Cardoon meal (Cynara cardunculus var. altilis) as alternative protein source during finishing period in poultry feeding

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s previsions show that by 2050 the world’s population will reach 9.6 billion people, and the request for a high value protein source will increase as well. Poultry can guarantee high value protein for humans, even in the poorest regions of the world. Hence, ecient poultry production is needed, matching with sustainable development. The residual meal from cardoon seed oil (used for biodiesel and biodegradable bioplastic production) is suitable for animal feeding due to its protein content. The aim of this preliminary study was to test for a possible use of cardoon meal as a protein source in a poultry diet during the finishing period. Forty-five Kabir chickens were divided into three groups and fed three diets in which soybean meal (control) was partially (16%) or completely replaced with cardoon meal as a protein source (treated groups). In vivo performances, animal welfare, dressing out and meat color were evaluated. No statistical dierences in feed eciency, dressing out, nor in meat quality were found among groups. Moreover, birds that were fed cardoon meal showed lower perivisceral fat. Therefore, cardoon meal could be considered as an alternative for soybean meal in the finishing period in poultry feeding

Generation of donor-derived Wilms tumor antigen 1–specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes with potent anti-leukemia activity for somatic cell therapy in children given haploidentical stem cell transplantation: a feasibility pre-clinical study

Background: The Wilms tumor antigen 1 (WT1) is over-expressed in a vast majority of adult and childhood acute leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes, being lowly or transiently expressed in normal tissues and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). A number of HLA-restricted WT1 epitopes are immunogenic, allowing the in vitro induction of WT1-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) from patients and healthy donors. Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the feasibility of producing WT1-specific CTLs suitable for somatic cell therapy to prevent or treat relapse in children with acute myeloid or lymphoblastic leukemia given haploidentical HSC transplantation (haplo-HSCT). Methods: For WT1-specific CTL production, donor-derived either peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) or CD8+ lymphocytes were stimulated with WT1 peptide-loaded donor dendritic cells in the presence of interleukin (IL)-7 and IL-12. Effector cells were re-stimulated once with irradiated donor PBMCs pulsed with WT1-peptides, and then expanded in an antigen-independent way. Results: WT1-specific CTLs, displaying high-level cytotoxicity against patients’ leukemia blasts and negligible activity against patients’ non-malignant cells, were obtained from both PBMCs and CD8+ lymphocytes. WT1-specific CTLs obtained from PBMCs showed a better expansion capacity and better anti-leukemia activity than those obtained from CD8+ lymphocytes, even though the difference was not statistically significant. In CTLs derived from PBMCs, both CD8+ and CD4+ subpopulations displayed strong anti-leukemia cytotoxic activity. Discussion: Results of this pre-clinical study pave the way to a somatic cell therapy approach aimed at preventing or treating relapse in children given haplo-HSCT for WT1-positive leukemia

Patologie alcol-relate e trattamento dell\u2019alcolismo.

L\u2019abuso cronico di alcol rappresenta un problema sociale ed una patologia relativamente frequente nei Paesi occidentali. L\u2019uso inadeguato di alcol rappresenta la causa di circa il 4% di tutte le patologie. Tra le patologie alcol-correlate, l\u2019alcol-dipendenza (altres\uec definita alcolismo) costituisce il problema pi\uf9 severo ed interessa approssimativamente il 14% della popolazione generale. Ma tale percentuale tende a salire se si considerano anche altre forme di consumo patologico di alcol, quali l\u2019abuso alcolico ed il fenomeno sempre pi\uf9 frequente dello heavy drinking. L\u2019Italia rimane una delle Nazioni ad alto consumo di bevande alcoliche e si stima che l\u2019abuso possa interessare 5 milioni di persone, valutabile attorno ai 4 milioni di individui, definiti come \u201cbevitori eccessivi\u201d e che di questi circa 1 milione sono identificabili come \u201calcoldipendenti\u201d. La mortalit\ue0 alcol-correlata, che comprende, oltre alla mortalit\ue0 per patologie croniche degenerative e neoplastiche, anche la quota derivante da incidenti stradali, omicidi e suicidi, viene quantificata in Italia in circa 30.000 ecessi/anno; inoltre \ue8 lecito avanzare l\u2019ipotesi che si tratti di una sottostima se si considera che una notevole quota di cause, con particolare riferimento alle malattie neoplastiche, sfugge alla correlazione con l\u2019abuso etilico

Patologie alcol-relate e trattamento dell’alcolismo.

L’abuso cronico di alcol rappresenta un problema sociale ed una patologia relativamente frequente nei Paesi occidentali. L’uso inadeguato di alcol rappresenta la causa di circa il 4% di tutte le patologie. Tra le patologie alcol-correlate, l’alcol-dipendenza (altresì definita alcolismo) costituisce il problema più severo ed interessa approssimativamente il 14% della popolazione generale. Ma tale percentuale tende a salire se si considerano anche altre forme di consumo patologico di alcol, quali l’abuso alcolico ed il fenomeno sempre più frequente dello heavy drinking. L’Italia rimane una delle Nazioni ad alto consumo di bevande alcoliche e si stima che l’abuso possa interessare 5 milioni di persone, valutabile attorno ai 4 milioni di individui, definiti come “bevitori eccessivi” e che di questi circa 1 milione sono identificabili come “alcoldipendenti”. La mortalità alcol-correlata, che comprende, oltre alla mortalità per patologie croniche degenerative e neoplastiche, anche la quota derivante da incidenti stradali, omicidi e suicidi, viene quantificata in Italia in circa 30.000 ecessi/anno; inoltre è lecito avanzare l’ipotesi che si tratti di una sottostima se si considera che una notevole quota di cause, con particolare riferimento alle malattie neoplastiche, sfugge alla correlazione con l’abuso etilico