bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Guide to African Archives in Belgium
Authors: Legros Hugues , Keim Curtis A.
Published: May 2006

In 1982 Carol Dickerman and David Northrup published a useful article on Africa-related archives in Belgium. Their work was limited, however, to two public institutions in Brussels which, in the past 12 years, have moved and grown. What is needed now is a more up-to-date and comprehensive list of Belgian public and private collections with historical or ethnological archives concerning Africa.

In Belgium such archives are unfortunately not grouped in one place, but are spread over a dozen public and private institutions according to their nature—diplomatic, military, religious, ethnological—or origin. Thus the foreign researcher who attempts to find these archives must often undertake trying adventures, and once they have succeeded, they still must obtain numerous authorizations to use reading rooms and to consult and photocopy documents. Thus this paper aims to list the different Belgian institutions with major archives, to indicate what is available in their collections, and to describe how to gain access, in the hope that foreign researchers will be able to benefit fully from the archival riches of Belgium.

The Africa-related documents in Belgian archives and libraries mostly concern Central Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition, some collections are relevant to Belgian African politics in general and to Leopold II's expansionist aims in other parts of the continent.
Unesco and African Historiography
Authors: Vansina Jan
Published: May 2006

Unesco's General History of Africa (henceforth GHA) is now nearing completion—seven out of the eight volumes having been published in English, at least—and the time is ripe to draw attention to its role in the historiography of African history, a role very different from that played by the Cambridge History of Africa with which it is often compared. In certain ways the Unesco project has been a unique venture, and not just in African history but, in general, because it broke with old established practice. The work was not guided by one or two editors but by a large committee. History-writing by committee seemed not only distasteful but impossible to achieve to many, both because of the practical difficulties involved and because it seemed incredible that so many editors could agree on a common text, without falling into sheer banality. Now that the volumes are out, readers can judge for themselves. Many among them actually wonder how exactly these volumes and chapters were created. Because I have been an active member of the committee since its creation in 1971 and of its bureau since 1983, I can provide a general answer to this question. But the time has also come to draw attention to the records generated by this project. Future researchers will find a huge mass of papers involving hundreds of historians of Africa that touch on practically all aspects of Africa's historiography between ca. 1965 and today.
Note on the Shantz Collection, Tuscon, Arizona
Authors: Wagner Michele
Published: May 2006

Housed in vaults and basements in various locations at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, is a remarkable collection of photographs, plant specimens, cultural artifacts, postcards, letters, and field notes of Dr. Homer Leroy Shantz (1876-1958). Shantz was a noted plant physiologist and former President of the University of Arizona (1928-1936), and one of the earliest professional botanists to survey and photograph the flora in select regions of southern, central, and eastern Africa. In 1919/20 he traversed the African continentfrom Cape to Cairo with a Smithsonian-sponsored research team to evaluate Africa's plant resources and agricultural potential. As the team's agricultural expert, Shantz gathered numerous specimens, made sketches and watercolors, and took several thousand photographs of the cultivated and wild flora in the regions he traversed.

His collected materials, conserved at the University of Arizona, constitute a major contribution to African agricultural and ecological history for the early colonial period. His photographs give rare glimpses of the agricultural components of daily life of that era. They also include among them a rare set of approximately 600 photographs of southern Urundi (now Burundi) taken during a one-month stopover at Nyanza on the Lake Tanganyika coast. For the cultural and political historian of Burundi these photographs represent the first opportunity to view the ordinary people and chiefs of southern inland Urundi (the region of Buragane), where European presence was not firmly established until the 1930s.
The Doom of Early African History?
Authors: Vansina Jan
Published: May 2006

In the initial paragraph of a set of book reviews dealing with a sixteenth-century relation and a map by Ptolemy, Michel Doortmont informs us casually that:

The ancient and early modern [sic] history of Africa is no longer a very popular topic with mainstream [sic] African historians. Sources are scarce, often difficult to interpret and in many cases the results of research are disappointing [sic]: no wonder that most serious scholars [sic] leave the earlier periods alone. This is unfortunate, however, as the lack of serious and methodical scholarship [sic] on these periods gives fuel to the view of Africa as a mysterious and highly exotic continent still held by many outside the academic community.

Quite a statement! How arrogant and how gratuitously insulting to all those who do study “ancient and early modern history.” If Doortmont were alone in his views, one might just as well ignore this as an example of regretable idiosyncrasy. But the cavalier way in which he delivers his opinion suggests that he merely voices a truism, i.e., an opinion that he thinks is shared by most of his colleagues. Moreover, such a statement will surely frighten budding scholars away, which in itself is a good reason not to let such a sweeping condemnation of the study of earlier African history pass without comment.

Four main claims are made here: (a) a dichotomy and a contrast exists between those who who study the more remote past and those who study the recent past; (b) the first group is small and out of the mainstream; (c) its research yields disappointing results; (d) its scholarship lacks seriousness and method—with (b) and (c) of course in implicit contrast to the second group.
Prosopographical Approaches to Fante History
Authors: Casely-Hayford Augustus
Published: May 2006

Some of the earliest books written by Gold Coast writers were about then-own family histories and stool institutions. These writers took advantage of the established oral tradition and the authorized stool histories. Such works represent a form of written history that was designed to transcribe and incorporate systematically as much oral tradition as possible. It is only when the oral sources are deficient or are ambiguous that the early European traveler's accounts are used to check or verify the oral sources. There are many reasons why much of the first generation of indigenous literature is by and about a small group of Fante. One undoubted reason is that these early books combine an academic pursuit with a family responsibility to the position of Linguist or Okyiame.

