Therapeutic doses of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs inhibit osteosarcoma MG-63 osteoblast-like celss maturation, viability, and biomineralization potential

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are frequently used to reduce pain and inflammation. However, their effect on bone metabolisms is not well known, and results in the literature are contradictory. The present study focusses on the effect of dexketoprofen, ketorolac, metamizole, and acetylsalicylic acid, at therapeutic doses, on different biochemical and phenotypic pathways in human osteoblast-like cells. Osteoblasts (MG-63 cell line) were incubated in culture medium with 1–10  M of dexketoprofen, ketorolac, metamizole, and acetylsalicylic acid. Flow cytometry was used to study antigenic profile and phagocytic activity. The osteoblastic differentiation was evaluated by mineralization and synthesis of collagen fibers by microscopy and alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) by spectrophotometric assay. Short-term treatment with therapeutic doses of NSAIDs modulated differentiation, antigenic profile, and phagocyte activity of osteoblast-like cells. The treatment reduced ALP synthesis and matrix mineralization. However, nonsignificant differences were observed on collagen syntheses after treatments. The percentage of CD54 expression was increased with all treatments. CD80, CD86, and HLA-DR showed a decreased expression, which depended on NSAID and the dose applied. The treatments also decreased phagocyte activity in this cellular population. The results of this paper provide evidences that NSAIDs inhibit the osteoblast differentiation process thus reducing their ability to produce new bone mineralized extracellular matrix.This study was supported by the BIO277 research group (Junta de Andalucía), by the Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Granada and by the research group Brighton Studies in Tissue-mimicry and Aided Regeneration (BrightSTAR), School of Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences, University of Brighton

Effects of Sled Towing on Peak Force, the Rate of Force Development and Sprint Performance During the Acceleration Phase

Resisted sprint training is believed to increase strength specific to sprinting. Therefore, the knowledge of force output in these tasks is essential. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of sled towing (10%, 15% and 20% of body mass (Bm)) on sprint performance and force production during the acceleration phase. Twenty-three young experienced sprinters (17 men and 6 women; men = 17.9 ± 3.3 years, 1.79 ± 0.06 m and 69.4 ± 6.1 kg; women = 17.2 ± 1.7 years, 1.65 ± 0.04 m and 56.6 ± 2.3 kg) performed four 30 m sprints from a crouch start. Sprint times in 20 and 30 m sprint, peak force (Fpeak), a peak rate of force development (RFDpeak) and time to RFD (TRFD) in first step were recorded. Repeated-measures ANOVA showed significant increases (p ≤ 0.001) in sprint times (20 and 30 m sprint) for each resisted condition as compared to the unloaded condition. The RFDpeak increased significantly when a load increased (3129.4 ± 894.6 N·s-1, p ≤ 0.05 and 3892.4 ± 1377.9 N·s-1, p ≤ 0.01). Otherwise, no significant increases were found in Fpeak and TRFD. The RFD determines the force that can be generated in the early phase of muscle contraction, and it has been considered a factor that influences performance of force-velocity tasks. The use of a load up to 20% Bm might provide a training stimulus in young sprinters to improve the RFDpeak during the sprint start, and thus, early acceleration.Actividad Física y Deport

Early Nutrition and Later Excess Adiposity during Childhood: A Narrative Review

Background: Studies on childhood obesity mainly focus on the genetic component and on the lifestyle that may be associated with the development of obesity. However, the study of perinatal factors in their programming effect toward future obesity in children or adults is somewhat more recent, and there are still mechanisms to be disentangled. Summary: In this narrative review, a comprehensive route based on the influence of some early factors in life in the contribution to later obesity development is presented. Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain have been pointed out as independent determinants of infant later adiposity. Lifestyle interventions could have an impact on pregnant mothers through epigenetic mechanisms capable of redirecting the genetic expression of their children toward a future healthy weight and body composition and dietary-related microbiome modifications in mothers and newborns might also be related. After birth, infant feeding during the first months of life is directly associated with its body composition and nutritional status. From this point of view, all the expert committees in the world are committed to promote exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months of age and to continue at least until the first year of life together with complementary feeding based on healthy dietary patterns such as Mediterranean Diet

