Ensayo para la determinación del estado de conservación de la vegetación

The constant search of strategies that they lead towards the sustainable development makes the environmental indicators exposition more and more frequent. The target of these indicators is to give useful information for the control of the conservation of the environment. The use of formulae that allow quantifying the conservation of the vegetation makes possible the securing of an indicative value of the state of naturalness of the vegetation. Also, the use of natural types of habitat instead of phytosociology associations allows simplifying the proposed formulation, obtaining completely valid results. Finally, the effect of the change of scale in the calculation of the value of the index does not suppose changes in the validity of the obtained value. Nevertheless, we must consider that the values obtained are only comparable in works realized to equal scale

Bone regeneration mediated by a bioactive and biodegradable ECM-like hydrogel based on elastin-like recombinamers

Producción CientíficaThe morbidity of bone fractures and defects is steadily increasing due to changes in the age pyramid. As such, novel biomaterials that are able to promote the healing and regeneration of injured bones are needed in order to overcome the limitations of auto-, allo-, and xenografts, while providing a ready-to-use product that may help to minimize surgical invasiveness and duration. In this regard, recombinant biomaterials, such as elastin-like recombinamers (ELRs), are very promising as their design can be tailored by genetic engineering, thus allowing scalable production and batch-to-batch consistency, amongst others. Furthermore, they can self-assemble into physically cross-linked hydrogels above a certain transition temperature, in this case body temperature, but are injectable below this temperature, thereby markedly reducing surgical invasiveness. Herein we have developed two bioactive hydrogel-forming ELRs, one including the osteogenic and osteoinductive BMP-2 and the other the RGD cell-adhesion motif. The combination of these two novel ELRs results in a BMP-2-loaded extracellular matrix-like hydrogel. Moreover, elastase-sensitive domains were included in both ELR molecules, thereby conferring biodegradation as a result of enzymatic cleavage and avoiding the need for scaffold removal after bone regeneration. Both ELRs and their combination showed excellent cytocompatibility, and the culture of cells on RGD-containing ELRs resulted in optimal cell adhesion. In addition, hydrogels based on a mixture of both ELRs were implanted in a pilot study involving a femoral bone injury model in New Zealand White rabbits, showing complete regeneration in six out of seven cases, with the other showing partial closure of the defect. Moreover, bone neo-formation was confirmed using different techniques, such as radiography, computed tomography and histology. This hydrogel system therefore displays significant potential in the regeneration of bone defects, promoting self-regeneration by the surrounding tissue with no involvement of stem cells or osteogenic factors other than BMP-2, which is released in a controlled manner by elastase-mediated cleavage from the ELR backbone.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project (MAT2013-42473-R and MAT2013-41723-R)Junta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación – Ref. VA244U13 and VA313U14)Centro en Red de Medicina Regenerativa y Terapia Celular de Castilla y LeónComisión Europea (proyectos NMP-2014-646075, HEALTH-F4-2011-278557, PITN-GA-2012-317306 y MSCA-ITN-2014-642687

Rasgos Biofísicos en el territorio OTALEX

A caracterização de territórios extensos constitui um trabalho complexo em que se analisam grandes quantidades de variáveis biofísicas: declive, orientação, hidrologia, clima, solos, vegetação, fauna, estado ecológico, etc.. Nesta situação, encontramo-nos no território OTALEX, constituído pelas regiões Alentejo e Extremadura, e cujos traços biofísicos estão condicionados principalmente pela topografia e pelo clima do sudoeste da Península Ibérica. O conjunto de indicadores ambientais desenvolvidos pela Infraestrutura de Dados Espaciais OTALEX incorpora alguns destes traços biofísicos. A selecção realizou-se em função da possibilidade de existência e actualização em ambas as regiões. O desenvolvimento dos indicadores biofísicos implicou a preparação e adaptação às exigências do OTALEX IDE. A partir de dados básicos do clima, foram concebidos indicadores relacionados com vegetação (Evapotranspiração, Índice de aridez, Índice de continentalidade, Índice ombrotérmico e Índice de termicidade) e tipos de solo, bem como outros referidos efeitos de actividades antrópicas sobre os ecossistemas: distribuição de flora ameaçada e deposição húmida ácida. Finalmente, tem aprofundado o estudo de duas áreas piloto, bacias hidrográficas da Ribeira da Pardiela no Alentejo e Xévora na Extremadura-Alentejo, analisando aspectos relacionados com o funcionamento dos ecossistemas: a distribuição da vegetação e da biodiversidade do solo

Bone regeneration mediated by a bioactive and biodegradable extracellular matrix-like hydrogel based on elastin-like recombinamers

The morbidity of bone fractures and defects is steadily increasing due to changes in the age pyramid. As such, novel biomaterials that are able to promote the healing and regeneration of injured bones are needed to overcome the limitations of auto-, allo-, and xenografts, while providing a ready-To-use product that may help to minimize surgical invasiveness and duration. In this regard, recombinant biomaterials, such as elastin-like recombinamers (ELRs), are very promising as their design can be tailored by genetic engineering, thus allowing scalable production and batch-To-batch consistency, among others. Furthermore, they can self-Assemble into physically crosslinked hydrogels above a certain transition temperature, in this case body temperature, but are injectable below this temperature, thereby markedly reducing surgical invasiveness. In this study, we have developed two bioactive hydrogel-forming ELRs, one including the osteogenic and osteoinductive bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) and the other the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) cell adhesion motif. The combination of these two novel ELRs results in a BMP-2-loaded extracellular matrix-like hydrogel. Moreover, elastase-sensitive domains were included in both ELR molecules, thereby conferring biodegradation as a result of enzymatic cleavage and avoiding the need for scaffold removal after bone regeneration. Both ELRs and their combination showed excellent cytocompatibility, and the culture of cells on RGD-containing ELRs resulted in optimal cell adhesion. In addition, hydrogels based on a mixture of both ELRs were implanted in a pilot study involving a femoral bone injury model in New Zealand white rabbits, showing complete regeneration in six out of seven cases, with the other showing partial closure of the defect. Moreover, bone neoformation was confirmed using different techniques, such as radiography, computed tomography, and histology. This hydrogel system therefore displays significant potential in the regeneration of bone defects, promoting self-regeneration by the surrounding tissue with no involvement of stem cells or osteogenic factors other than BMP-2, which is released in a controlled manner by elastase-mediated cleavage from the ELR backbone.Fil: Coletta, Dante Jesus. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Laboratorio de Biología Osteoarticular, Ingeniería Tisular y Terapias Emergentes; ArgentinaFil: Ibáñez Fonseca, Arturo. Universidad de Valladolid; EspañaFil: Missana, Liliana Raquel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Odontología; ArgentinaFil: Jammal, María Victoria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Odontología; ArgentinaFil: Vitelli, Ezequiel J.. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Laboratorio de Biología Osteoarticular, Ingeniería Tisular y Terapias Emergentes; ArgentinaFil: Aimone, Mariangeles. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Laboratorio de Biología Osteoarticular, Ingeniería Tisular y Terapias Emergentes; ArgentinaFil: Zabalza, Facundo. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Laboratorio de Biología Osteoarticular, Ingeniería Tisular y Terapias Emergentes; ArgentinaFil: Issa, João P. Mardegan. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Alonso, Matilde. Universidad de Valladolid; EspañaFil: Rodríguez Cabello, José Carlos. Universidad de Valladolid; EspañaFil: Feldman, Sara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Laboratorio de Biología Osteoarticular, Ingeniería Tisular y Terapias Emergentes; Argentin