Development of an analytical method to determine malondialdehyde as an oxidative marker in cryopreserved bovine semen

Frozen sperm is widely used in artificial insemination of cattle as well as other animal species. As a consequence of the freezing and thawing processes of semen, an excess of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are formed. ROS produce oxidative damage in sperm cells affecting both motility and fertility. Malondialdehyde (MDA) is one of the most recognized biomarkers of an advanced oxidative status. MDA was analyzed after its condensation reaction with thiobarbituric acid (TBA); however, other molecules can also react with TBA. In order to determine specifically the MDA–TBA2 condensation product in cryopreserved bovine semen, a sensitive and selective separation strategy was developed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode array detection (DAD). This is the first report on MDA determination in bovine semen by a separation method. Different methodological approaches were assayed. Treatment A directly measured total MDA through acidic hydrolysis combined with TBA condensation in a single step. Treatment B evaluated separately the TBA condensation product of free MDA and protein bound MDA after its release with alkaline hydrolysis. The highest concentration of MDA was detected following treatment A. An HPLC method was developed and validated by comparing with the traditional spectrophotometric method. The detection and quantification limits were 0.034 μM and 0.086 μM. The DAD response was linear in the range between 0.086 and 9.1 μM. The recovery was 91%. The intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations were 3.7 and 3.8%, respectively. The proposed HPLC method was markedly more sensitive and more specific than the traditional spectrophotometric one.Fil: Yonny, Melisa Evangelina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santiago del Estero. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santiago del Estero; ArgentinaFil: Reineri, Pablo Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santiago del Estero. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santiago del Estero; ArgentinaFil: Palma, Gustavo Adolfo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Tucumán-Santiago del Estero. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santiago del Estero; ArgentinaFil: Nazareno, Mónica Azucena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santiago del Estero. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santiago del Estero; Argentin

Waterpipe tobacco smoke: Characterization of toxicants and exposure biomarkers in a cross-sectional study of waterpipe employees

Introduction: Few studies have comprehensively characterized toxic chemicals related to waterpipe use and secondhand waterpipe exposure. This cross-sectional study investigated biomarkers of toxicants associated with waterpipe use and passive waterpipe exposure among employees at waterpipe venues. Method: We collected urine specimens from employees in waterpipe venues from Istanbul, Turkey and Moscow, Russia, and identified waterpipe and cigarette smoking status based on self-report. The final sample included 110 employees. Biomarkers of exposure to sixty chemicals (metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nicotine, and heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAAs)) were quantified in the participants' urine. Results: Participants who reported using waterpipe had higher urinary manganese (geometric mean ratio (GMR): 2.42, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.16, 5.07) than never/former waterpipe or cigarette smokers. Being exposed to more hours of secondhand smoke from waterpipes was associated with higher concentrations of cobalt (GMR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.75). Participants involved in lighting waterpipes had higher urinary cobalt (GMR: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.86), cesium (GMR: 1.21, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.48), molybdenum (GMR: 1.45, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.93), 1- hydroxypyrene (GMR: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.80), and several VOC metabolites. Conclusion: Waterpipe tobacco users and nonsmoking employees of waterpipe venues had higher urinary concentrations of several toxic metals including manganese and cobalt as well as of VOCs, in a distinct signature compared to cigarette smoke. Employees involved in lighting waterpipes may have higher exposure to multiple toxic chemicals compared to other employees.This study was supported by the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (#119187) with funding from the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (1R01HL134149)

Healthy lifestyle, metabolomics and incident type 2 diabetes in a population-based cohort from Spain

