Gut Microbiota Profile in Children with IgE-Mediated Cow’s Milk Allergy and Cow’s Milk Sensitization and Probiotic Intestinal Persistence Evaluation

Food allergy (FA) and, in particular, IgE-mediated cow’s milk allergy is associated with compositional and functional changes of gut microbiota. In this study, we compared the gut microbiota of cow’s milk allergic (CMA) infants with that of cow’s milk sensitized (CMS) infants and Healthy controls. The effect of the intake of a mixture of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum BB536, Bifidobacterium breve M-16V and Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis M-63 on gut microbiota modulation of CMA infants and probiotic persistence was also investigated. Gut microbiota of CMA infants resulted to be characterized by a dysbiotic status with a prevalence of some bacteria as Haemophilus, Klebsiella, Prevotella, Actinobacillus and Streptococcus. Among the three strains administered, B. longum subsp. infantis colonized the gastrointestinal tract and persisted in the gut microbiota of infants with CMA for 60 days. This colonization was associated with perturbations of the gut microbiota, specifically with the increase of Akkermansia and Ruminococcus. Multi-strain probiotic formulations can be studied for their persistence in the intestine by monitoring specific bacterial probes persistence and exploiting microbiota profiling modulation before the evaluation of their therapeutic effects.     

A controlled evaluation of thermal biofeedback and thermal biofeedback combined with cognitive therapy in the treatment of vascular headache.

One-hundred-sixteen patients suffering from vascular headache (migraine or combined migraine and tension) were, after 4 weeks of pretreatment baseline headache monitoring, randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (a) thermal biofeedback with adjunctive relaxation training (TBF); (b) TBF plus cognitive therapy; (c) pseudomeditation as an ostensible attention-placebo control; or (d) headache monitoring. The first three groups received 16 individual sessions over 8 weeks, while the fourth group continued to monitor headaches. All groups then monitored headaches for a 4-week posttreatment baseline. Analysis revealed that all treated groups improved significantly more than the headache monitoring group with no significant differences among the three treated groups. On a measure of clinically significant improvement, the two TBF groups had slightly higher (51%) degree of improvement than the meditation group (37.5%). It is argued that the attention-placebo control became an active relaxation condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of fibronectin and laminin on structural, mechanical and transport properties of 3D collageneous network

Recent studies, on cells cultured in 3D collagen gels, have shown that, beside from their well known biochemical role, fibronectin (FN) and laminin (LM) affect cell functions via a modification of mechanical and structural properties of matrix due to interaction with collagen molecules. Though biochemical properties of FN and LM have been widely studied, little is known about their role in collagen matrix assembly. The aim of this work was to characterize FN- and LM-based collagen semi-interpenetrating polymer networks (semi-IPNs), in order to understand how these biomacromolecular species can affect collagen network assembly and properties. Morphology, viscoelasticity and diffusivity of collagen gels and FN- and LM-based collagen semi-IPNs were analysed by Confocal Laser Scanning microscopy (CLSM), Environmental Scanning Electron microscopy (ESEM), Transmission Electron microscopy (TEM), Rheometry and Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) techniques. It was found that FN and LM were organized in aggregates, interspersed in collagen gel, and in thin fibrils, distributed along collagen fibres. In addition, high FN and LM concentrations affected collagen fibre assembly and structure and induced drastic effects on rheological and transport properties.     

The Contribution of Gut Microbiota and Endothelial Dysfunction in the Development of Arterial Hypertension in Animal Models and in Humans

The maintenance of the physiological values of blood pressure is closely related to unchangeable factors (genetic predisposition or pathological alterations) but also to modifiable factors (dietary fat and salt, sedentary lifestyle, overweight, inappropriate combinations of drugs, alcohol abuse, smoking and use of psychogenic substances). Hypertension is usually characterized by the presence of a chronic increase in systemic blood pressure above the threshold value and is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, including myocardial infarction, stroke, micro- and macro-vascular diseases. Hypertension is closely related to functional changes in the endothelium, such as an altered production of vasoconstrictive and vasodilator substances, which lead to an increase in vascular resistance. These alterations make the endothelial tissue unresponsive to autocrine and paracrine stimuli, initially determining an adaptive response, which over time lead to an increase in risk or disease. The gut microbiota is composed of a highly diverse bacterial population of approximately 10¹⁴ bacteria. A balanced intestinal microbiota preserves the digestive and absorbent functions of the intestine, protecting from pathogens and toxic metabolites in the circulation and reducing the onset of various diseases. The gut microbiota has been shown to produce unique metabolites potentially important in the generation of hypertension and endothelial dysfunction. This review highlights the close connection between hypertension, endothelial dysfunction and gut microbiota.     

