Androgenic alopecia: an entity to consider in adolescence

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Moderate electric fields effects on whey protein´s structure, interactions and gelation

São Paulo School of Advanced Sciences on Reverse Engineering of Processed Foods[Excerpt] Proteins are important food constituents with a high nutritional and functional value. They are one of the food constituents most affected by heat, causing their unfolding, aggregation and gelation. Ohmic heating’s potential to improve the quality of foodstuffs have been demonstrated due to its uniform and fast heating, together with its presumed moderate electric field (MEF) related effects. The electric effects on foodstuffs, and particularly on proteins, are not yet fully disclosed and understood. [...]This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684), and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The authors Rui M. Rodrigues, Ricardo N. Pereira, also thank to FCT their financial grants with SFRH/BD/110723/2015, SFRH/BPD/81887/2011, respectively.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cumulative Effect of Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Regulation of AMPK/SIRT1-PGC-1 alpha-SIRT3 Pathway in the Human Erectile Tissue

Cardiovascular disease risk factors (CVDRF), especially diabetes mellitus (DM), disrupt oxidative stress response. This condition underlies endothelial dysfunction, early manifested in men as erectile dysfunction. The current study is aimed at elucidating the impact of CVDRF in the oxidation responsive AMPK/SIRT1-PGC-1 alpha-SIRT3 pathway and related miRNAs in the human corpus cavernosum. Human penile tissue fragments from individuals submitted to programmed urological surgeries (n=27), aged 43-63 years, were clustered depending on the presence of CVDRF; the control group included samples from patients without CVDRF, and groups A and B included samples from patients with DM and additional CVDRF, totalizing = 3 CVDRF (group B). Dual-immunolabelling of SIRT3, SOD2, or GPX1 with alpha-actin in tissue sections was carried out. The assessment of expression levels of NOX1, phospho-AMPK alpha, total AMPK alpha, SIRT1, PGC-1 alpha, SIRT3, SOD2, and GPX1 was performed by western blotting and of miR-200a, miR-34a, miR-421, and miR-206 by real-time PCR. Phospho-AMPK alpha and SIRT3 expression was found significantly increased in group B relative to other groups, suggesting a marked influence of CVDRF, additional to DM, in the regulation of these enzymes. NOX1 was also increased in group B relative to controls. Only an increasing tendency was observed in the phospho-AMPK alpha/total AMPK alpha ratio, SIRT1, and PGC-1 alpha expression in groups A and B when compared with controls. Concerning antioxidant enzymes, GPX1 expression was found incremented in group A, but SOD2 expression was decreased in groups A and B, comparative with controls. Group B presented significantly diminished levels of miR-421 and miR-200a, but only a decreasing trend on miR-34 and miR-206 expression was observed. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that besides DM, additional CVDRF presented a cumulative effect in the cellular response to oxidative unbalance, contributing to AMPK/SIRT1-PGC-1 alpha-SIRT3 pathway activation. SOD2, a major mitochondrial antioxidant defence, did not follow the same variation

The use of electronic nose as alternative non-destructive technique to discriminate flavored and unflavored olive oils

Cv. Arbequina extra virgin olive oils (EVOO) were flavored with cinnamon, garlic, and rosemary and characterized. Although flavoring significantly affected the physicochemical quality parameters, all oils fulfilled the legal thresholds for EVOO classification. Flavoring increased (20 to 40%) the total phenolic contents, whereas oxidative stability was dependent on the flavoring agent (a slight increase for rosemary and a decrease for cinnamon and garlic). Flavoring also had a significant impact on the sensory profiles. Unflavored oils, cinnamon, and garlic flavored oils had a fruity-ripe sensation while rosemary flavored oils were fruity-green oils. Fruit-related sensations, perceived in unflavored oils, disappeared with flavoring. Flavoring decreased the sweetness, enhanced the bitterness, and did not influence the pungency of the oils. According to the EU regulations, flavored oils cannot be commercialized as EVOO. Thus, to guarantee the legal labelling requirement and to meet the expectations of the market-specific consumers for differentiated olive oils, a lab-made electronic nose was applied. The device successfully discriminated unflavored from flavored oils and identified the type of flavoring agent (90 ± 10% of correct classifications for the repeated K-fold cross-validation method). Thus, the electronic nose could be used as a practical non-destructive preliminary classification tool for recognizing olive oils’ flavoring practice.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and to CEB (UIDB/04469/2020) units and to the Associate Laboratory SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020), as well as to BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte 2020—Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. Nuno Rodrigues thanks to National funding by FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contractinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Intensified bioprocess for the anaerobic conversion of syngas to biofuels

