The development of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia in oral lichen planus: a preliminary study

Background: Was to describe 14 cases of a proliferative verrucous leukoplakia as a clinical evolution of oral lichen planus. Material and Methods: The clinical and histopathological characteristics of 14 cases of OLP that progress towards a plaque-like and verrucous form were indicated, with monitoring over a period of six to 24.3 years. Results: The female/male ratio was 11/3, (78.6 and 21.4%). The mean age when the first biopsy was undertaken was 56.4 years old. None of the patients smoked during the study. As bilateral reticular was clinically diagnostic criterion, the second most frequent clinical form was the plaque form (n=10; 71.4%), followed by the atrophic (n=6; 42.8%), and erosive forms (n=4; 28.5%). Clinically it spread towards attached gingival mucosa and the hard palate. In the histopathologic study, there were a predominance of hyperkeratosis and verrucous epithelial hyperplasia. Three of the cases progressed to a squamous cell carcinoma, and one patient developed two verrucous carcinoma. Conclusions: Further research is needed to demonstrate if proliferative multifocal oral lichen planus and proliferative multifocal oral leukoplakia are the same disorder but have different behaviour of malignancy for reasons of origin

Assessment of the antioxidant properties of tomato extracts: A synergistic approach using in vitro chemical tests and cell-based assays

The aim of this research was to assess the total antioxidant activity (TAA) of lipophilic (Lextr) and hydrophilic (Hextr) tomato extracts using in vitro chemical tests and cell-based assays, focusing on possible synergistic actions between tomato antioxidants. Both Hextr and Lextr were HPLC analysed for their carotenoids, phenolic compounds, and ascorbic acid contents. For the evaluation of TAA, extracts were assayed alone or in combination using in vitro chemical tests (TEAC, FRAP) and cell-based (CAA) assays using human hepatoma (HepG2) and human histiocytic lymphoma (U937) cells. The only carotenoid detected in Lextr was lycopene, while a mixture of phenolic compounds (chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and rutin) was identified in Hextr. Ascorbic acid was not found either in Hextr or in Lextr. Upon extract combination (1:1, v/v), the FRAP assay revealed additive action between Lextr and Hextr, whilst a slight synergistic action was observed in TAA as measured by the TEAC assay. Synergistic action was better revealed when TAA was analysed using either U937 or HepG2 cells. This could be explained by the presence of a multiphase media (cell membrane and extra- and intracellular media) that might facilitate the distribution and interaction of antioxidants with different polarities and different mechanisms of action

Solving shallow-water systems in 2D domains using Finite Volume methods and multimedia SSE instructions

AbstractThe goal of this paper is to construct efficient parallel solvers for 2D hyperbolic systems of conservation laws with source terms and nonconservative products. The method of lines is applied: at every intercell a projected Riemann problem along the normal direction is considered which is discretized by means of well-balanced Roe methods. The resulting 2D numerical scheme is explicit and first-order accurate. In [M.J. Castro, J.A. García, J.M. González, C. Pares, A parallel 2D Finite Volume scheme for solving systems of balance laws with nonconservative products: Application to shallow flows, Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 196 (2006) 2788–2815] a domain decomposition method was used to parallelize the resulting numerical scheme, which was implemented in a PC cluster by means of MPI techniques.In this paper, in order to optimize the computations, a new parallelization of SIMD type is performed at each MPI thread, by means of SSE (“Streaming SIMD Extensions”), which are present in common processors. More specifically, as the most costly part of the calculations performed at each processor consists of a huge number of small matrix and vector computations, we use the Intel© Integrated Performance Primitives small matrix library. To make easy the use of this library, which is implemented using assembler and SSE instructions, we have developed a C++ wrapper of this library in an efficient way. Some numerical tests were carried out to validate the performance of the C++ small matrix wrapper. The specific application of the scheme to one-layer Shallow-Water systems has been implemented on a PC’s cluster. The correct behavior of the one-layer model is assessed using laboratory data

Contribution to ehtno-genetic chatacterisation of anandalusian canine dog racial group

We are analysing a sample of 53 animals (16 males and 37 females) of Andalusian mouse hunter dogs or caves dog, with a view to obtain their ethnogenetic characterisation. From our results we have concluded that this population is a racial group presenting a great homogeneity in the variables and zoometric indexes studied, as in the phaneroptical aspects. Their morphology is as a small format, probably elipometrics, with proportional leg length, brevilineous cephalic and body proportions. This population present a three-coloured coat, generally white colour on the body and “black and tan” on the head; the hair is short and smooth, the mucosae is black and the iris brown. With respect the bite, the most frequent are the tweezers form and the scissors, also in few animals we have found the absence of premolars.Se analiza una muestra de perros ratoneros o bodegueros compuesta por 53 ejemplares de los cuales 16 eran machos y 37 hembras, con objeto de lograr una caracterización etnogenética. De los resultados obtenidos concluimos que se trata de una agrupación racial que presenta gran homogeneidad tanto en las variables e índices zoométricos estudiados como en los aspectos fanerópticos. Morfológicamente se trata de animales de formato pequeño, posiblemente elipométricos, ni lejos ni cerca de tierra, y de proporciones braquicéfalas y brevilíneas en cuanto a sus proporciones cefálicas y corporales respectivamente. Fanerópticamente esta población presenta una capa tricolor, generalmente blanco en el cuerpo y negro-fuego en la cabeza, el pelo corto y liso, la pigmentación de las mucosas negras y el iris castaño. En cuanto a la mordida los tipos más frecuentes son en tijera y pinza, y en un escaso número de ejemplares existe ausencia de premolares