The word Kyiame is commonly translated “linguist,” but this is unfortunate because it conveys the impression that the Kyiame is no more than an interpreter. In reality the Kyiame is the spokesman or mouthpiece of the Chief, who, being held sacred, must neither be addressed by, nor address another person directly. According to J. B. Danquah, the word means “He who makes it perfect for me”: the Kyiame repeats and perfects what the Chief, who cannot always be an eloquent speaker, may have to say in public. He is a confidential officer whose place is at the Chiefs right hand; in the Council and Court of Judicature it is he who sums up and declares the Chiefs will. He preserves in his memory and passes on the tradition of the Stool. Deeply versed in the etiquette of the court, he instructs a newly appointed Chief. He can often turn the scales of war and peace since the issue of dispute between contending tribes may depend on whether he presents his Chiefs case in a bellicose manner. When he rises to speak in public he leans upon the gold cane or staff of his office, or a subordinate holds it in front of him. He may be sent by the Chief as a plenipotentiary or legate. What he says binds his Chief. There are two of the office. The superior grade is hereditary and is termed Omankyiame, i.e. the Kyiame of the whole Oman or Council.
Eduard Vogel and Eduard Robert Flegel: The Experiences of Two Nineteenth-Century German Explorers in Africa
Authors: Adelberger Jörg
Published: May 2006

The Muri Mountain range is located in the area formed by the boundaries between the federal states of Bauchi, Taraba, and Adamawa in Northern Nigeria. Various small, linguistically, and partly culturally distinct ethnic groups inhabit this mountain region. The Muri Mountains may be counted among those regions of Africa about which academic knowledge was rather scarce until recent times. Here I shall recount the experiences of two nineteenth-century German explorers of Africa, Eduard Vogel and Eduard Robert Flegel, who played an important part in the history of research on the Muri Mountains. Approaching the region from different directions, Vogel and Flegel were the first Europeans to gain detailed knowledge of vthe area and its inhabitants. The Muri Mountains, in themselves, were not a focus of attention for the two travelers, but just an incidental issue on which they touched during their voyages.

Most European travelers of that time bypassed the Muri Mountains. This becomes obvious when looking at contemporary maps, on which one can hardly find any geographical information on the area between present-day Gombe and the river Benue until the 1870s (compare the two maps in Rohlfs 1872). Previously, in 1851 Heinrich Barth had arrived at Yola, coming via the Mandara Mountains. After a short stay, however, he had to return to Borno. In the itineraries he collected at Yola, the names of Tangale and Chongom are mentioned as stations on the way from Yola to Dukku (cf. Barth 1857, 2: 701, 708-09, 601-02).
A New Paradigm: The African Early Iron Age without Bantu Migrations
Authors: Robertson John H. , Bradley Rebecca
Published: May 2006

Between 1000 BC and AD 1000, or so the story goes, sub-Saharan Africa was the setting for one of the all-time great population movements of antiquity—the Bantu migrations. Sweeping to and fro across the continent in a kind of grand migrationary gavotte, absorbing or brushing aside the autochthonous hunter-gatherers, the ancestral Bantu speakers carried with them on their march the seeds of a settled life fueled by food production and iron technology. Their movements are represented by large arrows scything across big blank maps of the African interior. How good is the evidence that any of it ever happened?

In this paper we shall examine some of the serious methodological and practical problems that bedevil the migrationary model. We shall also present an alternative model for the prehistory of sub-Saharan Africa: in brief, that the development of the Early Iron Age in Africa was a process rather than an event; that autochthonous populations gradually adopted the suite of traits that define the Early Iron Age, without any large-scale movement of peoples; and that increasing sedentarization actually led to a population decline which was only overcome after AD 500.

The model constitutes a new paradigm that emphasizes continuity and takes into account a few observations that are awkward for the migrationary paradigm: that sub-Saharan Africa has a difficult topography that may put certain constraints on population movements, and that the continent was slowly filling up on its own when events starting in the sixteenth century turned the autochthonous peoples' lives upside down.
Mambila Demography from Archival Sources
Authors: Zeitlyn David , Bagg Janet
Published: May 2006

This paper provides a first report of a study of the population of Somié, a Mambila village in Cameroun, which seeks to explore ways of linking microdemographic analysis and the results of anthropological research. We have sought ways in which we can analyze in a common frame genealogical data, residence patterns, and other data from anthropological fieldwork, together with census returns and archival materials.

By combining the details of kinship and residence (gathered during anthropological fieldwork over a period of ten years) with the statistics of births and deaths from census results and archival materials from 1950 onwards, we can begin to assess the effects of genealogical and residence factors on fertility and mortality. Conversely, it becomes possible to examine the effects of demographic factors on the genealogical basis of village life.

