Clinical and psychological correlates of health-related quality of life in obese patients

Background  

Health-related quality of life (HRQL) is poor in obese subjects and is a relevant outcome in intervention studies. We aimed to determine factors associated with poor HRQL in obese patients seeking weight loss in medical units, outside specific research projects.     

Loss of adrenergic regulation of cAMP production in the FRTL-5 cell line

Rat thyroid cells in primary culture augment cAMP production when challenged with beta-adrenergic agonists; at 10(-5) M the potency is isoproterenol greater than norepinephrine greater than epinephrine. In analogy with human thyroid cells, rat thyroid primary cultures display alpha-adrenergic-stimulated cGMP production which inhibits TSH and norepinephrine stimulation of cAMP. Adrenergic regulation of cyclic nucelotide production is lost in the cloned thyroid cell line of rat origin known as FRTL-5. Also the potentiating effect of phentolamine on TSH stimulation of cAMP production in thyroid primary culture becomes an inhibitory one in the FRTL-5 cells. Neither 'soluble factors' nor contamination of other cell populations could account for the different behaviour of the primary culture and the cell line toward adrenergic regulation. The reported activation by norepinephrine of iodide efflux in FRTL-5 cells rules out the loss of specific adrenergic receptors in the FRTL-5 cells. It is proposed that the cloning of FRTL-5 cells from primary cultures causes an 'alteration' in the coupling of adrenergic receptors to the adenylate cyclase system. This alteration does no affect those mechanism of message transduction that do not involve cAMP as the signal.     

Forskolin perturbs cGMP as well as cAMP levels in human thyroid cells

Forskolin, at 10(-11) M, stimulates guanylate cyclase activity in primary human thyroid cell cultures, but does not modify cAMP accumulation. At a 10-fold higher concentration it still stimulates guanylate cyclase activity and becomes an inhibitor of cAMP production. Above 10(-9) M, forskolin stimulation of cGMP decreases, while it also becomes a stimulator of cAMP production. There is an additive effect of TSH and forskolin on cAMP production at concentrations of the diterpene which are stimulatory. Concentrations of forskolin which are inhibitory for cAMP, but stimulatory for cGMP, are inhibitory for TSH stimulation of cAMP. The addition of 8-bromo-cGMP duplicates the forskolin effect at low concentrations.