Intestinal Barrier Function in Gluten-Related Disorders

Gluten-related disorders include distinct disease entities, namely celiac disease, wheat-associated allergy and non-celiac gluten/wheat sensitivity. Despite having in common the contact of the gastrointestinal mucosa with components of wheat and other cereals as a causative factor, these clinical entities have distinct pathophysiological pathways. In celiac disease, a T-cell mediate immune reaction triggered by gluten ingestion is central in the pathogenesis of the enteropathy, while wheat allergy develops as a rapid immunoglobulin E- or non-immunoglobulin E-mediated immune response. In non-celiac wheat sensitivity, classical adaptive immune responses are not involved. Instead, recent research has revealed that an innate immune response to a yet-to-be-defined antigen, as well as the gut microbiota, are pivotal in the development in this disorder. Although impairment of the epithelial barrier has been described in all three clinical conditions, its role as a potential pathogenetic co-factor, specifically in celiac disease and non-celiac wheat sensitivity, is still a matter of investigation. This article gives a short overview of the mucosal barrier of the small intestine, summarizes the aspects of barrier dysfunction observed in all three gluten-related disorders and reviews literature data in favor of a primary involvement of the epithelial barrier in the development of celiac disease and non-celiac wheat sensitivity

Celiac Disease Monocytes Induce a Barrier Defect in Intestinal Epithelial Cells

Intestinal epithelial barrier function in celiac disease (CeD) patients is altered. However, the mechanism underlying this effect is not fully understood. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the role of monocytes in eliciting the epithelial barrier defect in CeD. For this purpose, human monocytes were isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from active and inactive CeD patients and healthy controls. PBMCs were sorted for expression of CD14 and co-cultured with intestinal epithelial cells (IECs, Caco2BBe). Barrier function, as well as tight junctional alterations, were determined. Monocytes were characterized by profiling of cytokines and surface marker expression. Transepithelial resistance was found to be decreased only in IECs that had been exposed to celiac monocytes. In line with this, tight junctional alterations were found by confocal laser scanning microscopy and Western blotting of ZO-1, occludin, and claudin-5. Analysis of cytokine concentrations in monocyte supernatants revealed higher expression of interleukin-6 and MCP-1 in celiac monocytes. However, surface marker expression, as analyzed by FACS analysis after immunostaining, did not reveal significant alterations in celiac monocytes. In conclusion, CeD peripheral monocytes reveal an intrinsically elevated pro-inflammatory cytokine pattern that is associated with the potential of peripheral monocytes to affect barrier function by altering TJ composition

Quantum local random networks and the statistical robustness of quantum scars

We investigate the emergence of quantum scars in a general ensemble of random Hamiltonians (of which the PXP is a particular realization), that we refer to as quantum local random networks. We find two types of scars, that we call stochastic and statistical. We identify specific signatures of the localized nature of these eigenstates by analyzing a combination of indicators of quantum ergodicity and properties related to the network structure of the model. Within this parallelism, we associate the emergence of statistical scars to the presence of motifs in the network, that reflects how these are associated to links with anomalously small connectivity (as measured, e.g., by their betweenness). Most remarkably, statistical scars appear at well-defined values of energy, predicted solely on the base of network theory. We study the scaling of the number of statistical scars with system size: below a threshold connectivity, we find that the number of statistical scars increases with system size. This allows to the define the concept of statistical stability of quantum scars.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figue

Respiratory epithelial adenomatoid hamartoma: Minimally invasive surgery of an endoscopic and radiological finding in maxillary sinus mimicking an inverted papilloma

Abstract Introduction Respiratory epithelial adenomatoid hamartoma (REAH) is a benign entity characterized by an abnormal proliferation of glandular tissue surrounded by a thick eosinophilic basement membrane within ciliated respiratory epithelium with no evidence of atypical or metaplastic changes in the squamous cells. Case report An 84 years patient, non-smoker, with in treatment hypertension and depression reported a 3-month history of progressive right nasal obstruction, mucopurulent rhinorrhea, unilateral purulent post-nasal discharge and unilateral anosmia. Endoscopy showed a polypoidal masse, with no presence of nasal polyposis. The lesion, originating from the maxillary sinus, arose from middle meatus and extended inferiority up to the inferior turbinate.During an endoscopic minimally-invasive surgical procedure, we performed the complete excision of the whole lesion, through the use of micro-instruments and debrider technology. The patient underwent regular check-up after 3, 6 and 12 months: endoscopic and radiological evaluation showed no relapse of the disease. Conclusion Although REAH is a neoplastic pathology, the intrinsic characteristics of benignity and the typical limited and non-infiltrating diffusion allow a minimally invasive and conservative surgical approach without evidence of recurrence

The diatoms test in veterinary medicine: a pilot study on cetaceans and sea turtles

