A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
| Non-preferred spelling/usage | Preferred spelling/usage |
|---|---|
| acetyl CoA | acetyl-CoA (with hyphen) |
| acetyl-coenzyme A | acetyl coenzyme A (no hyphen) |
| α cell | alpha cell |
| African American, Mexican American, etc. | African-American, Mexican-American, etc. (include hyphen, not en-dash) |
| Akaike information criterion | Akaike's information criterion |
| (amino acid chains) | Gly-Lys-Ala |
| anti-diabetic drug | glucose-lowering drug or hypoglycaemic drug |
| anti-oxidant | antioxidant |
| apolipoproteins | If using abbreviation, format as e.g. ApoA-I, ApoB-100 (initial capital) |
| around [e.g. 3 ml urine] | about 3 ml urine |
| base line | baseline |
| B-cell | B cell |
| β cell | beta cell (but β OK for chemicals, etc.) |
| biobreeding (BB) rats | BioBreeding (BB) rats |
| birth weight | birthweight |
| C or COOH terminal | C- or COOH-terminal (hyphen optional with terminus) |
| C3 | C-3 (third carbon atom)
C3 (chain of three carbon atoms) |
| calorie | energy (e.g. low-energy diet, % of energy from fat) |
| cAMP | cyclic AMP (or use cAMP as a defined abbreviation) |
| C peptide | C-peptide |
| caesarean | Caesarean |
| Chinese Han | Han Chinese |
| chi-square test | χ2 test |
| cholesterol ester | cholesteryl ester |
| Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel | Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel | Cox-Mantel | Cox–Mantel |
| cross over | crossover |
| Ct | Ct (cycle threshold: upright font) |
| cytochrome c | cytochrome c (c in italics) |
| data is | data are (plural) |
| day time/day-time | daytime [no hyphen] |
| deuterated | 2H-labelled or similar (e.g. 2H2O) |
| dietician | dietitian |
| D glucose | |
| disk | for computer disk | df | df |
| DM | diabetes mellitus (do not use DM in text. It may be used in the tables and figures with a written-out explanation) |
| dose | dose refers to single amount of a drug |
| dosage | dosage also includes details of the timing | double blinded | double-blinded |
| down-regulate | downregulate |
| drop-out | dropout | electrophoretic mobility-shift assay | electrophoretic mobility shift assay |
| end point | endpoint | end product | end-product |
| enzymic | enzymatic | et al | OK in reference list, but et al. in text |
| euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp | euglycaemic−hyperinsulinaemic clamp |
| euthanised | killed |
| evidenced-based | evidence-based | first born/first-born | firstborn |
| firstly, secondly, thirdly … | first, second, third | foetus/foetal | fetus/fetal |
| free cholesterol | non-esterified cholesterol |
| free fatty acids | non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) | f-test | F test |
| glucose-6-phosphate | glucose 6-phosphate but glucose-6-phosphatase (note hyphenation) |
| glutathione S-tranferase | glutathione S-transferase (S in italics) |
| guinea-pig | guinea pig | HbA1c | HbA1c (note styling i.e. lower case subscript c) |
| HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, etc. | HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, etc. | Hank's balanced salt solution | Hanks' balanced salt solution |
| health care | healthcare | HSV1 | HSV-1 herpes simplex virus 1 |
| hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic clamp | hyperinsulinaemic−euglycaemic clamp | IDDM patient | type 1 diabetic patient |
| interleukin 2 | interleukin-2 (with hyphen) | IL 2 | IL-2 (with hyphen) |
| intima-media thickness | intima–media thickness (en-dash) | Kaplan-Meier | Kaplan–Meier (en-dash) |
| knock-out | knockout | leukemia | leukaemia |
| leukocyte | leucocyte |
| log rank | logrank | M value | M value (insulin sensitivity) |
| male, female as nouns | men, women | Mann-Whitney U test | Mann–Whitney U test (en-dash) | metabolic cage | metabolism cage |
| methods methodology |
Not interchangeable. Methodology is a system of methods used in a particular area of study |
