Antioxidant Responses in Hypertensive Postmenopausal Women after Acute Beetroot Juice Ingestion and Aerobic Exercise: Double Blind and Placebo-Controlled Crossover Trial

This study is aimed to analyze the effect of different nitrate concentrations [NO3-] present in beetroot juice (BJ) on salivary oxidative stress markers after acute exercise performance in hypertensive postmenopausal women. Thirteen hypertensive postmenopausal women participated in three experimental sessions, taking different beverages: noncaloric orange flavored drink (OFD), low nitrate (low-NO3-) BJ, and high nitrate (high-NO3-) BJ. The participants performed aerobic exercise on a treadmill, at 65–70% of heart rate reserve (HRR), for 40 min. Saliva samples were collected after an overnight fast, 10 minutes before BJ ingestion at 7 : 20 am (0′), 120 minutes after beverages ingestion (130′), immediately after exercise (170′), and 90 min after exercise (260′). Salivary total protein (TP), catalase activity (CAT), reduced glutathione (GSH), and total antioxidant capacity by ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) concentrations were analyzed. No interaction (session∗time) was found among three sessions over time. Catalase area under the curve (AUC) was lower after both low-NO3- and high-NO3- consumption (p<0.001), and GSH AUC was lower after high-NO3- (p<0.001) compared with OFD. So, the acute intake of BJ with aerobic exercise seems to decrease catalase (in high-NO3- and low-NO3-) and GSH (in high-NO3-), besides not interfering with FRAP in hypertensive postmenopausal women

A Lower Serum Antioxidant Capacity as a Distinctive Feature for Women with HER2+ Breast Cancer: A Preliminary Study

The overexpression of HER2 in breast cancer (BC) can contribute to redox imbalance, which is related to damage and structural modification in many biomolecules. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that has investigated the infrared spectrum wavenumbers obtained by ATR-FTIR and their relationship with the levels of redox status markers such as reduced glutathione, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP), and protein carbonyl among women with HER2+ BC, HER2&minus; BC, and benign breast disease (BBD). The study was conducted with 25 women, 17 of whom were diagnosed with BC (6 HER2+ and 11 HER2&minus;) and 8 with BBD. Our results indicate HER2+ BC cases could be distinguished from HER2&minus; BC and BBD cases by their serum&rsquo;s antioxidant capacity [HER2+ BC vs. HER2&minus; BC (AUC = 0.818; specificity = 81.82%; sensitivity = 66.67%); HER2+ BC vs. BBD (AUC = 0.875; specificity = 75%; sensitivity = 83.33%)]. The changes in biochemical terms that occur in serum as a result of the scarcity of antioxidants are related to a peculiar fingerprint in the infrared spectrum obtained by ATR-FTIR. In the serum of women with BBD, the SOD enzyme level is the highest, and this characteristic allowed us to distinguish them from HER2&minus; BC. Finally, data regarding the serological antioxidant capacity of FRAP and the infrared spectrum by ATR-FTIR will allow us to assess biochemical changes that occur before clinical signs, indicating whether changes in therapy or interventions are necessary

The Effects of Isoflavone Supplementation Plus Combined Exercise on Lipid Levels, and Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Markers in Postmenopausal Women

This study tested the effect of isoflavone supplementation in addition to combined exercise training on plasma lipid levels, inflammatory markers and oxidative stress in postmenopausal women. Thirty-two healthy and non-obese postmenopausal women without hormone therapy were randomly assigned to exercise + placebo (PLA; n = 15) or exercise + isoflavone supplementation (ISO; n = 17) groups. They performed 30 sessions of combined exercises (aerobic plus resistance) over ten weeks and consumed 100 mg of isoflavone supplementation or placebo. Blood samples were collected after an overnight fast to analyze the lipid profile, interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), superoxide dismutase (SOD), total antioxidant capacity (FRAP), and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), before and after ten weeks of the intervention. There were no differences in the changes (pre vs. post) between groups for any of the inflammatory markers, oxidative stress markers or lipid profile variables. However, interleukin-8 was different between pre- and post-tests (p &lt; 0.001) in both groups (&Delta; = 7.61 and 5.61 pg/mL) as were cholesterol levels (p &lt; 0.05), with no interaction between groups. The combination of isoflavone supplementation and exercise training did not alter oxidative stress markers in postmenopausal women, but exercise training alone may increase IL-8 and decrease total cholesterol levels

Overweight Women with Breast Cancer on Chemotherapy Have More Unfavorable Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Profiles

Chronic inflammation and redox imbalance are strongly influenced by diet and nutritional status, and both are risk factors for tumor development. This prospective study aimed to explore the associations between inflammatory and antioxidant markers and nutritional status in women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. The women were evaluated at three times: T0, after the infusion of the first cycle; T1, after infusion of the intermediate cycle; and T2, after the infusion of the last chemotherapy cycle. The consumption of antioxidant nutrients and the Total Dietary Antioxidant Capacity reduced between T0 and T2 and the Dietary Inflammatory Index scores increased throughout the chemotherapy. Blood samples taken at the end of the chemotherapy showed lower levels of glutathione reductase and reduced glutathione, with greater quantification of the transcripts for Interleukin-6 and Tumor Necrosis Factor &alpha;. It should be emphasized that the Total Dietary Antioxidant Capacity is lower and the Dietary Inflammatory Index is higher in the group of overweight patients at the end of the follow-up, besides showing lower levels of the redox status, especially the plasma levels of glutathione reductase (p = 0.039). In addition, trends towards higher transcriptional levels of cytokines in peripheral blood were observed more often in overweight women than in non-overweight women. In this study of 55 women with breast cancer, nine (16%) with metastases, diet became more pro-inflammatory with fewer antioxidants during the chemotherapy. Briefly, we have shown that chemotherapy is critical for high-risk overweight women due to their reduced intake of antioxidant nutrients, generating greater inflammatory and oxidative stress profiles, suggesting the adoption of healthier dietary practices by women with breast cancer throughout their chemotherapy

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non-detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer-reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non-detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio-temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large-scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data

NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS: a data set of occurrence and abundance of alien mammals in the Neotropics

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In this data set, we make available occurrence and abundance data on mammal species that (1) transposed a geographical barrier and (2) were voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into the Neotropics. Our data set is composed of 73,738 historical and current georeferenced records on alien mammal species of which around 96% correspond to occurrence data on 77 species belonging to eight orders and 26 families. Data cover 26 continental countries in the Neotropics, ranging from Mexico and its frontier regions (southern Florida and coastal-central Florida in the southeast United States) to Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay, and the 13 countries of Caribbean islands. Our data set also includes neotropical species (e.g., Callithrix sp., Myocastor coypus, Nasua nasua) considered alien in particular areas of Neotropics. The most numerous species in terms of records are from Bos sp. (n = 37,782), Sus scrofa (n = 6,730), and Canis familiaris (n = 10,084); 17 species were represented by only one record (e.g., Syncerus caffer, Cervus timorensis, Cervus unicolor, Canis latrans). Primates have the highest number of species in the data set (n = 20 species), partly because of uncertainties regarding taxonomic identification of the genera Callithrix, which includes the species Callithrix aurita, Callithrix flaviceps, Callithrix geoffroyi, Callithrix jacchus, Callithrix kuhlii, Callithrix penicillata, and their hybrids. This unique data set will be a valuable source of information on invasion risk assessments, biodiversity redistribution and conservation-related research. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this data paper when using the data in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us on how they are using the data