Diversity of oat varieties in eliciting the early inflammatory events in celiac disease

Purpose Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune enteropathy, triggered by dietary gluten. The only treatment is a strict gluten-free diet. Oats are included in the list of gluten-free ingredients by European Regulation, but the safety of oats in CD is still a matter of debate. The present study examined the capability of different oat cultivars of activating the gliadin-induced transglutaminase-2 (TG2)-dependent events in some in vitro models of CD. In addition, we compared this capability with the electrophoresis pattern of peptic\u2013tryptic digests of the proteins of the oat cultivars. Methods K562(S) cells agglutination, transepithelial electrical resistance of T84-cell monolayers, intracellular levels of TG2 and phosphorylated form of protein 42\u201344 in T84 cells were the early gliadin-dependent events studied. Results The results showed that the Nave oat cultivar elicited these events, whereas Irina and Potenza varieties did not. The ability of a cultivar to activate the above-described events was associated with the electrophoretic pattern of oat proteins and their reactivity to anti-gliadin antibodies. Conclusion We found significant differences among oat cultivars in eliciting the TG2-mediated events of CD inflammation. Therefore, the safety of an oat cultivar in CD might be screened in vitro by means of biochemical and biological assays, before starting a clinical trial to definitely assess its safety

Exercise prescription for health: Italian perspective. Italian guidelines for exercise prescription in healthy adults (18-65 years)

Exercise prescription has been widely deepened and discussed by National and International Organizations. Lack of physical activity has been demonstrated to be associated to premature all causes mortality and chronic diseases. Although developing an active lifestyle is one of the most effective preventive treatment for chronic diseases, more than 25% of adults doesn’t match the current guidelines about physical exercise around the world. The existing guidelines suggest the practice of moderate-intensity physical activity in combination with muscle-strengthening and flexibility exercises; none of them takes into consideration sedentariness and the amount of exercise performed during everyday-life activities. The aim of this article is to guide clinicians in exercise prescription by reviewing current international guidelines and introducing the new concept of “corrections factors”: the amount of sedentary time is converted in more minutes of physical exercise; daily-life activities (e.g. steps) lessen the amount of time a person should perform physical exercise. These guidelines are currently under review to be utilized by Italian Health system as fundamental reference for exercise prescription

Molecular characterisation of 36 oat varieties and in\ua0vitro assessment of their suitability for coeliacs\u2019 diet

Coeliac disease (CD) is a chronic intolerance to gluten, contained mainly in wheat, rye and barley. The only therapy at present is the lifelong exclusion of gluten from the diet. Whether oats can be considered safe for CD patients has long been debated, and oats have been included among gluten-free ingredients only recently (EU Regulation 41/2009), provided the gluten content does not exceed 20 ppm. The aim of this study was to evaluate the suitability of 36 different oat cultivars for CD patients using biochemical and immunochemical approaches. The cross-reactivity between avenins and gliadins was evaluated by both SDS-PAGE/Immunoblotting and ELISA. The protein pattern of each oat cultivar showed both qualitative and quantitative differences that correlated with different binding affinity for specific anti-gliadin antibodies in immunoblotting. In most oat samples, the content of cross-reactive proteins measured by ELISA was below 20 ppm, but in a few varieties was above 80 ppm. Although the taxonomic and biochemical characteristics of oats allow to conclude that their use could be safe for CD patients, it is essential to select those cultivars having the lowest level of gluten-like proteins