Impacto de la actividad física sobre el control metabólico y el desarrollo de complicaciones crónicas en pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 1

Together with a balanced diet, regular physical activity is one of the pillars of diabetes mellitus (DM) management. Physical activity theoretically provides the same advantages in people with DM as in the general population and also has some beneficial effects in controlling metabolic factors, such as improving blood glucose levels and insulin sensitivity. In this article, we analyze the main clinical studies published to date that evaluate the impact of physical activity on metabolic control or the development of chronic complications in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. In conclusion, most of the evaluated studies show that regular physical activity favorably affects metabolic control in DM (or at least does not have adverse effects). However, there is insufficient information about the impact of physical activity on the development and progression of chronic complications.     

Digit ratios, secondary sexual characters and condition in barn swallows Hirundo rustica

The second and fourth digit length ratio (2D:4D) is sexuallydimorphic in many vertebrates. This ratio has been suggestedto provide an estimate of steroid levels encountered duringprenatal development, which may have organizational consequencesfor physiology and behavior of adults. However, recent studiesshowed that the relation between digit ratio and steroids seemsinconsistent and may vary among species and populations. Wetested the hypothesis that digit ratios would be correlatedwith the expression of secondary sexual characters, using thebarn swallow (Hirundo rustica) as a model system. This was doneby testing whether variation in 2D:4D ratio was correlated withtail length and features of song, which are important secondarysexual characters positively correlated with circulating steroidconcentration in adult birds. Furthermore, we examined the predictionthat male and female digit ratios would correlate with bodymass in an antagonistic way. There was no significant sexualdimorphism in digit ratio, which may be due to low levels ofsexual selection in this population. Adult right 2D:4D ratiowas negatively linked to tail length but not to male song output.Moreover, right 2D:4D ratio was negatively correlated with bodymass in male and positively in females. These results are consistentwith high digit ratios reflecting low levels of testosteronein this bird species.     

Conserved Threonine Residues within the A-Loop of the Receptor NIK Differentially Regulate the Kinase Function Required for Antiviral Signaling

NSP-interacting kinase (NIK1) is a receptor-like kinase identified as a virulence target of the begomovirus nuclear shuttle protein (NSP). We found that NIK1 undergoes a stepwise pattern of phosphorylation within its activation-loop domain (A-loop) with distinct roles for different threonine residues. Mutations at Thr-474 or Thr-468 impaired autophosphorylation and were defective for kinase activation. In contrast, a mutation at Thr-469 did not impact autophosphorylation and increased substrate phosphorylation, suggesting an inhibitory role for Thr-469 in kinase function. To dissect the functional significance of these results, we used NSP-expressing virus infection as a mechanism to interfere with wild type and mutant NIK1 action in plants. The NIK1 knockout mutant shows enhanced susceptibility to virus infections, a phenotype that could be complemented with ectopic expression of a 35S-NIK1 or 35S-T469A NIK1 transgenes. However, ectopic expression of an inactive kinase or the 35S-T474A NIK1 mutant did not reverse the enhanced susceptibility phenotype of knockout lines, demonstrating that Thr-474 autophosphorylation was needed to transduce a defense response to geminiviruses. Furthermore, mutations at Thr-474 and Thr-469 residues antagonistically affected NIK-mediated nuclear relocation of the downstream effector rpL10. These results establish that NIK1 functions as an authentic defense receptor as it requires activation to elicit a defense response. Our data also suggest a model whereby phosphorylation-dependent activation of a plant receptor-like kinase enables the A-loop to control differentially auto- and substrate phosphorylation.     

Assessing the potential of a protected area for fish conservation in a neotropical wetland

Freshwater habitats are among the most impacted ecosystem on Earth. Consequently, reserves have been implemented in an attempt to reduce the threat to freshwater biodiversity. However, few studies have evaluated how effective these protected areas (PA) are for the conservation of freshwater organisms. In the present study, we compared species richness, community composition and density of small-bodied fishes between lagoons within an eight-year-old reserve (i.e. protected lagoons) with those outside the reserve (i.e. unprotected lagoons) in a river-floodplain system that is exposed to seasonal flooding. The unprotected lagoons have been submitted to a light fishing pressure mainly targeting small-sized fishes for sale as baits. Our results showed no differences between the lagoons inside the reserve with those outside in any of the community properties measured. However, we registered an overall tendency of abundance reduction among the species used as baits in unprotected lagoons. Considering the high degree of oversight in the PA and the low fishing pressure among unprotected lagoons, it is possible that the positive effects promoted by the reserve on fish assemblages are being exported towards unprotected lagoons and thus offsetting a portion of the anthropogenic impacts. We conclude that the protection provided by the reserve is very efficient in river-floodplain systems, because not only it protects the biota inside the reserve but also act as a source of propagules to unprotected areas during the rainy season when all the aquatic subsystems are connected by the flood.     