This work was supported by the Strategic Action for Research in Health sciences [PI10/0082, PI13/01848, PI14/00874, PI16/01402, PI11/00726, PI16/609, PI16/1512, PI18/287, PI19/319 and PI20/00896], the GUTMOM Project (JPI-A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life INTIMIC-085, State Secretary of R + D + I PCIN-2017-117), the Cátedra de Epidemiología y Control del Riesgo Cardiovascular at UAM (#820024), the State Agency for Research (PID2019-108973RB-C21 and C22), the Valencia Government (GRUPOS 03/101; PROMETEO/2009/029 and ACOMP/2013/039), the Castilla-Leon Government (GRS/279/A/08) and European Network of Excellence Ingenious Hypercare (EPSS- 037093) from the European Commission; CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN) (CIBER-02-08-2009, CB06/03 and CB12/03/30016). MSP holds a Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC-2018-025069-I) from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. MDV holds a “Predoctoral Training in Health Research” contract (FI20/00162) from the Carlos III Health Institute. MGP and ADR received the support of a fellowship from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434, fellowship codes LCF/BQ/IN18/11660001, and LCF/BQ/DR19/11740016, respectively). PO received the support of a Sara Borrell contract from the Carlos III Health Institute (reference CD16/00255). The Strategic Action for Research in Health Sciences, CIBEROBN are initiatives from Carlos III Health Institute Madrid and co-funded by the European Social Fund “The ESF - investing in your future”. The State Agency for Research and Carlos III Health Institute belong to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. The funding bodies had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, interpretation of results, manuscript preparation or in the decision to submit this manuscript for publication.Background: The contribution of metabolomic factors to the association of healthy lifestyle with type 2 diabetes risk is unknown. We assessed the association of a composite measure of lifestyle with plasma metabolite profiles and incident type 2 diabetes, and whether relevant metabolites can explain the prospective association between healthy lifestyle and incident type 2 diabetes. Methods: A Healthy Lifestyle Score (HLS) (5-point scale including diet, physical activity, smoking status, alcohol consumption and BMI) was estimated in 1016 Hortega Study participants, who had targeted plasma metabolomic determinations at baseline examination in 2001–2003, and were followed-up to 2015 to ascertain incident type 2 diabetes. Results: The HLS was cross-sectionally associated with 32 (out of 49) plasma metabolites (2.5% false discovery rate). In the subset of 830 participants without prevalent type 2 diabetes, the rate ratio (RR) and rate difference (RD) of incident type 2 diabetes (n cases = 51) per one-point increase in HLS was, respectively, 0.69 (95% CI, 0.51, 0.93), and − 8.23 (95% CI, − 16.34, − 0.13)/10,000 person-years. In single-metabolite models, most of the HLS-related metabolites were prospectively associated with incident type 2 diabetes. In probit Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression, these prospective associations were mostly driven by medium HDL particle concentration and phenylpropionate, followed by small LDL particle concentration, which jointly accounted for ~ 50% of the HLS-related decrease in incident type 2 diabetes. Conclusions: The HLS showed a strong inverse association with incident type 2 diabetes, which was largely explained by plasma metabolites measured years before the clinical diagnosis.CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y NutriciónCastilla-Leon Government GRS/279/A/08European Network of Excellence Ingenious Hypercare EPSS- 037093State Agency for Research ACOMP/2013/039, GRUPOS 03/101, PROMETEO/2009/029Strategic Action for Research in Health sciences INTIMIC-085, PCIN-2017-117Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades RYC-2018-025069-IEuropean Commission EPSS-037093Instituto de Salud Carlos III CB06/03, CB12/03/30016, CD16/00255, CIBER-02-08-2009, PI10/0082, PI11/00726, PI13/01848, PI14/00874, PI16/01402, PI16/1512, PI16/609, PI18/287, PI19/319, PI20/00896Universidad Autónoma de Madrid 820024Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2019-108973RB-C21“La Caixa” Foundation 100010434, LCF/BQ/DR19/11740016, LCF/BQ/IN18/1166000

Actividad antagónica de una cepa de Bacillus sp. aislada en Córdoba, Argentina contra Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid

The antifungal activity of Bacillus spp.strains has been already reported against a different number of phytopathogenicfungi3. Some species belonging to thisgenus (i.e. B. subtilis, B. pumilus and B. licheniformis) are considered GRAS (generally regarding as safe) microorganisms and exhibit potential to enhance plant growth by the production of an amplenumber of beneficial substances1,portraying these species as an environmentally friendly alternative tochemical fungicides. Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid is a wide range soil-bornephytopathogenic fungus causing charcoal rot to several significant plant crops in Argentina (i.e. soybean, common bean,peanuts and corn)5,6 and is also capableto affect more than five hundred plant species worldwide4. Its ability to infect these hostplants is commonly correlated to the production of viable sclerotia, anon-sporic resistance structure constituted by a mass of densely packed hyphae, in the field5. In this work, we report theisolation of a Bacillus sp. strain 11.1 obtained from soil samples from Córdoba Province,Argentina2exhibiting a strongantagonistic activity against M. phaseolina. In order to analyse thepotential antagonistic effect of strain 11.1, both microorganisms were grown on dual culture platescontained potato dextrose agar (PDA) and tryptone soya agar (TSA) (1:1 v/v) and incubated for 48-72hours at 28ºC (Figure 1). An important and irreversible inhibition of the fungal growth was showed (Figure1A). In addition, the fungal mycelium located at the edge of the inhibited region was analysed bymicroscopic examination. The most evident antagonistic effect over the fungus was depicted by the lack ofblack pigmentation and the reduced size of formed sclerotiain comparison with the control (Figure 1B and C).Fil: Felipe, Verónica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Villa María. Universidad Nacional de Villa María. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Villa María; ArgentinaFil: Palma, Leopoldo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Villa María. Universidad Nacional de Villa María. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Villa María; ArgentinaFil: Yaryura, Pablo Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Villa María. Universidad Nacional de Villa María. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Villa María; Argentin

Do physical activity and trip characteristics differ when commuting to and from school?: The PACO study