Aceite de oliva virgen y regulación hormonal de la presión arterial: una revisión del papel de los enzimas proteolíticos

Numerosos estudios realizados en los últimos años, han puesto de manifiesto que los niveles elevados de grasa en la dieta están directamente relacionados con el desarrollo de diversas patologías, entre las que destacan enfermedades cardiovasculares, diabetes o incluso diversos tipos de cánceres. Estudios epidemiológicos también han demostrado que no sólo es importante la cantidad, sino también el tipo de grasa de la dieta. Son especialmente conocidos los efectos beneficiosos de la dieta mediterránea, caracterizada entre otros aspectos, por un consumo elevado de ácidos grasos monoinsaturados como el oleico. En cualquier caso, no se conoce con exactitud las relaciones existentes entre el tipo de grasa de la dieta y el desarrollo de las distintas patologías. Las aminopeptidasas son enzimas proteolíticos implicados en una amplia variedad de procesos biológicos, destacando su papel en el control de la presión arterial a través del sistema renina-angiotensina. En esta revisión se estudia la influencia de una dieta enriquecida en aceite de oliva sobre la actividad aminopeptidásica sérica y de tejidos periféricos, analizando su influencia en la regulación del sistema renina-angiotensina para el control de la presión arterial y el balance de líquidos y electrolitos.The intake of high fat dietary levels is related to the development of several pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. However, epidemiological studies have demonstrated that not only the amount but also the type of dietary fat participates in the origin of the diseases. In fact, several important beneficts have been attributed to the Mediterranean diet, characterized by the high intake of monoinsaturated fatty acids such as oleic acid preferently. In any case, the relationship between the type of dietary fat an the development of diseases are unknown. Aminopeptidases are proteolytic enzymes involved in several biological proccesses, regulating blood pressure through the renin-angiotensin system. In this review, the influence of an olive oil-enriched diet is presented, analyzing their role in the regulation of blood pressure, local blood flow and fluid and electrolytic balance among other functions

Numerical Simulation of Pollutant Transport in a Shallow-Water System on the Cell Heterogeneous Processor

[Abstract] This paper presents an implementation, optimized for the Cell processor, of a finite volume numerical scheme for 2D shallow-water systems with pollutant transport. A description of the special architecture and programming required by the Cell processor motivates the methodology to develop optimized implementations for this platform. This process involves parallelization, data structure reorganization, explicit transfers of data and computation vectorization. Our implementation, tested using a realistic problem, achieves very good speedups with respect to the sequential execution on a standard CPU.This work was partially supported by the Science and Innovation Ministry of Spain (Projects TIN2010-16735, MTM2010-21135-C02-01 and MTM2009-11923), Xunta de Galicia CN2012/211 (partially supported by FEDER funds), and the FPU program of the Spanish Government (ref AP2009-4752)Xunta de Galicia; CN 2012/21

A tough act to follow: collagen hydrogel modifications to improve mechanical and growth factor loading capabilities

[EN] Collagen hydrogels are among the most well-studied platforms for drug delivery and in situ tissue engineering, thanks to their low cost, low immunogenicity, versatility, biocompatibility, and similarity to the natural extracellular matrix (ECM). Despite collagen being largely responsible for the tensile properties of native connective tissues, collagen hydrogels have relatively low mechanical properties in the absence of covalent cross-linking. This is particularly problematic when attempting to regenerate stiffer and stronger native tissues such as bone. Furthermore, in contrast to hydrogels based on ECM proteins such as fibronectin, collagen hydrogels do not have any growth factor (GF)-specific binding sites and often cannot sequester physiological (small) amounts of the protein. GF binding and in situ presentation are properties that can aid significantly in the tissue regeneration process by dictating cell fate without causing adverse effects such as malignant tumorigenic tissue growth. To alleviate these issues, researchers have developed several strategies to increase the mechanical properties of collagen hydrogels using physical or chemical modifications. This can expand the applicability of collagen hydrogels to tissues subject to a continuous load. GF delivery has also been explored, mathematically and experimentally, through the development of direct loading, chemical cross-linking, electrostatic interaction, and other carrier systems. This comprehensive article explores the ways in which these parameters, mechanical properties and GF delivery, have been optimized in collagen hydrogel systems and examines their in vitro or in vivo biological effect. This article can, therefore, be a useful tool to streamline future studies in the field, by pointing researchers into the appropriate direction according to their collagen hydrogel design requirements.This work was supported by Medical Research Scotland, EPSRC (through a programme grant EP/P001114/1) and a programme of research funded by the Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation. M.S.S. acknowledges support from a grant from the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform 'Acellular/Smart Materials - 3D Architecture' (MR/R015651/1). The graphical abstract was created using BioRender.com.Sarrigiannidis, S.; Rey, JM.; Dobre, O..; González-García, C.; Dalby, M.; Salmerón Sánchez, M. (2021). A tough act to follow: collagen hydrogel modifications to improve mechanical and growth factor loading capabilities. Materials Today Bio. 10(1):1-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtbio.2021.10009812210