Serum resistin level showed a significant negative correlation with lumbar spine BMD, although the variance was small. Further studies are needed to elucidate the role of adipocytokines in bone metabolism.

This study intended to evaluate the impact of donor age on the function of isolated islets. Analysis of human islets from cadaveric donors (age 16 -70 years) was performed using glucose-stimulated insulin release (GSIR) (n ‫؍‬ 93), islet ATP content (n ‫؍‬ 27), diabetic nude mouse bioassay (n ‫؍‬ 72), and the insulin secretory function after singledonor clinical islet allotransplantation (n ‫؍‬ 7). The GSIR index was significantly higher in younger donors (age <40 years) than in older donors and negatively correlated with the donor age (r ‫؍‬ ؊0.535). Islet ATP was higher in younger donors (115.7 ؎ 17.7 vs. 75.7 ؎ 6.6 pmol/g DNA).The diabetes reversal rate of mice with 2,000 IE was significantly higher in younger donors (96 vs. 68%). Cpeptide increment to glucose during intravenous glucose tolerance test at days 90 -120 after clinical transplantation showed negative correlation with donor age (r ‫؍‬ ؊0.872) and positive correlation with the islet mass (r ‫؍‬ 0.832). On the other hand, acute insulin response to arginine only showed correlation with the islet mass and not with donor age. These results show that insulin secretory response to glucose deteriorates with increasing age and that it may be related to changes in ATP generation in ␤-cells. Diabetes

This study demonstrated that SMS based on our specialized Internet-supported system is an effective and safe approach to long-acting insulin dose adjustments in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Our data show that the circulating OPG-RANKL system is associated with bone metabolism in the male populations. Also, our data suggest that OPG and RANKL may be mediators of the effects of oestradiol in male bone metabolism.

Summary The Edmonton protocol for islet transplantation utilizes fresh islet grafts but other protocols increasingly transplant short‐term cultured grafts mainly for practical reasons. To improve our understanding of the impact of culture pretreatment of human islets, we assessed post‐transplant function by nude mouse bioassay, islet ATP, activity of stress‐activated MAP kinases, and expression of stress‐related genes by focused cDNA array in freshly isolated and cultured islets. Mean blood glucose levels over 4 weeks after transplantation (2000 IE) of (i) freshly isolated, (ii) cultured and preculture counted (recovery rate; 78 ± 6%), and (iii) cultured and postculture counted islets in diabetic mice were 330 ± 40, 277 ± 65, and 256 ± 52 mg/dl (i versus ii, P = 0.004; i versus iii, P = 0.002). During culture, islet ATP/DNA and ATP/ADP increased; JNK and p38 MAPK activities decreased. Among 96 genes studied, mRNA expression of heat shock protein 70 genes decreased >twofold during culture in all four pairs; expression of cyclooxygenase‐2, superoxide dismutase‐2, interleukin‐6 and cytochromes P450 1A1 genes increased. Our results show that culturing human islets before transplantation is not disadvantageous in regard of functional recovery from changes induced by nonphysiologic stimuli during islet isolation. The increase in expression of several stress‐related genes during culture also shows that improving culture conditions may further enhance post‐transplant islet function.