Redox Properties of 3-Iodothyronamine (T1AM) and 3-Iodothyroacetic Acid (TA1)

3-iodothyronamine (T1AM) and 3-iodothyroacetic acid (TA1) are thyroid-hormone-related compounds endowed with pharmacological activity through mechanisms that remain elusive. Some evidence suggests that they may have redox features. We assessed the chemical activity of T1AM and TA1 at pro-oxidant conditions. Further, in the cell model consisting of brown adipocytes (BAs) differentiated for 6 days in the absence (M cells) or in the presence of 20 nM T1AM (M + T1AM cells), characterized by pro-oxidant metabolism, or TA1 (M + TA1 cells), we investigated the expression/activity levels of pro- and anti-oxidant proteins, including UCP-1, sirtuin-1 (SIRT1), mitochondrial monoamine (MAO-A and MAO-B), semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase (SSAO), and reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent lipoperoxidation. T1AM and TA1 showed in-vitro antioxidant and superoxide scavenging properties, while only TA1 acted as a hydroxyl radical scavenger. M + T1AM cells showed higher lipoperoxidation levels and reduced SIRT1 expression and activity, similar MAO-A, but higher MAO-B activity in terms of M cells. Instead, the M + TA1 cells exhibited increased levels of SIRT1 protein and activity and significantly lower UCP-1, MAO-A, MAO-B, and SSAO in comparison with the M cells, and did not show signs of lipoperoxidation. Our results suggest that SIRT1 is the mediator of T1AM and TA1 pro-or anti-oxidant effects as a result of ROS intracellular levels, including the hydroxyl radical. Here, we provide evidence indicating that T1AM and TA1 administration impacts on the redox status of a biological system, a feature that indicates the novel mechanism of action of these two thyroid-hormone-related compounds.     

Minimum mean square error space-varying filtering ofinterferometric SAR data

This paper addresses the problem of filtering interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) signals in presence of nonplanar topography to mitigate geometrical decorrelation effects. The problem is space-variant. The authors assume knowledge about the scene topography and derive an optimal, minimum mean square error (MMSE), filtering procedure. The algorithm is flexible and, beside the standard stripmap-stripmap interferometry, it may be applied to IFSAR data acquired in any operative mode. For instance, in scan-scan, scan-strip, and scan-spot interferometry. The scene topography contribution may be either derived from an external rough digital elevation model (DEM) or directly estimated from the SAR data. The filtering technique is extended to the azimuth direction to account for possible Doppler centroid decorrelation. Experimental results carried out on real data confirm the validity of the theory and show that this filtering procedure allows the authors to obtain a reduction of the interferometric noise content. Its gain is particularly marked in the cases of steep topography, where application of the standard common band filters could deteriorate the signal quality, or for large Doppler centroid shifts between the two acquisitions     

ScanSAR focusing and interferometry

The authors discuss an efficient phase preserving technique for ScanSAR focusing, used to obtain images suitable for ScanSAR interferometry. Given two complex focused ScanSAR images of the same area, an interferogram can be generated as for conventional repeat pass SAR interferometry. However, due to the nonstationary azimuth spectrum of ScanSAR images, the coherence of the interferometric pair and the interferogram resolution are affected, both by the possible scan misregistration between two passes and by the terrain slopes along the azimuth. The resulting decorrelation can be significantly reduced by means of an azimuth varying filter, provided that some conditions on the scan misregistration are met. Finally, the SAR-ScanSAR interferometry is proposed: here the decorrelation can always be removed. With no resolution loss by means of the technique presented     

Strongyloides stercoralis Infestation in a Child: How a Nematode Can Affect Gut Microbiota

Background: Strongyloidiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by the intestinal nematode Strongyloides stercoralis and characterized by gastrointestinal and pulmonary involvement. We report a pediatric case of strongyloidiasis to underline the response of the host microbiota to the perturbation induced by the nematode. Methods: We performed a 16S rRNA-metagenomic analysis of the gut microbiota of a 7-year-old female during and after S. stercolaris infection, investigating three time-point of stool samples’ ecology: T₀- during parasite infection, T₁- a month after parasite infection, and T₂- two months after parasite infection. Targeted-metagenomics were used to investigate ecology and to predict the functional pathways of the gut microbiota. Results: an increase in the alpha-diversity indices in T₀-T₁ samples was observed compared to T₂ and healthy controls (CTRLs). Beta-diversity analysis showed a shift in the relative abundance of specific gut bacterial species from T₀ to T₂ samples. Moreover, the functional prediction of the targeted-metagenomics profiles suggested an enrichment of microbial glycan and carbohydrate metabolisms in the T₀ sample compared with CTRLs. Conclusions: The herein report reinforces the literature suggestion of a putative direct or immune-mediated ability of S. stercolaris to promote the increase in bacterial diversity.