing out your scales, and concentrating on who you are on a deeper level, this book will show you how to accept, appreciate, and even love your body Using statistics, research, anecdotes, and personal experiences, Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? explores how appearance standards have built a prison for women. With the book's helpful advice, reading suggestions, and list of more than 100 ways to fight looksism, sexism, ageism, and racism, you will learn to express your rights and needs, regardless of your shape or size, and tear down those prison walls. Designed to transcend the boundaries between the personal and the political, Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? discusses: examples of how weight and size constitute the last socially accepted prejudice the national "War on Fat" counteracting societal influences that support weight preoccupation connection between appearance standards for older women and large women nurturing your body resisting male-defined standards of beauty for women the myth of diets and dieting how the body resists weight loss how women are disempowered by concentration on weight and appearance how concentrating on appearance leaves real-life issues unaddressed how feeling bad about yourself can turn you into a willing consumerFeminists, faculty and students of women's studies programs, aging women, women of radical politics, and other concerned women and men will find that Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? states explicitly how women are kept powerless by subscribing to cultural and social edicts on physical appearance. Don?t live silently in a society that degrades and discounts women because of their physical stature and don?t let obsession with thinness keep you passive, docile, and unable to give your energy to things that really need your passion and intelligence. Read this book and learn to not only value yourself for who you are, but also to counteract American culture's equality-denying prejudices and practices.

This work offers succinct, medically-oriented coverage of biochemistry, examining biologically important materials and presenting the properties of nucleic acids as well as nucleic acid metabolism. Each metabolic process is integrated in a review of overall energy metabolism, diabetes and starvation. A solutions manual is available to instructors only.

Covers fundamentals of peptide and protein drug delivery. This reference/text includes such considerations as synthesis, physical chemistry and biochemistry, analysis, proteolytic and transport constraints, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics as well as bioavailability from routes of administration.

Cellular Endocrinology in Health and Disease, Second Edition, describes the underlying basis of endocrine function, providing an important tool to understand the fundamentals of endocrine diseases. Delivering a comprehensive review of the basic science of endocrinology, from cell biology to human disease, this work explores and dissects the function of a number of cellular systems. The new edition provides an understanding of how endocrine glands function by integrating information resulting in biological effects on both local and systemic levels, also providing new information on the molecular physiopathogenesis of endocrine neoplasic cells. The new edition expands the most used chapters from the first edition and proposes a series of substitutions and additions to the table of contents. New chapters cover signaling, brown adipose tissue, hypothalamic cell models, cellular basis of insulin resistance, genetics and epigenetics of neuroendocrine tumors, and a series of chapters on endocrine-related cancer. Providing content that crosses disciplines, Cellular Endocrinology in Health and Disease, Second Edition, details how cellular endocrine function contributes to system physiology and mediates endocrine disorders. A methods section proves novel and useful approaches across research focus that will be attractive to medical students, residents, and specialists in the field of endocrinology, as well as to those interested in cellular regulation. Editors Alfredo Ulloa-Aguirre and Ya-Xiong Tao, experts in molecular and cellular aspects of endocrinology, deliver contributions carefully selected for relevance, impact, and clarity of expression from leading field experts

Exploring behaviour through bones has always been a fascinating topic to those that study human remains. Human bodies record and store vast amounts of information about the way we move, where we live, and our experiences of health and socioeconomic circumstances. We see it every day, and experience it, but when it comes to past populations, understanding behaviour is largely mediated by our ability to read it in bones. Behaviour in Our Bones: How Human Behaviour Influences Skeletal Morphology examines how human physical and cultural actions and interactions can be read through careful analyses of skeletal human remains. This book synthesises the latest research on reconstructing behaviour in the past. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific region of the human body, guiding the reader from head to toe and highlighting how evidence found on the skull, shoulder, thorax, spine, pelvis, and the upper and lower limbs has been used to infer patterns of activity and other behaviour. Chapter authors expertly summarise and critically discuss a range of methodological, theoretical, and interpretive approaches used to read skeletal remains and interpret a wide variety of behaviours, including tool use, locomotion, reproduction, health, pathology, and beyond.

