Osteoporosis prevention in postmenopausal female workers : Beneficial effects of silicon dietary supplementation on oxidative status. A pilot study

In the last years, the employment of ageing women is increased, and the well-being of these workers, together with the prevention of chronic disabling diseases, is an issue of great importance. Moreover, as postmenopausal ageing is associated with the loss of bone density and consequent increased fracture risk, promoting bone health in these women could be the best strategy for avoiding osteoporotic fractures. We aimed to evaluate the effects of 3-month supplementation with a commercial antioxidant product containing Silica on oxidative status and bone markers in a sample of Italian female workers. Subjects were menopausal and osteopenic women (N=29, age 59.34\ub16.37, mean BMI 26.19\ub14.01 kg/m2). At baseline (T0) and after three-month treatment (T1) bone mineral density (BMD) was evaluated by phalangeal osteosonogrammetry. Haematological, serum biochemical parameters, reactive oxygen species (ROS), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), oxydated low-density lipoproteins (oxLDL) and urinary cross-links pyridinoline (PYD) and deoxypyridinoline (DPD) were assessed. Parametric or non-parametric tests were performed at T0 and T1. To analyse the possible association between two variables a linear correlation test was performed. At T0, slightly high levels of ROS (86% of subjects), oxLDL (59%), Total Cholesterol (T-Chol) (90%) and LDL-Chol (59%) were observed, together with suboptimal or deficient 25-OH vitamin D (98%) concentrations. At T1, oxLDL levels and the ratio oxLDL/LDL-Chol significantly decreased (p<0.01). At T0 significant negative correlations between BMD T-score and cross-links were observed (DPD/Crea: r=-0.57, p=0.001; PYD/ Crea: r=-0.45, p=0.01). At T1, a significant reduction (p=0.03) was observed only for DPD (\u3bcg/L) but not for cross-links normalized by creatinine amounts. In conclusion 3-months Silica supplementation improves significantly oxidative status and bone resorption markers in most postmenopausal female workers, representing a complementary treatment for early phases of BMD reduction

Oxidative status in different settings and with different methodological approaches compared by Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis

Objectives: To test the performance of different analytical approaches in highlighting the occurrence of deregulated redox status in various physio-pathological situations. Design and methods: 35 light and 61 heavy smokers, 19 chronic renal failure, 59 kidney transplanted patients, and 87 healthy controls were retrospectively considered for the study. Serum oxidative stress and antioxidant status, assessed by spectrophotometric Reactive Oxygen Metabolites (d-ROMs) and Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC) tests, respectively, were compared with plasma free (F-MDA) and total (T-MDA)malondialdehyde, both quantified by isotope-dilution-gas chromatography\u2013mass spectrometry (ID-GC\u2013MS). Sensitivity, specificity and cut-off points of T-MDA, F-MDA, d-ROMs and TAC were evaluated by both Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses and area under the ROC curve (AUC). Results: Only T-MDA assay showed a clear absence of oxidative stress in controls and significant increase in all patients (AUC 1.00, sensitivity and specificity 100%). Accuracy was good for d-ROMs (AUC 0.87, sensitivity 72.8%, specificity 100%) and F-MDA (AUC 0.82, sensitivity 74.7%, specificity 83.9%), but not high enough for TAC to show in patients impaired antioxidant defense (AUC 0.66, sensitivity 52.0%, specificity 92.9%). Conclusions: This study reveals T-MDA as the best marker to detect oxidative stress, shows the ability of d-ROMs to identify modified oxidative status particularly in the presence of high damages, and evidences the poor TAC performance. d-ROMs and TAC assays could be useful for routine purposes; however, for an accurate clinical data evaluation, their comparison versus a \u201cgold standard method\u201d is required

Homocysteine metabolism in children and adolescents with epidermolysis bullosa

Background: Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) belongs to a family of rare heterogeneous, genetic disorders characterized by blistering of the skin and mucous membranes in response to minor mechanical trauma. The involvement of the oral mucosa and oesophagus stenosis is suggested to be responsible for severe nutritional deficiencies, but few studies have till now considered this aspect. This observational study aimed to evaluate homocysteine status in children and adolescents with EB by assessing total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) and metabolically related vitamins (B6, B12, folate) concentrations. Methods: Twenty EB patients (12 M; age range 0.5-19 years) were evaluated for: plasma tHcy, serum B12 and holotranscobalamin (HoloTC, the active fraction of B12), serum and erythrocyte folate (s-F and Ery-F, respectively), plasma B6 and serum high sensitive C-reactive-protein (hsCRP) levels. Clinical severity was also evaluated through the Birmingham Epidermolysis Bullosa Severity (BEBS) score. A sex and age well-matched population was also enrolled. Results: EB patients showed tHcy levels higher (p = 0.04) and B6 levels lower (p = 0.03) than controls. B12, HoloTC, s-F and ery-F concentrations did not differ between patients and controls. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that tHcy levels were independent of the metabolically related vitamins levels. In addition, serum hsCRP levels were higher in EB patients than in controls (p = 0.003) and correlated negatively with B6 concentrations (r = -0.6; p = 0.009). BEBS score correlated negatively with HoloTC (p = 0.022) and B6 (p = 0.005) levels and positively with age (p = 0.031) and hsCRP levels (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The assessment of tHcy and metabolically related vitamin levels describes an important aspect of EB patients' nutritional status which can result essential for their long term care. Monitoring B6 levels in EB patients could be particularly important in order to prevent several complications associated with B6 deficiency and to avoid a B6 excess which sustains an inflammatory condition