@phdthesis{Ehebauer2020,
  author    = {Ehebauer, Franziska},
  title     = {Regulation of Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase Expression in Adipocytes},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-21764},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-217645},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) is a new regulator of energy homeostasis. Its expression is increased in models of obesity and diabetes. An enhanced NNMT level is also caused by an adipose tissue-specific knockout of glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4) in mice, whereas the overexpression of this glucose transporter reduced the NNMT expression. Furthermore, the knockdown of the enzyme prevents mice from diet-induced obesity (DIO) and the recently developed small molecule inhibitors for NNMT reverses the DIO. These previous findings demonstrated the exclusive role of NNMT in adipose tissue and further make it to a promising target in obesity treatment. However, the regulation mechanism of this methyltransferase is not yet clarified. The first part of the thesis focus on the investigation whether pro-inflammatory signals are responsible for the enhanced NNMT expression in obese adipose tissue because a hallmark of this tissue is a low-level chronic inflammation. Indeed, the NNMT mRNA in our study was elevated in obese patients compared with the control group, whereas the GLUT4 mRNA expression does not differ between lean and obese humans. To analyze whether pro inflammatory signals, like interleukin (IL 6) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), regulate NNMT expression 3T3-L1 adipocytes were treated with these cytokines. However, IL 6, TNF α, and leptin, which is an alternative activator of the JAK/STAT pathway, did not affect the NNMT protein or mRNA level in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes. The mRNA and protein levels were measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and western blotting. In the second part of this study, 3T3-L1 adipocytes were cultivated with varying glucose concentrations to show whether NNMT expression depends on glucose availability. Further studies with activators and inhibitors of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathways were used to elucidate the regulation mechanism of the enzyme. The glucose deprivation of differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes led to a 2-fold increase in NNMT expression. This effect was confirmed by the inhibition of the glucose transports with phloretin as well as the inhibition of glycolysis with 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG). AMPK serves as an intracellular energy sensor and the pharmacological activation of it enhanced the NNMT expression. This increase was also caused by the inhibition of mTOR. Conversely, the activation of mTOR using MHY1485 prevented the effect of glucose deprivation on NNMT. Furthermore, the NNMT up-regulation was also blocked by the different autophagy inhibitors. Taken together, NNMT plays a critical role in autophagy in adipocytes, because an inhibition of this process prevented the augmented NNMT expression during glucose starvation. Moreover, the effect on NNMT protein and mRNA level depends on AMPK and mTOR. However, pro-inflammatory signals did not affect the expression. Further in vivo studies have to clarify whether AMPK activation and mTOR inhibition as well as autophagy are responsible for the increased NNMT levels in obese adipose tissue. In future this methyltransferase emerges as an awesome therapeutic target for obesity.},
  subject      = {Fettzelle},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Rudolphi2022,
  author    = {Rudolphi, Bianca},
  title     = {Nicotinamid-N-Methyltransferase (NNMT) als Regulator des Energiehaushalts des Menschen: Entwicklung einer Methode zur Bestimmung der NNMT-Aktivit{\"a}t und Anwendung auf humanes Fettgewebe},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-25372},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-253724},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Die Nicotinamid-N-Methyltransferase (NNMT) reguliert den Energiehaushalt des Fettgewebes und spielt eine Rolle in der Pathogenese von Adipositas. W{\"a}hrend die NNMT-Expression im Fettgewebe und die Konzentrationen von NNMT-Metaboliten in Serum und Urin vielfach beschrieben sind, ist bisher wenig {\"u}ber die spezifische Aktivit{\"a}t des Enzyms im humanen Fettgewebe bekannt. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, eine fluoreszenzbasierte Methode zur Bestimmung der NNMT-Aktivit{\"a}t zu entwickeln und die spezifischen Aktivit{\"a}ten im Fettgewebe von nicht adip{\"o}sen und adip{\"o}sen Probanden zu vergleichen. Eingeschlossen wurden 43 Probanden (16 adip{\"o}se, 15 nicht adip{\"o}se, 12 ehemals Adip{\"o}se nach bariatrischer Operation) in einer monozentrischen analytischen Querschnittsanalyse. Es wurde eine Methode entwickelt, optimiert und validiert, mit der die NNMT-Aktivit{\"a}t zahlreicher Proben unter Anfangsbedingungen in {\"u}berschaubarer Zeit gemessen werden kann. Die Michaelis-Menten-Konstanten f{\"u}r die Kosubstrate Nicotinamid und S-Adenosylmethionin wurden mit 0,19 ± 0,11 mmol/l und 5 ± 2,5 µmol/l (Mittelwert ± Standardabweichung) bestimmt, was mehreren ver{\"o}ffentlichten Werten entspricht. Die spezifischen Aktivit{\"a}ten im subkutanen Fettgewebe der adip{\"o}sen, nicht adip{\"o}sen und ehemals adip{\"o}sen Probanden wurden mit 34 ± 19, 51 ± 44 und 90 ± 21 pU/mg bestimmt. Entgegen der Annahme war die Aktivit{\"a}t bei adip{\"o}sen Probanden gegen{\"u}ber nicht adip{\"o}sen also nicht erh{\"o}ht. {\"U}berraschend wurden sogar die h{\"o}chsten Aktivit{\"a}ten bei den ehemals Adip{\"o}sen gemessen (p < 0,05 in der Varianzanalyse). Die Aktivit{\"a}ten im Omentum-majus-Fettgewebe betrugen 57 ± 14 pU/mg (Adip{\"o}se) und 85 ± 66 pU/mg (nicht Adip{\"o}se). Die Aktivit{\"a}t im Omentum majus war zudem signifikant h{\"o}her als im subkutanen Fett (p = 0,01). Wie es zu einer Steigerung der NNMT-Aktivit{\"a}t nach Gewichtsabnahme kommt, konnte in der vorliegenden Arbeit nicht untersucht werden. Vorl{\"a}ufige eigene Experimente mit M{\"a}usen legen aber nahe, dass NNMT w{\"a}hrend der Entwicklung von Adipositas dynamisch reguliert ist. Dies muss Gegenstand zuk{\"u}nftiger Untersuchungen sein, auch um NNMT als m{\"o}gliches Ziel therapeutischer Interventionen zur Bek{\"a}mpfung der sich pandemisch ausbreitenden Adipositas und ihrer Folgeerkrankungen zu definieren.},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Bergmann2022,
  author    = {Bergmann, Tim Jonas},
  title     = {Pathways in uremic cardiomyopathy - the intracellular orchestrator PGC-1α in cell culture and in a mouse model of uremia},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-28706},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-287061},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {For the past 20 years, chronic kidney disease (CKD) has remained one of the major causes of death worldwide. Cardiovascular events account for approximately 50\% of deaths in CKD patients, underscoring the clinical relevance of the observed cardiac changes. These changes define uremic cardiomyopathy (UCM) and include left-ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), LV dilatation, and LV systolic and diastolic dysfunction. LVH is seen as the primary manifestation of UCM and is caused by a multitude of different systems including in-creased pre- and afterload and the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). More recent studies found that myocardial dysfunction is apparent before changes in the ventricular geome-try, like hypertrophy, occur to the uremic heart. This leads to the conclusion that LVH is not the cause of cardiac dysfunction, but one of the alterations caused by factors related to the uremic state itself. Among these factors that are independent of pressure and vol-ume overload, are cardiotonic steroids as well as the parathyroid hormone and the endo-thelin (ET-1) system. But we suggest a different substance to play an important role in UCM: Urea. Patients in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) display increased oxidative stress and urea has been found to increase levels of oxidative stress, at least in endothelial cells. Therefore, we investigated the effect that elevated urea levels, as seen in patients undergoing dialysis, have on cardiomyocytes. As the oxidative stress in a cell is regulated by mitochondrial processes, we suspected the mitochondrial orchestrator PGC-1α to play an important role. The uremic heart is in a state of elevated oxidative stress. This has been presented by multiple authors before. By conducting immunofluorescent staining for reactive oxygen species (ROS), we tried to replicate their findings and illustrate elevated levels of ROS. As the fluorescence analysis did not bear significant results, we approached oxidative stress from a different angle: Via mass spectrometry, we looked at the amino acids methionine, cysteine and betaine which are highly involved in sustaining the oxidative balance in the cell. Our findings in the media of urea-treated HL-1 cells lead us to the conclusion, that these cardiomyocytes were in a state of low antioxidative resources. Next, to find the intracellular mechanisms that connect uremia to oxidative stress and compromised energetics, we investigated possible downstream effectors of uremia. The urea-treated cardiomyocytes exhibited significant alterations regarding