Excess of homocysteine, a product of the metabolism of the essential amino acid methionine, is associated with poor health, is linked to heart and brain diseases in general human populations, and accelerates mortality in heart disease patients. Neurological and cardiovascular abnormalities occur in patients with severe genetic hyperhomocysteinemia and lead to premature death due to vascular complications. Although it is considered a non-protein amino acid, studies over the past dozen years have discovered mechanisms by which homocysteine becomes a component of proteins. Homocysteine-containing proteins lose their normal biological function and become auto-immunogenic and pro-thrombotic. In this book, the author, a pioneer and a leading contributor to the field, describes up-to date studies of the biological chemistry of homocysteine-containing proteins, as well as pathological consequences and clinical implications of their formation. This is a comprehensive account of the broad range of basic science and medical implications of homocysteine-containing proteins for health and disease.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the development of metabolic syndrome, the underlying mechanisms and therapeutic strategies for drug development. The authors examine the context of underlying molecular pathways and integrated physiology, then expanding the discussion to diseases associated with metabolic syndrome. The development of drug therapies for these diseases and complications is extensively covered. The book offers a comprehensive and in-depth view of energy metabolism, metabolic tissues and pathways, molecular mechanism-based drug discovery and clinical implications.

Lipids and Women's Health is an up-to-date critical review of pertinent scientific and clinical issues connected with lipid disorders in women. Topics discussed include the public health significance of cardiovascular disease in women, lipoprotein and lipid metabolism, effects of estrogens and progestins on lipid metabolism, metabolic changes of menopause, and the paradox of obesity, a curable disease that is rarely cured, as well as those conceptual advances in our understanding of diabetes mellitus that have clarified diagnosis and may have improved treatment. The relationship of diet and lipid intake to the development of breast and uterine cancer; dietary and drug treatment of lipid disorders; effects of exercise, smoking, and stress; and repercussions of lipid disorders on the family are explored. The volume should prove of use to gynecologists, internists, family practitioners, and pediatricians, as well as to all other professionals with a major concern for the health of female patients.

This book comprehensively describes the association between metabolic syndrome and pancreatic cancer progression, and the mechanism of action and target definition with a view to drug discovery. Metabolic syndrome, which includes adnominal obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia, has recently been shown to play an important role in the etiology and progression of various cancers. Further, obesity and diabetes have been associated with an increased incidence of gastric cancers. The book reviews the key biological mechanisms underlying the association between metabolic dysregulation, including obesity-associated enhancement of growth factor signaling, inflammation, and perturbation in pancreatic cancer cell growth and metastasis. It also illustrates the role of the inflammatory signaling pathway in metabolic diseases as well as tumor growth and explores the potential of these pathways as the rational targets for pancreatic cancer therapy. Lastly, the book offers a comprehensive description of the challenges associated with diabetes and pancreatic cancer therapy.

This volume is designed to provide an understanding of current and potential therapies for osteoporosis. The opening chapter introduces the cells of bone and their interactions. Several following chapters describe factors affecting bone including systemic hormones with significant effects on bone, and local mediators including growth factors, prostaglandins, cytokines and chemokines. Topics that have commanded particular attention recently are calcium, FGF-23, nervous system bone interactions. Drugs that cause bone loss provide important information on mechanism as well as therapeutic considerations. An overview of the genetics of bone disorders and a discussion of the pathophysiology of osteoporosis establish the clinical context. The final chapters discuss current and potential osteoporosis treatments.

Diabetes: Oxidative Stress and Dietary Antioxidants, Second Edition, builds on the success of the first edition, covering updated research on the science of oxidative stress in diabetes and the potentially therapeutic usage of natural antioxidants in the diet and food matrix. The processes within the science of oxidative stress are not described in isolation, but rather in concert with other processes, such as apoptosis, cell signaling and receptor mediated responses. This approach recognizes that diseases are often multifactorial and oxidative stress is a single component of this. Since the publication of the first edition, the science of oxidative stress and free radical biology continues to rapidly advance with thousands of the research articles on the topic. New sections in this update cover the role of dietary advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in causing OS in diabetes, oxidative stress and diabetes-induced bone metabolism, and oxidative stress and diabetic foot ulcer.

