Effect of acute cigarette smoking on blood pressure and peripheral endothelial function in young healthy male smokers: preliminary data

Smoking is one of the major risk factors for atherosclerosis associated with premature coronary and artery diseases. Endothelial dysfunction is an early event in atherosclerosis, and seems mainly related to the decreased production or availability of nitric oxide in smokers. The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of a single cigarette on blood pressure and peripheral arterial function in young moderate smokers (approximately 15 cigarettes/day)

Progress and status of APEmille

We report on the progress and status of the APEmille project: a SIMD parallel computer with a peak performance in the TeraFlops range which is now in an advanced development phase. We discuss the hardware and software architecture, and present some performance estimates for Lattice Gauge Theory (LGT) applications.Comment: Talk presented at LATTICE97, 3 pages, Late

Cruciferous vegetables and cancer risk in a network of case-control studies

Background Cruciferous vegetables have been suggested to protect against various cancers, though the issue is open to discussion. To further understand their role, we analyzed data from a network of case-control studies conducted in Italy and Switzerland. Patients and methods The studies included a total of 1468 cancers of the oral cavity/pharynx, 505 of the esophagus, 230 of the stomach, 2390 of the colorectum, 185 of the liver, 326 of the pancreas, 852 of the larynx, 3034 of the breast, 367 of the endometrium, 1031 of the ovary, 1294 of the prostate, 767 of the kidney, and 11492 controls. All cancers were incident, histologically confirmed; controls were subjects admitted to the same network of hospitals as cases for a wide spectrum of acute nonneoplastic conditions. Results The multivariate odds ratio (OR) for consumption of cruciferous vegetables at least once a week as compared with no/occasional consumption was significantly reduced for cancer of the oral cavity/pharynx (OR=0.83), esophagus (OR=0.72), colorectum (OR=0.83), breast (OR=0.83), and kidney (OR=0.68). The OR was below unity, but not significant, for stomach (OR=0.90), liver (OR=0.72), pancreatic (OR=0.90), laryngeal (OR=0.84), endometrial (OR=0.93), ovarian (OR=0.91), and prostate (OR=0.87) cancer. Conclusion This large series of studies provides additional evidence of a favorable effect of cruciferous vegetables on several common cancer

Tracking of Normal and Malignant Progenitor Cell Cycle Transit in a Defined Niche.

While implicated in therapeutic resistance, malignant progenitor cell cycle kinetics have been difficult to quantify in real-time. We developed an efficient lentiviral bicistronic fluorescent, ubiquitination-based cell cycle indicator reporter (Fucci2BL) to image live single progenitors on a defined niche coupled with cell cycle gene expression analysis. We have identified key differences in cell cycle regulatory gene expression and transit times between normal and chronic myeloid leukemia progenitors that may inform cancer stem cell eradication strategies

"Nutrizione e Rischio Cardiovascolare"

Wild blueberries are rich sources of polyphenols such as anthocyanins capable of counteracting oxidative stress, influencing vasomotor tone and modulating gene expression associated with disease processes such as cardiovascular disease

Effect of a wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) drink intervention on markers of oxidative stress, inflammation and endothelial function in humans with cardiovascular risk factors

Purpose Wild blueberries (WB) (Vaccinium angustifolium) are rich sources of polyphenols, such as flavonols, phenolic acids and anthocyanins (ACNs), reported to decrease the risk of cardiovascular and degenerative diseases. This study investigated the effect of regular consumption of a WB or a placebo (PL) drink on markers of oxidative stress, inflammation and endothelial function in subjects with risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Methods Eighteen male volunteers (ages 47.8 ? 9.7 years; body mass index 24.8 ? 2.6 kg/m2) received according to a cross-over design, a WB (25 g freeze-dried powder, providing 375 mg of ACNs) or a PL drink for 6 weeks, spaced by a 6-week wash-out. Endogenous and oxidatively induced DNA damage in blood mononuclear cells, serum interleukin levels, reactive hyperemia index, nitric oxide, soluble vascular adhesion molecule concentration and other variables were analyzed. In conclusion, the consumption of the WB drink for 6 weeks significantly reduced the levels of oxidized DNA bases and increased the resistance to oxidatively induced DNA damage. Future studies should address in greater detail the role of WB in endothelial functio