upstream effec-tors of PGC-1α: The protein kinases Akt and Erk were expressed and phosphorylated dif-ferently in a western blot analysis of uremic h9c2 cells and in mice with induced kidney failure. To combine these findings regarding the protein kinases Akt and Erk and oxidative stress, the Erk/p38 pathways seems conclusive (figure 20). This pathway links uremia and oxidative stress to intracellular effectors that have been found to influence the develop-ment of uremic cardiomyopathy. Another life-threatening alteration in uremic cardiomyopathy is a corrupted cardiac func-tion. The myocardium of uremic patients has shown to be more susceptible to ischemic damage and most patients receiving dialysis experience repeated episodes of intradialytic impairments in cardiac function. The urea-treated cardiomyocytes had a significantly higher oxygen consumption rate due to an inefficiently increased metabolism, most likely caused by an increased level of uncoupling. Taken together, the results of this study indicate that urea by itself plays a role in the de-velopment of uremic cardiomyopathy. So-called high-physiologic levels of urea have led to a mitochondrial inefficiency and an increase of oxidative stress in cardiomyocytes. The protein kinases Akt and Erk may work as effectors of urea to induce these changes via the Erk/p38 pathway. It seems very likely that the mitochondrial changes are mediated by the mitochondrial orchestrator PGC-1α. These observations might lead to further studies in-vestigating urea levels in dialysis patients. In the future, these might lead to a change of practice regarding tolerated urea levels in dialysis and help reduce the cardiac mortality of patients with chronic kidney disease.},
  subject      = {Ur{\"a}mie},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Wagner2019,
  author    = {Wagner, Martin},
  title     = {Chronic Kidney Disease as an Important Co-morbid Condition in Coronary Heart Disease Patients},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-175498},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {In patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) the control of the modifiable "traditional" cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, achieving/maintaining normal body weight and smoking cessation is of major importance to improve prognosis. Guideline recommendations for secondary CHD prevention include specific treatment targets for blood pressure, lipid levels, and markers of glucose metabolism for both younger and older patients. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been identified as a "non-traditional" risk factor for worse outcome in CHD patients, as it is associated with a markedly increased risk for subsequent CV events and mortality. The specific objectives of the current thesis-project are to investigate (a) the quality of care in a recent sample of German CHD patients and to investigate variation of risk factor control between younger and elder patients (≤70 versus >70 years), (b) to analyze the prevalence of CKD across Europe in stable CHD patients in the outpatient setting and during a hospital stay for CHD, (c) to investigate the level of awareness of CKD in German CHD patients and their treating physicians. Data from the European-wide EUROASPIRE IV study were used that include data on 7998 CHD patients in the ambulatory setting (study visit) and during a hospital stay for CHD (index). The German EUROASPIRE IV study center in W{\"u}rzburg recruited 536 patients in 2012-2013. Risk factor control was compared against the current recommendations of the European Society of Cardiology. CKD was described by stages of glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and albuminuria. German patients were asked in an additional kidney specific module whether they have ever been told by a physician about renal impairment. The fact that CKD or acute kidney injury (AKI) was mentioned in prominent parts of the hospital discharge letter as well as correct ICD-coding of CKD or AKI served as a proxy for physician's awareness of CKD. The majority of German CHD patients was treated with the recommended drug therapies including e.g. β-blockers, anti-platelets and statins. However, treatment targets for blood pressure and LDL-cholesterol levels were not achieved in many patients (45\% and 53\%, respectively) and glycemic control in diabetic CHD patients with HbA1-levels <7\% was insufficient (61\%). A minority of patients reported on current smoking (10\%), but unhealthy life-styles e.g. overweight/obesity (85\%/37\%) were frequent. Patterns of care differed between younger and older CHD patients while older patients were less likely to receive the recommended medical CHD-therapy, were more likely to have uncontrolled blood