The objective of this study was to examine the effects of high concentrations of glucose on porcine parthenotes developing in vitro. Addition of 55 mM glucose to the culture medium of embryos at the four-cell-stage significantly inhibited blastocyst formation, resulting in fewer cells in blastocyst-stage embryos and increased levels of apoptosis and autophagy compared to control. Quantitative reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR analysis revealed that the expression of pro-apoptotic genes (Caspase 3, Bax and Bak) and autophagy genes (Atg6 and Atg8/Lc3) were increased significantly by the addition of 55 mM glucose to the culture medium compared to control. MitoTracker Green fluorescence revealed a decrease in the overall mitochondrial mass compared to control. However, the addition of 55 mM glucose had no effect on mRNA expression of the nuclear DNA-encoded mitochondrial-related genes, cytochrome oxidase (Cox) 5a, Cox5b and Cox6b1. These results suggest that hyperglycemia reduced the mitochondrial content of porcine embryos developing in vitro and that this may hinder embryonic development to the blastocyst stage and embryo quality by increasing apoptosis and autophagy in these embryos.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of self-paced walking exercises in elderly women with hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hypercholesterolemia. Thirty-eight elderly women with hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hypercholesterolemia (16 hypertension, 11 hyperglycemia, 11 hypercholesterolemia), aged between 65 and 80, were invited to participate in this study. Each subject participated in a self-paced walking exercise five times a week for twelve weeks from 26 June to 16 September 2006. The changes between pre- and post-exercise were analyzed using the analysis of a paired t-test with the SPSS version 12.0 package program. There were significant decreases in systolic blood pressure (p<.01) and diastolic blood pressure (p<.05), blood glucose(p<.05), and cholesterol in the blood (p<.01). These results show that self-paced walking exercises may be helpful in treating elderly women with hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hypercholesterolemia.