Diabetes and Fundus OCT brings together a stellar cast of authors who review the computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) systems developed to diagnose non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy in an automated fashion using Fundus and OCTA images. Academic researchers, bioengineers, new investigators and students interested in diabetes and retinopathy need an authoritative reference to bring this multidisciplinary field together to help reduce the amount of time spent on source-searching and instead focus on actual research and the clinical application. This reference depicts the current clinical understanding of diabetic retinopathy, along with the many scientific advances in understanding this condition. As the role of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in the assessment and management of diabetic retinopathy has become significant in understanding the vireo retinal relationships and the internal architecture of the retina, this information is more critical than ever.

The world is faced with an epidemic of metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. This is due to changes in dietary habits and the decrease in physical activity. Exercise is usually part of the prescription, the first line of defense, to prevent or treat metabolic disorders. However, we are still learning how and why exercise provides metabolic benefits in human health. This open access volume focuses on the cellular and molecular pathways that link exercise, muscle biology, hormones and metabolism. This will include novel "myokines" that might act as new therapeutic agents in the future.

Metabolic programs of individuals are key determinants for disease susceptibility and immune response. This book, edited by experts in the field, summarizes epigenetic signaling pathways that regulate metabolic programs associated with cancer and cancer-related secondary diseases. The first part of the book highlights key metabolic pathways that are implicated in cancer and provides a comprehensive overview on the carbohydrate, protein, lipid, amino- and nucleic acid metabolic pathways that are deregulated in cancer. Special attention is paid to the altered tumor micro-environment that is influenced by the metabolic milieu. Furthermore, the fundamental relationship between the cellular metabolic environment and cell death-mediated autophagy is discussed. The second part of the book covers our understanding of the fundamental epigenetic regulations that are implicated in controlling the metabolic programs in cancer cells. Many aspects of epigenetic regulation of non-coding RNAs as well as DNA/RNA methylation, which influencing metabolic homeostasis in cancer, are discussed in detail. Special emphasis is placed on the epigenetic regulation of the amino acid, glucose/carbohydrate metabolism and epigenetic regulation during hypoxia and its connection to cancer. Last but not least, the third part of the book covers small molecule modulators of histone modifying enzymes, which can be used as therapeutic tools. The readers learn about the cross-talk between epigenetics and immunometabolims, as well as the epigenetic regulation of oncometabolites to combat cancer. Given its scope, the book will appeal to a broad readership interested in epigenetic, cancer and metabolic research.

Iron Metabolism, Volume 110, the latest release in the Vitamins and Hormones series first published in 1943, covers the field of hormone action, vitamin action, X-ray crystal structure, physiology and enzyme mechanisms, with this release focusing on topics relating to hepcidin, bacterial infection, and iron overload, the role of heparan sulfates in hepcidin regulation, hepcidin CDNA and human gene sex hormones, growth factors and hepcidin, HFE gene polymorphisms and hereditary hemochromatosis, hepcidin and il-1beta, hepcidin-ferroportin axis, cardiomyocyte hepcidin, adipocyte iron, leptin and hepcidin, regulators of hepcidin expression, and much more.

This textbook offers a concise, yet comprehensive account of human nutrition, food and nutrition-related health problems, based on the curricula of top universities around the globe. Nutrition is a multidisciplinary science, and as such, the book discusses various aspects of physiology, biochemistry, pathology, immunology, medicine, food science, and other fields related to nutrition, it focuses on the role of nutrition in the maintenance of health. The various chapters explore highly relevant issues, such as, addiction-related health problems, lifestyle-related disorders, social health problems and poor-maintenance of food hygiene and food safety. It also addresses the role of nutritional therapies for mental disorders, and includes an integrated perspective on cognition, oxidative stress and nutritional interventions in aging. Other topics include, the role of gut microbiota on human health, nutraceuticals as therapeutic agents and ketogenic diets. It also highlights malnutrition (protein energy malnutrition, starvation, malabsorption syndrome, eating disorders and overnutrition/obesity) and adipose tissue as an active endocrine organ. Moreover, it examines key concepts concerning the role of vitamins in the citric acid cycle (gluconeogenesis, ketogenesis, oxidative deamination and transamination) and precursors of coenzymes, as well as calorigenic hormones, appetite-stimulating/appetite-inhibiting hormones, anabolic and catabolic hormones affecting protein metabolism, and lipogenetic/lipolytic hormones.