HCV derived from sera of HCV-infected patients induces pro-fibrotic effects in human primary fibroblasts by activating GLI2

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a leading cause of liver fibrosis, especially in developing countries. The process is characterized by the excess accumulation of ECM that may lead, over time, to hepatic cirrhosis, liver failure and also to hepatocarcinoma. The direct role of HCV in promoting fibroblasts trans-differentiation into myofibroblasts, the major fibrogenic cells, has not been fully clarified. In this study, we found that HCV derived from HCV-infected patients infected and directly induced the trans-differentiation of human primary fibroblasts into myofibroblasts, promoting fibrogenesis. This effect correlated with the activation of GLI2, one of the targets of Hedgehog signaling pathway previously reported to be involved in myofibroblast generation. Moreover, GLI2 activation by HCV correlated with a reduction of autophagy in fibroblasts, that may further promoted fibrosis. GLI2 inhibition by Gant 61 counteracted the pro-fibrotic effects and autophagy inhibition mediated by HCV, suggesting that targeting HH/GLI2 pathway might represent a promising strategy to reduce the HCV-induced fibrosis

Differences in verbal and visuospatial forward and backward order recall: A review of the literature

How sequential, verbal and visuospatial stimuli are encoded and stored in memory is not clear in cognitive psychology. Studies with order recall tasks, such as the digit, and Corsi span, indicate that order of presentation is a crucial element for verbal memory, but not for visuospatial memory. This seems to be due to the different effects of forward and backward recall in verbal and visuospatial tasks. In verbal span tasks, performance is worse when recalling things in backward sequence rather than the original forward sequence. In contrast, when it comes to visuospatial tasks, performance is not always worse for a modified backward sequence. However, worse performance in backward visuospatial recall is evident in individuals with weak visuospatial abilities; such individuals perform worse in the backward version of visuospatial tasks than in the forward version. The main aim of the present review is to summarize findings on order recall in verbal and visuospatial materials by considering both cognitive and neural correlates. The results of this review will be considered in the light of the current models of WM, and will be used to make recommendations for future studie

graphite - a Bioconductor package to convert pathway topology to gene network

BACKGROUND: Gene set analysis is moving towards considering pathway topology as a crucial feature. Pathway elements are complex entities such as protein complexes, gene family members and chemical compounds. The conversion of pathway topology to a gene/protein networks (where nodes are a simple element like a gene/protein) is a critical and challenging task that enables topology-based gene set analyses. Unfortunately, currently available R/Bioconductor packages provide pathway networks only from single databases. They do not propagate signals through chemical compounds and do not differentiate between complexes and gene families. RESULTS: Here we present graphite, a Bioconductor package addressing these issues. Pathway information from four different databases is interpreted following specific biologically-driven rules that allow the reconstruction of gene-gene networks taking into account protein complexes, gene families and sensibly removing chemical compounds from the final graphs. The resulting networks represent a uniform resource for pathway analyses. Indeed, graphite provides easy access to three recently proposed topological methods. The graphite package is available as part of the Bioconductor software suite. CONCLUSIONS: graphite is an innovative package able to gather and make easily available the contents of the four major pathway databases. In the field of topological analysis graphite acts as a provider of biological information by reducing the pathway complexity considering the biological meaning of the pathway elements

Localization of volatile acidity reducing factors in grape

Must clarification processes cause an increase in the acetate content of wine at the end of the alcoholic fermatation process, this phenomenon being particularly noticeable when fermentation is obtained by means of the so-called 'high acetate-producer' yeast strains. The influence of different must fractions (free run juice, pressed juice, skins and seeds) on acetate production in white grape was investigated, and the addition of skins and and seeds to a synthetic nutritive medium (MNS) was seen to cause a considerable reduction in acetate production. Strain-related differences become evident when the grape bunch is subjected to heat shock (90°C) before musting. In such conditions, acetate content after fermentation is approximately the same as that of the control specimen (not heat treated) for the low acetate-producer strain (S191c) and higher for the high producer strain (S22b). This suggests the presence of some thermolabile factor that is responsible for inhibiting acetate production. In order to determine the chemical nature of this factor, a series of tests was performed on two substances contained in grape skins and seeds, i.e., polyphenolic compounds and unsaturated fatty acids. A reduction in acetate production was observed in the presence of both substances, their effect being greater when used in connection with high acetate-producer yeast strains

Antismoking campaigns’ perception and gender differences: a comparison among EEG Indices