Purpose: To determine whether trip characteristics (i.e., length, duration, and speed) and physical activity (PA) (i. e., light PA [LPA], moderate-to-vigorous PA [MVPA], and PA energy expenditure [PAEE]) differ by trip direction (i.e., home-school and school-home trips), and to examine differences in trips characteristics and PA levels between modes of commuting (walking, multimodal, and motorized-vehicle). Methods: 181 adolescents wore a belt on their hip with an accelerometer and a GPS. The HABITUS and PALMSplusR softwares were used to combine accelerometer and GPS data and identify trip characteristics and PA levels during home-school and school-home trips. Mixed model analysis was used to examine the differences in trip characteristics and PA levels between the trip directions and across modes of commuting. Results: The percentage of school-home walking trips was higher (54.4% vs 46.9%) and had longer duration than the home-school walking trips (p < 0.01). In contrast, multimodal and vehicle trips had a longer duration during the home-school direction than the school-home direction (p < 0.01). Regarding PA levels, the school-home direction presented higher LPA during walking trips (p < 0.01), but lower MVPA (p < 0.01), compared to the home-school direction. Walking trips presented higher MVPA and PAEE than multimodal and motorized-vehicle in both directions, but smaller LPA minutes in home-school direction than multimodal and motorized-vehicle (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The percentage of walking trips, the characteristics of the trips, and PA levels during school-home direction differed from home-school direction. In addition, walking trips were associated with higher MVPA levels and PAEE in both directions compare to multimodal or motorized-vehicle.Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and CompetitivenessThe European Regional Development Fund (DEP2016-75598-R)The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) / Regional Ministry of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities of Andalusia (B-CTS-160-UGR20),MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union "ERDF A way of making Europe" (PID2021-126126OA-I00)Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and UniversitiesBiomedicine Doctoral Studies program of the University of Granada, Spai

Prenatal Metals Exposure and pre-adolescents’ Emotional and Behavioral Problems

Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. We are grateful to all the participants and their families for taking part in this study. We also appreciate the generous contribution in the study of all INMA members. A full roster of the INMA Project researchers can be found at http://www.proyectoinma.org/presentacion-inma/listado-investigadores/en_listado-investigadores.html. This study was supported by grants from Spanish government through the Ministry of Universities under the grant CAS21/00008 and grant for the requalification of the Spanish University, financed by the European Union, NextGeneration EU, Instituto de Salud Carlos III [FIS-FEDER: 13/1944, 16/1288, 17/00663 and 19/1338; FIS-FSE: 17/00260; Miguel Servet-FSE: MSII20/0006, FIS-PI06/0867, FIS-PI09/00090, CPII18/00018], CIBERESP, Department of Health of the Basque Government (2005111093, 2009111069, 2013111089, 2015111065), Generalitat Valenciana [BEST/2020/059, AICO/2020/285 and CIAICO/2021/132] and the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa (DFG06/002, DFG08/001 and DFG15/221 and DFG 89/17). We also acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the State Research Agency through the "Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019-2023" Program (CEX2018-000806-S), and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program.Emotional and behavioral problems during childhood raise the risk of subsequent developmental of mental disorders. Our aim was to study the association between maternal metal and trace element concentrations during gestation and these problems in 9 year-old children. The study sample comprised Spanish mother-child pairs in the INMA project (n = 1003). Metals and trace elements (As, Cd, Co, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, Tl and Zn) were measured in urine samples collected during pregnancy. Inorganic As metabolites were speciated in a subsample (n = 729). Emotional and behavioral problems were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) composed of three scales: internalizing, externalizing and total problems. Sociodemographic, dietary and exposure to other environmental pollutants were obtained through questionnaires. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in brain- and metabolism-related genes APOE, BDNF, GSTP1, and PON1 were determined in cord blood. Multivariate negative binomial models were used. The interaction with sex and genotypes was evaluated including interaction terms. A multi-element analysis was carried out by a principal component analysis. Higher concentrations of Cu, monomethylarsonic acid, and Pb during pregnancy were associated with an increased incidence ratio risk (IRR) between 4.6 and 7.5% for internalizing and externalizing problems for all three CBCL scales in the children. Increasing Mo, Ni and Co concentrations were associated with higher IRR for internalizing problems (up to 8%), and Cd for externalizing problems (6.7%). Modifications by sex and genotypes were found for several associations. Multi-element analysis associated multiple metals and trace elements (Ni, Cu, Se, Cd and Pb) with higher internalizing problems.CRUE-CSIC agreementSpanish government through the Ministry of Universities CAS21/00008Spanish UniversityEuropean Union (EU)NextGeneration EUInstituto de Salud Carlos III Spanish Government 13/1944, 16/1288, 17/00663, 19/1338FIS-FSE 17/00260Miguel Servet-FSE MSII20/0006, FIS-PI06/0867, FIS-PI09/00090, CPII18/00018CIBERESPDepartment of Health of the Basque Government 2005111093, 2009111069, 2013111089, 2015111065Center for Forestry Research & Experimentation (CIEF) BEST/2020/059, AICO/2020/285, CIAICO/2021/132Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa DFG06/002, DFG08/001, DFG15/221, DFG 89/17Spanish GovernmentState Research Agency CEX2018-000806-SGeneralitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Progra