Educational Forum with Clinical Studies Current Science and Research

ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2008) — The cells lining blood vessels are known to be important for maintaining health, but researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine believe these cells may perform an unsuspected task – controlling the development of fat cells.

Their findings are reported in the September issue of the journal Stem Cells.

The researchers found that precursor or stem cells have a markedly reduced tendency to develop into fat cells when placed in direct contact with healthy endothelial cells, which are the cells that line blood vessels.

“The key to this discovery was our recent observation that these cells, also known as adipose stromal cells, in fat tissue are in very close contact with endothelial cells in small blood vessels and capillaries,” said Keith L. March, M.D., Ph.D., co-principal investigator of the study and director of the Indiana Center for Vascular Biology and Medicine (ICVBM).

“Once we had recognized this link between endothelial and stromal cells, it was a logical step to ask how these cells can influence each other,” said Dr. March, who also is a professor of medicine, physiology and biomedical engineering at the IU School of Medicine and Krannert Institute of Cardiology.

Dr. March and his colleagues are researching uses for one of nature’s building blocks, adipose stem cells, which they harvest from fat tissues. Their research looks at ways to treat vascular disease, including the use of adipose stem cells to grow new vessels as a treatment for peripheral artery disease.

When the adipose stem cells were mixed with endothelial cells, they were less likely to develop into fat cells, said Gangaraju Rajashekhar, Ph.D., lead author of the journal article and a research associate at the Indiana Center for Vascular Biology and Medicine.

What we discovered was that endothelial cells released proteins – including Wnt proteins to be precise – that play a significant role in blocking fat cell development. Wnt proteins regulate development and differentiation in many tissues and may even play a role in aging,” said Dr. Rajashekhar.

The researchers cautioned that more studies are needed to determine whether repair of unhealthy endothelial cells also can help to control fat growth.

“We know now that endothelial cells in blood vessels cells help tell adipose stem cells what to do,” said Matthias Clauss, Ph.D., an ICVBM co-principal investigator of the study and an associate professor for cellular and integrative physiology at the IU School of Medicine.

“What we don’t know yet is how the formation of fat cells influences the blood vessel lining cells. Our current hypothesis is that endothelial dysfunction promotes fat cell development, accompanied by new blood vessel growth. We hope to soon be able to interrupt this cycle,” said Dr. Clauss.

This research may result in new options for treatment of cardiovascular diseases and also could provide physicians with another weapon in the war on obesity.

Xanya Sofra Weiss

Xanya Sofra Weiss

Disclosed therein are a coupling boss and a method for fabricating a coupling boss, that a collar part is formed through a collar drawing process using a metal plate material, and then, a body part of the coupling boss is firmly combined to a substrate plate through processes of deep drawing, tapping, cleansing, plating and iron coining in order, thereby maximizing competitive power in price, miniaturizing the coupling boss in size, and maximizing tensile strength, compression strength, and surface roughness. In this instance, a more stable material thickness can be kept by performing a collar drawing process or a curling process when a screw part of the coupling boss is formed. The processes of: forming a collar part through a collar drawing process for forming a screw part of the coupling boss using a metal plate material; forming a body part and a flange part on the metal plate material, on which the collar part is formed, through a deep drawing process; and tapping to form the screw part on the inner peripheral portion of the collar part and the processes of: forming a body part and a flange part by a deep drawing process using a metal plate material; forming a collar part on the body part by a curling process; and tapping to form a screw part on the inner peripheral portion of the collar part are performed selectively. After that, the formed coupling boss is firmly combined to a substrate plate through the processes of cleansing, plating, and iron coining.

Xanya Sofra Weiss

Xanya Sofra Weiss

Weigen Chen Chenguo Yao Pan Chen Caixin Sun Lin Du Ruijin Liao
Chongqing Univ., Chongqing; 2008

In this paper, a type of high bandwidth microcurrent transducer designed for online monitoring of an insulator is described. According to the equivalent circuit model, the effects of transducer winding number, stray capacitance, and loading resistance on passbandwidth and sensitivity are discussed. The academic lower limit of the transducer is nearly zero and the upper limit is infinity, which are proven by the analysis of the electronic circuit and the simulation by saber. The test of the current transducer shows that the transducer can be used in most high-voltage insulations systems with broad passbandwidth, high linearity, high sensitivity, and noncontact.

Xanya Sofra Weiss

Xanya Sofra Weiss

Mi-Suk Cho, Rae-Joon Park, So Hyum Park, Yong-Ho Cho and Goh Ah Cheng; 2007

When a muscle is used repeatedly for a long time, it often leads to muscular fatigue and muscle soreness. In middle-aged and elderly populations, muscular fatigue and pain during the performance of activities of daily living is a common problem caused by physiological changes in the musculoskeletal system due to the aging process. Microcurrent therapy has been shown to be effective at reducing pain and muscle soreness. For activities such as standing or walking, specially developed shoes (G-man, Busan, South Korea) which are capable of providing microcurrent therapy during the performance of these activities are an advantage as the treatment becomes integrated with the activity being performed. These therapeutic shoes or microcurrent induction shoes could be potentially useful for providing treatment if they were worn during normal activities. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the effect of these microcurrent induction shoes on pain and muscle fatigue in middle-aged people with plantar fascitis. Subjects were asked to wear their normal shoes and instructed to walk on a treadmill at 2 and 3 km/hr for 10 minutes each. Subjects were then asked to wear the specially designed microcurrent induction shoes for six weeks for at least 4 hours per day during ADL activities such as standing and walking. During the initial evaluation and at the end of the 6 weeks intervention, the electromyographic (EMG) activity of their right tibialis anterior and soleus muscles were recorded, together with their perceived level of foot pain using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The results showed a significant reduction in their VAS scores (p<0.01), and the change in median power frequency of their tibialis anterior EMG recording (p<0.05). In conclusion, this study demonstrated that microcurrent induction shoes were effective in relieving foot pain and muscle fatigue in subjects with plantar fascitis.

Xanya Sofra Weiss

Xanya Sofra Weiss