Visfatin is a multi-functional molecule that can act intracellularly and extracellularly as an adipokine, cytokine and enzyme. One of the main questions concerning visfatin is the mechanism of its secretion; whether, how and from which cells visfatin is released. The objective of this in vitro study was to observe the active secretion of visfatin from 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and adipocytes, HepG2 hepatocytes, U-937, THP-1 and HL-60 monocytes and macrophages. The amount of visfatin in media and cell lysate was always related to the intracellular enzyme, glyceraldehyde-3- phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), to exclude the passive release of visfatin. Visfatin was not found in media of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. In media of 3T3-L1 adipocytes and HepG2 hepatocytes, the ratio of visfatin to the amount of GAPDH was identical to cell lysates. Hence, it is likely that these cells do not actively secrete visfatin in a significant manner. However, we found that significant producers of visfatin are differentiated macrophages and that the amount of secreted visfatin depends on used cell line and it is affected by the mode of differentiation. Results show that 3T3-L1 adipocytes and HepG2 hepatocytes released visfatin only passively during the cell death. U-937 macrophages secrete visfatin in the greatest level from all of the tested cell lines., P. Svoboda, E. Křížová, K. Čeňková, K. Vápenková, J. Zídková, V. Zídek, V. Škop., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The influence of additional visual feedback (VF) on stance control was studied under conditions of changed afferent information from the foot sole and ankle joint due to different support surfaces. The changes of body sway amplitudes were analyzed and their frequency spectrum was established. The effect of visual feedback on the amplitude and frequency characteristics of human stance was manifested as: a) a decrease of the mean amplitude of body sway during visual feedback, corresponding to the decrease of power spectrum density (PSD) of stabilograms in the frequency range below 0.05 Hz, b) an increase of mean velocity of body sway corresponding to the increase of PSD of stabilograms in the frequency range of 0.4-1.5 Hz. The results showed that the improvement of the upright stance by additional visual feedback is mainly mediated through activation of postural muscles at the ankle level, or ankle strategy. The stabilization effect of VF on stance control is slight or negligible if the performance part in ankle joint (narrow support) was reduced.