OBJECTIVE: The potential association between thyroid hormones and breast cancer has been investigated in a large number of studies without conclusive results. This study investigated T3 levels in relation to breast cancer mortality in a population with no breast cancer patients at baseline. An additional aim was to study T3 levels in relation to mortality from other cancers and all-cause mortality

Human complex metabolic traits are in part regulated by genetic determinants. Here we applied exome sequencing to identify novel associations of coding polymorphisms at minor allele frequencies (MAFs) > 1% with common metabolic phenotypes. The study comprised three stages. We performed medium-depth (8x) whole exome sequencing in 1,000 cases with type 2 diabetes, BMI > 27.5 kg/m(2) and hypertension

Background. Oestrogen receptor (ER) status is important for the choice of systemic treatment of breast cancer patients. However, most data from randomised trials on the effect of adjuvant endocrine therapy according to ER status are based on the cytosol methods. Comparisons with immunohistochemical methods have given similar results. The aim of the present study was to examine whether different ER

Background & Aims: The robust association between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and the genetic variant I148M (rs738409) in PNPLA3 has been widely replicated. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the PNPLA3 I148M mutation on: (1) hepatic secretion of very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) in humans; and (2) secretion of apolipoprotein B (apoB) from McA-RH 7777 cells

Background: Although insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) is of importance for the adult function of the central nervous system (CNS), little is known of the significance of IGF-I in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in relation to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: A cross-sectional study of 60 consecutive patients under primary evaluation of cognitive impairment and 20 healthy controls. The patients had

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Protein kinase C (PKC) regulates exocytosis in various secretory cells. Here we studied intracellular translocation of the PKC isoenzymes PKCalpha and PKCdelta, and investigated how activation of PKC influences glucagon secretion in mouse and human pancreatic alpha cells. METHODS: Glucagon release from intact islets was measured in static incubations, and the amounts released were

BACKGROUND: We previously reported that a single prostate-specific antigen (PSA) measured at ages 44-50 was highly predictive of subsequent prostate cancer diagnosis in an unscreened population. Here we report an additional 7 years of follow-up. This provides replication using an independent data set and allows estimates of the association between early PSA and subsequent advanced cancer (clinical

Objective: Previously, we observed an association between family history of type 1 diabetes and development of non-insulin-dependent diabetes. The aims of this study were to assess whether type 1 diabetes susceptibility gene variants explain this association and investigate the effect of the variants on insulin secretion and presence of glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibodies (GADA) in nondiabe

Background: Portfolios are highlighted as potential assessment tools for professional competence. Although students' self-reflections are considered to be central in the portfolio, the content of reflections in practice-based portfolios is seldom analysed. Aim: To investigate whether students' reflections include sufficient dimensions of professional competence, notwithstanding a standardized port

Endothermic animals in the boreal region experience considerable thermoregulatory costs in winter, especially during inactive periods when high demands cannot be met by increased food intake. This might necessitate a trade-off between resting thermoregulation and other energetically expensive processes, such as immune function, but this has rarely been investigated. We evaluated how immune activat

The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) is the main genetic determinant of multiple sclerosis (MS) risk. Within the HLA, the class II HLA-DRB1*15:01 allele exerts a disease-promoting effect, whereas the class I HLA-A*02 allele is protective. The CIITA gene is crucial for expression of class II HLA molecules and has previously been found to associate with several autoimmune diseases, including MS and typ

Objective Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with an increased risk of ischemic heart disease, in both early and established RA. Data on the risk of ischemic heart disease in relation to therapy with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists (anti-TNF) are conflicting in patients with established RA and essentially lacking in those with early RA. In established RA, the risk of myocardial infarc

We investigated the orientation in relation to wind of common swifts, Apus apus, during nocturnal spring and autumn migration. Swifts are highly adapted to a life in the air, showing wind-dependent orientation during nocturnal roosting flights, and may be expected to be more efficient in their wind drift/compensation behaviour than nocturnal passerine migrants, which are usually subjected to full

Epidemiological studies suggest health-protective effects of flavan-3-ols and their derived compounds on chronic diseases. The present study aimed to estimate dietary flavan-3-ol, proanthocyanidin (PA) and theaflavin intakes, their food sources and potential determinants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) calibration cohort. Dietary data were collected using

Variations in health between neighborhoods are well known and the conceptualization of social capital has contributed to an understanding of how contextual factors influence these differences. Studies show positive health-effects from living in high social capital areas, at least for some population sub-groups. The aim of this qualitative study was to understand what constitutes a 'health-enabling

Purpose: Cocaine-and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) peptide exerts several regulatory functions acting both as neurotransmitter and hormone. We recently showed that CART is expressed in various neuroendocrine tumors, including small bowel carcinoids. The main objective of the present study was to examine whether CART expression is associated with survival in patients with small bowel carc

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified many SNPs underlying variations in plasma-lipid levels. We explore whether additional loci associated with plasma-lipid phenotypes, such as high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total cholesterol (TC), and triglycerides (TGs), can be identified by a dense gene-centric approach. Our meta-ana

Methods: A randomized, double-blind, active-comparator study of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus inadequately controlled (HbA1c 6.5-8.5%) by metformin monotherapy. Patients received vildagliptin (50 mg twice daily) or glimepiride (up to 6 mg/day) added to metformin. Results: In all, 3118 patients were randomized (vildagliptin, n = 1562; glimepiride, n = 1556). From similar baseline values (7