Long-term adoption of reduced tillage and green manure improves soil physicochemical properties and increases the abundance of beneficial bacteria in a Mediterranean rainfed almond orchard

Soil health and function is one of the most important components for sustainable management of woody orchards. Intensive use of machinery and tillage creates heavy pressure on agroecosystems by altering the soil physicochemical and biological characteristics. In this study we aimed to assess the changes in soil physicochemical properties and the soil bacterial community structure, as well as the main drivers involved in shifts in the microbial community following 10 years implementing reduced tillage and reduced tillage plus green manure in a rainfed Mediterranean almond orchard. The treatments were: i) conventional tillage (CT); ii) reduced tillage (RT); and iii) reduced tillage and diversification with Avena sativa and Vicia sativa (RTD). After ten years, the results showed that the different managements had no significant effect on almond yields. RTD significantly increased total organic carbon (TOC), with an average content of 19.5 g kg−1 compared to 17.1 g kg−1 in CT. RTD also contributed to an increase in the fraction of soil macro-aggregates. Both RT and RTD significantly increased soil total nitrogen (NT) and particulate organic carbon (POC). However, other physical and chemical variables such as exchangeable Ca, Mg and K, bioavailable Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn, cation exchange capacity, bulk density, wilting point and field capacity were not significantly affected by the management. The bacterial community significantly changed with management: RTD showed a higher relative abundance of the family Solirubrobacteraceae and the genera Streptomyces and Solirubrobacter. The bacterial community structure was explained by changes in TOC, POC, pH, and NT values. Thus, a combination of reduced tillage and green manure could represent an appropriate sustainable management for rainfed almond orchards in very fragile environmental conditions, due to an increase in soil organic matter, total nitrogen, and the higher presence of beneficial bacteria related to soil productivity.This work was supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020 project Diverfarming [grant agreement 728003]. We acknowledge the owners of the farm “Los Alhagüeces”, Antonio and Pepe Escámez, for generously letting us work in their farm for the last 12 years

Saving irrigation water as a tool to increase pomegranate fruit price and enhance the bioactive compound content

The non-climateric character of pomegranate (P. granatum) fruit underlines the importance of determining the optimum harvest time to improve fruit quality. The effect of irrigation withholding during 6, 15, 25 and 36 d before harvest was evaluated in order to clarify whether fruit ripening is critical or non-critical from the yield, fruit characteristics and composition point of view. The results indicated that this phenological period is critical because irrigation is essential during most of this phenological period to achieve maximum yield. However, a 6 d of irrigation restriction at the end of ripening period can be used as a tool to come early harvest time, saves irrigation water, enhances the bioactive compounds (anthocyanins, phenolic compounds, punicalagin and ellagic acid) and increases the price of the fruit without affecting marketable yield and fruit size

Emotion Regulation as a Moderator of Outcomes of Transdiagnostic Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Emotional Disorders

The aim of this study was to examine the potential moderating effect of baseline emotion regulation skills¿cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression¿on the relation- ship between treatment allocation and treatment outcomes in primary care patients with emotional symptoms. A total of 631 participants completed scales to evaluate emotion regulation, anxiety, depression, functioning, and quality of life (QOL). The moderation analysis was carried out using the SPSS PROCESS macro, version 3.5. Expressive suppression was a significant moderator in the relationship between treatment allocation and treatment outcomes in terms of symptoms of anxiety (b = 0.530, p = .026), depression (b = 0.812, p = .004), and QOL (b = 0.156, p = .048). Cognitive reappraisal acted as a moderator only in terms of QOL (b = 0.217, p = .028). The findings of this study show that participants with higher scores of expres- sive suppression benefited more from the addition of trans- diagnostic cognitive-behavioral therapy to treatment as usual (TAU) in terms of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and QOL. Individuals with higher levels of cognitive reappraisal obtained a greater benefit in terms of QOL from the addition of psychological treatment to TAU. These results underscore the relevant role that emotion regulation skills play in the outcomes of psychological therapy for emotional symptoms

Chemistry below graphene: Decoupling epitaxial graphene from metals by potential-controlled electrochemical oxidation