In an area where sister exchange marriage was practiced, repeated marriages give rise to complex genealogies whose connection to demographic factors has not been analyzed. Demographic changes influence the numbers of kin available for marriage, and the relationships between fertility, fecundity, mortality, morbidity, rates of sister exchange, and numbers of kin (in different categories) are significant and their change over time is hard to investigate without this type of research. In addition it provides ways in which demographic changes can be analyzed, and points to ways of assessing the impact of the introduction of health care provision and primary education on both demographic indicators and on beliefs and attitudes to health and fertility. Such research has clear relevance for policy-makers.
The Gay Oral History Project in Zimbabwe: Black Empowerment, Human Rights, and the Research Process
Authors: Epprecht Marc
Published: May 2006

This paper discusses an attempt to apply historical research directly to the development of a culture of human rights and democracy in Zimbabwe. The research concerns sensitive and controversial issues around sexuality, race, and nationalism that are important in and of themselves. What I would like to argue here, however, is that the method used to design and carry out the research project is at least as interesting. This holds true from the point of view of both professional historians like myself and community activists—two perspectives that are often difficult to reconcile in practice. In this project, “ivory tower” and “grassroots” are brought together in a mutually enriching relationship that offers an alternative model to the methods that currently predominate in the production of historical knowledge in southern Africa.

Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) is a non-government organization that was founded in 1990. It provides counseling, legal and other support services to men and women struggling with issues of sexuality. It also strives to promote a politics in Zimbabwe that would embrace sexual orientation as a human right. Toward the latter goal it has lobbied government for changes to current laws that discriminate against homosexuals and which expose gay men and women to extortion (so far, in vain). With somewhat more success, it has lobbied the police directly to raise awareness of the extortion issue. GALZ also publishes pamphlets, a newsletter, and other information designed to educate Zimbabweans in general about homosexuality and homophobia. Through these efforts it seeks to challenge popular stereotypes of homosexuals as Westernized perverts who spread diseases and corrupt children. One recent publication included detailed historical research that showed how homosexual practices—including loving and mutual homosexual relationships—have been indigenous to the country throughout recorded history, and probably from time immemorial.
Images of an African Ruler: Kabaka Mutesa of Buganda, ca. 1857–1884
Authors: Reid Richard
Published: May 2006

There can be few areas of the world which have been more systematically misrepresented than Africa, especially that part of the continent south of the Sahara. For centuries, and certainly since the Midas-like Mansa Musa sat astride West Africa on the maps of fourteenth-century Spain, the weird and wonderful imagery of Africa has flooded Europe's vision of that continent. Much of this imagery has been generated by Europeans, and even where it has been generated by Africans themselves, the original meaning and intention is often difficult to discover. The imagery has, to the non-African world, become Africa; this is the case to the point where, at the end of the twentieth century, almost every adjective placed before the name “Africa” is loaded, has some ideological or political currency, and indeed has a history of its own.

Most famously, perhaps, Africa was for a long time “dark”, and still that image periodically appears in assorted Western media, a comforting crutch to an audience which remains somewhat confused as to what to make of the continent. Africa is often supposed to have a “heart,” in a way that neither Europe nor North America does. This is perhaps related to the continent's geographical shape, for it is rather more self-contained than Europe, Asia, or the Americas. It is more likely, however, that an African “heart” is sought precisely because it cannot, using the clumsy surgical tools of Western culture, be found. In more recent times, Africa's “dark heart” has been replaced by its “troubled heart;” but the idea remains unchanged.
What's in an Alias? Family Names, Individual Histories, and Historical Method in the Western Sudan
Authors: Mann Gregory
Published: May 2006

Writing in hisLes Bambara du Ségou et du Kaarta, the French colonial administrator and ethnographer Charles Monteil considered the family name, orjamu, to

sum up the history of the community which bears it: it refers to everything which concerns the ancestors, as well as the accomplishments of current members of the community, including their turpitudes and even their alliances, be they fraternal, conjugal, political, or supernatural.

Monteil was right, to a certain degree. In the Western Sudan, family names are weighted with history and significance. Yet what Monteil characterized as evidence of stability and tradition, Charles Bird has more recently called a “ticket to mobility.” The fluidity and mobility that had come to characterize thejamueluded Monteil entirely, just as its mutability often eludes contemporary historians.

Ajamurepresentsbothan all-important identity marker and an instrument of “mobility.” Yet it is also highly contigent, even aleatory. This mobility has a double sense, signifying both the mutable nature of the name itself and its potential for “making outsiders insiders” by creating an immediate link between people who would otherwise be strangers.Jamuw—the plural takes a ‘w’—also have a deep historicity. Embedded in them are history and myth, along with suggestions of family occupational category—commonly referred to as ‘caste’—and social status. Epics such asSundiataoften provide etymologies and legendary origins of family names, and scholars have sought—misguidedly—to use these to understand the historical processes of ‘caste’ formation and other aspects of the distant Mande past.
Historical Account or Discourse on Identity? A Reexamination of Fulbe Hegemony and Autochthonous Submission in Banyo
Authors: Gausset Quentin
Published: May 2006

Traditional accounts of the nineteenth-century Fulbe conquest in northern Cameroon tell roughly the same story: following the example of Usman Dan Fodio in Nigeria, the Fulbe of Cameroon organized in the beginning of the nineteenth century a “jihad” or a “holy war” against the local pagan populations to convert them to Islam and create an Islamic state. The divisions among the local populations and the military superiority of the Fulbe allowed them to conquer almost all northern Cameroon. They forced those who submitted to give an annual tribute of goods and servants, and they raided the other groups. In these traditional accounts the Fulbe are presented as unchallenged masters, while the local populations are depicted as slaves who were powerless over their fate; their role in the conquest of the region and in the administration of the new political order is supposed to have been insignificant.