pressure and also to be diabetic. However, a greater proportion of diabetic patients >70 years was achieving the HbA1c target, and less elder patients were current smokers or were obese. About 17\% of patients on average had CKD (eGFR< 60 ml/min/1.73m²) in the entire European sample at the study visit, and an additional 10\% had albuminuria despite preserved eGFR, with considerable variation among countries. Impaired kidney function was observed in every fifth patient admitted for CHD in the entire European dataset of the EUROASPIRE IV study. Of the German CHD patients with CKD at the study visit, only a third were aware of their renal impairment. A minority of these patients was being seen by nephrologists, however, with a higher likelihood of CKD awareness and specialist care in more advanced stages of CKD. About a third of patients admitted for CHD showed either CKD or AKI during the hospital stay, but the discharge letter mentioned chronic or acute kidney disease only in every fifth of these patients. In contrast, correct ICD coding of CKD or AKI was more complete, but still suboptimal. In summary, quality of secondary prevention in German CHD patients indicates considerably room for improvement, with life-style modifications may become an even greater factor in prevention campaigns than medical treatment into certain target ranges. Preventive therapies should also consider different needs in older individuals acknowledging physical and mental potential, other comorbidities and drug-interactions with co-medication. CKD is common in CHD patients, not only in the elderly. Since CHD and CKD affect each other and impact on worse prognosis of each other, raising the awareness of CKD among patients and physicians and considering CKD in medical therapy may improve prognosis and slow disease progression of CHD as well as CKD.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Kaes2023,
  author    = {K{\"a}s, Johannes},
  title     = {Pr{\"a}valenz von chronischer Niereninsuffizienz und Awareness von chronischer Niereninsuffizienz bei Patienten mit koronarer Herzerkrankung - zeitliche Trends in W{\"u}rzburg},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-32340},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-323407},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {Die chronische Niereninsuffizienz (CKD) gilt als wichtiger prognostischer Faktor bei Patienten mit koronarer Herzerkrankung (KHK). Das Bewusstsein (Awareness) f{\"u}r das Vorliegen einer CKD bei {\"A}rzten wie bei Patienten kann bei der Therapie von KHK-Patienten eine entscheidende Rolle spielen. Ziel dieser Arbeit war die Beschreibung der zeitlichen Trends der CKD-Pr{\"a}valenz sowie der Awareness bei KHK-Patienten und {\"A}rzten im Rahmen der EUROASPIRE (EA) V Studie im Studienzentrum W{\"u}rzburg. EA V ist eine multizentrische Querschnittsstudie der European Society of Cardiology (ESC) zur Untersuchung der Qualit{\"a}t der Sekund{\"a}rpr{\"a}vention bei KHK-Patienten, die 6-24 Monate vor dem Studienbesuch station{\"a}r behandelt wurden. Nierenfunktion und Nierenerkrankung wurden mit der glomerul{\"a}ren Filtrationsrate (eGFR) und der Urin Albumin-Kreatinin-Ratio abgesch{\"a}tzt und klassifiziert. Die CKD Awareness der Patienten wurde anhand standardisierter Fragen erhoben. Die CKD Awareness der {\"A}rzte wurde {\"u}ber die ICD-10 Codierung in der Patientenakte sowie die Dokumentation im Entlassungsbrief erfasst. Die Ergebnisse wurden mit der W{\"u}rzburger EUROASPIRE IV (2012/13) Substudie verglichen. In EA V wurden 219 KHK-Patienten (Median 70 Jahre, 81\% M{\"a}nner) in W{\"u}rzburg eingeschlossen. Bei Studienbesuch betrug die Pr{\"a}valenz der CKD 32\%, davon waren sich 30\% der Patienten der CKD bewusst. Bei 26\% der 73 Patienten mit w{\"a}hrend des Index-Krankenhausaufenthaltes apparenter Nierenfunktionseinschr{\"a}nkung wurde diese auch im Entlassungsbrief dokumentiert und bei 80\% korrekt in der Patientenakte codiert. Im Vergleich zu EA IV zeigte sich die eingeschr{\"a}nkte Nierenfunktion w{\"a}hrend des Krankenhausaufenthaltes (p=0,013) und w{\"a}hrend des Studienbesuchs (p=0,056) h{\"a}ufiger. Bez{\"u}glich der CKD Awareness bei {\"A}rzten und Patienten gab es keine signifikanten Unterschiede bezogen auf die gesamten Kohorten. Im Fr{\"u}hstadium G3a zeigte sich eine statistisch signifikant geringere CKD Awareness der Patienten in EA V verglichen mit EA IV. Die CKD ist eine h{\"a}ufige Komorbidit{\"a}t bei KHK-Patienten. Die CKD Awareness ist bei Patienten, aber auch {\"A}rzten niedrig. Aus dieser Konstellation ergeben sich Handlungsauftr{\"a}ge f{\"u}r eine gezielte Aufkl{\"a}rung von Patienten und nachhaltig wirksame Fortbildung der behandelnden {\"A}rzte.},
  subject      = {Chronische Niereninsuffizienz},
  language  = {de}
}