Implications of dealing with airborne substances and reactive oxygen species: what mammalian lungs, animals and plants have to say?

A gas-exchange structure interacts with the environment and is constantly challenged by contaminants that may elicit defense responses, thus compromising its primary function. It is also exposed to high concentrations of O2 that can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). Revisiting the lung of mammals, an integrative picture emerges, indicating that this bronchi-alveolar structure deals with inflammation in a special way, which minimizes compromising the gas-exchange role. Depending on the challenge, pro-inflammatory or antiinflammatory responses are elicited by conserved molecules, such as surfactant proteins A and D. An even broader picture points to the participation of airway sensors, responsive to inflammatory mediators, in a loop linking the immunological and nervous systems and expanding the role played by respiratory organs in functions other than gas-exchange. A byproduct of exposure to high concentration of O2 is the formation of superoxide (), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hydroxyl radical (HO•), and other ROS, which are known to be toxic to different types of cells, including the lung epithelium. A balance between antioxidants and oxidants exists; in pulmonary epithelial cells high intracellular and extracellular levels of antioxidants are found. Antioxidant adaptations related to plant and animal life-styles involve a broad range of overlapping strategies based on well-conserved molecules. Glutathione (GSH) is an abundant and ubiquitous thiol-tripeptide antioxidant, also present in lungs, whose role in providing information on the intracellular redox state of animals and plants is well established. In these organisms, GSH influences gene expression associated with stress, maximizing defense responses. Several enzymatic antioxidants, such as glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase, and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase participate in the redox system; in animals that are stress-tolerant GPx is a key element against oxidative assaults. Most importantly, alternative roles of ROS as signaling molecules have been found in all plants and animals. For example, alveolar macrophages produce that act as second messengers, in addition to having a bactericidal role. The nonradical ROS H2O2 signals inflammation in mammalian lungs, apoptosis in different animal tissues, and is also involved in stomatal closure, root development, gene expression, and defense responses of plants. Antioxidant adaptations in some water-breathing animals involve the excretion of H2O2 by diffusion through gas-exchange structures. The fine balance among a multitude of factors and cells makes the difference between damage and protection in animals and plants. Knowledge about the mechanisms and consequences of these molecular interactions is now starting to be integrated

Implications of dealing with airborne substances and reactive oxygen species: what mammalian lungs, animals, and plants have to say?

A gas-exchange structure interacts with the environment and is constantly challenged by contaminants that may elicit defense responses, thus compromising its primary function. It is also exposed to high concentrations of O2 that can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). Revisiting the lung of mammals, an integrative picture emerges, indicating that this bronchi-alveolar structure deals with inflammation in a special way, which minimizes compromising the gas-exchange role. Depending on the challenge, pro-inflammatory or antiinflammatory responses are elicited by conserved molecules, such as surfactant proteins A and D. An even broader picture points to the participation of airway sensors, responsive to inflammatory mediators, in a loop linking the immunological and nervous systems and expanding the role played by respiratory organs in functions other than gas-exchange. A byproduct of exposure to high concentration of O2 is the formation of superoxide (), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hydroxyl radical (HO•), and other ROS, which are known to be toxic to different types of cells, including the lung epithelium. A balance between antioxidants and oxidants exists; in pulmonary epithelial cells high intracellular and extracellular levels of antioxidants are found. Antioxidant adaptations related to plant and animal life-styles involve a broad range of overlapping strategies based on well-conserved molecules. Glutathione (GSH) is an abundant and ubiquitous thiol-tripeptide antioxidant, also present in lungs, whose role in providing information on the intracellular redox state of animals and plants is well established. In these organisms, GSH influences gene expression associated with stress, maximizing defense responses. Several enzymatic antioxidants, such as glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase, and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase participate in the redox system; in animals that are stress-tolerant GPx is a key element against oxidative assaults. Most importantly, alternative roles of ROS as signaling molecules have been found in all plants and animals. For example, alveolar macrophages produce that act as second messengers, in addition to having a bactericidal role. The nonradical ROS H2O2 signals inflammation in mammalian lungs, apoptosis in different animal tissues, and is also involved in stomatal closure, root development, gene expression, and defense responses of plants. Antioxidant adaptations in some water-breathing animals involve the excretion of H2O2 by diffusion through gas-exchange structures. The fine balance among a multitude of factors and cells makes the difference between damage and protection in animals and plants. Knowledge about the mechanisms and consequences of these molecular interactions is now starting to be integrate