Fishing activities are considered one of the most relevant threats for cetaceans and sea turtles con- servation since these animals are sometimes found dead entangled in fishing gears. Currently, postmortem diagnosis is based mainly on the presence of nets and lines on the body and the related marks and injuries evident at gross examination. A more detailed and objective evidence is needed to clarify doubts cases and the diatoms technique, used in forensic human medicine, could support drowning diagnosis also in this field. Diatoms\u2019 investigation was implemented to be applied in ma- rine vertebrate on 8 striped (Stenella coeruleoalba) and 1 bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) dolphins and 5 sea turtles (Caretta caretta) stranded along the Italian coastlines with a likely cause of death hypothized on necropsies carried out by veterinary pathologists. Diatoms were microscopically searched in the bone marrow collected from long bones implementing protocols used in human medicine and their presence was observed in 4 cetaceans and 2 sea turtles. Despite a clear relation between diatoms\u2019 presence and amount and the likely cause of death was not proved due to the poor number of samples, the higher burden of diatoms was found in 3 animals deemed to be death for the interaction with human activity. Despite more studied are necessary to identify the possible relation between the cause of death and diatoms\u2019 findings, the present study implemented this technique to be adapted to marine animals, confirming its possible application also in veterinary forensic medi- cine

Proximity and impact of university-industry collaborations. A topic detection analysis of impact reports

The probability to initiate university-industry collaborations (UICs), their intensity and quality, are influenced by the proximity between the collaboration partners. However, little is known about the relationship between collaborators' proximity and impact of UICs. Building on an original database of 415 UICs in the United Kingdom, we analyse the association between collaborators' proximity and the extent to which UICs generate economic, social and knowledge impact. We find that geographical and institutional proximity are substitutes in relation to economic impact, cognitive and institutional proximity are substitutes in relation to knowledge impact, and social impact is associated with cognitive and institutional distance

Fatty acid composition of the bovine milk fat globules obtained by gravity separation

Gravity separation of milk fat is the process by which fat globules tend to gather on the surface and form a layer of cream. The aim of this study was to assess the differences in the lipid quality of cow milk fractions after gravity separation. Bulk cow milk samples were taken from an individual farm and subjected to gravity separation for 24h at 4 °C. Three fractions were separated. The diameter (μm) and the number of fat globules per ml and fatty acid profile of each fraction were determined. The top fraction showed a significantly higher average diameter and number of globules/ml than the middle and lower fractions. In addition, the bottom fraction showed higher amounts of oleic acid, linolenic acid, arachidonic acid and CLA. The interest in gravity separation is due both to its technological applications the possibility of obtaining dairy products with different physical characteristics also in terms of fat nutritional value

Nutritional composition of four commercial cheeses made with buffalo milk

This paper compares the nutritional and nutraceutical characteristics of four commercial cheeses made from the same buffalo milk using different production processes. Four subsequent cheese-making were made over a period of one month by a cheese company in Italy. For each cheese-making from the same bulk buffalo milk four different cheeses were made: Mozzarella, Caciotta, Capriccio, and Blu del Granduca. All the samples were analyzed in terms of the chemical composition and fatty acid profile. The manufacturing process affected the nutritional and health characteristics of the cheeses. The cheese-making process led to a lower retention of calcium in the mozzarella, and a higher nitrogen content on dry matter. In addition, the cheese-making process and the ripening influenced the fatty acid profiles, and modified various atherogenic (C12:0 and C14:0), and beneficial FAs (C18:3n3, cis-9,trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid, C20:5 and C20:6). Despite the higher fat on a wet basis, the ripened cheeses and especially the Blu cheese, showed a healthier fatty acid profile than the mozzarella

Le competenze socio-emotive degli insegnanti nella scuola dell\u2019infanzia: ruolo nella pratica professionale e ricadute educative. Dalla voce degli insegnanti indicazioni utili alla formazione

Uno sviluppo armonico della dimensione socio-affettiva e\u300 un obiettivo primario nell\u2019eta\u300 prescolare e ha ricadute importanti dal punto di vista educativo. Tuttavia pochi sono gli studi che si sono focalizzati sul comprendere cosa caratterizzi per gli insegnanti attivi in questa fascia d\u2019eta\u300 una buona competenza so- cio-emotiva, e come essa influisca su quella dei loro allievi. E ancora meno sono le ricerche che lo hanno fatto dando voce alla viva esperienza di queste figure professionali. Questo e\u300 l\u2019obiettivo dell\u2019articolo, che mira a tale intento attraverso una ricerca qualitativa condotta grazie a interviste focalizzate

Floquet time crystals in clock models

We construct a class of period-n-tupling discrete time crystals based on Zn clock variables, for all the integers n. We consider two classes of systems where this phenomenology occurs: disordered models with short-range interactions and fully connected models. In the case of short-range models, we provide a complete classification of time-crystal phases for generic n. For the specific cases of n=3 and n=4, we study in detail the dynamics by means of exact diagonalization. In both cases, through an extensive analysis of the Floquet spectrum, we are able to fully map the phase diagram. In the case of infinite-range models, the mapping onto an effective bosonic Hamiltonian allows us to investigate the scaling to the thermodynamic limit. After a general discussion of the problem, we focus on n=3 and n=4, representative examples of the generic behavior. Remarkably, for n=4 we find clear evidence of a crystal-to-crystal transition between period n-tupling and period n/2-tupling