This e-book is based on a critical evaluation of existing literature on salivary cortisol, aiming to evaluate the utility of salivary cortisol as a biomarker in various settings. It focuses on how different ways of evaluating levels of salivary cortisol may have an impact on the interpretation of cortisol measurements in various contexts. This e-book focuses on salivary cortisol in relation to the following topics: psychosocial work environment (effort reward imbalance and job demand vs control model), psychosocial resources (mastery, perceived control, sense of coherence), psychosocial risk factors (perceived stress, depression, vital exhaustion, burn-out), sleep quality, biological markers (bodily factors, cardiovascular risk factors, inflammation and metabolism) and somatic outcome. This ebook should serve as a reference for studies planned to adopt cortisol as an assessment tool.

Hypercalcemia is a relatively common disorder, which requires specific treatment in order to control symptoms and prevent the development of organ damage. Primary hyperparathyroidism and malignancy are responsible for most cases of hypercalcemia, and treatment has therefore been focused towards these two areas. The aim of this book is to present updated knowledge on hypercalcemia, its association with renal disorders, and benign and malignant diseases, diagnostic methodologies, as well as surgical and medical treatment. Insights into the etiology, pathogenesis and pathophysiology of hypercalcemia are included along with details on biochemical findings and ways to monitor complications and therapy. Suggestions on current imaging techniques and surgical treatment of hypercalcemia, are also presented. The book presents an overview on the pharmacology of anti-hypercalcemic drugs, also providing information on new drugs and future perspectives. The book will serve as a comprehensive reference source for oncologists, nephrologists, endocrinologists, clinicians, biochemists and pharmacologists, as well those involved in hypercalcemia management and research.

Insulin resistance is the main factor involved in the occurrence of the metabolic syndrome and later development of type2 diabetes. Despite decades of research on hormone's target tissues and the identification of most diverse candidates, the factors responsible for insulin resistance are still largely undefined. There is also a large discrepancy between in vitro and in vivo insulin sensitivity. Finally it is increasingly demonstrated that insulin resistance is found very early in life, long before metabolic syndrome is established. In search for commonalities, this book deals therefore with a new hypothesis considering microcirculation as one prime, possibly causal effector of insulin resistance. To present this novel hypothesis, the specificities of microvascular physiological mechanisms and the limits of interpretations of data according to the measurement techniques used are first thoroughly described. Several chapters deal with experimental and clinical investigations showing the involvement of microcirculation in insulin resistance. This book provides sound support for microcirculation being linked to insulin resistance at least in a bidirectional way. Supportive evidence suggests that microvascular dysfunction may lie upstream of insulin resistance in many of them. While this is still a hypothesis, the authors believe that there is enough data supporting it and hope that this book will stimulate researchers to provide the necessary final proofs.

Host defense to intracellular pathogens depends upon both innate and adaptive cell-mediated immune responses. Polymorphonuclear neutrophil leukocytes which belong to the innate immune system are the first cells that are recruited massively within hours of microbial infection. The importance of neutrophils in the development of an immune response is only emerging as they have long been considered by immunologists as short lived, non-dividing cells, of poor interest. Now, neutrophils are emerging as key components of the inflammatory response, and are shown to have immunoregulatory roles in microbial infections. The impact of neutrophils on cells present at the site of infection is only beginning to be studied and deserves more attention. This e-book provides an overview of the recent advances made in the field of neutrophil biology and motions towards some of the exciting new directions in which neutrophil research is moving.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection represents one of the biggest challenges of current years. However, scientists and physicians still do not have an efficient therapy for preventing or eradicating the virus. The selection of drug-resistant strains as well as side-effects, represent common problems encountered in all anti-viral therapies. However, it has been clearly demonstrated that the potency of early immune responses profoundly regulates levels of HIV, and hence also the generation of virus mutants as well as the velocity of disease progression to AIDS. A prominent feature of this e-book is the focus on interaction between innate immunity and HIV infection. This topic has been investigated by many authors from the late 80's, and many soluble factors responsible for such activity have been discovered, such as suPAR and HMGB1. At present, these two novel factors are the subject of very intense research on HIV infections. A key advantage of this e-book is the selection of authors, recognized worldwide as leading experts in their field. Because of the comprehensive coverage, as well as the eminence of the authors, this e-book provides a detailed and high quality description about the role of innate immune responses regulating HIV replication. It should prove to be a useful resource for readers interested in immunology and HIV research.

Antibodies Applications and New Developments is an overview of the current developments of techniques and methods relating to immunodiagnostics and immunoanalysis. This eBook also deals with specialties in the fields of drug, pesticide, antigen and food contaminant detection. The volume is useful for professional immunologists and biotechnologists interested in antibody research and development.