I will show that, on the contrary, in the area of Banyo the Wawa and Bute played a crucial role in the conquest of the sultanate and in its administration. I will then re-examine the cliche that all members of the local populations were the slaves of the Fulbe by distinguishing the fate of the Wawa and Bute on one side from that of the Kwanja and Mambila on the other, and by showing the importance of the Fulbe's identity in shaping the definition of slavery. Finally I will argue that, if the historical accounts found in the scientific literature invariably insist on Fulbe hegemony and minimize the role played by the local populations, it is because those accounts are often based on Fulbe traditions, and because these traditions are remodeled by the Fulbe in order to correspond to their discourse on identity.
“Twixt the Cup and the Lip:” Field Notes on the Way to Print
Authors: Henige David
Published: May 2006

Typically—very typically—fledgling African historians launch their careers by engaging in a bout of fieldwork, sometimes in archives, but more often on location among a group of people whose activities have somehow captured their interest. Almost as typically, this work in the field then becomes the principal source for historians' future published work, which often never proceeds beyond the bounds set by the initial fieldwork.

In this process of course the data accumulated in the field—field notes—become, possibly over and over again, the primary sources for this subsequent work. In some ways this process is not particularly different from that undertaken by other historians who use printed sources more heavily. There are differences, though, not the least of which is that these orally derived field notes grow stale with the passing of time and cannot be revivified as easily as archival notes.

Moreover, of course, far more often than not, field notes are never allowed to escape into the public domain, whereas archival sources are usually already there when the historian sets about using them. What were once laboriously handwritten notebooks, and then audio tapes are now more likley to be 3.5″ diskettes, but otherwise they are as jealously guarded in the 1990s as they were in the 1950s. Indeed, perhaps moreso, in that the usable lifespan of a diskette is likely to be significantly less than that of the notebook, if not of the audio tape. In short, in perhaps twenty years posterity will find itself forced to rely on the published products—maybe yet in paper format?—rather than on the raw data which once underpinned them. In the circumstances, it might be worth considering once again the implications of this, with reference to a particular instance of respectable vintage.
Retrieving Hidden Traces of the Intercultural Past: An Introduction to Archival Resources in Cameroon, with Special Reference to the Central Archives of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon
Authors: Thomas Guy
Published: May 2006

Towards the end of 1886 four missionaries set foot on Cameroonian soil in the harbor of Douala. They were representatives of the Switzerland based Basel Mission (BM) who had arrived to take over from the pioneers of Christian mission work in Cameroon, the British Baptists, two years after this part of west-central Africa had been brought under German colonial rule in 1884. Their challenge was founded on the key objectives of consolidating and expanding the web of christian communities which had been established along the Atlantic coast north of the Wouri estuary.

Today, just over 110 years later, traces of the Basel Mission's enterprise are widely spread over the Anglophone South West and North West Provinces of Cameroon. These remnants of the past have been partly reshaped to suit the specific patterns of church activities and administration among their African target groups; partly they have been effaced through the erosive impact of time. But only partly, for numerous episodes and aspects of this chapter on religious and social history are well documented both in substantial collections of records and in several publications.
Being Fair to the Hounds: The Function and Practice of Annotation
Authors: Henige David
Published: May 2006

Annotation is possibly the aspect of any edition in which the editor is most vulnerable.

This is going to be a discourse without footnotes. I have always had a suppressed desire to risk such an indiscretion, and people have asked why I cannot write anything without timidly quoting chapter and verse from some German professor… Where we quote it will be from memory, wens [sic] and all, speaking with conviction but with no authority whatever.

If footnotes were a rational form of communication, Darwinian selection would have resulted in the eyes being set vertically rather than on an inefficient horizontal plane.

At a conference recently, a member of the audience criticized a historian (not present and not me) for adopting an “ad hominem” strategy in some published criticism. Later I asked her what she meant. Her reply was that the historian had not been content to disagree with certain approaches in another field, but went farther by specifying examples to sustain his case. In other words, he had named names. This struck me as rather a peculiar application of the phrase, but also as an example of the hypersensitivity that sometimes veils healthy and direct colloquy It would certainly be more unkind to shower criticisms at large, a kind of barrage bombing designed as much to intimidate a larger populace as to aim at limited but relevant targets. Moreover, it would be to offer an argument that was so diffuse and anonymous that it would be as meaningless as it was unfocused. One purpose of the present paper is to encourage ways to expand, but also to focus, colloquial arguments.
Mightier than the Sword: The Portuguese Pen in Ndau History
Authors: MacGonagle Elizabeth
Published: May 2006

