VALUTAZIONE DEL CALCIO INTRACELLULARE IN PIASTINE DI CANI SANI ED AFFETTI DA LEISHMANIOSI

Le piastrine rappresentano gli elementi cellulari fondamentali per il processo di regolazione dell’emostasi. La loro interazione con l’endotelio vasale riveste un ruolo fondamentale sia nella fisiologia che nella fisiopatologia della coagulazione. fisiologicamente, infatti, le piastrine hanno la capacità di aderire alla parete del vaso solo dopo attivazione da parte dell’endotelio vasale. In condizioni patologiche, come quelle causate dalla rottura di una placca aterosclerotica, le piastrine aderiscono all’endotelio, si attivano e reclutano numerose altre piastrine per la formazione del tappo piastrinico. In medicina veterinaria, diversamente dalla medicina umana, la conoscenza dei meccanismi fisiologici specifici alla base di tali processi è piuttosto scarsa. Le piastrine subiscono fenomeni di attivazione, fra i quali è possibile menzionare, lo shape change, l’attivazione del recettore per il fibrinogeno che causa l’aggregazione delle piastrine, il rilascio del contenuto dei granuli e la produzione di trombossano A2 (Gachet C. et al., 1996, Mills D.C.B., 1996). Tali fenomeni sono mediati da modificazioni del calcio intracellulare che origina dal rilascio di calcio dagli store intracellulari e dall’entrata di calcio dal mezzo extracellulare (Rink T.J. et al., 1985, Rink T.J. et al., 1990). D’altro canto però, sono note numerose patologie nel cane, tra cui forme di Leishmaniosi eo Ehrlichiosi, che comportano seria compromissione della funzione coagulativa (Harrus S. et al., 1996; Weiss D.J. et al., 1995). La leishmaniosi, in particolare, è una zoonosi largamente diffusa nelle zone costiere del Mediterraneo caratterizzata da una alterazione della coagulazione spesso asintomatica che si inserisce in un quadro sintomatologico estremamente vario. In precedenti ricerche abbiamo mostrato che, in corso di leishmaniosi, si verifica un danno piastrinico di entità variabile che, peraltro, non trova completa risoluzione con le terapie normalmente utilizzate in corso di tale patologia. I meccanismi attraverso i quali l’aggregazione piastrinica risulta alterata in corso di leishmaniosi non sono ancora chiari. Per tale motivo, l’obiettivo di questo studio è stato quello di valutare le variazioni di calcio nelle piastrine di cani sani ed affetti da leishmaniosi allo scopo di raggiungere una migliore comprensione dei meccanismi responsabili di alterazioni dell’emostasi in corso di tale patologia

Human-Animal Relationship Dysfunction: A Case Study of Animal Hoarding in Italy

"Animal hoarding" or "compulsive hoarding of animals" is a psychiatric disease, which has important social implications and a profound influence on animal welfare. To date, this phenomenon has been little investigated and largely unexplored. The present study aims to systematically describe a case of animal hoarding, which remains unresolved. The report refers to a case of a woman suffering from animal hoarding that emerged in 2005. From March 2014 to December 2019, 450 animals were seized over nine different occasions. This disease had significant implications on the welfare of the animals collected, which lived in poor housing and hygiene conditions that frequently led to their death. Since animal hoarding cases involve sanitary, legal, and veterinary aspects, we believe that a multidisciplinary approach is necessary in order to prevent a recurrence and a new accumulation of animals. A holistic approach should be taken according to the One Health principle that involves different stakeholders at every level in order to adopt an efficient solution

Serological Evidence of Q Fever among Dairy Cattle and Buffalo Populations in the Campania Region, Italy