While high-quality defect-free epitaxial graphene can be efficiently grown on metal substrates, strong interaction with the supporting metal quenches its outstanding properties. Thus, protocols to transfer graphene to insulating substrates are obligatory, and these often severely impair graphene properties by the introduction of structural or chemical defects. Here we describe a simple and easily scalable general methodology to structurally and electronically decouple epitaxial graphene from Pt(111) and Ir(111) metal surfaces. A multi-technique characterization combined with ab-initio calculations was employed to fully explain the different steps involved in the process. It was shown that, after a controlled electrochemical oxidation process, a single-atom thick metal-hydroxide layer intercalates below graphene, decoupling it from the metal substrate. This decoupling process occurs without disrupting the morphology and electronic properties of graphene. The results suggest that suitably optimized electrochemical treatments may provide effective alternatives to current transfer protocols for graphene and other 2D materials on diverse metal surfacesWe acknowledge funding from the Spanish MINECO (Grants MAT2014-54231-C4-1-P, MAT2014-54231-C4-4-P, MAT2013- 47898-C2-2-R and MAT2017-85089-C2-1-R), the EU via the ERCSynergy Program (Grant ERC-2013-SYG-610256 NANOCOSMOS), the innovation program under grant agreement No. 696656 (GrapheneCore1- Graphene-based disruptive technologies), the Comunidad Aut_onoma de Madrid (CAM) MAD2D-CM Program (S2013/ MIT-3007) and computing resources from CTI-CSIC. GOI acknowledges financial support from FCT, Ministry of Science and Technology, Portugal (Grant No. PTDC/CTM-NAN/121108/2010 and IF/ 01054/2015). EL acknowledges funding from Spanish “Consolider” project CSD2010-00024. JIM acknowledges the financial support by the “Ramón y Cajal” Program of MINECO (Grant RYC-2015-17730) and NANOCOSMO

Soil greenhouse gas emissions and crop production with implementation of alley cropping in a Mediterranean citrus orchard

The implementation of alley cropping in orchards has been suggested as a sustainable strategy to increase farmer revenues by crop diversification, enhance soil organic matter (SOM) and fertility, water retention, overall biodiversity, and contribute to climate change mitigation. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess if alley cropping with annual crops can contribute to i) mitigate soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, ii) enhance C sequestration in a semiarid Mediterranean irrigated citrus orchard, and iii) increase land productivity. For this, two different treatments were established: i) conventional mandarin monoculture (MC) with no alley cropping; and ii) mandarin diversified with alley cropping of barley/vetch and fava bean (DIV). Measurements of soil CO2 and N2O emissions were periodically performed (every 7–20 days) during two years. Soil CO2 emission rates followed the soil moisture trend, and showed no significant differences between treatments. As an average, soil CO2 emission rates were 147 mg m-2 h-1 in MC and 196 mg m-2 h-1 in DIV. Soil N2O emission rates were not correlated to soil moisture nor temperature, and showed average values of 0.026 mg m-2 h-1 in MC and − 0.002 mg m-2 h-1 in DIV. Alley cropping did not contribute to significantly increase soil organic C and total nitrogen in two years’ time. With regard to production, mandarin yield showed no significant differences between treatments, but alley crops contributed to complementary commodities to the main cash crop, increasing overall land productivity. Thus, alley cropping in irrigated Mediterranean orchards has no significant effect on soil C sequestration and GHG emissions at short-term, with increased land productivity owing to new commodities grown in the alleys. These results confirm that under semiarid Mediterranean climate, long periods are needed to efficiently assess soil C sequestration potential of sustainable practices in orchards.This work was supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020 Project Diverfarming [Grant agreement 728003]. Raúl Zornoza acknowledges the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the “Ramón y Cajal” Program [RYC-2015-18758].Peer reviewe

Salud y medio ambiente

Erradicación microbasurales y difusión de cultura de entornoFloraciones algales nocivas (FAN): ¿Cómo se vigilan y controlan las intoxicaciones en Chile?Medioambiente y salud en el pregrado: desafío pendienteNiveles de dioxinas y furanos en leche matern

IAPT/IOPB chromosome data 16

[EN] Inula helenioides DC., I. langeana Beck, I. maletii Maire, I. montana L., I. oculus-christi L., I. salicina L. (Asteraceae)