Water flux through a semi-deciduous forest grove of the Orinoco savannas

Water relations were analysed in a semi-deciduous forest grove occurring in the oxisols of the Orinoco savannas. This grove has a shallow unconsolidated ironstone cuirass, which is overlaid by a sandy loam layer (0.0–0.5 m) that contains more than 90% of the grove forest root phytomass. Evapotranspiration and through drainage were calculated by using data from the soil profile as related to physical characteristics of the site root zone, hydraulic conductivity, volumetric water content and potential hydraulic gradient. Mean annual evapotranspiration was 783 mm year^–1 and annual through drainage below the root zone was 14% (162 mm year^–1) of the gross rainfall. This drainage recharged the 42% of the annual saturation deficit of the water table. Similar mean annual evapotranspiration (770 mm year^–1) was also calculated by using the water balance components. The mean daily coupling omega factor () between the grove canopy and the surrounding atmosphere indicated that a high degree of coupling (=0.14±0.16) occurs in the grove and evapotranspiration was mainly controlled by surface conductance. As the dry season proceeded, the soil saturation deficit () increased rapidly resulting in a threshold surface conductance (0.030–0.005 m s^–1) for ranging from 0.05 to 0.10. Hypotheses to explain the omnipresence of perennial species in the wide range of physical conditions in neotropical savannas are discussed.     

Experimental manipulation of tail ornament size affects the hematocrit of male barn swallows (Hirundo rustica)

Ornamental tail feathers of male barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) confer an advantage in sexual selection because long-tailed males are preferred by females. However, the size of tail ornaments exceeds the natural selection optimum and males are predicted to pay an energetic cost for flying, directly related to tail length. An increase in hematocrit is an adaptive response to enhance oxygen uptake, for example during periods of intense locomotory activity. In this study, we analyzed the effect of experimental manipulation of tail length on the hematocrit of male barn swallows from an Italian and a Spanish population. We predicted that the natural decrease in hematocrit during the breeding season would be reduced by experimental elongation and enhanced by experimental shortening of tail ornaments. The results showed that the decrease in hematocrit was significantly different among tail treatments, and tail-elongated males had the smallest hematocrit reduction. In Italy, the hematocrit of tail-elongated males did not change after tail manipulation, while that of two control groups and tail-shortened males decreased. A comparatively high hematocrit in males with experimentally enlarged tail ornaments may be a response to increased energetic requirements and, hence, to oxygen demands for flying imposed by their tail morphology. Received: 22 June 1996 / Accepted: 23 October 1996     

Association of the microsatellite in the 3' untranslated region of the CD154 gene with rheumatoid arthritis in females from a Spanish cohort: a case-control study

CD40-CD154 interaction is an important mediator of inflammation and has been implicated in T helper type 1-mediated autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Linkage studies have shown association of markers in the proximity of the CD154 gene. In the present work we investigated whether specific allele variants of the microsatellite in the 3' UTR of the CD154 gene might modulate the risk of RA. The study, in a case-control setting, included 189 patients and 150 healthy controls from the Canary Islands, Spain. The 24CAs allele was less represented in female patients than in controls (0.444 in controls versus 0.307 in patients, P = 0.006, odds ratio (OR) 0.556, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.372 to 0.831) but not in males (0.414 versus 0.408), and only when homozygous (P = 0.012; OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.16 to 0.77). We also verified that CD154 association with RA was independent of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) phenotype. A further functional study showed that after stimulation anti-CD3, CD154 mRNA was more stable in CD4+ T lymphocytes from patients with RA bearing the 24CAs allele (mRNA half-life 208 minutes) than in patients without the 24CAs allele (109 minutes, P = 0.009). However, a lower percentage of CD154+CD4+ T lymphocytes was seen in freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients carrying 24CAs alleles (mean 4.28 versus 8.12; P = 0.033), and also in CD4+ T lymphocytes stimulated with anti-CD3 (median 29.40 versus 47.60; P = 0.025). These results were concordant with the smaller amounts of CD154 mRNA isolated from stimulated T lymphocytes with 24CAs alleles. The CD154 microsatellite therefore seems to affect the expression of the gene in a complex manner that implies not only mRNA stability. These data suggest that the CD154 microsatellite contributes to the regulation of mRNA and protein expression, although further studies will be necessary to elucidate its role in disease predisposition.