H2 activates ATP-binding cassette transporter A1-dependent efflux, enhances HDL antiatherosclerotic functions, and has beneficial lipid-lowering effects. The present findings highlight the potential role of H2 in the regression of hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis.

Increased phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP) activity has been found to be associated with diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome in humans. However, whether or not PLTP has a direct effect on insulin sensitivity and obesity is largely unknown. Here we analyzed the effect by using PLTP knockout (PLTP-/-) mouse model. Although, PLTP-/- mice have normal body-weight-gain under chow diet, these mice were protected from high-fat-diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance, compared with wild type mice. In order to understand the mechanism, we evaluated insulin receptor and Akt activation and found that PLTP deficiency significantly enhanced phosphorylated insulin receptor and Akt levels in high-fat-diet fed mouse livers, adipose tissues, and muscles after insulin stimulation, while total Akt and insulin receptor levels were unchanged. Moreover we found that the deficiency induced significantly more GLUT4 immunostaining in the plasma membranes of adipocytes and muscle cells after insulin stimulation. Finally, we found that PLTP deficient hepatocytes had less sphingomyelin and free cholesterol in the plasma membrane and lipid raft than that of controls and this may provide a molecular basis for PLTP deficiency-mediated increasing in insulin sensitivity. We have concluded that PLTP deficiency leads to an improvement in tissue and whole-body insulin sensitivity in high-fat-diet induced insulin resistance mice model. Foundation:National Natural Science Foundation of China (# 81070247, 81170785) and Taishan Scholar Foundation of Shandong Province.

Background: Many studies have shown that specific blood markers, such as red cell distribution width (RDW) and albumin levels, can provide valuable information about the prognosis of patients with acute heart failure (AHF). In light of these findings, the current study aims to investigate the relationship between another blood marker, RDW to albumin ratio (RAR), and the prognosis of AHF patients. Methods: Data on patients diagnosed with AHF were extracted from the MIMIC-IV database version 2.1. Patients were divided into three groups based on RAR tertiles. Multiple imputation was used for missing data, and pooled analysis was performed for imputed data sets. This study used Cox regression analysis to evaluate the impact of RAR on Clinical Outcomes in AHF patients. To further assess the prognostic ability of RDW, RAR, and albumin, the study also used time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (time-ROC) analysis. Results: This study enrolled 1432 patients with AHF, with a mean age of 72.4 years and a mean RAR of 5.07 {plus minus} 1.51% /g/dl. Patients with AHF had increased all-cause mortality when their RAR was higher (HR = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.10 ~ 1.23, P < 0.001), and RAR and mortality from all causes were linearly related in patients with AHF (P non-linearity = 0.643). Based on time-ROC curves, it was discovered that RAR had a higher prognostic accuracy compared to RDW and albumin. Conclusions: An increased level of RAR was associated with a poor all-cause mortality prognosis for patients with AHF, and there is a significant linear relationship. RAR was a better predictor of all-cause mortality in AHF patients than RDW and albumin.