Este resumo faz parte de: Book of abstracts of the Meeting of the Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2, Braga, Portugal, 2010. A versão completa do livro de atas está disponível em: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/1096

Electric field effects on β-lactoglobulin thermal unfolding as a function of pH Impact on protein functionality

The presence of moderate electric fields (MEF) during ohmic heating (OH) treatment of whey protein systems have demonstrated potential to change physicochemical and functional properties, like aggregation rate and extension or viscoelastic behaviour. However, the specific action of MEF upon the molecular structure of proteins, particularly during thermal processing has yet to be clarified. The effects of MEF in pure fractions of -lactoglobulin (β-lg) under non-aggregating conditions (low concentration and ionic strength), were investigated in this work. Protein samples were identically heat-treated through conventional and OH methods and at different pH values. β-lg's structural features were characterized by evaluation of secondary structure distribution and local conformational changes using techniques such as circular dichroism, intrinsic and extrinsic fluorescence and free thiol groups reactivity. It was confirmed that MEF affects β-lg upon thermal unfolding, resulting in distinctive structural features, surface hydrophobicity and SH reactivity. The mechanism of action is probably related with the molecular motion induced by the oscillating electric field and is more pronounced at neutral pH, where β-lg is more susceptible to thermal structural changes. These results contribute to a better understanding of OH processing and its effects in food matrices reinforce the possibility of using MEF as a toll to change protein functionality. Industrial relevance Ohmic heating is an emerging technology and is being established as reference method for processing protein-rich food such as dairy and egg products. Non-thermal effects of the applied electric fields during ohmic heating have been addressed but few works deal with their real impact in structural and molecular properties of food proteins with high biological value. In this work demonstrated that the presence of an electric field during ohmic heating processing influences structural aspects of beta-lactoglobulin. This knowledge plays an important role on process design (i.e. pasteurization binomials and fouling control) and product quality because these proteins play an essential role in food's nutritional and organoleptic properties, as well as on functionality, allergenicity and stability aspects.FCT -Fuel Cell Technologies Program(NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Oral administration of curcumin (curcuma Longa) can attenuate the neutrophil inflammatory response in zymosan-induced arthritis in rats

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of curcumin in the acute phase of zymosan-induced arthritis.METHODS: Twenty-eight male rats were subjected to intra-articular infiltration of zymosan of both knees and, in four the infiltration was made with saline. The animals were divided into five groups second received every six hours by gavage: corn oil by (positive and negative control); curcumin (100 mg/kg); prednisone 1 mg/kg/day; prednisone 8 mg/kg. All animals were sacrificed after six, 12, 24 and 48 hours of the infiltration. The knees were removed for evaluation of neutrophil infiltration. The number of neutrophils was counted by computer-assisted analysis of the images. The neutrophil infiltrate was stratified into four grades: 0 = normal; + = mild; ++/+++ = moderate; > ++++ = severe. The results were compared using the Mann-Whitney test and the variance by Kruskal-Wallis test adopting a significance level of 5% (p<0.05).RESULTS: Curcumin reduces inflammatory activity in the first six hours after zymosan-induced arthritis when compared to saline (p<0.01). This was also observed in animals subjected to administration of prednisone (1 mg/kg) and those treated with prednisone (8 mg/kg). Curcumin was more effective than lower doses of prednisone in the first six hours after induction of the arthritis. After 12, 24 and 48 hours, curcumin does not have the same anti-inflammatory effects when compared to prednisone. After 48 hours, prednisone is more effective than curcumin in reducing the inflammatory infiltrate regardless of the dose of prednisone used.CONCLUSION: Oral administration of curcumin reduces inflammation in the first six hours after experimentally zymosan-induced arthritis.To evaluate the effect of curcumin in the acute phase of zymosan-induced arthritis.METHODS: Twenty-eight male rats were subjected to intra-articular infiltration of zymosan of both knees and, in four the infiltration was made with saline. The animals were2911727734sem informaçãosem informaçãoLawrence, R.C., Felson, D.T., Helmick, C.G., Arnold, L.M., Choi, H., Deyo, R.A., Gabriel, S., Wolfe, F., National Arthritis Data Workgroup. Estimates of the prevalence of arthritis and other rheumatic conditions in the United States. 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A serologia para avaliação do papel dos predadores em olival biológico