For scholars of southeastern Africa interested in the early history of the region, the pen of the Portuguese was indeed mightier than the sword. Although most of the first Portuguese arrivals carried either the sword or the cross, they put these down to wield the pen and leave a written record of their triumphs and travails. The documents left by Portuguese soldiers, religious men, and others in the service of the crown provide details that are relative not only to the Portuguese experience but also to African life. This paper focuses on Portuguese writings that describe the area around the port of Sofala and its hinterland, home to the Shona who live south of the Zambezi river on the central Mozambican coastal plain and the Zimbabwe plateau. Both around Sofala and further west in the interior the inhabitants speak Ndau, a dialect of the Shona language. The wealth of evidence left by the Portuguese since the sixteenth century sheds light on changes and continuities in Ndau history.

The materials that have survived are amazingly detailed and informative despite their inherent biases. Historians have long recognized the prejudices of the colonizer either creeping into the documents or jumping off the page in a more blatant manner. The examples provided here are no different. The Portuguese, like other Europeans, had certain notions stemming from a Eurocentric mentality that was an integral part of their worldview. In these records, we see how the quest for gold and a ‘civilizing’ mission coalesced into systematic exploitation.
Reduced Skeletal Muscle Inhibitor of κBβ Content Is Associated With Insulin Resistance in Subjects With Type 2 Diabetes
Authors: Sriwijitkamol Apiradee , Christ-Roberts Christine , Berria Rachele , Eagan Phyllis , Pratipanawatr Thongchai , DeFronzo Ralph A. , Mandarino Lawrence J. , Musi Nicolas
Published: May 2006

Skeletal muscle insulin resistance plays a key role in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. It recently has been hypothesized that excessive activity of the inhibitor of κB (IκB)/nuclear factor κB (NFκB) inflammatory pathway is a mechanism underlying skeletal muscle insulin resistance. However, it is not known whether IκB/NFκB signaling in muscle from subjects with type 2 diabetes is abnormal. We studied IκB/NFκB signaling in vastus lateralis muscle from six subjects with type 2 diabetes and eight matched control subjects. Muscle from type 2 diabetic subjects was characterized by a 60% decrease in IκBβ protein abundance, an indicator of increased activation of the IκB/NFκB pathway. IκBβ abundance directly correlated with insulin-mediated glucose disposal (Rd) during a hyperinsulinemic (40 mU · m−2 · min−1)-euglycemic clamp (r = 0.63, P = 0.01), indicating that increased IκB/NFκB pathway activity is associated with muscle insulin resistance. We also investigated whether reversal of this abnormality could be a mechanism by which training improves insulin sensitivity. In control subjects, 8 weeks of aerobic exercise training caused a 50% increase in both IκBα and IκBβ protein. In subjects with type 2 diabetes, training increased IκBα and IκBβ protein to levels comparable with that of control subjects, and these increments were accompanied by a 40% decrease in tumor necrosis factor α muscle content and a 37% increase in insulin-stimulated glucose disposal. In summary, subjects with type 2 diabetes have reduced IκB protein abundance in muscle, suggesting excessive activity of the IκB/NFκB pathway. Moreover, this abnormality is reversed by exercise training.
The Greater Contribution of Gluconeogenesis to Glucose Production in Obesity Is Related to Increased Whole-Body Protein Catabolism
Authors: Chevalier Stéphanie , Burgess Shawn C. , Malloy Craig R. , Gougeon Réjeanne , Marliss Errol B. , Morais José A.
Published: May 2006

Obesity is associated with an increase in the fractional contribution of gluconeogenesis (GNG) to glucose production. We tested if this was related to the altered protein metabolism in obesity. GNGPEP (via phosphoenol pyruvate [PEP]) was measured after a 17-h fast using the deuterated water method and 2H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of plasma glucose. Whole-body 13C-leucine and 3H-glucose kinetics were measured in the postabsorptive state and during a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic-isoaminoacidemic clamp in 19 (10 men and 9 women) lean and 16 (7 men and 9 women) obese nondiabetic subjects. Endogenous glucose production was not different between groups. Postabsorptive %GNGPEP and GNGPEP flux were higher in obese subjects, and glycogenolysis contributed less to glucose production than in lean subjects. GNGPEP flux correlated with all indexes of adiposity and with postabsorptive leucine rate of appearance (Ra) (protein catabolism). GNGPEP was negatively related to the clamp glucose rate of disposal (Rd) and to the protein anabolic response to hyperinsulinemia. In conclusion, the increased contribution of GNG to glucose production in obesity is linked to increased postabsorptive protein catabolism and insulin resistance of both glucose and protein metabolism. Due to increased protein turnover rates, greater supply of gluconeogenic amino acids to the liver may trigger their preferential use over glycogen for glucose production.
Haplotype Structures and Large-Scale Association Testing of the 5′ AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Genes PRKAA2, PRKAB1, and PRKAB2 With Type 2 Diabetes
Authors: Sun Maria W. , Lee Jennifer Y. , de Bakker Paul I.W. , Burtt Noël P. , Almgren Peter , Råstam Lennart , Tuomi Tiinamaija , Gaudet Daniel , Daly Mark J. , Hirschhorn Joel N. , Altshuler David , Groop Leif , Florez Jose C.
Published: May 2006