This e-book on diabetes epidemiology starts with the evolution in the diagnostic criteria for diabetes, particularly the changes in the last 15 years and their impact on the prevalence of the disease. The increasing trend in prevalence of diabetes worldwide, and its impact on people’s health and economic development are described by regions and countries. The rationale for a diabetes screening program, recent development in screening strategies and screening tools are thoroughly reviewed and presented. Because obesity is one of the major risk factors for diabetes and has been included in several risk assessment questionnaires, the obesity-diabetes association is particularly addressed in this e-book. The diagnostic cut-off value for surrogate measurement of body fat mass such as body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference is also discussed. The measurement errors and the strength of the association of diabetes with BMI and waist circumference are formally compared. Other diabetes related metabolic disorders such as dyslipidemia and hyperuricemia are also discussed with regard to their association with different degree of glucose intolerance including pre-diabetes and undiagnosed diabetes. The risk of dyslipidemia with cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in people with different glucose levels is estimated within different ethnic groups and the ethnic differences are compared. Recent interest on diabetes-cancer association is on the rise. Academic literature on this issue presented in this volume. The relationship of diabetes with cardiovascular disease is also recognised. In this book the focus is set on the impact of various levels of fasting and 2-hout post-load glucose on the occurrence of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity.

Phytotherapy in the Management of Diabetes and Hypertension is a good addition to existing volumes detailing knowledge of hyperglycemia therapy. This e-book emphasizes the basic biochemistry behind diabetes mellitus and hypertension, along with the control or remediation of these conditions through a cost effective, safe, easy-going, easy-adaptable method validated by scientific research. This e-book contains 7 chapters dealing with various aspects of these diseases and their Phytotherapy treatment and life style management. Phytotherapy can give patients long term benefits with less or no side effects. Hence, this e-book is an authentic alternative or complementary therapeutic compendium to physicians and patients. This book will also be useful to students, teachers, researchers, clinicians and general readers interested in learning about applied phytotherapy.

The book is dedicated to the history and current status of physiologic autoimmunity concept and relation between autoimmunity and autoallergy in the context of disease prevention and prediction. The immune system is a natural component, regulator and direct participant in the physiological activities in a healthy body. The main forms of physiological activity of the immune system are based on the intrinsic abilities of self-identification, self-maintenance, self-regulation, and self-reparation — that is recognizing components of the “self ”, i.e. natural autoimmunity. The most ancient and homeostatically important functions of natural autoimmunity are autoclearance as well as construction and support of multicellularity. A considerable number of immune functions, including those related to antimicrobial defense, derive from these basic ones. Various pathological processes in any organ are usually accompanied by different patterns of cell death and, thus, by increased exposure and presentation of self antigens. These events induce the secondary rise in production of autoantibodies with appropriate specificity (opsonines), which provides augmentation of clearance by facilitating the efficacy of macrophage-dependent consumption of debris in the aff ected organ. This phenomenon is sanogenic in nature and adaptive in essence. Therefore, secondary changes in production and serum content of autoantibodies can be considered the universal and earliest detectable marker of any chronic disease. In relation to experimental production and clinical reveal of antibodies towards nuclear antigens, penetrating into living cell nuclei and altering nuclear acid synthesis, cell proliferation and function, autoantibodies can be regarded as hormone-like bioregulators of gene expression. Apparently, immune system is able to reproduce complementary regulators for various cell receptors, including nuclear ones. Book is unique, it is a single monograph comprehensively including history and current status of natural autoimmunity problem. It describes a fundamental concept essencial for every branch of Medicine and Pathology. The concept described has broad practical application for Health Care, because it establishes effective method of early prediction for many different diseases, creates a basis for prophylaxis. Reader has a chance to get rid of old dogmas and acquire new instrument for fruitful theoretical reasoning, research planning and predictive/preventive practical medical work.

Frontiers in Clinical Drug Research - Anti-Allergy Agents is an exciting eBook series comprising a selection of updated review articles relevant to the recent development of pharmacological agents used for the treatment of allergies. The scope of the reviews includes clinical trials of anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic drugs, drug delivery strategies used to treat specific allergies (such as inflammation, asthma and dermatological allergies), lifestyle dependent modes of therapies and the immunological or metabolic mechanisms that are of interest to researchers as targets for new drugs. The first volume of this series sheds light on new therapies that can be employed for allergic reactions in patients (both traditional and non-traditional therapies), nutrition based therapies and the use of substances such as omalizumab and adrenaline to counter inflammatory response and anaphylaxis in patients. </p><p> Frontiers in Clinical Drug Research - Anti-Allergy Agents will be of interest to immunologists and drug discovery researchers interested in anti-allergic drug therapy as the series provides relevant cutting edge reviews written by experts in this rapidly expanding field.