Peripheral hyperinsulinaemia is the cause of metabolic changes that might contribute to the high incidence of macrovascular disease in patients with diabetes mellitus. In order to test this hypothesis muscle biopsies from 12 Type 2 diabetic patients and 14 age and sex matched non-diabetic patients, undergoing minor surgery, were obtained. The diabetic patients had significantly elevated fasting serum insulin (0.29 +/- 0.05 vs 0.06 +/- 0.03 nmol-1) and glucose (8.3 +/- 1.5 vs 4.6 +/- 0.5 mmol-1) and HbA1 levels (8.4 +/- 0.4 vs 5.0 +/- 0.2 per cent). The fasting and 2-h postprandial C-peptide levels were 0.99 +/- 0.25 vs 0.39 +/- 0.12 and 3.12 +/- 0.75 vs 1.09 +/- 0.34 nmol/l, respectively. The diabetic patients showed a marked elevation of triglyceride in the striated muscle biopsies compared to the non-diabetic controls (290 +/- 52 vs 48 +/- 6 mumol/g wet weight, p less than 0.001). Moreover, the activities of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (0.25 +/- 0.03 vs 0.13 +/- 0.01 U/g wet weight) and malic enzyme (0.15 +/- 0.01 vs 0.05 +/- 0.01 U/g wet weight), necessary for lipid synthesis, were significantly increased (both p less than 0.001) in the diabetic patients while the glycolytic enzymes, hexokinase (0.65 +/- 0.09 vs 1.82 +/- 0.11 U/g wet weight), pyruvate kinase (7.3 +/- 0.9 vs 13.2 +/- 0.9 U/g wet weight), phosphofructokinase (1.3 +/- 0.2 vs 2.6 +/- 0.2 U/g wet weight), and alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase (7.3 +/- 0.5 vs 12.5 +/- 0.7 U/g wet weight) were decreased (all p less than 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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A method for in vitro studies of fluoride uptake in single tooth surfaces has been developed. Two symmetrically situated areas of identical size are isolated on buccal surfaces of premolars by means of a special wax casting method. Analysis of 23 teeth demonstrated that the average fluoride concentration in the two areas at the same distance from the enamel surface was almost identical. The correlation between the fluoride concentration of the compared two areas of the same tooth, located at the same distance from the enamel surface, proved to be least in the outermost layer (r = 0.7). In more deeply situated layers the correlation coefficient was approximately 0.9. Calculation of the difference in the fluoride concentration at predetermined distances from the enamel surface by means of a computer program makes possible an evaluation of fluoride uptake under various experimental conditions.

Telomeres are unique terminal chromosomal structures, the length of which has been shown to decrease with cell division in vitro and with increased age in vivo for human somatic cells. In human immunode®ciency virus (HIV)-1 infection, decrease of telomere length is primarily found in CD8 T cells, and not in CD4 T cells. In this double-blind placebo-controlled study, we investigated the effect of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) treatment combined with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on mean telomere length in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). The terminal restriction fragment (TRF) length showed no changes during G-CSF treatment although the number of lymphocytes increased signi®cantly. The mean TRF length correlated positively (R 0.552, P 0.009) and negatively (R À0.503, P 0.02) to the proportion of CD4 memory and naõ Ève cells, respectively. Our data suggest that during G-CSF treatment lymphocytes are recruited by a combination of central and peripheral proliferation.