Effect of dietary intervention on serum lignan levels in pregnant women - a controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mother's diet during pregnancy is important, since plant lignans and their metabolites, converted by the intestinal microflora to enterolignans, are proposed to possess multiple health benefits. Aim of our study was to investigate whether a dietary intervention affects lignan concentrations in the serum of pregnant women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A controlled dietary intervention trial including 105 first-time pregnant women was conducted in three intervention and three control maternity health clinics. The intervention included individual counseling on diet and on physical activity, while the controls received conventional care. Blood samples were collected on gestation weeks 8-9 (baseline) and 36-37 (end of intervention). The serum levels of the plant lignans 7-hydroxymatairesinol, secoisolariciresinol, matairesinol, lariciresinol, cyclolariciresinol, and pinoresinol, and of the enterolignans 7-hydroxyenterolactone, enterodiol, and enterolactone, were measured using a validated method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The baseline levels of enterolactone, enterodiol and the sum of lignans were higher in the control group, whereas at the end of the trial their levels were higher in the intervention group. The adjusted mean differences between the baseline and end of the intervention for enterolactone and the total lignan intake were 1.6 ng/ml (p = 0.018, 95% CI 1.1-2.3) and 1.4 ng/mg (p = 0.08, 95% CI 1.0-1.9) higher in the intervention group than in the controls. Further adjustment for dietary components did not change these associations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The dietary intervention was successful in increasing the intake of lignan-rich food products, the fiber consumption and consequently the plasma levels of lignans in pregnant women.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p><b>ISRCTN21512277, <url>http://www.isrctn.org</url></b></p

The genome of the Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata, and variation in the Guanapo population

For over a century, the live bearing guppy, Poecilia reticulata, has been used to study sexual selection as well as local adaptation. Natural guppy populations differ in many traits that are of intuitively adaptive significance such as ornamentation, age at maturity, brood size and body shape. Water depth, light supply, food resources and predation regime shape these traits, and barrier waterfalls often separate contrasting environments in the same river. We have assembled and annotated the genome of an inbred single female from a high-preda- tion site in the Guanapo drainage. The final assembly comprises 731.6 Mb with a scaffold N50 of 5.3 MB. Scaffolds were mapped to linkage groups, placing 95% of the genome assembly on the 22 autosomes and the X-chromosome. To investigate genetic variation in the population used for the genome assembly, we sequenced 10 wild caught male individu- als. The identified 5 million SNPs correspond to an average nucleotide diversity (π) of 0.0025. The genome assembly and SNP map provide a rich resource for investigating adap- tation to different predation regimes. In addition, comparisons with the genomes of other Poeciliid species, which differ greatly in mechanisms of sex determination and maternal resource allocation, as well as comparisons to other teleost genera can begin to reveal how live bearing evolved in teleost fish

Injectable hyaluronic acid hydrogels enriched with platelet lysate as a cryostable off-the-shelf system for cell-based therapies

Cell-based regenerative medicine strategies hold a great potential to revolutionize the treatment of a large number of injuries with limited regenerative potential. However, the effectiveness of the simple injection of a cell suspension in a target site/tissue of action is often limited by the dispersion of cells toward other tissues, hindering their therapeutic action. Nevertheless, the development of a custom-made cell carrier that can perfectly fit a patientâ s defect and be ready on demand is still a challenging task. The present study proposes the development of an off-the-shelf injectable cell delivery system combining a photocross-linkable hyaluronic acid (HA) matrix enriched with platelet lysate (PL) and human adipose tissue- derived stem cells (hASCs), which can be stored using standard cryopreservation methods and used when required. The obtained results indicate that the mechanical and viscoelastic properties of the system are improved in the presence of cells and no significant differences were identified between cell- laden hydrogels produced before or after cryopreservation. In PL-enriched hydrogels, cells tend to better recover from cryopreservation maintaining the values of cell viability and DNA content. Moreover, viable cells laden in our system and expressing stemness markers were detected after 21 days in culture. Altogether, the results obtained in this work demon- strate the potential of the developed strategy as an injectable cell delivery system for ready-to-use applications or as a cryo- preserved product to be available on demand for cell-based therapies. The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the PhD grant of R.C-A (SFRH/BD/96593/2013), post-doctoral grant of M.T.R (SFRH/BPD/111729/2015), grant of M.E.G. (IF/00685/2012) and Recognize project (UTAP-ICDT/CTM-BIO/0023/2014), RL3-TECT - NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000020 project co-financed by ON.2 (NSRF) through ERD. The authors also acknowledge the financial support from FCT/MCTES (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, e Ensino Superior) and the Fundo Social Europeu through Programa Operacional do Capital Humano (FSE/POCH) PD/59/2013 for the PhD grant of A.I.G (PD/BD/113802/2015), and LA ICVS-3Bs (UID/Multi/50026/2013). The authors would also thank to Serviço de Imuno-Hemoterapia, Centro Hospitalar São João, EPE (Porto, Portugal) for providing human platelet concentrate samples.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Laser Processing of Natural Biomaterials

Natural biomaterials have been extensively employed in biomedical applications because of their superior biocompatibility and biodegradability. Among the large family of techniques to process natural biomaterials, laser techniques have been rapidly developed to fabricate biomimetic artificial organs, tissue engineering scaffolds, and other biomedical constructs. Compared to other techniques, laser processing allows more precise control over the geometry and is able to fabricate smaller features with minimal debris generated. The laser processing techniques are generally grouped by three categories: polymerization, ablation, and activation. This chapter introduces several widely used natural biomaterials, including collagen, agarose, hyaluronic acid, and Matrigel TMTM as well as the recent development in laser processing techniques of those natural biomaterials.Department of Electrical Engineerin

Microfluidics for processing of biomaterials

Microfluidics techniques can be used to process a wide range of biomaterials, from synthetic to natural origin ones. This chapter describes microfluidic processing of biomaterials, mainly polymeric materials of natural origin, focusing on water-soluble polymers that form non-flowing phases after crosslinking. Some polysaccharides and proteins, including agarose, alginate, chitosan, gellan gum, hyaluronic acid, collagen, gelatin, and silk fibroin are emphasized deu to their relevance in the field. The critical characteristics of these materials are discussed, giving particular consideration to those that directly impact its processability using microfluidics. Furthermore, some microfluidic-based processing techniques are presented, describing their suitability to process materials with different sol-gel transition mechanisms.APM acknowledges the European Research Council for Consolidator Grant Project “ECM_INK” ERC-2016-COG-726061