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a key molecular regulator of cellular metabolism, and its activity is induced by both metformin and thiazolidinedione antidiabetic medications. It has therefore been proposed both as a putative agent in the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes and as a valid target for therapeutic intervention. Thus, the genes that encode the various AMPK subunits are intriguing candidates for the inherited basis of type 2 diabetes. We therefore set out to test for the association of common variants in the genes that encode three selected AMPK subunits with type 2 diabetes and related phenotypes. Of the seven genes that encode AMPK isoforms, we initially chose PRKAA2, PRKAB1, and PRKAB2 because of their higher prior probability of association with type 2 diabetes, based on previous reports of genetic linkage, functional molecular studies, expression patterns, and pharmacological evidence. We determined their haplotype structure, selected a subset of tag single nucleotide polymorphisms that comprehensively capture the extent of common genetic variation in these genes, and genotyped them in family-based and case/control samples comprising 4,206 individuals. Analysis of single-marker and multi-marker tests revealed no association with type 2 diabetes, fasting plasma glucose, or insulin sensitivity. Several nominal associations of variants in PRKAA2 and PRKAB1 with BMI appear to be consistent with statistical noise.
Decreased In Vitro Type 1 Immune Response Against Coxsackie Virus B4 in Children With Type 1 Diabetes
Authors: Skarsvik Susanne , Puranen Julia , Honkanen Jarno , Roivainen Merja , Ilonen Jorma , Holmberg Hanna , Ludvigsson Johnny , Vaarala Outi
Published: May 2006

Enteroviruses, particularly Coxsackie virus B4 (CVB4), are considered to be involved in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. We wanted to compare the characteristics of T-cell immune response to CVB4 in children with type 1 diabetes and healthy children with and without HLA risk-associated haplotypes (HLA-DR3-DQ2 or HLA-DR4-DQ8) for type 1 diabetes. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated and cultured with CVB4 and analyzed for cytokine and chemokine receptors by flow cytometry and for expression of transcription factors Tbet and GATA-3 by RT-PCR and Western blot. Culture supernatants were analyzed for secretion of γ-interferon (IFN-γ). In children with type 1 diabetes, a decreased percentage of T-cells expressed CCR2, CXCR6, interleukin (IL)-18R, and IL-12Rβ2-chain after in vitro stimulation with CVB4 in comparison with healthy children with or without HLA risk genotype. Moreover, we found that children with type 1 diabetes had decreased IFN-γ secretion and expression of Tbet, both on mRNA and protein level, in CVB4-stimulated PBMCs. Accordingly, children with type 1 diabetes show an impaired type 1 immune response against CVB4 compared with healthy children. This may lead to a delayed clearance of the virus and, at least partly, explain why children with type 1 diabetes may be more prone to CVB4 infections and related complications, such as β-cell damage.
Widespread and Stable Pancreatic Gene Transfer by Adeno-Associated Virus Vectors via Different Routes
Authors: Wang Zhong , Zhu Tong , Rehman Khaja K. , Bertera Suzanne , Zhang Jian , Chen Chunlian , Papworth Glenn , Watkins Simon , Trucco Massimo , Robbins Paul D. , Li Juan , Xiao Xiao
Published: May 2006

Diabetes is a disease of epidemic proportions and is on the rise worldwide. Gene therapy has been actively pursued but limited by technical hurdles and profound inefficiency of direct gene transfer to the pancreas in vivo. Here, we show that, for the first time, appropriate serotypes of adeno-associated virus (AAV), coupled with a double-stranded vector DNA cassette, enable extensive and long-term in vivo gene transfer in the adult mouse pancreas by three different delivery methods. Intraperitoneal and intravenous delivery of AAV8 effectively transduced exocrine acinar cells as well as endocrine β-cells, while local pancreatic intraductal delivery of AAV6 showed the best efficiency in the β-cells among all AAV serotypes tested in this study. Nearly the entire islet population showed gene transfer but with distinct gene transfer efficiency and patterns when different delivery methods and vectors were used. Importantly, localized gene delivery coupled with an insulin promoter allowed extensive yet specific gene expression in the β-cells. These effective new methods should provide useful tools to study diabetes pathogenesis and gene therapy.
CD4+CD25+ Regulatory T-Cells Inhibit the Islet Innate Immune Response and Promote Islet Engraftment
Authors: Chen Dongmei , Zhang Nan , Fu Shuang , Schröppel Bernd , Guo Qiongfen , Garin Alexandre , Lira Sergio A. , Bromberg Jonathan S.
Published: May 2006

