Like mother, like child : investigating perinatal and maternal health stress in post-medieval London.

Post-Medieval London (sixteenth-nineteenth centuries) was a stressful environment for the poor. Overcrowded and squalid housing, physically demanding and risky working conditions, air and water pollution, inadequate diet and exposure to infectious diseases created high levels of morbidity and low life expectancy. All of these factors pressed with particular severity on the lowest members of the social strata, with burgeoning disparities in health between the richest and poorest. Foetal, perinatal and infant skeletal remains provide the most sensitive source of bioarchaeological information regarding past population health and in particular maternal well-being. This chapter examined the evidence for chronic growth and health disruption in 136 foetal, perinatal and infant skeletons from four low-status cemetery samples in post-medieval London. The aim of this study was to consider the impact of poverty on the maternal-infant nexus, through an analysis of evidence of growth disruption and pathological lesions. The results highlight the dire consequences of poverty in London during this period from the very earliest moments of life

Antiproliferative and proapoptotic activities of hydroxytyrosol derivatives on human promyelocytic leukemia cell lines

Purpose Hydroxytyrosol (3,4-DHPEA) derivatives (disulfide, thioacetate and thiohydroxytyrosol) were synthesized in order to test in vitro if the combination of catechol moiety of 3,4-DHPEA and sulfur containing functions results in an improvement of the pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative activities shown by 3,4-DHPEA. The involvement of H2O2 production in the cell culture medium has been studied. Methods The effects of thiohydroxytyrosol derivatives and 3,4-DHPEA on cell proliferation, apotosis and cell cycle of HL60 and its MDR variant HL60R were assessed by the Trypan Blue exclusion test, by fluorescence microscopy or by flow cytometry respectively. H2O2 concentrations in the culture medium was measured by the ferrous ion oxidation-xylenol orange method. Results We found that: i) all synthesized compounds were able to inhibit the proliferation inducing apoptosis on both cell lines HL60 and HL60R; ii) all thiohydroxytyrosol derivatives were more effective than 3,4-DHPEA in inducing apoptosis on HL60R; iii) differently from 3,4-DHPEA, the proapoptotic activities of thiohydroxytyrosol derivatives were not dependent upon the release of H2O2 in the culture medium; iv) the hydroxytyrosol disulfide was the most active pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative compound on both HL60 and HL60R cells. Conclusions The combination of cathecol moiety and sulfur functions resulted in an improvement of 3,4-DHPEA proapoptotic activity which was particularly evident on HL60R cells suggesting that these compounds could be potentially used in cancer therapy and could be able to reverse the resistance toward the most common anticancer drugs

Effects of a diet lacking hufa on lipid and fatty acid content of intestine and gills of male gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.) broodstock at different stages of the reproductive cycle

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