Human factors’ aim is to understand and evaluate the interactions between people and tasks, technologies, and environment. Among human factors, it is possible then to include the subjective reaction to external stimuli, due to individual’s characteristics and states of mind. These processes are also involved in the perception of antismoking public service announcements (PSAs), the main tool for governments to contrast the first cause of preventable deaths in the world: tobacco addiction. In the light of that, in the present article, it has been investigated through the comparison of different electroencephalographic (EEG) indices a typical item known to be able of influencing PSA perception, that is gender. In order to investigate the neurophysiological underpinnings of such different perception, we tested two PSAs: one with a female character and one with a male character. Furthermore, the experimental sample was divided into men and women, as well as smokers and nonsmokers. The employed EEG indices were the mental engagement (ME: the ratio between beta activity and the sum of alpha and theta activity); the approach/withdrawal (AW: the frontal alpha asymmetry in the alpha band); and the frontal theta activity and the spectral asymmetry index (SASI: the ratio between beta minus theta and beta plus theta). Results suggested that the ME and the AW presented an opposite trend, with smokers showing higher ME and lower AW than nonsmokers. The ME and the frontal theta also evidenced a statistically significant interaction between the kind of the PSA and the gender of the observers; specifically, women showed higher ME and frontal theta activity for the male character PSA. This study then supports the usefulness of the ME and frontal theta for purposes of PSAs targeting on the basis of gender issues and of the ME and the AW and for purposes of PSAs targeting on the basis of smoking habits

A weak individual signature might not allow chick call recognition by parent Stone Curlews Burhinus oedicnemus

Offspring recognition has been confirmed in many bird species, and vocal signatures appear to be its major component. Up to now most studies dealt with colonial species, but recent findings indicate that similar recognition is also present in non-colonial birds. By integrating spectrographic analysis and playback experiments, we investigated for the first time parent–offspring vocal recognition in the Stone Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus), a highly vocal, crepuscular-nocturnal species that usually rears a maximum of two precocial and nidifugous chicks. Even though the species is usually non-colonial and non-cooperative, in Taro River Regional Park, Parma, Italy, breeding territories are densely packed with distances between simultaneously active nests as close as 40 m, which creates the possibility that chicks might be exchanged. Our analysis identified two main vocalizations in the chick call repertoire: (1) the S-call, a brief strangled soft sound often uttered when parents and chicks were at close quarters; and (2) the C-call, a chirping sound with a complex structure, which seems to be a long-distance contact vocalization. Our acoustic analysis showed that, even though the structure was remarkably different between chicks, C-calls were an unreliable individual signature given their high intra-individual variability. This was confirmed by playback experiments. Indeed, when presented with simulated C-calling chicks, adults approached both their own and foreign chicks with equal responses. These results suggest that parent Stone Curlews are unable to recognize their offspring by voice. Furthermore, experiments are needed to test whether the chicks are able to recognize their parents' voice and, more generally, to understand the details of parent–offspring communication in this species

Polymer accumulation in mixed cyanobacterial cultures selected under the feast and famine strategy

In this study, a sequencing batch reactor (SBR), operated with transient carbon availability (feast and famine) and different nutrients loads, was used to select cyanobacteria accumulating poly (3-hydroxyalkanoate) (PHB) and carbohydrates from a mixed wastewater-borne microbial culture. The SBR was operated with 12 h aerobic light and 12 h anaerobic dark phases, evaluating the effect of three different operational conditions consisting on; 1) carbon limitation, 2) carbon and phosphorus limitation and 3) phosphorus limitation. Once a steady state was reached in each operational period of the SBR, part of the biomass was collected and submitted to separate batch tests in order to investigate the maximum PHB and carbohydrates accumulation levels. Batch tests were performed during 24 h of illuminated aerobic condition and 24 h of dark anaerobic condition, while inorganic carbon was constantly present. During the SBR operation, inorganic carbon was mostly used for biomass and carbohydrate production, showing very low PHB accumulation levels (<1%). Notwithstanding, in subsequent batch tests, PHB was accumulated after a complete depletion of nitrogen, reaching almost 4%. Concerning carbohydrates, it was found that phosphorus limitation (with and without carbon limitation) led to a culture mostly dominated by cyanobacteria and higher levels of carbohydrate content (43%–48%) than the culture with carbon limitation and high loads of nitrogen and phosphorus (29%). Such contents were obtained in only 24 h of incubation under aerobic illuminated conditions. Hence, these encouraging results indicate that carbon uptake and the consequent polymers production from cyanobacteria can be enhanced through carbon and nutrient feeding strategiesPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Surface Functionalisation of biomaterials with alkaline phosphatase

Two different glasses, one biocompatible but with a low bioactivity index (G1) and the other with an higher bioactivity index (G2), the ceramic version of the second glass and a titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) have been functionalizated by anchoring alkaline phosphatase (ALP) on their surfaces. The enzyme has been chosen because it is involved in mineralization processes of hard tissues and is a model for more complex ones. ALP has been grafted on glasses and glass-ceramics surfaces both with and without samples silanization and on metallic surfaces with and without tresyl chloride activation. Samples have been analyzed at each step of the functionalization process in order to verify i

Measurement of power spectral density of broad-spectrum visible light with heterodyne near field scattering and its scalability to betatron radiation.

We exploit the speckle field generated by scattering from a colloidal suspension to access both spatial and temporal coherence properties of broadband radiation. By applying the Wiener-Khinchine theorem to the retrieved temporal coherence function, information about the emission spectrum of the source is obtained in good agreement with the results of a grating spectrometer. Experiments have been performed with visible light. We prove more generally that our approach can be considered as a tool for modeling a variety of cases. Here we discuss how to apply such diagnostics to broad-spectrum betatron radiation produced in the laser-driven wakefield accelerator under development at SPARC LAB facility in Frascati