Bone Marrow-Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Secretome as Conditioned Medium Relieves Experimental Skeletal Muscle Damage Induced by Ex Vivo Eccentric Contraction

Bone marrow-mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) may offer promise for skeletal muscle repair/regeneration. Growing evidence suggests that the mechanisms underpinning the beneficial effects of such cells in muscle tissue reside in their ability to secrete bioactive molecules (secretome) with multiple actions. Hence, we examined the effects of MSC secretome as conditioned medium (MSC-CM) on ex vivo murine extensor digitorum longus muscle injured by forced eccentric contraction (EC). By combining morphological (light and confocal laser scanning microscopies) and electrophysiological analyses we demonstrated the capability of MSC-CM to attenuate EC-induced tissue structural damages and sarcolemnic functional properties’ modifications. MSC-CM was effective in protecting myofibers from apoptosis, as suggested by a reduced expression of pro-apoptotic markers, cytochrome c and activated caspase-3, along with an increase in the expression of pro-survival AKT factor. Notably, MSC-CM also reduced the EC-induced tissue redistribution and extension of telocytes/CD34⁺ stromal cells, distinctive cells proposed to play a “nursing” role for the muscle resident myogenic satellite cells (SCs), regarded as the main players of regeneration. Moreover, it affected SC functionality likely contributing to replenishment of the SC reservoir. This study provides the necessary groundwork for further investigation of the effects of MSC secretome in the setting of skeletal muscle injury and regenerative medicine.     

Secondary bioreceptivity of granite: effect of salt weathering on subaerial biofilm growth

Salt crystallisation is a very common and powerful weathering agent that can modify the petrophysical properties of building stone such as granite. In addition, the weathering can affect the susceptibility of the stone to biological colonisation. The aims of the present study were to examine the properties of a granite weathered by sodium chloride crystallisation and to evaluate the effects of the weathering on the secondary bioreceptivity of the stone to subaerial phototrophic biofilms. For this purpose, granite samples were subjected to a laboratory-based accelerated salt weathering test, and changes in weight, open porosity, bulk density, capillary water content, abrasion pH and surface roughness of the samples were determined. Samples of both weathered and non-weathered granite were then inoculated with a multi-species phototrophic culture derived from a natural subaerial biofilm and incubated under standardised laboratory conditions for 3 months. The weight loss produced by the weathering process was consistent with significant changes in abrasion pH and surface roughness. The bioreceptivity of the stone was also altered. According to the bioreceptivity index, the granite under study was characterised by ‘mild primary bioreceptivity’, but ‘high secondary bioreceptivity’ after the salt weathering process. Study of the secondary bioreceptivity of stone materials can provide very useful information about response to weathering effects, and the findings can be used to improve the selection of materials for building purposes.     

The Effect of Electrospun Gelatin Fibers Alignment on Schwann Cell and Axon Behavior and Organization in the Perspective of Artificial Nerve Design

Electrospun fibrous substrates mimicking extracellular matrices can be prepared by electrospinning, yielding aligned fibrous matrices as internal fillers to manufacture artificial nerves. Gelatin aligned nano-fibers were prepared by electrospinning after tuning the collector rotation speed. The effect of alignment on cell adhesion and proliferation was tested in vitro using primary cultures, the Schwann cell line, RT4-D6P2T, and the sensory neuron-like cell line, 50B11. Cell adhesion and proliferation were assessed by quantifying at several time-points. Aligned nano-fibers reduced adhesion and proliferation rate compared with random fibers. Schwann cell morphology and organization were investigated by immunostaining of the cytoskeleton. Cells were elongated with their longitudinal body parallel to the aligned fibers. B5011 neuron-like cells were aligned and had parallel axon growth when cultured on the aligned gelatin fibers. The data show that the alignment of electrospun gelatin fibers can modulate Schwann cells and axon organization in vitro, suggesting that this substrate shows promise as an internal filler for the design of artificial nerves for peripheral nerve reconstruction.     

New N,O-containing ligands for the biomimetic copper-catalyzed polymerization of 2,6-dimethylphenol

Poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether) (PPE), which is widely used in high-performance engineering plastics, is obtained by the copper-catalyzed oxidative coupling of 2,6-dimethylphenol. The oxidative polymerizations have been carried out in acetonitrile with structurally related [copper-(N,O-containing ligand)] complexes as the catalyst precursor compounds, which appeared to be of great interest for a better understanding of the factors influencing the catalytic activities. Steric effects (influence of a methyl group close to the metal center; ligands 4–7) or electronic effects (imino versus amino group; ligands 4, 5, 8 and 6, 7, 9, respectively) on the polymerization rates have been demonstrated. The use of mono- or dinucleating ligands has strengthened the proposed mechanism of the reaction involving dinuclear active species.     