Performance of prototypes for the ALICE electromagnetic calorimeter

The performance of prototypes for the ALICE electromagnetic sampling calorimeter has been studied in test beam measurements at FNAL and CERN. A $4\times4$ array of final design modules showed an energy resolution of about 11% /$\sqrt{E(\mathrm{GeV})}$ $\oplus$ 1.7 % with a uniformity of the response to electrons of 1% and a good linearity in the energy range from 10 to 100 GeV. The electromagnetic shower position resolution was found to be described by 1.5 mm $\oplus$ 5.3 mm /$\sqrt{E \mathrm{(GeV)}}$. For an electron identification efficiency of 90% a hadron rejection factor of $>600$ was obtained.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

INDUCED PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS: AN INNOVATIVE TOOL TO DISSECT OVARIAN CANCER PATHOGENESIS

Ovarian cancer (OC) has one of the highest death-to-incidence ratios among all tumor types, which points to the need for novel therapeutic and prognostic strategies. Indeed, the absence of relevant tumor cell lines that can recapitulate disease histopathology highlights an acute need for new model systems to study this pathology. In particular, it is still unclear whether the most common and aggressive form of this disease, high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), could arise from in the ovarian surface epithelium (OSE), as initially thought, or might be arising from the fimbrial epithelium. Here I addressed these issues in two complementary ways based on induced pluripotent stem cells: i) the modeling of Ovarian Cancer by somatic cell reprogramming to pluripotency of tumor cells; ii) the molecular characterization of HGSOC and its putative cells of origin. Somatic cell reprogramming, by erasing tumor-associated epigenetic marks while preserving the underlying genetic mutations, would allow for the first time the precise dissection of genetic and epigenetic contribution to this disease, through the differentiation of OC-iPSC into disease-relevant cell types. I demonstrated the feasibility of OC reprogramming through a non-integrative platform, showing that OC-derived iPSC are closely similar to human ESC, and proving their tumoral origin by whole exome sequencing. Moreover, I showed that independent iPSC clones derived from the same tumor upon trilineage differentiation in vivo show differential tumorigenic potential. For a more precise dissection of this phenotype, I set up a differentiation protocol that allows differentiation of pluripotent cells into mesodermal progenitors, that are precursors of both fimbria and OSE. To isolate a pure population of these cells, I resorted to CRISPR/Cas9 to integrate a selection cassette in the MIXL1 locus. By this approach, I was able to show correct gene targeting at the intended site, allowing also for selection of mesodermal progenitors upon differentiation of normal iPSC. The same approach translated to OC-derived iPSC would allow to study the effects of genetic mutations deprived of tumor-associated epigenetic marks during differentiation, both at the stage of mesodermal progenitors and in cells directed towards the female reproductive epithelium in vivo. The second approach relies on the identification of specific molecular features of fimbria and ovarian surface epithelium, the two putative cells of origin of HGSOC. On this side, I offer a first glimpse on molecular features of HGSOC cancer and normal gynecological tissues. I could show that specific DNA methylation signatures of fimbrial epithelial cells and ovarian surface epithelium cells are partially retained in tumor samples and stratify HGSOC samples according to the putative cell of origin of this tumor. Moreover, I show for the first time a description of histone modifications in primary HGSOC, concentrating on marks of activation/repression sitting on promoter regions (H3K4me3 and H3K27me3, respectively) and marks that characterize active/closed-poised enhancers (H3K4me1, H3K27ac and H3K27me3)

Status of the apeNEXT project

We present the current status of the apeNEXT project. Aim of this project is the development of the next generation of APE machines which will provide multi-teraflop computing power. Like previous machines, apeNEXT is based on a custom designed processor, which is specifically optimized for simulating QCD. We discuss the machine design, report on benchmarks, and give an overview on the status of the software development

Food ingredients and supplements : is this the future?

The concept of adequate nutrition has been changing in the last years in light of the increased knowledge about the relationship between diet and health and the new evidence on the protective role of numerous bioactive compounds introduced with specific categories of foods. In particular, the concept of adequate nutrition has been substituted with that of optimal nutrition, in other terms, attention has been focused on nutritional needs to optimize physiological functions and promote health, minimizing the risk of development of degenerative diseases. Moreover, it is always more clear that nutritional needs can vary depending on the sub-groups of population considered and also on factors related to individual genetic characteristics, as supported by several nutrigenetic and nutrigenomic studies