A oliveira, sendo uma planta mediterrânica, encontra-se bem adaptada em Portugal. Apesar de ser uma cultura com poucos problemas fitossanitários, por vezes e sujeita à acção de algumas pragas e doenças. De entre as pragas de artrópodos destacam-se a traça da oliveira, Prays oleae (Bern.), a mosca da azeitona, Bactrocera oleae (GmeL) e a cochonilha negra, Saissetia oleae (Oliv.). No entanto, as populações destes inimigos podem ser mantidas abaixo do nível económico de ataque por factores abióticos e/ou por outros artrópodos, espécies predadoras e parasitóides, que contribuem para a estabilidade da biocenose no olival A valorização destes auxiliaras é, assim, um factor preponderante na protecção contra pragas da oliveira, nomeadamente em modo de produção biológico

Development and use of a new medium to detect yeasts of the genera Dekkera/Brettanomyces

Aims: The objectives of this work were to develop a selective and/or differential medium able to effciently recover Dekkera/Brettanomyces sp. from wine-related environments and to determine the relationship between these yeasts and the 4-ethylphenol content in a wide range of wines. Methods and Results: The selectivity of the developed medium was provided by the addition of ethanol, as single carbon source, and cycloheximide. The inclusion of bromocresol green evidenced acid-producing strains. The inclusion of p-coumaric acid, substrate for the production of 4-ethylphenol, enabled the differentiation by smell of Dekkera/Brettanomyces sp. from all other yeast species growing in the medium. The medium was used either by plating after membrane filtration or by the Most Probable Number (MPN) technique. In 29 white and 88 red randomly collected wines, these yeasts were found only in red wines at levels up to 2500 MPN ml±1, but constituted less than 1% of the total microbial flora. In red wines, 84% showed detectable amounts of 4-ethylphenol up to 4430 lg l±1 while 28% of the white wines showed detectable levels up to 403 lg l±1. Conclusions: The use of the medium proposed in this work evidenced the presence of low relative populations of Dekkera/Brettanomyces sp. even in wines contaminated by fast-growing yeasts and moulds. Significance and Impact of the Study: Further ecological studies on Dekkera/Brettanomyces sp. should take into account the use of highly specific culture media in order to establish their true occurrence in natur

Produção de antissoros policlonais para detecção de predadores das principais pragas da oliveira

A oliveira está bem adaptada às áreas mediterrâneas mas por vezes é sujeita à acção de inimigos, nomeadamente a traça da oliveira, Prays oleae (Bern.), a mosca da azeitona, Bactrocera oleae (Gmel.) e a cochonilha negra, Saissetia oleae (Oliv.). No entanto, as populações destes inimigos podem ser mantidas abaixo do nível económico de ataque por factores abióticos e bióticos. Entre estes incluem-se espécies predadoras e parasitóides que contribuem para a estabilidade da biocenose. A valorização dos auxiliares artrópodos é, assim, factor preponderante na protecção contra pragas da oliveira, nomeadamente em modo de produção biológico. A utilização de técnicas serológicas, particularmente ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay), para avaliação da predação em artrópodos, já é bastante utilizada. Para futuramente se avaliar o papel dos predadores em olivais conduzidos de acordo com o modo de produção biológico, em Trás-os-Montes e no Alentejo, produziram-se antissoros policlonais para monitorizar as três pragas nos seus principais predadores. Este trabalho refere a preparação dos antigénios, o protocolo de imunização dos coelhos, a colheita dos antissoros e sua caracterização preliminar por ELISA