Due to its economic impact on livestock and its zoonotic effect, Q fever is a public and animal health problem. Information on this infection in Italy is presently supported by reports of reproductive problems in livestock farms and is, therefore, insufficient to properly understand the impact of the disease. This study aimed to describe for the first time the seroprevalence of Q fever in dairy cows and water buffalos in the Campania region (Southern Italy). A total of 424 dairy cattle and 214 water buffalo were tested using a commercial indirect ELISA kit. An overall seroprevalence of 11.7% confirmed the wide distribution of C. burnetii in this region. Several factors were positively associated with higher seroprevalence, such as species (higher in cattle than in water buffalo), age, and coexistence with other ruminant species. The final model of logistic regression included only age (older) and species (cattle), which were positively associated with the presence of Q fever antibodies. Our findings support the widespread presence of Coxiella burnettii in Campania and show a seroprevalence similar to that observed in previous studies in other Italian regions and European countries. Since human cases are typically linked to contact with infected ruminants, there is a need to improve surveillance for this infection

Expression levels of the focal adhesion-associated proteins paxillin and p130CAS in canine and feline mammary tumors

International audiencePaxillin and p130$^{{\rm CAS}}$ are two adaptor proteins localized at the focal adhesions which play an important role in cell signaling, cell motility and oncogenic transformation. In this study we evaluated the levels of paxillin and p130$^{{\rm CAS}}$ in feline and canine mammary tumor tissues at different stages of malignancy. The results obtained by Western blotting analysis showed no significant differences in the amounts of paxillin and p130$^{{\rm CAS}}$ between normal and non-invasive tumor tissues. By contrast, mammary tumor tissues with the invasive phenotype showed lower levels of paxillin $P < 0.01$ and higher levels of p130$^{{\rm CAS}}$ $P < 0.001$ than normal tissues. The decrease $P < 0.001$ of the amount of paxillin and the increase $P < 0.001$ of p130$^{{\rm CAS}}$ levels were correlated with the progression stage of malignancy. Since paxillin and p130$^{{\rm CAS}}$ are involved in regulating cell migration, our results suggest that low levels of paxillin together with high levels of p130$^{{\rm CAS}}$ expression may cause certain breast cancers to be more motile and possibly more aggressive. Thus, both paxillin and p130$^{{\rm CAS}}$ may represent useful prognosticators of feline and canine breast cancer malignancy

Relationship among Milk Conductivity, Production Traits, and Somatic Cell Score in the Italian Mediterranean Buffalo

The measurement of milk electrical conductivity (EC) is a relatively simple and inexpensive technique that has been evaluated as a routine method for the diagnosis of mastitis in dairy farms. The aim of this study was to obtain further knowledge on relationships between EC, production traits and somatic cell count (SCC) in Italian Mediterranean Buffalo. The original dataset included 5411 records collected from 808 buffalo cows. Two mixed models were used to evaluate both the effect of EC on MY, PP and FP and EC at test-day, and the effect of EC on somatic cell score (SCS) by using five different parameters (EC_param), namely: EC collected at the official milk recording test day (EC_day0), EC collected 3 days before official milk recording (EC_day3), and three statistics calculated from EC collected 1, 3 and 5 days before each test-day, respectively. All effects included in the model were significant for all traits, with the only exception of the effect of EC nested within parity for FP. The relationship between EC and SCS was always positive, but of different magnitude according to the parity. The regression of EC on SCS at test-day using different EC parameters was always significant except when the regression parameter was the slope obtained from a linear regression of EC collected over the 5-day period. Moreover, in order to evaluate how well the different models fit the data, three parameters were used: the Average Information Criteria (AIC), the marginal R2 and the conditional R2. According to AIC and to both the Marginal and Conditional R2, the best results were obtained when the regression parameter was the mean EC estimated over the 5-day period

EVALUATION OF EWE COLOSTRUM QUALITY BY ESTIMATION OF ENZYME ACTIVITY LEVELS

The objective of this study was to assess the potential use of colostral enzymes for the determination of colostrum quality in ewe. The enzymes gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were measured in the colostrum from 11 ewes, milked within six hours after birth, by a dry chemistry system and spectrophotometrically. The quality of colostrum, given by the content of gamma globulines (IgG), was measured by electrophoresis separation of colostrum proteins. The highest activity was found for GGT, followed by LDH and ALP. A very high correlation (r = 0.83, P < 0.001) between GGT and IgG concentration was shown, suggesting this enzyme can be a good marker for the evaluation of colostrum quality in ewe