Designing and Rightsizing the Information System Architecture

Information system design and sizing constitute a complex, top-down process that tailors the technology architecture to application requirements. Practitioners usually tackle this top-down process by focusing on individual design aspects, such as data or specific applications, and by relying on their previous experiences to compare alternative architectural solutions. Acquisition costs are usually accounted for, but related operating and maintenance costs are often neglected or underestimated. The complexity of optimizing individual design problems leads researchers to avoid a global optimization perspective and, thus, the IS architecture is usually a result of the juxtaposition of multiple local optima.This paper takes an overall perspective on the cost minimization problem of information system design to achieve a better trade-off between cost and performance over the whole expected life of the technology architecture. A comprehensive design methodology is discussed as an integrating framework that accounts for all categories of costs, including design, implementation, maintenance, and operation, to achieve a globally cost-minimizing solution.     

Neural network systems to reproduce crash behavior of structural components

The use of neural networks as global approximation tool in crashworthiness problems is here investigated. Neural networks are not only asked to return some meaningful indices of the structural behavior but also to reproduce load-time curves during crash phenomena. To contain the number of examples required for the training process, parallel subsystems of small neural networks are designed. Design points for the training process are obtained by explicit finite element analyses performed by PAMCRASH. The settlement of the points in the design domain is defined using a maximum distance concept. The procedure is applied to different typical absorption structures made of aluminum alloy: riveted tubes, honeycomb structures, longitudinal keel beam and intersection elements of helicopter subfloors.     

PCBs and selected organochlorine compounds in Italian mountain air: the influence of altitude and forest ecosystem type

Passive air samplers (polyurethane foam disks) were deployed on an altitudinal transect in the rural Italian Alps to investigate the potential influence of forest cover on air concentrations. Samplers were exposed overtwo periods, each of several weeks, either in clearings or in forests. In the first period, there was high leaf coverage (high leaf area index, LAI); in the second, the LAI was low after the autumnal leaf fall. PCBs sequestered in the PUF generally declined with altitude, for example, in the clearings PCBs-28, 52, 90/101, 118, and 138, all showed statistically significant declines (p < 0.05). The mass of HCB sequestered increased with altitude, evidence of cold condensation. Ratios of the forest:clearing concentrations were calculated; this ratio expresses the filtering ability of forests to deplete air concentrations compared to the adjacent clearings. During the high LAI sampling period, these depletion factors ranged between 0.93 and 0.54 and were inversely correlated with temperature-corrected log K0A. This relationship was notobserved during the low LAI sampling period. The depletion factors were normalized using the LAI to give a density independent depletion factor (DIDF). The slopes of the correlations with K0A were comparable for broadleaf or coniferous forests at different altitudes, suggesting that leaf surfaces determine the exchanges with air. Broadleaf forests at 1000 and 1400 m showed similar behavior, while a conifer forest at 1800 m gave depletion factors which were higher by about a factor of 2. It is suggested that DIDF can be used in regional environmental fate models to estimate the contribution of forests to contaminant fate.     

Residual Stresses in Alumina/Zirconia Composites: Effect of Cooling Rate and Grain Size

Alumina/zirconia composites with various compositions at the zirconia-rich part of the phase diagram have been prepared with various grain sizes of the starting alumina powders. After firing under identical conditions, the pellets have been cooled systematically, changing the cooling rates from 0.5 to 8000 K/min. Subsequently, the residual stresses in alumina have been determined by monitoring the frequency shifts of the R ₂ luminescence line of alumina (14 430 cm⁻¹). The data indicate that the stress in alumina is compressive in all cases, with increasing absolute values of the stress with decreasing alumina content. Within the same composition, the residual stress as a function of the cooling rate presents a minimum for values between 10 and 100 K/min, with no clear dependence on the alumina or zirconia grain size. An interpretation of the experimental data in terms of a Coble-type diffusional relaxation applies for intermediate cooling rates (from 10 to 800 K/min), but it fails to account for the large stresses at low cooling rates. The width of the stress distribution is narrow (∼150 MPa) and constant for all compositions and grain sizes at low cooling rates, but it increases for cooling rates >10 K/min, depending on the grain size but not on the composition. For fast cooling rates, a correlation is found when reporting the average width of the stress distribution as function of the average sintered grain-size distribution of alumina. Overall, zirconia grain size seems to influence the average stress, whereas alumina grain size determines the stress distribution.     

Preparation and characterizations of soluble regularly alternating polyazomethines from oligothienylenes

The preparation and characterization of oligothienylene dialdehydes and related soluble copolymers in which thenylenic segments regularly alternate with phenylenic portions linked by azomethine moieties is presented. The polymer series with three, six and eight thienylenic residues showed interesting evidences of electronic confinement in low-gap segments (thienylenic). Self-assembled structures of oligomers can be obtained either by evaporation in high vacuum or by a proper thermal treatment of spin coated films, depending on the molecule length. Polymers prepared by different synthetic routes show different thermal and structural properties as a function of the ratio of two possible isomers at imino linkage. The order degree also influences the optical properties in fact luminescence data are strictly related to the percentage of the two isomers.