Effects of Prunus cerasus L. Seeds and Juice on Liver Steatosis in an Animal Model of Diet-Induced Obesity

The accumulation of adipose tissue increases the risk of several diseases. The fruits-intake, containing phytochemicals, is inversely correlated with their development. This study evaluated the effects of anthocyanin-rich tart cherries in diet-induced obese (DIO) rats. DIO rats were exposed to a high-fat diet with the supplementation of tart cherry seeds powder (DS) and seed powder plus juice (DJS). After 17 weeks, the DIO rats showed an increase of body weight, glycaemia, insulin, and systolic blood pressure. In the DS and DJS groups, there was a decrease of systolic blood pressure, glycaemia, triglycerides, and thiobarbituric reactive substances in the serum. In the DJS rats, computed tomography revealed a decrease in the spleen-to-liver attenuation ratio. Indeed, sections of the DIO rats presented hepatic injury characterized by steatosis, which was lower in the supplemented groups. In the liver of the DIO compared with rats fed with a standard diet (CHOW), a down-regulation of the GRP94 protein expression and a reduction of LC3- II/LC3-I ratio were found, indicating endoplasmic reticulum stress and impaired autophagy flux. Interestingly, tart cherry supplementation enhanced both unfolded protein response (UPR) and autophagy. This study suggests that tart cherry supplementation, although it did not reduce body weight in the DIO rats, prevented its related risk factors and liver steatosis

Effects of Prunus cerasus L. Seeds and Juice on Liver Steatosis in an Animal Model of Diet-Induced Obesity

The accumulation of adipose tissue increases the risk of several diseases. The fruits-intake, containing phytochemicals, is inversely correlated with their development. This study evaluated the effects of anthocyanin-rich tart cherries in diet-induced obese (DIO) rats. DIO rats were exposed to a high-fat diet with the supplementation of tart cherry seeds powder (DS) and seed powder plus juice (DJS). After 17 weeks, the DIO rats showed an increase of body weight, glycaemia, insulin, and systolic blood pressure. In the DS and DJS groups, there was a decrease of systolic blood pressure, glycaemia, triglycerides, and thiobarbituric reactive substances in the serum. In the DJS rats, computed tomography revealed a decrease in the spleen-to-liver attenuation ratio. Indeed, sections of the DIO rats presented hepatic injury characterized by steatosis, which was lower in the supplemented groups. In the liver of the DIO compared with rats fed with a standard diet (CHOW), a down-regulation of the GRP94 protein expression and a reduction of LC3- II/LC3-I ratio were found, indicating endoplasmic reticulum stress and impaired autophagy flux. Interestingly, tart cherry supplementation enhanced both unfolded protein response (UPR) and autophagy. This study suggests that tart cherry supplementation, although it did not reduce body weight in the DIO rats, prevented its related risk factors and liver steatosis

Obesity-related nervous system injury: preliminary evidences in diet induced obesity (DIO) rats.

Increased food intake, reduced physical activity and altered metabolic processes are the variables that affect energy balance inducing obesity. Obesity is now considered an increas-ingly medical challenge. Actually, the prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically worldwide over the last decades and has now reached epidemic proportions. On the other hand, obesity is associated with the development of chronic diseases such as cerebrovascu-lar disease promoting the cognitive decline. Caloric-dense diet induced obesity (DIO), provides a useful animal model sharing several common features with human obesity. DIO rats of 7 weeks of age are expose to high fat (45 %) diet ad libitum and after 5 weeks the obese phenotype starts to be develop. To clarify the possible relationships between obesity and nervous system changes, DIO rats were studied after 5 weeks and 17 weeks of hypercaloric diet compared to the control rats with not fat diet (Chow). Memory performance were measured using different cognitive tests. Moreover, ultrasonographic (US) and computed tomography (CT) evaluations were per-formed to detect adipose tissue changes. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to highlight brain morphological alterations was used. Morphological changes of brain areas (frontal cor-tex, hippocampus) were evaluated by immunohistochemical analysis. The results confirmed the developed of obesity after 5 weeks of fat diet. At long-term (17 weeks) high fat diet exposure, rats increased significantly their body weight in comparison to the control group and the youngest DIO rats. The US and CT analysis indicated an increase of deposition of both visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue and evidences a decrease of hepatic attenuation in the older DIO rats.MRI images did not show vascular and morphologi-cal alterations in brain. Instead, immuhistochemical and immunochemical analysis, revealed an increase expression of glial-fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in the older DIO rats compared to the age- matched Chow rats both in frontal cortex and in hippocampus. DIO rats showed a reduction of retention latency time in the emotional learning task. These preliminary findings indicate that the development of obesity, does not determined gross anatomy alteration in brain, but the occurrence of injury characterized by astrogliosis. The identification of neurodegenerative changes in DIO may represent the first insight to better characterize the neuronal involvement in obesity

Rapporto 2007 su consumo e dipendenze da sostanze in Emilia-Romagna.