Early islet cell loss is a significant problem in clinical islet cell transplantation. Diverse stress stimuli induce innate immune responses in islets that contribute to β-cell dysfunction, inflammation, and loss. Here, we show that cytokine-stimulated murine islets express multiple inflammatory chemokines that recruit T-cells and thereby impair islet function in vitro and in vivo. Both nonislet ductal and exocrine elements and the individual islet cellular components contribute to this innate immune response. CD4+CD25+ regulatory T-cells inhibit islet chemokine expression through a cell contact–dependent, soluble factor–independent mechanism and inhibit effector T-cell migration to the islet. Regulatory T-cells can also migrate to stimulated islets. Cotransfer of regulatory T-cells with islets in a transplantation model prevents islet innate immune responses and inflammation and preserves normal architecture and engraftment. Regulatory T-cell inhibition of multiple components of innate immune responses may be a fundamental aspect of their function that influences ischemia-reperfusion injury and adaptive immunity.
5-Aminoimidazole-4-Carboxamide-1-β-d-Ribofuranoside and Metformin Inhibit Hepatic Glucose Phosphorylation by an AMP-Activated Protein Kinase–Independent Effect on Glucokinase Translocation
Authors: Guigas Bruno , Bertrand Luc , Taleux Nellie , Foretz Marc , Wiernsperger Nicolas , Vertommen Didier , Andreelli Fabrizio , Viollet Benoit , Hue Louis
Published: May 2006

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) controls glucose uptake and glycolysis in muscle. Little is known about its role in liver glucose uptake, which is controlled by glucokinase. We report here that 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-β-d-ribofuranoside (AICAR), metformin, and oligomycin activated AMPK and inhibited glucose phosphorylation and glycolysis in rat hepatocytes. In vitro experiments demonstrated that this inhibition was not due to direct phosphorylation of glucokinase or its regulatory protein by AMPK. By contrast, AMPK phosphorylated liver 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase without affecting activity. Inhibitors of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase, stress kinases, and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathways did not counteract the effects of AICAR, metformin, or oligomycin, suggesting that these signaling pathways were not involved. Interestingly, the inhibitory effect on glucose phosphorylation of these well-known AMPK activators persisted in primary cultured hepatocytes from newly engineered mice lacking both liver α1 and α2 AMPK catalytic subunits, demonstrating that this effect was clearly not mediated by AMPK. Finally, AICAR, metformin, and oligomycin were found to inhibit the glucose-induced translocation of glucokinase from the nucleus to the cytosol by a mechanism that could be related to the decrease in intracellular ATP concentrations observed in these conditions.
EIF4A2 Is a Positional Candidate Gene at the 3q27 Locus Linked to Type 2 Diabetes in French Families
Authors: Cheyssac Claire , Dina Christian , Leprêtre Frédéric , Vasseur-Delannoy Valérie , Dechaume Aurélie , Lobbens Stéphane , Balkau Beverley , Ruiz Juan , Charpentier Guillaume , Pattou François , Joly Erik , Prentki Marc , Hansen Torben , Pedersen Oluf , Vaxillaire Martine , Froguel Philippe
Published: May 2006

One of the most replicated loci influencing type 2 diabetes–related quantitative traits (quantitative trait loci [QTL]) is on chromosome 3q27 and modulates both type 2 diabetes–and metabolic syndrome–associated phenotypes. A QTL for type 2 diabetes age of onset (logarithm of odds [LOD] score = 3.01 at D3S3686, P = 0.0001) was identified in a set of French families. To assess genetic variation underlying both age-of-onset QTL and our previous type 2 diabetes linkage in a 3.87-Mb interval, we explored 36 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in two biologically relevant candidate genes for glucose homeostasis, kininogen (KNG1), and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4α2 (EIF4A2). Analysis of 148 families showed significant association of a frequent SNP, rs266714, located 2.47 kb upstream of EIF4A2, with familial type 2 diabetes (family-based association test, P = 0.0008) and early age of onset (P = 0.0008). This SNP also contributes to both age-of-onset QTL (1.13 LOD score decrease P = 0.02) and type 2 diabetes linkage (genotype identical-by-descent sharing test, P = 0.02). However, no association was observed in three independent European diabetic cohorts. EIF4A2 controls specific mRNA translation and protein synthesis rate in pancreatic β-cells, and our data indicates that EIF4A2 is downregulated by high glucose in rat β-INS832/13 cells. The potential role of EIF4A2 in glucose homeostasis and its putative contribution to type 2 diabetes in the presence of metabolic stress will require further investigation.
Evidence From Glut2-Null Mice That Glucose Is a Critical Physiological Regulator of Feeding
Authors: Bady Isabelle , Marty Nell , Dallaporta Michel , Emery Martine , Gyger Jöel , Tarussio David , Foretz Marc , Thorens Bernard
Published: May 2006

