University of Gothenburg

About: University of Gothenburg is a education organization based out in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 23855 authors who have published 65241 publications receiving 2606327 citations. The organization is also known as: Göteborg University & Gothenburg University.

A systematic review of hepatitis C virus epidemiology in Europe, Canada and Israel.

Abstract: BACKGROUND AND AIM Decisions on public health issues are dependent on reliable epidemiological data. A comprehensive review of the literature was used to gather country-specific data on risk factors, prevalence, number of diagnosed individuals and genotype distribution of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in selected European countries, Canada and Israel. METHODOLOGY Data references were identified through indexed journals and non-indexed sources. In this work, 13,000 articles were reviewed and 860 were selected based on their relevance. RESULTS Differences in prevalence were explained by local and regional variances in transmission routes or different public health measures. The lowest HCV prevalence (â?¤ 0.5%) estimates were from northern European countries and the highest (â?¥ 3%) were from Romania and rural areas in Greece, Italy and Russia. The main risk for HCV transmission in countries with well-established HCV screening programmes and lower HCV prevalence was injection drug use, which was associated with younger age at the time of infection and a higher infection rate among males. In other regions, contaminated glass syringes and nosocomial infections continue to play an important role in new infections. Immigration from endemic countries was another factor impacting the total number of infections and the genotype distribution. Approximately 70% of cases in Israel, 37% in Germany and 33% in Switzerland were not born in the country. In summary, HCV epidemiology shows a high variability across Europe, Canada and Israel. CONCLUSION Despite the eradication of transmission by blood products, HCV infection continues to be one of the leading blood-borne infections in the region.

The role of liver-derived insulin-like growth factor-I.

Abstract: IGF-I is expressed in virtually every tissue of the body, but with much higher expression in the liver than in any other tissue. Studies using mice with liver-specific IGF-I knockout have demonstrated that liver-derived IGF-I, constituting a major part of circulating IGF-I, is an important endocrine factor involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes. Detailed studies comparing the impact of liver-derived IGF-I and local bone-derived IGF-I demonstrate that both sources of IGF-I can stimulate longitudinal bone growth. We propose here that liver-derived circulating IGF-I and local bone-derived IGF-I to some extent have overlapping growth-promoting effects and might have the capacity to replace each other (= redundancy) in the maintenance of normal longitudinal bone growth. Importantly, and in contrast to the regulation of longitudinal bone growth, locally derived IGF-I cannot replace (= lack of redundancy) liver-derived IGF-I for the regulation of a large number of other parameters including GH secretion, cortical bone mass, kidney size, prostate size, peripheral vascular resistance, spatial memory, sodium retention, insulin sensitivity, liver size, sexually dimorphic liver functions, and progression of some tumors. It is clear that a major role of liver-derived IGF-I is to regulate GH secretion and that some, but not all, of the phenotypes in the liver-specific IGF-I knockout mice are indirect, mediated via the elevated GH levels. All of the described multiple endocrine effects of liver-derived IGF-I should be considered in the development of possible novel treatment strategies aimed at increasing or reducing endocrine IGF-I activity.

The biology of salmon growth hormone: from daylight to dominance

Abstract: The elucidation of the molecular structure of salmon growth hormone (GH) in the mid-1980's paved the way for a new era of endocrinological research. Establishment of homologous immuno- and receptor-assays have made studies of the secretion, tissue and plasma GH levels, GH turn-over and GH receptor concentrations possible. This overview attempts to summarize the present understanding of the biological roles of GH in salmon. Although the involvement of GH in the regulation of physiological processes throughout the salmon life history has yet to be comprehensively explored, the hormone has already been demonstrated to have several important functions. GH is a principal regulator of somatic growth in salmonids. The growth-stimulating effect of GH is probably integrated with that of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), as in later vertebrates. GH stimulates protein synthesis and improves feed conversion during growth. The hormone also promotes lipid and glycogen breakdown as well as gluconeogenesis, functions which are probably of great importance during starvation when GH levels are seen to increase. During parr-smolt transformation of anadromous salmonids, circulating GH levels appear to be governed by environmental cues. Increasing springtime daylength elevates GH levels, and temperature modulates the photoperiod regulation of GH. The seawater-adapting role of GH during the parr-smolt transformation is complex. In freshwater, GH improves hypoosmoregulatory ability by stimulating branchial Na+,K+-ATPase activity and probably also acts in kidney and intestine. Following seawater entry, GH levels and turn-over increase transiently, probably to further increase seawater tolerance. Accumulating in vitro and in vivo data support the conclusion that GH is involved in the regulation of sexual maturation in salmonids although further studies are needed to establish the exact role of GH in this process. GH increases appetite but it is unclear whether the hormone effects the central nervous system directly, or acts indirectly through metabolic changes. GH increases swimming activity as well as dominant feeding behaviour and diminishes anti-predator behaviour of juvenile salmonids. The GH-induced changes of behavioural patterns imply that there exists an ecological trade-off between high growth rate and long-term survival which may explain why natural fish populations normally grow at sub-maximal rates. Current knowledge indicates that GH is an important and multi-functional hormone in salmon and a central mediator of seasonal changes in physiology and behaviour. The regulatory effects of GH are also of great applied interest as they are likely to affect both product quality in aquaculture and long-term survival of released fish.