Beneficial effects of enriched environment on adolescent rats from stressed pregnancies

The capacity of an early environmental intervention to normalize the behavioural and immunological dysfunctions produced by a stressed pregnancy was investigated. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats underwent three 45-min sessions per day of prenatal restraint stress (PS) on gestation days 11-21, and their offspring were assigned to either an enriched-environment or standard living cages throughout adolescence [postnatal days (pnd) 22-43]. Juvenile rats from stressed pregnancies had a prominent depression of affiliative/playful behaviour and of basal circulating CD4 T lymphocytes, CD8 T lymphocytes and T4/T8 ratio. They also showed increased emotionality and spleen and brain frontal cortex levels of pro-inflammatory interleoukin-1beta (IL-1beta) cytokine. A more marked response to cyclophosphamide (CPA: two 2 mg/kg IP injections) induced immunosuppression was also found in prenatal stressed rats. Enriched housing increased the amount of time adolescent PS rats spent in positive species-typical behaviours (i.e. play behaviour), reduced emotionality and reverted most of immunological alterations. In addition to its effects in PS rats, enriched housing increased anti-inflammatory IL-2 and reduced pro-inflammatory IL-1beta production by activated splenocytes, also producing a marked alleviation of CPA-induced immune depression. In the brain, enriched housing increased IL-1beta values in hypothalamus, while slightly normalizing these values in the frontal cortex from PS rats. This is a first indication that an environmental intervention, such as enriched housing, during adolescence can beneficially affect basal immune parameters and rats response to both early stress and drug-induced immunosuppression

Bootstrap testing procedures with dependent time series data

Period of award April 1998 - March 2000SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3739.0605(000222581) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Effect of physical fitness and endurance exercise on indirect biomarkers of growth hormone and insulin misuse: immunoassay-based measurement in urine samples

Indirect biomarkers of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH), insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II), insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-3) and insulin (C-peptide) were measured together with urinary parameters of renal damage ( 2- microglobulin and proteinuria) by immunoassays, in house validated for the purpose, in 61 subjects (36 elite athletes, 18 recreational athletes and 7 sedentary individuals) with different levels of physical fitness and endurance exercise. Validation parameters were good for the evaluated assays, excluding a high inter-assay imprecision and inaccuracy of 24 and 26% obtained forGHassay. The range of concentrations found in urine samples under investigation was generally covered by the calibration curves of the studied immunoassays. However, for the samples below or above the calibration curve, opportune dilution or concentration were performed. Particularly, C-peptide samples had to be diluted 1:5 and 2-microglobulin ones assayed using a triple sample volume, to fall within the calibration range. Urinary C-peptide was the only biomarker statistically higher in samples of elite athletes when compared to recreational athletes and sedentary individuals. Among elite athletes, taekwondo athletes showed the highest IGF-II basal values while weightlifting athletes showed the lower IGF-I and IGFBP-3 basal values. The trend observed in weightlifters basal samples was confirmed in their training samples: IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-3 and 2-microglobulin were lower in with respect to those from synchronised swimming. Over the training season, within athlete variability was observed for IGFBP-3 for weightlifting athletes. In the studied subjects, no direct associations were found between biomarkers of GH or insulin misuse and urinary parameters of renal damage, eventually due to high-workload endurance training. The variations observed in different biomarkers should be taken in consideration in the hypothesis of setting reference concentration ranges for doping detection

L’attività dei Centri Antifumo italiani tra problematiche e aree da potenziare: i risultati di un’indagine svolta attraverso un questionario on-line

Introduzione. In Italia sono 295 i Servizi per la cessazione dal fumo di tabacco (Centri Antifumo - CA) afferenti al Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN) censiti nel 2011 dall’Osservatorio Fumo, Alcol e Droga (OssFAD) dell’Istituto Superiore di Sanità. La presente indagine, condotta dall’OssFAD in collaborazione con i CA, è stata volta a rilevare alcune delle problematiche con le quali il personale dei CA si confronta per portare avanti la propria attività e le iniziative ritenute utili per migliorarla. Materiali e metodi. L’indagine è stata condotta dal 7 al 21 maggio 2012, mediante un questionario compilabile on-line composto da 5 brevi sezioni di domande con un totale di 38 items da completare. Il link al questionario on-line è stato inviato per e-mail a 322 indirizzi dei CA censiti nel 2011 dall’OssFAD. I dati raccolti sono stati elaborati statisticamente con il programma SPSS 20. Risultati. All’indagine hanno risposto 146 operatori dei CA (45,3%). Sebbene ci siano aspetti ormai consolidati dell’attività dei CA, sono ancora molte le criticità che gli operatori riscontrano nella loro attività. Le principali problematiche che influiscono in modo fondamentale/rilevante per la buona attività del centro sono le “Scarse o nulle risorse economiche” per il 60,7% del personale, “la mancanza di personale dedicato” per il 52,4% del personale; il “riconoscimento/mandato istituzionale del CA” per il 40,9% del personale. Tra le azioni ritenute più efficaci per facilitare l’accesso ai CA sono risultate la sensibilizzazione del personale sanitario (91%), in particolare dei medici di famiglia e l’inserimento delle prestazioni antitabagiche nei LEA (76,8%). Conclusioni. È auspicabile che l’attività dei CA riceva una maggiore attenzione, attraverso la dotazione di strutture, personale e finanziamenti adeguati a svolgere un importante ruolo nella tutela e promozione della salute