Transfer of intestinal microbiota from lean donors increases insulin sensitivity in individuals with metabolic syndrome

Alterations in intestinal microbiota are associated with obesity and insulin resistance. We studied the effects of infusing intestinal microbiota from lean donors to male recipients with metabolic syndrome on the recipients' microbiota composition and glucose metabolism. Subjects were assigned randomly to groups that were given small intestinal infusions of allogenic or autologous microbiota. Six weeks after infusion of microbiota from lean donors, insulin sensitivity of recipients increased (median rate of glucose disappearance changed from 26.2 to 45.3 μmol/kg/min; P < .05) along with levels of butyrate-producing intestinal microbiota. Intestinal microbiota might be developed as therapeutic agents to increase insulin sensitivity in humans; www.trialregister.nl; registered at the Dutch Trial Register (NTR1776).     

Eye movements during natural actions in patients with schizophrenia

Background

Visual scanning and planning of actions are reported to be abnormal in patients with schizophrenia. Most studies that monitored eye movements in these patients were performed under free-viewing conditions and used 2-dimensional images. However, images differ from the natural world in several ways, including task demands and the dimensionality of the display. Our study was designed to assess whether abnormalities in visual exploration in patients with schizophrenia generalize to active-viewing tasks in realistic conditions of viewing and to examine whether disturbances in action sequencing in these patients are reflected in their visual scanning patterns while executing natural tasks.

Methods

We monitored visual scan paths in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Participants performed several tasks in which they were asked to look at a realistic scene on a table (free-viewing) and perform 2 active-viewing tasks: a familiar task (sandwich-making) and an unfamiliar task (model-building). The scenes contained both task-relevant and task-irrelevant objects.

Results

We included 15 patients and 15 controls in our analysis. Patients exhibited abnormalities in the free-viewing condition. Their patterns of exploration were similar to those of controls in the familiar task, but they showed scanning differences in the unfamiliar task. Patients were also slower than controls to accomplish both tasks.

Limitations

Patients with schizophrenia were taking antipsychotic medications, so the presence of medication effects cannot be excluded.

Conclusion

People with schizophrenia present a basic psycho-motor slowing and seem to establish a less efficient planning strategy in the case of more complex and unfamiliar tasks.     

Systemic sclerosis at the crossroad of polyautoimmunity

Objectives

Several epidemiological studies have revealed the co-occurrence of other autoimmune diseases (AIDs) within patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). However, some of these studies were based on small cohorts and wide ranges of prevalence have been reported. Therefore to overcome these limitations of individual studies, we sought to perform a meta-analysis to determine the accurate prevalence of polyautoimmunity in SSc.

Methods

We performed a systematic review and a meta-analysis of literature in MEDLINE and Embase databases from January 1960 to March 2013. All cohort studies reporting on prevalence of other AIDs known to be associated with SSc were analyzed. Prevalence of polyautoimmunity and of each AID were then calculated.

Results

Ten studies reporting polyautoimmunity were identified corresponding to a total of 6102 SSc patients. Overall 1432 patients with at least one AID were identified corresponding to a weighted prevalence of polyautoimmunity equal to 25.7% CI 95% [20.1%–31.6%]. Overall 208/5139 SSc-patients had at least two additional AIDs resulting in a weighted prevalence of 3.9% [3.3%–4.4%]. The most prevalent associated AIDs were autoimmune thyroid disease (10.4%) followed by Sjögren's syndrome (7.7%) and dermatopolymyositis/polymyositis (5.6%).

Conclusion

Our results confirm that SSc polyautoimmunity is a frequent condition in SSc affecting a quarter of SSc-patients. The impact on the phenotype and also on the management and therapy will need to be addressed now in further works.     

Experimental models of dermal fibrosis and systemic sclerosis

Vasculopathy, immunological abnormalities, and fibrosis are the key features in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc). Expression of each of the three pathologic features varies among SSc patients leading to disease heterogeneity and variable organ manifestations. Although the etiology of SSc has not yet been fully elucidated, a growing body of evidence suggests that extracellular matrix overproduction by activated fibroblasts results from a complex interplay between endothelial cells, immune cells and fibroblasts through cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions and communications. Relevant animal models are essential tools to in-depth investigate pathogenesis of SSc. Several murine and avian models are available; however, some models display inflammation followed by fibrosis, whether some others primarily mimic autonomous fibroblast activation. In addition, typical microvascular changes of SSc are only observed in few models. Therefore, none of these animal models encompasses all features of the human disease and a critical selection is mandatory for successful in vivo studies. Hence, we will provide an overview of the most important experimental models of dermal fibrosis and SSc and discuss their respective contribution to the better understanding of SSc pathogenesis.