Relationship between Finnish diabetes risk score and metabolic syndrome, vitamin d and insulin resistance in women

The  Finnish  Diabetes  Risk  Score  (FINDRISC)  is  thought  to  be  associated  with cardiovascular  risk  factors  separately  from  type  2  diabetes.  We  aimed  to  evaluate  the  relationship between FINDRISC and metabolic syndrome, vitamin D and insulin resistance in this study.

115  women  were  recruited  to  study.  Patients  were  divided  into  5  groups  according  to FINDRISC score. Metabolic syndrome was assessed in patients with FINDRISC scores, body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose (FBG), HbA1c, insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), triglyceride (TG), systolic and diastolic hypertension.

Role of C3a in Regulating Thymocyte Infection by HIV-1

The primary physiological role of complement proteins lies in augmenting host defense to microorganisms. Among several cascade products, complement components C3 and C5 are cleaved and activated through proteolytic processing during immune activation following exposure to HIV-1. This reaction generates the small peptide anaphylatoxins C3a and C5a, which bind to G-protein coupled membrane receptors that sensitize the response of human T-lymphocytic cells to multiple cytokines including CXCL12/SDF-1. 

CXCL12 is an alpha chemokine that binds to the CXCR4 membrane receptor, which also functions as a co-receptor for X4-tropic HIV-1. Given the importance of complement activation in immune function and the bio active nature of complement cleavage products we investigated here the role of C3a in HIV-1 infection of human thymocytes. Our data illustrate a potential new link between HIV-1 infection and complement activation in which C3a anaphylatoxin may modulate infectivity by reducing the susceptibility of thymocytes to HIV-1 infection.