Catálogo de las decoraciones dentales en los esqueletos de los entierros de Cancuén

A partir de la elaboración del proyecto de tesis de la autora, se logró hacer un primer acercamiento a la identificación de prácticas bioculturales y funerarias de los habitantes de Cancuén y este conformó una base de datos en torno al análisis osteológico y del contexto mortuorio de 98 entierros, de donde han surgido varias investigaciones específicas sobre tales costumbres. De esta manera, el presente artículo surge de esa base con los siguientes objetivos principales: a) Hacer un repaso de los aspectos relacionados con la práctica biocultural de la decoración dental y  2) Difundir los distintos tipos de decoraciones dentales identificadas en un grupo de 33 esqueletos de entierros provenientes de Cancuén para establecer comparaciones (ya que esta mestra forma parte de un estudio más profundo que se encuentra en desarrollo

New Targets for Diagnosis and Treatment Against Alzheimer’s Disease: The Mitochondrial Approach

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder and the most common form of dementia. AD is characterized by brain presence of senile plaques, which are formed by aggregates of Aβ peptide and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), formed by pathological forms of tau protein. Evidence suggests that these elements affect neurons compromising energy supply, antioxidant response and synaptic activity. AD principally affects the memory and cognitive functions of the patients, and currently, successful strategies for diagnosis and early treatment are lacking. In this scenario, accumulative evidence suggests that mitochondrial dysfunction precedes the establishment of tau and Aβ pathology and contributes to synaptic degeneration observed in AD. Therefore, reducing mitochondrial injury may have beneficial effects for neuronal dysfunction and cognitive decline observed in AD patients. Interestingly, the examination of peripheral cells from AD patients also presents mitochondrial dysfunction, suggesting that tracking these mitochondrial defects in peripheral cells could be a potential mechanism of early diagnosis of AD. In this chapter, we analyse current evidence that suggests that mitochondrial injury is an important factor in the pathogenesis of AD and how studying this process could reveal new strategies to mitigate neurodegeneration and to develop new diagnostic methods for an early detection of AD

Ethanol Consumption Affects Neuronal Function: Role of the Mitochondria

Ethanol is a licit drug consumed by a large part of the population, from adolescence to adulthood. High ethanol consumption is a public health problem due to its addictiveness and the risk it produces of developing other diseases, including cardiovascular, hepatic, and mental pathologies. Different patterns of ethanol consumption and its toxic effects in the brain have been reported. Current studies suggest to mitochondria, one of the principal mediators for ethanol neurotoxicity. In this chapter, we will review the effects of ethanol on neurons in different scenarios of ethanol consumption and its relation with mitochondrial function. Finally, we will propose a mechanism of ethanol toxicity in which the mitochondria are the main mediator and in which the mitochondrial alterations correlate with the severity of ethanol consumption. Thus, improving mitochondrial health of brain cells could be considered as a potential therapeutic target to treat ethanol-associated disorders

Estudio piloto sobre prevalencia de variaciones anatómicas en cavidad nasal y complejo osteomeatal, vistas en tomografía computarizada Cone Beam

49 p.La Tomografía Computarizada Cone Beam es una tecnología aplicada ampliamente en múltiples disciplinas odontológicas, permitiendo observar estructuras importantes adyacentes como los senos maxilares y cavidad nasal. El objetivo de este estudio piloto es evaluar la frecuencia de las distintas variaciones anatómicas en cavidad nasal y complejo osteomeatal en una muestra pequeña de 10 TCCB realizadas en un centro radiológico maxilofacial de la ciudad de Talca. Para esto se realizó visualizaron las TCCB en el software computacional ITK-SNAP 2.4.0 y los datos fueron analizados con el software R commander versión 3.0.1 donde se cuantificó la frecuencia y los intervalos de confianza de cada una de las variaciones anatómicas

Centrosome reduction in newly-generated tetraploid cancer cells obtained by separase depletion

Altres ajuts: Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (GCB13131592CAST)Tetraploidy, a common feature in cancer, results in the presence of extra centrosomes, which has been associated with chromosome instability (CIN) and aneuploidy. Deregulation in the number of centrosomes triggers tumorigenesis. However, how supernumerary centrosomes evolve during the emergence of tetraploid cells remains yet to be elucidated. Here, generating tetraploid isogenic clones in colorectal cancer and in non-transformed cells, we show that near-tetraploid clones exhibit a significant increase in the number of centrosomes. Moreover, we find that centrosome area in near-tetraploids is twice as large as in near-diploids. To evaluate whether centrosome clustering was occurring, we next analysed the number of centrioles revealing centriole amplification. Notwithstanding, more than half of the near-tetraploids maintained in culture do not present centrosome aberrations. To test whether cells progressively lost centrioles after becoming near-tetraploid, we transiently transfected diploid cells with siRNA against ESPL1 /Separase, a protease responsible for triggering anaphase, to generate newly near-tetraploid cells. Finally, using this model, we assessed the number of centrioles at different time-points after tetraploidization finding that near-tetraploids rapidly lose centrosomes over time. Taken together, these data demonstrate that although most cells reduce supernumerary centrosomes after tetraploidization, a small fraction retains extra centrioles, potentially resulting in CIN