| mm Hg | mmHg (closed up) |
| mortality | mortality rate | N or NH2 terminal | N- or NH2-terminal (hyphen optional with terminus) |
| naïve | naive (no diaeresis) |
| Neuman-Keuls | Neuman–Keuls (en-dash) |
| neurone | neuron |
| NICE | Expansion is the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (from 2006) |
| NIDDM | type 2 diabetes |
| night time | night-time [include hypen] |
| nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice | non-obese diabetic mice (note that NOD is an accepted abbreviation) |
| Northern blot | northern blot | Myanmar | Burma (see www.fco.gov.uk - country profile) |
| omega fatty acid | n-3 fatty acid (hyphen not en dash) |
| on line | online | out-patient | outpatient |
| over-express | overexpress |
| overrepresent | over-represent | over-stimulate | overstimulate |
| over-weight | overweight |
| pancreata | pancreases | parameter | variable | parasthesias | parasthesiae |
| percent | per cent |
| periodic acid-schiff's reagent | periodic acid–Schiff's reagent (en-dash, capital S) |
| peroxisome proliferative-activated receptor, gamma, coactivator 1, alpha | peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, gamma, coactivator 1, alpha |
| person years | person-years |
| phosphorylase a | phosphorylase a (a in italics) |
| post-hoc | post hoc (no hyphen) |
| post-natal | postnatal |
| post-prandial | postprandial |
| posttranscriptional | post-transcriptional |
| posttranslational | post-translational | preadipocytes | pre-adipocytes |
| pre-diabetic | prediabetic |
| pre-prandial | preprandial |
| pro-insulin | proinsulin | program | for computer program, otherwise programme |
| quantitation, quantitate | quantification, quantify |
| Ra, Rd (rate of appearance, rate of disappearance) | Ra, Rd | realtime | real-time (if adjective), otherwise real time | real-time PCR | Don't abbreviate to RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) |
| red blood cell | erythrocyte |
| regime(n) | regimen (treatment routine) regime (governmental system) |
| ROC | Precede by 'a' rather than 'an' (pronounced as 'rock') | sacrificed | killed |
| sanofi aventis | Style as sanofi-aventis (lowercase with hyphen). Use an initial capital if at the start of a sentence or section heading (e.g. Sanofi-aventis has announced … ) |
| side-effect | side effect (unless adjectival) |
| skinfold | skinfold thickness |
| SNP | Precede by 'a' rather than 'an' (pronounced as 'snip') | socio-economic | socioeconomic |
| southern blot | Southern blot (for DNA) (invented by Prof. Southern, hence capital S) | St. | St (contraction, not abbreviation) |
| Student-Neuman-Keuls | Student–Neuman–Keuls (en-dash) | Students t-test | Student's t test |
| sub-group | subgroup |
| sub-population | subpopulation | sulphonylurea | sulfonylurea |
| super family | superfamily | supernatant | supernatant fraction | survival | survival rate |
| T-cell | T cell | The Netherlands | the Netherlands |
| T-helper | T helper | thin layer chromatography | thin-layer chromatography (or TLC) |
| time-course | time course |
| TNFα | TNF-α |
| triglyceride | triacylglycerol |
| tritiated | 3H-labelled or similar (e.g. 3H2O) |
| type 1 diabetes in the mouse | mouse model of type 1 diabetes |
| type I diabetes | type 1 diabetes | type II diabetes | type 2 diabetes |
| under-estimate | underestimate | underrecord | under-record |
| underrepresent | under-represent | United Kingdom | UK |
| up-regulate | upregulate |
| US | OK if adjectival, otherwise USA | variable number of tandem repeats polymorphism | variable-number-of-tandem-repeats polymorphism |
| versus | vs | web site | website |
| Western blot | western blot (for protein) | ... Whites ... | ... whites ... (lowercase) | wildtype | wild-type |
| World Health Organization | WHO (standard abbreviation; -iz spelling in references) | X-ray | x-ray |
| z score | z score |
| Z test | Z test |