Report on the state of legal and illegal substances use in the territory of Emilia-Romagna Region.Il report analizza il fenomeno delle dipendenze nel territorio della Regione Emilia-Romagna. La descrizione del fenomeno si sviluppa intorno all\u27analisi degli indicatori individuati dall\u27Osservatorio Europeo delle Dipendenze di Lisbona (OEDT): 1-uso di sostanze nella popolazione generale (questo indicatore va a rilevare i comportamenti nei confronti di alcol e sostanze psicoattive da parte della popolazione generale); 2-prevalenza d\u27uso problematico delle sostanze psicoattive; 3-domanda di trattamento degli utilizzatori di sostanze; 4-mortalit? degli utilizzatori di sostanze; 5-malattie infettive. Altri due importanti indicatori che si stanno sviluppando, e che vengono qui illustrati, sono l\u27analisi delle Schede di Dimissione Ospedaliera (SDO) e gli indicatori relativi alle conseguenza sociali dell\u27uso di droghe (criminalit? droga correlata). Inoltre sono state applicate diverse metodologie standard di stima sia per quantificare la quota parte sconosciuta di utilizzatori di sostanze che non afferiscono ai servizi, sia per identificarne alcune caratteristiche

Decision-maker’s overconfidence and international performance: the role of the adoption of intuitive practices

Purpose – The paper analyses the influence of the decision-makers’ overconfidence on the intuitive practices’ adoption, as well as on the international performance during international strategic decision-making processes (SDMPs) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, the study investigates the possible mediating effect of intuition on the relationship between overconfidence and international performance. Design/methodology/approach – A semi-structured questionnaire based on a sample of 160 SMEs and a regression analysis have been employed. Findings – Results show a negative relationship between intuition and international performance and a positive one between overconfidence and international performance. Furthermore, a negative relation between overconfidence and intuition has been identified. Findings also highlight the mediating role of intuition in the relationship between overconfidence and international performance. Practical implications – The paper provides valuable implications related to the analysis of overconfidence as a critical decision-maker’s character and intuition as a feature of the decision-making methodology. Moreover, the study offers indications for SMEs facing complex strategic decisions. Originality/value – The paper adopts an original perspective by combining the SDMP analysis with that of international strategy within the SMEs context. Additionally, the study enriches the existing literature by (1) investigating overconfidence in the decision-making; (2) enhancing the examination of overconfidence and intuitive practices in the international SDMP; (3) deepening the research field focused on the identification of the intuitive processes’ predictors that is still in its infancy

Progetto nazionale Salute mentale

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7 Rome / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

Caveolin-1-overexpression induces extracellular vesicle secretion in a model of rhabdomyosarcoma

Caveolin-1 (CAV-1) is an integral membrane protein required to generate caveolae and cholesterol-enriched lipid rafts of the plasma membrane. Moreover, CAV-1 binds to many proteins, controls cholesterol homeostasis, and regulates various cell functions. CAV-1 has a controversial role in cancer, it is widely accepted that loss of CAV-1 correlates with early-stage tumor progression, while its over-expression and phosphorylation are associated with recurrence and metastatic disease. For example, it has been shown that CAV-1 cooperates to tumor growth and metastatic potential in rhabdomyosarcoma (RD). A considerable body of evidence suggests the possibility that extracellular CAV-1 may be relevant in cancer cell metastasis. The present work aims to investigate if the increased aggressiveness of RD cells overexpressing CAV-1 correlates with an altered extracellular vesicle (EV) release. EVs were isolated by differential ultracentrifugation and density gradient separation methods from conditioned media of control (RD-Ctrl) and metastatic RD cell lines overexpressing CAV1 (RD-CAV1). Collected small (sEVs) and large (lEVs) extracellular vesicles were characterized by NanoparticleTracking Analysis (NTA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and western blot analysis (WB). The applied ultracentrifugation protocol allowed the isolation of two EV subpopulations, called sEVs and lEVs, of about 93 nm and 170 nm in diameter, respectively. The obtained data showed that RD-CAV1 cells release 3-4 fold more EVs compared to control cells; however, NTA revealed that CAV-1 overexpression seems not to affect the sEV versus lEV production ratio with sEVs about 10 times more abundant than lEVs in both RD cell models. The efficient separation between sEVs and lEVs was supported by western blot analysis: small vesicles exhibit the exosomal markers Alix, Flot-1, Syntenin-1, and TSG101, whereas large EVs were positive for Calnexin, an endoplasmic reticulum marker. Interestingly, RD-CAV1 EVs do not express the tetraspanins CD63, CD81 and CD9, which instead were detected in RD-Ctrl EVs, suggesting that CAV-1 over-expression induces an alteration of the EV biogenesis. Proteomic analysis confirmed the absence of tetraspanins in the sEVs released from RD-CAV-1 and showed that the lack of tetraspanin is associated with a significant decrease in EV protein loading; in fact, we identified about 1000 different proteins in RD-Ctrl sEVs, whereas only 547 proteins were detectable in RD-CAV-1 sEVs. The reported data suggest that, in addition to its well-established structural role, CAV-1 is a key regulatory factor potentially involved in the remodelling of the tumor microenvironment by stimulating the release of EVs deeply altered in protein composition