Vitamin D: Mechanism of action and biological effects in uterine fibroids

Uterine fibroids (UFs) are the most common benign gynecological tumors. It was esti-mated that fifty percent of women presenting with UFs has symptomatology that negatively in-fluences their quality of life. Pharmacological and/or surgical treatments are frequently required, depending on the woman’s desire to preserve fertility, with a high impact on healthcare costs. Generally, the use of currently available pharmacological treatments may lead to side effects. Therefore, there is a growing interest in a natural and safe approach for UFs. In recent years, epi-demiological studies reported a vitamin D deficiency in patients with UFs raised interest in the potential biological effects of vitamin D supplementation. In vitro studies proved vitamin D efficacy in inhibiting UFs growth by targeting pathways involved in the regulation of various biological processes, including proliferation, extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling, DNA repair, signaling and apoptosis. However, clinical studies supported only in part the beneficial effects of vitamin D supplementation in reducing UFs growth and tumor volume. Randomized controlled trials and large population studies are mandatory as the potential clinical benefits are likely to be substantial

Ethical issues in assistive ambient living technologies for ageing well

Assistive Ambient Living (AAL) in ageing refers to any device used to support ageing related psychological and physical changes aimed at improving seniors’ quality of life and reducing caregivers’ burdens. The diffusion of these devices opens the ethical issues related to their use in the human personal space. This is particularly relevant when AAL technologies are devoted to the ageing population that exhibits special bio-psycho-social aspects and needs. In spite of this, relatively little research has focused on ethical issues that emerge from AAL technologies. The present article addresses ethical issues emerging when AAL technologies are implemented for assisting the elderly population and is aimed at raising awareness of these aspects among healthcare providers. The overall conclusion encourages a person-oriented approach when designing healthcare facilities. This process must be fulfilled in compliance with the general principles of ethics and individual nature of the person devoted to. This perspective will develop new research paradigms, paving the way for fulfilling essential ethical principles in the development of future generations of personalized AAL devices to support ageing people living independently at their home

Frontal left alpha activity as an indicator of willingness to interact with virtual agents: A pilot study

Over the last decade, much effort has been made to develop virtual agents acting as assistants of elderly people in their daily activities. With the emergence of such technologies, several questionnaires have been developed to investigate the factors increasing user's acceptance of virtual agents. While questionnaires provide detailed information about users' preferences, they may not be sufficient for investigating user's internal affective states and impressions during the interaction with virtual agents. Therefore, improving assessment techniques for elders' acceptance of virtual agents is necessary for understanding the impressions they arouse and determining their design accordingly. This paper is a report of a pilot study that benefits from the predictive ability of left frontal alpha activity in the brain on positive affect and approach related motivation, and investigates relationships between user's willingness to interact with virtual agents and left frontal alpha activity in order to gain insights on user's affective and motivational states during the interaction with an agent

Relationships between constructional and visuospatial abilities in normal subjects and in focal brain-damaged patients.

We tested 125 normal subjects and 24 right and 22 left focal brain-damaged patients (RBD and LBD) on the Rey figure copying test and on a battery of perceptual and representational visuospatial tasks, in search of relationships between constructional and visuospatial abilities. Selected RBD and LBD were not affected by severe aphasia, unilateral spatial neglect or general intellectual defects. Both RBD and LBD showed defective performances on the constructional task with respect to normal subjects. As regards visuospatial tasks, both patient groups scored lower than normal subjects in judging angle width and mentally assembling geometrical figures; moreover, RBD, but not LBD, achieved scores significantly lower than healthy controls in judging line orientation and analyzing geometrical figures. Post-hoc comparisons did not reveal any significant differences between RBD and LBD. Multiple regression analysis showed that visuospatial abilities correlate with accuracy in copying geometrical drawings in normal subjects and in RBD, but not in LBD. From a theoretical perspective, these findings support the idea that visual perceptual and representational abilities do play a role in constructional skills

Empathy through the Pandemic: Changes of Different Emphatic Dimensions during the COVID-19 Outbreak

Growing evidence suggests that empathy is a relevant psychological trait to face the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but at the present very little is known on whether this multi-dimensional construct has been affected by the pandemic outbreak differently in its separate components. Here, we aimed at filling this gap by capitalizing on the opportunity of having collected data from different self-report measures and cognitive tasks assessing the main dimensions of empathy immediately before the beginning of the global pandemic and about one year later. The results showed a detrimental impact of the pandemic outbreak on empathic social skills but not on both cognitive (perspective-taking) and emotional empathy that instead significantly improved. Thus, reduced empathic social skills could be a weakness to be targeted in psychological interventions to help people cope with the mental health challenges related to COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the ability of understanding another’s mental states and emotions could represent a strength in dealing with the current long-lasting crisis

Defining the role of NG2-expressing cells in experimental models of multiple sclerosis. A biofunctional analysis of the neurovascular unit in wild type and NG2 null mice

During experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model for multiple sclerosis associated with blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption, oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) overexpress proteoglycan nerve/glial antigen 2 (NG2), proliferate, and make contacts with the microvessel wall. To explore whether OPCs may actually be recruited within the neurovascular unit (NVU), de facto intervening in its cellular and molecular composition, we quantified by immunoconfocal morphometry the presence of OPCs in contact with brain microvessels, during postnatal cerebral cortex vascularization at postnatal day 6, in wildtype (WT) and NG2 knock-out (NG2KO) mice, and in the cortex of adult naive and EAE-affected WT and NG2KO mice. As observed in WT mice during postnatal development, a higher number of juxtavascular and perivascular OPCs was revealed in adult WT mice during EAE compared to adult naive WT mice. In EAE-affected mice, OPCs were mostly associated with microvessels that showed altered claudin-5 and occludin tight junction (TJ) staining patterns and barrier leakage. In contrast, EAE-affected NG2KO mice, which did not show any significant increase in vessel-associated OPCs, seemed to retain better preserved TJs and BBB integrity. As expected, absence of NG2, in both OPCs and pericytes, led to a reduced content of vessel basal lamina molecules, laminin, collagen VI, and collagen IV. In addition, analysis of the major ligand/receptor systems known to promote OPC proliferation and migration indicated that vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A), platelet-derived growth factor-AA (PDGF-AA), and the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) were the molecules most likely involved in proliferation and recruitment of vascular OPCs during EAE. These results were confirmed by real time-PCR that showed Fgf2, Pdgfa and Tgfb expression on isolated cerebral cortex microvessels and by dual RNAscope-immunohistochemistry/ in situ hybridization (IHC/ISH), which detected Vegfa and Vegfr2 transcripts on cerebral cortex sections. Overall, this study suggests that vascular OPCs, in virtue of their developmental arrangement and response to neuroinflammation and growth factors, could be integrated among the classical NVU cell components. Moreover, the synchronized activation of vascular OPCs and pericytes during both BBB development and dysfunction, points to NG2 as a key regulator of vascular interactions