Biofortification: Effect of Iodine Fortified Food in the Healthy Population, Double-Arm Nutritional Study

It is estimated that one-third of the world’s population lives in areas where iodine (I) is scarce and its deficiency is responsible for many related disorders, such as goiter, reproductive failure, hearing loss, growth impairment, congenital I deficiency syndrome, and numerous kinds of brain injury. Mineral deficiencies can be overcome via dietary diversification and mineral supplementation. An alternative or even complementary way is represented by the intake of biofortified foods, which can tackle this lack of micronutrients. In this short-term double-arm nutritional intervention study, a cohort of ten people was supplemented with curly endive leaf biofortified with I and ten people with curly endive without biofortification (Intervention Study on Iodine Biofortification Vegetables (Nutri-I-Food – Full-Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov). The effects on whole-body homeostasis and specifically on I, glucose, lipid, and hepatic, iron metabolism was investigated. Blood samples were obtained at baseline and after 12 days of supplementation with curly endive and compared with controls. Hematochemical and urinary parameters were analyzed at baseline and after 12 days. The results showed that short-term I curly endive intervention did not affect the whole body homeostasis in healthy people and revealed an increase in I concentration in urine samples and an increase in vitamin D, calcium, and potassium concentration in blood samples only in the biofortified cohort respect to controls. This study suggests that short-term consumption of I curly endive crops is safe and could positively impact body health

Slow dynamics in critical ferromagnetic vector models relaxing from a magnetized initial state

Within the universality class of ferromagnetic vector models with O(n) symmetry and purely dissipative dynamics, we study the non-equilibrium critical relaxation from a magnetized initial state. Transverse correlation and response functions are exactly computed for Gaussian fluctuations and in the limit of infinite number n of components of the order parameter. We find that the fluctuation-dissipation ratios (FDRs) for longitudinal and transverse modes differ already at the Gaussian level. In these two exactly solvable cases we completely describe the crossover from the short-time to the long-time behavior, corresponding to a disordered and a magnetized initial condition, respectively. The effects of non-Gaussian fluctuations on longitudinal and transverse quantities are calculated in the first order in the epsilon-expansion and reliable three-dimensional estimates of the two FDRs are obtained.Comment: 41 pages, 9 figure

Systemic Immune Responses in Alzheimer’s Disease: In Vitro Mononuclear Cell Activation and Cytokine Production

To investigate the systemic signs of immune-inflammatory responses in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), in the present study we have analyzed blood lymphocyte subsets and the expression of activation markers on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) fromADpatients and age-matched healthy controls (HC) activated in vitro by recombinant amyloid-β peptide (rAβ42). Our study of AD lymphocyte subpopulations confirms the already described decrease of the absolute number and percentage of B cells when compared to HC lymphocytes, whereas the other subsets are not significantly different in patients and controls. We report the increased expression of the activation marker CD69 and of the chemokine receptors CCR2 and CCR5 on T cells but no changes of CD25 after activation. B cells are also activated by rAβ42 as demonstrated by the enhanced expression of CCR5. Moreover, rAβ42 induces an increased expression of the scavenger receptor CD36 on monocytes. Some activation markers and chemokine receptors are overexpressed in unstimulated AD cells when compared to controls. This is evidence of the pro-inflammatory status of AD. Stimulation by rAβ42 also induces the production of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, IFN-γ, and TNF-α, and of the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-10 and IL-1Ra. The chemokines RANTES, MIP-1β, and eotaxin as well as some growth factors (GM-CSF, G-CSF) are also overproduced by AD-derived PBMC activated by rAβ42. These results support the involvement of systemic immunity in AD patients. However, our study is an observational one so we cannot draw a conclusion about its contribution to the pathophysiology of the disease

On the definition of a unique effective temperature for non-equilibrium critical systems

We consider the problem of the definition of an effective temperature via the long-time limit of the fluctuation-dissipation ratio (FDR) after a quench from the disordered state to the critical point of an O(N) model with dissipative dynamics. The scaling forms of the response and correlation functions of a generic observable are derived from the solutions of the corresponding Renormalization Group equations. We show that within the Gaussian approximation all the local observables have the same FDR, allowing for a definition of a unique effective temperature. This is no longer the case when fluctuations are taken into account beyond that approximation, as shown by a computation up to the first order in the epsilon-expansion for two quadratic observables. This implies that, contrarily to what often conjectured, a unique effective temperature can not be defined for this class of models.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures. Minor changes, published versio

Nose-to-brain delivery of insulin enhanced by radiation-engineered nanogels

Recent evidences suggest thet insulin delivery to the brain can be an important pharmacological therapy for some neurodegenerative pathologies, including Alzheimer disease (AD

Xyloglucan-based hydrogel film for wound dressing: Structure and biological properties relationships

Crosslinked xyloglucan-poly(vinyl alcohol) based hydrogel films have been synthetized and characterized for wound healing applications. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and glycerol (Gro) were added to have an optimal combination of softness, conformability and resilience. Physical hydrogel have been transformed into permanent covalent hydrogels by reaction with glutaraldehyde (GA). Chemical and physical properties of the films have been analyzed by different technique. Moreover, biocompatibility of a selected formulation was assessed in vitro by investigating different aspects, such as cell viability, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and specific stress biomarkers. Partial adhesiveness was demonstrated by performing different attaching assays and phalloidin staining. After interaction with blood the hemocompatibility of the XG-PVA film was evaluated by using a multiparametric approach. Antimicrobial activity of the film against Escherichia coli (E.coli) was tested, and we found that XG-PVA film promotes bacterial retentivity and provides mechanical protection against bacterial infiltration. After loading the film with ampicillin, an inhibitory E. coli growth zone was observed. All together these results indicate that the manufactured film is a promising material to be tested in vivo for wound healing application

Fricke-agarose dosimeter gels: ion diffusion modelling and microdensitometry alternative to MRI

IAC reportsConsiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7 , Rome / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

Critical ageing of Ising ferromagnets relaxing from an ordered state

We investigate the nonequilibrium behaviour of the d-dimensional Ising model with purely dissipative dynamics during its critical relaxation from a magnetized initial configuration. The universal scaling forms of the two-time response and correlation functions of the magnetization are derived within the field-theoretical approach and the associated scaling functions are computed up to first order in the epsilon-expansion (epsilon = 4 - d). Ageing behaviour is clearly displayed and the associated universal fluctuation-dissipation ratio tends to X-infinity = 4/5 [1-(73/480 - pi(2)/80)epsilon + O(epsilon(2))] for long times. These results are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations of the two-dimensional Ising model with Glauber dynamics, from which we find X-MC(infinity) = 0.73(1). The crossover to the case of relaxation from a disordered state is discussed and the crossover function for the fluctuation-dissipation ratio is computed within the Gaussian approximation