This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Increasing evidence suggests that in vitro fertilization (IVF) may be associated with an increased risk of developing obesity and metabolic diseases later in life in the offspring. Notably, the addition of melatonin to culture medium may improve embryo development and prevent cardiovascular dysfunction in IVF adult mice. This study aimed to determine if melatonin supplementation in the culture medium can reverse impaired glucose metabolism in IVF mice offspring and the underlying mechanisms. Blastocysts used for transfer were generated by natural mating (control group) or IVF with or without melatonin (10 −6 M) supplementation (mIVF and IVF group, respectively) in clinical-grade culture media.Here, we first report that IVF decreased hepatic expression of Fbxl7, which was associated with impaired glucose metabolism in mice offspring. Melatonin addition reversed the phenotype by up-regulating the expression of hepatic Fbxl7. In vitro experiments showed that Fbxl7 enhanced the insulin signaling pathway by degrading RhoA through ubiquitination and was up-regulated by transcription factor Foxa2. Specific knockout of Fbxl7 in the liver of adult mice, through tail intravenous injection of recombinant adeno-associated virus, impaired glucose tolerance, while overexpression of hepatic Fbxl7 significantly improved glucose tolerance in adult IVF mice. Thus, the data suggest that Fbxl7 plays an important role in maintaining glucose metabolism of mice, and melatonin supplementation in the culture medium may rescue the long-term risk of metabolic diseases in IVF offspring.
This paper presents a user-centered approach for the design/re-design of a mobile application for chronic pain management, with a focus on chronic low back pain, sometimes referred to as "invisible disability". Within the framework of a multidisciplinary project involving physicians, patients and computer scientists, the work presented here describes firstly an identification and representation process of the needs/expectations of the users of such an application (patients/physicians), based on a data-driven persona development method and, secondly, an evaluation process of the user experience (UX) of the current version of the application, using among others usability tests. The aim of the approach is to establish (re-)design guidelines in order to improve this kind of application.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.