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.Peer reviewe

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions

Female choice in Trinomys yonenagae, a spiny rat from the Brazilian Caatinga

Trinomys yonenagae é um rato-de-espinho endêmico de dunas fixas na Caatinga. Estes animais vivem em colônias, cavam e compartilham túneis, apresentando altos níveis de tolerância intra e intergrupal. No presente trabalho testamos se fêmeas exibem preferência por um parceiro de longa convivência em um teste de escolha, onde cada fêmea estava livre para se locomover e os machos (o parceiro e um desconhecido) estavam restritos aos seus próprios compartimentos. Agressões ocorreram uma única vez, contra um macho desconhecido. Todas as fêmeas gastaram mais tempo em um compartimento com um macho do que no compartimento vazio, confirmando o alto grau de afiliação de T. yonenagae. Consideramos que houve escolha, uma vez que 70% das fêmeas preferiram repousar lado-a-lado mais tempo com o parceiro, do que com o macho desconhecido. Contudo, as frequências de visita a ambos os machos não foram estatisticamente diferentes. Considerando que a ausência de dimorfismo, a presença de cuidado parental, a maturação sexual tardia e a afiliação heterossexual, esta apontada no presente estudo, são todas características de monogamia social, sugerimos que T. yonenagae é socialmente monogâmico e que o relacionamento entre fêmeas e machos nesta espécie aparenta ser um balanço complexo entre estratégias de preferências por parceiros e de evitar parentescos

Ethology & Animal Welfare research in Brazil

Mankind has always tried to understand the behavior of animals and also to establish close contact with wildlife aiming to domesticate, to utilize or to enjoy the company of other animals. Nowadays the study of animal behavior – ethology – is a science in this own right and animal welfare is seen as a growing area of interest among scientists of different backgrounds, bringing together ethology, veterinary, zoology, psychology, and husbandry under the same framework of common interests. Here, we surveyed PubMed database using two keywords, “ethology” and “animal welfare”, which encompassed the period from 1981 to 2017. Also we have consulted the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development – i.e. “Diretório de Grupos do Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (CNPq)” – aiming to disclose how many research groups there are working within the Animal Welfare realm, and where they are geographically localized. We found 156 articles addressing “Ethology” and “Animal Welfare”, an average of 7.7±4.2 articles per year from 2003 to 2017. 55 groups corresponding to 36.9% of the total are studying “Animal Welfare”. They are localized in 70% of the Brazilian states, mostly in the South and in the Northeast regions of the country. The presence of those groups allow us to be optimistic regarding the future of the Animal Welfare field in Brazil

Molecular systematics of mantelline frogs from Madagascar and the evolution of their femoral glands

Several genera of frogs from Madagascar, classified in the family Mantellidae, subfamily Mantellinae, possess structures commonly called 'femoral glands' on the ventral side of their shanks. The question arises as to the origin and phylogenetic significance of these glands. A molecular phylogeny based on 3601 nucleotide DNA sequences of three mitochondrial and two nuclear genes of 30 mantellid species provided strong support for monophyly of the included mantellines, all characterized by enlarged femoral gland clusters, as well as for those with gland clusters of coordinated central arrangement of secretion ducts. However, the phylogeny also strongly supported the hypothesis of convergent evolution of structurally similar glands in unrelated frogs (Indirana, Petropedetes), and several trends of convergent evolution of gland structure within mantellines. We studied the light microscopic structure of the femoral glands in a representative array of 18 mantellid species. Males of all species of the subfamily Mantellinae were characterized by clusters of distinct single glands. Each was structurally similar to an enlarged granular gland and secreted independently, probably through a single duct. By contrast, the largely semi-aquatic frogs in the genus Mantidactylus had a specialized cluster of glands, in which the secretion ducts led into a macroscopically recognizable central depression. In Boophis opisthodon, a mantellid species of the subfamily Boophinae without externally recognizable femoral glands, we observed a large number of enlarged granular glands of various sizes in the ventral skin of the shank. This observation is consistent with the hypothesis that the large and more uniform organs of mantellines are derived granular glands