A role for glucose in the control of feeding has been proposed, but its precise physiological importance is unknown. Here, we evaluated feeding behavior in glut2-null mice, which express a transgenic glucose transporter in their β-cells to rescue insulin secretion (ripglut1;glut2−/− mice). We showed that in the absence of GLUT2, daily food intake was increased and feeding initiation and termination following a fasting period were abnormal. This was accompanied by suppressed regulation of hypothalamic orexigenic and anorexigenic neuropeptides expression during the fast-to-refed transition. In these conditions, however, there was normal regulation of the circulating levels of insulin, leptin, or glucose but a loss of regulation of plasma ghrelin concentrations. To evaluate whether the abnormal feeding behavior was due to suppressed glucose sensing, we evaluated feeding in response to intraperitoneal or intracerebroventricular glucose or 2-deoxy-d-glucose injections. We showed that in GLUT2-null mice, feeding was no longer inhibited by glucose or activated by 2-deoxy-d-glucose injections and the regulation of hypothalamic neuropeptide expression by intracerebroventricular glucose administration was lost. Together, these data demonstrate that absence of GLUT2 suppresssed the function of central glucose sensors, which control feeding probably by regulating the hypothalamic melanocortin pathway. Futhermore, inactivation of these glucose sensors causes overeating.
Insulin Treatment Ameliorates Impaired Corneal Reepithelialization in Diabetic Rats
Authors: Zagon Ian S. , Sassani Joseph W. , McLaughlin Patricia J.
Published: May 2006

Patients with diabetes are at an increased risk for developing corneal disorders, often as a result of surgical and nonsurgical trauma. This study investigated whether intensive treatment of diabetes with the goal of maintaining blood glucose concentrations close to the normal range could ameliorate the delayed corneal wound healing found in animals with uncontrolled diabetes. Diabetes was induced with streptozotocin, and rats were divided into groups based on the degree of blood glucose control: 1) not treated with insulin implants (DB group), 2) receiving insulin implants and determined to be normoglycemic (DB-IN group), and 3) normal, nondiabetic animals serving as controls. Immediately before wounding at 9 or 11 weeks after the induction of the diabetic state, corneal thickness and corneal sensitivity of the DB and DB-IN groups were comparable with controls. DB, but not DB-IN, rats exhibited subnormal intraocular pressure. At 9 and 11 weeks after the onset of diabetes, the corneas of the right and left eyes, respectively, were abraded by mechanical scraping. The DB rats had residual corneal epithelial defects that ranged from 23% to 5.6-fold larger compared with the control group and a rate of healing that was 19% slower than control animals. The DB-IN group had healing characteristics similar to the control group. DNA synthesis in the peripheral cornea and conjunctiva, but not the limbus, of DB animals was reduced 50 and 91%, respectively, from control levels. Cell proliferation in the DB-IN group was comparable with the control group, with the exception of a 72% increase in the peripheral cornea in the DB-IN group. These results indicate that intensive therapy with insulin, which establishes normoglycemia in rats with diabetes, prevents the delay in wound healing of ocular surface epithelium observed in poorly controlled diabetic animals.
The Strength It Takes to Suffer
Authors: Curtis Alice , Hamblin Amy , Rosa William E.
Published: March 2024

This essay describes an intensive care and palliative medicine physician’s decision to elect medical aid in dying.
Propensity Score-Weighted Analysis of Postoperative Infection in Patients With and Without Preoperative Urine Culture
Authors: O’Brien William J. , Schweizer Marin L. , Strymish Judith , Beck Brice F. , Au Vanessa , Chan Jeffrey A. , Brown Madisen , Itani Kamal M. F. , Dukes Kimberly C. , Walhof Julia Friberg , Gupta Kalpana
Published: March 2024

Importance

Although recent guidelines recommend against performance of preoperative urine culture before nongenitourinary surgery, many clinicians still order preoperative urine cultures and prescribe antibiotics for treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in an effort to reduce infection risk.

Objective

To assess the association between preoperative urine culture testing and postoperative urinary tract infection (UTI) or surgical site infection (SSI), independent of baseline patient characteristics or type of surgery.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This cohort study analyzed surgical procedures performed from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2019, at any of 112 US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers. The cohort comprised VA enrollees who underwent major elective noncardiac, nonurological operations. Machine learning and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) were used to balance the characteristics between those who did and did not undergo a urine culture. Data analyses were performed between January 2023 and January 2024.

Exposures

Performance of urine culture within 30 days prior to surgery.

Main Outcomes and Measures

The 2 main outcomes were UTI and SSI occurring within 30 days after surgery. Weighted logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for postoperative infection based on treatment status.

Results

A total of 250 389 VA enrollees who underwent 288 858 surgical procedures were included, with 88.9% (256 753) of surgical procedures received by males and 48.9% (141 340) received by patients 65 years or older. Baseline characteristics were well balanced among treatment groups after applying IPTW weights. Preoperative urine culture was performed for 10.5% of surgical procedures (30 384 of 288 858). The IPTW analysis found that preoperative urine culture was not associated with SSI (adjusted OR [AOR], 0.99; 95% CI, 0.90-1.10) or postoperative UTI (AOR, 1.18; 95% CI, 0.98-1.40). In analyses limited to orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery as a proxy for prosthetic implants, the adjusted risks for UTI and SSI were also not associated with preoperative urine culture performance.

Conclusions and Relevance

This cohort study found no association between performance of a preoperative urine culture and lower risk of postoperative UTI or SSI. The results support the deimplementation of urine cultures and associated antibiotic treatment prior to surgery, even when using prosthetic implants.
Wildfire Smoke and Its Neurological Impact
Authors: Chen Hao , Tong Haiyan , Xu Yunan
Published: March 2024

This Viewpoint calls for a more concerted research effort aimed at establishing a robust link between wildfire smoke exposure and neurological effects.