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer comparison with Canine Mammary Tumors from light microscopy to molecular pathology

Many similar characteristics in human and dog cancers including, spontaneous development, clinical presentation, tumor heterogeneity, disease progression, and response to standard therapies have promoted the approval of this comparative model as an alternative to mice. Breast cancer represents the second most frequent neoplasm in humans after lung cancer. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) constitute around 15% of all cases of breast cancer and do not express estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) or overexpress human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Breast cancer is the second most frequent neoplasm in sexually intact female dogs after skin cancer. The majority of canine mammary tumors (CMTs) are triple-negative. Due to the high morphological, histologic, and molecular similarities between CMT and human breast cancers (HBC), human biomarkers of HBC are also observable in cases of CMT. Promising breast cancer biomarkers in both humans and canines are cancer-associated stroma (CAS), circulating tumor cells and tumor DNA (ctDNA) ), exosomes and miRNAs, and metabolites

ANALISI DELL’INDICE DI INTERAZIONE BAMBINO-PETS IN FATTORIA ZOOANTROPOLOGICA: STUDIO PILOTA

INTRODUZIONE - La didattica applicata alla zooantropologia prevede un’attuazione in campo educativo e pedagogico dei principi zooantropologici; essa si prefigge un duplice obiettivo: di ridurre il gap relazionale tra animali e giovani generazioni e di recuperare i contenuti e le valenze della relazione, al fine dell’utilizzo pedagogico ed educativo. Nasce un nuovo modello educativo che pone al centro delle strutture pedagogiche l’animale, non più come oggetto da sfruttare, ma come soggetto che aiuti il bambino nella sua crescita educativa (1,2). In quest’ottica generale, la Fattoria Zooantropologica sembra essere un buon sistema in grado di permettere la “fruizione” da parte di bambini e\o soggetti con disabilità di questo modello relazionale e di consentire, altresì, attività e terapie assistite con gli animali (3,4). La Fattoria Zooantropologica offre l’opportunità di attivare la relazione reciproca in un ambiente nuovo, attraente e confortevole tra il fruitore e l’animale che giova di un habitat naturale e familiare. L’esperienza diretta permette ai bambini di usare tutti i loro sensi per imparare: più i bambini vedono, toccano, odorano, sentono, gustano, più imparano (5,6). Partendo da questi presupposti, lo studio si è posto l’obiettivo di effettuare una valutazione del gradimento delle differenti specie animali, attraverso l’analisi degli indici di interazione dei bambini rispetto agli animali presenti in fattoria, al fine di fornire delle linee guida nella scelta del pet in relazione ad una amplificazione delle risposte cognitive ed emozionali del bambino

"Stockpile" of slight transcriptomic changes determines the indirect genotoxicity of low-dose BPA in thyroid cells

Epidemiological and experimental data highlighted the thyroid-disrupting activity of bisphenol A (BPA). Although pivotal to identify the mechanisms of toxicity, direct low-dose BPA effects on thyrocytes have not been assessed. Here, we report the results of microarray experiments revealing that the transcriptome reacts dynamically to low-dose BPA exposure, adapting the changes in gene expression to the exposure duration. The response involves many genes, enriching specific pathways and biological functions mainly cell death/proliferation or DNA repair. Their expression is only slightly altered but, since they enrich specific pathways, this results in major effects as shown here for transcripts involved in the DNA repair pathway. Indeed, even though no phenotypic changes are induced by the treatment, we show that the exposure to BPA impairs the cell response to further stressors. We experimentally verify that prolonged exposure to low doses of BPA results in a delayed response to UV-C-induced DNA damage, due to impairment of p21-Tp53 axis, with the BPA-treated cells more prone to cell death and DNA damage accumulation. The present findings shed light on a possible mechanism by which BPA, not able to directly cause genetic damage at environmental dose, may exert an indirect genotoxic activity