University of Ioannina

About: University of Ioannina is a education organization based out in Ioannina, Greece. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 7654 authors who have published 20594 publications receiving 671560 citations. The organization is also known as: Panepistimio Ioanninon.

The use of statins alone, or in combination with pioglitazone and other drugs, for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and related cardiovascular risk. An Expert Panel Statement.

Abstract: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the most common liver disease, is characterized by accumulation of fat (>5% of the liver tissue), in the absence of alcohol abuse or other chronic liver diseases. It is closely related to the epidemic of obesity, metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). NAFLD can cause liver inflammation and progress to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis, cirrhosis or hepatocellular cancer (HCC). Nevertheless, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most common cause of death in NAFLD/NASH patients. Current guidelines suggest the use of pioglitazone both in patients with T2DM and in those without. The use of statins, though considered safe by the guidelines, have very limited use; only 10% in high CVD risk patients are on statins by tertiary centers in the US. There are data from several animal studies, 5 post hoc analyses of prospective long-term survival studies, and 5 rather small biopsy proven NASH studies, one at baseline and on at the end of the study. All these studies provide data for biochemical and histological improvement of NAFLD/NASH with statins and in the clinical studies large reductions in CVD events in comparison with those also on statins and normal liver. Ezetimibe was also reported to improve NAFLD. Drugs currently in clinical trials seem to have potential for slowing down the evolution of NAFLD and for reducing liver- and CVD-related morbidity and mortality, but it will take time before they are ready to be used in everyday clinical practice. The suggestion of this Expert Panel is that, pending forthcoming randomized clinical trials, physicians should consider using a PPARgamma agonist, such as pioglitazone, or, statin use in those with NAFLD/NASH at high CVD or HCC risk, alone and/or preferably in combination with each other or with ezetimibe, for the primary or secondary prevention of CVD, and the avoidance of cirrhosis, liver transplantation or HCC, bearing in mind that CVD is the main cause of death in NAFLD/NASH patients.

Preparation and structural study of binary phosphate glasses with high calcium and/or magnesium content

Abstract: Glasses of high CaO or MgO content in the systems x CaO (1 − x )P 2 O 5 (0.50 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.72) and x MgO (1 − x )P 2 O 5 (0.50 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.80) have been prepared for the first time using a twin roller device and studied by Raman spectroscopy. It has been shown that the structure of glasses depends on the type of alkali earth cation; the modification of the phosphate network is higher for the Ca containing glasses with respect to the Mg ones, at the same alkali earth content, due to the well defined Ca properties as a modifying cation. X-ray diffraction patterns of the thermally treated at 850 °C calcium containing glasses show precipitation of bioactive crystalline phases, such as β-Ca 3 (PO 4 ) 2 and β-Ca 2 P 2 O 7 . The molecular dynamics simulations have provided insight for the high Mg and Ca content phosphate glasses formation, where their average oxygen coordination number is calculated as five and six for all glass compositions studied, respectively.

Dilatonic black holes in higher curvature string gravity. II. Linear stability

Abstract: We give analytical arguments and demonstrate numerically the existence of black hole solutions of the 4D effective superstring action in the presence of Gauss-Bonnet quadratic curvature terms. The solutions possess nontrivial dilaton hair. The hair, however, is of "secondary type," in the sense that the dilaton charge is expressed in terms of the black hole mass. Our solutions are not covered by the assumptions of existing proofs of the "no-hair" theorem. We also find some alternative solutions with singular metric behavior, but finite energy. The absence of naked singularities in this system is pointed out.

KLB is associated with alcohol drinking, and its gene product β-Klotho is necessary for FGF21 regulation of alcohol preference

Abstract: Excessive alcohol consumption is a major public health problem worldwide. Although drinking habits are known to be inherited, few genes have been identified that are robustly linked to alcohol drinking. We conducted a genome-wide association metaanalysis and replication study among >105,000 individuals of European ancestry and identified β-Klotho (KLB) as a locus associated with alcohol consumption (rs11940694; P = 9.2 × 10−12). β-Klotho is an obligate coreceptor for the hormone FGF21, which is secreted from the liver and implicated in macronutrient preference in humans. We show that brain-specific β-Klotho KO mice have an increased alcohol preference and that FGF21 inhibits alcohol drinking by acting on the brain. These data suggest that a liver–brain endocrine axis may play an important role in the regulation of alcohol drinking behavior and provide a unique pharmacologic target for reducing alcohol consumption.