142 research outputs found
First molecular characterization of a granulocytic ehrlichia strain isolated from a dog in south italy
No full textInterest in the study of granulocytic ehrlichiosis in veterinary and human medicine has increased since the discovery that dogs, horses and humans can be infected by genetically closely related Ehrlichia species (E. phagocytophila genogroup). The close antigenic and genetic relationship has raised the awareness of the zoonotic potential of E. phagocytophila-like organisms (Walker and Dumler, 1996). We report here the case of a dog from South Italy affected by granulocytic ehrlichi- osis. The causative agent was characterized by PCR and subsequent sequencing of the PCR product. Based on recent findings on human Ehrlichia infection in Italy (Nuti et al., 1998), our results highlight the importance of this underestimated disease as a possible zoonosis affecting canine population
How major depressive disorder affects the ability to decode multimodal dynamic emotional stimuli
No full textMost studies investigating the processing of emotions in depressed patients reported impairments in the decoding of negative emotions. However, these studies adopted static stimuli (mostly stereotypical facial expressions corresponding to basic emotions) which do not reflect the way people experience emotions in everyday life. For this reason, this work proposes to investigate the decoding of emotional expressions in patients affected by Recurrent Major Depressive Disorder (RMDDs) using dynamic audio/video stimuli. RMDDs’ performance is compared with the performance of patients with Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood (ADs) and healthy (HCs) subjects. The experiments involve 27 RMDDs (16 with acute depression - RMDD-A, and 11 in a compensation phase - RMDD-C), 16 ADs and 16 HCs. The ability to decode emotional expressions is assessed through an emotion recognition task based on short audio (without video), video (without audio) and audio/video clips. The results show that AD patients are significantly less accurate than HCs in decoding fear, anger, happiness, surprise and sadness. RMDD-As with acute depression are significantly less accurate than HCs in decoding happiness, sadness and surprise. Finally, no significant differences were found between HCs and RMDD-Cs in a compensation phase. The different communication channels and the types of emotion play a significant role in limiting the decoding accuracy
THE TAKAGI AUTOMATIC TANGENT SCREEN ATS-85 ANALYZER FOR THE DETECTION OF GLAUCOMATOUS PATIENTS
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Vie del segnale cellulare attivate nel processo di apoptosi indotto dalla micotossina Ocratossina A
No full textOchratoxin A affects COS cell adhesion and signaling.
No full textOchratoxin A (OTA), produced by Aspergillus and Penicillium strains, is a secondary fungal metabolite widespread in a variety of animal feed and human food, such as cereals, pork and poultry meat, coffee, wine, grape juice,and milk. OTA is a derivative of the isocumarin linked to L--phenylalanine and it is classified as a pentaketide. Epidemiological studies correlate OTA with Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN), immunosuppression, hepatotoxicity, carcinogenicity, teratogenicity and mutagenicity. The molecular mechanisms involved in OTA-induced toxicity are not clearly defined. The aim of the present study was to assess the ability of OTA to affect cell-matrix adhesion and signaling in monkey kidney COS cell line. COS cells were grown in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) supplemented by 10% foetal bovine serum (FBS) and 1% glutamine. Cells were harvested for propagation or cell attachment experiments by treatment with 0.25 % trypsin / 0.02 % ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and with 5 mM EDTA in PBS, respectively. The viability of cells exposed to increasing concentrations of OTA for different time intervals was measured by the trypan blue exclusion method. Cell adhesion assays both in the presence and in the absence of increasing concentrations of OTA were performed as previously described. Apoptosis induced by OTA was evaluated on cell lysates incubated with N-acetyl-Asp-Glu-Val-Asp-7-amino-4-methylcoumarin (Ac-DEVD-AMC) by measuring the increase in fluorescence due to the cellular caspase-3 activity. In order to evaluate whether OTA exerted a toxic effect, the cells were exposed to increasing concentrations of OTA (0-100 M) for different time intervals (1-72 h). The mycotoxin was not cytotoxic at concentrations lower than 100. A significant cytotoxic effect with 100 OTA was detected only after prolonged cell exposure. Then, we evaluated the percentage of cell detachment from immobilized collagen or fibronectin induced by non-cytotoxic concentrations of OTA. After 24 h of cell exposure to OTA we observed an 80 % and 55 % of cell detachment from immobilized collagen and fibronectin, respectively. Previous studies have demonstrated that OTA induces apoptosis in different cell systems. We investigated whether OTA induces apoptosis in COS cells and how the kinetics of OTA-induced apoptotic response correlates with the kinetics of cell detachment. After 9h of cell exposure to OTA (10 M), the mycotoxin induced apoptosis in COS cells adherent to collagen or fibronectin. This result indicates that the kinetics of cell detachment and apoptosis induced by OTA were not related. Since these events are associated with cell signaling, we have evaluated the effect of cell exposure to OTA on tyrosine phosphorylation of the focal adhesion associated proteins FAK (focal adhesion kinase) and paxillin. Our results show that OTA causes a reduction of tyrosine phosphorylation of pp125FAK and paxillin in adherent COS cells. Since either FAK or Shc pathways are implicated in the activation of the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) cascade Further investigations are in progress to evaluate the effect of OTA on Shc pathway
Una rara complicanza di calcolosi a stampo renale bilaterale
No full textLa formazione spontanea di trafitti fistolosi tra loggia renale e cute è di rara osservazione. La maggior parte dei casi sono di origine traumatica o iatrogena. Presentiamo il caso di una pz di 39 anni affetta da IRC per calcolosi bilaterale a stampo, sottoposta a nefrectomia destra per la sintomatologia dolorosa ed il mancato drenaggio pielostomico, 20gg dopo il trattamento chirurgico la pz sviluppò una fistola tra la loggia renale e la cute a sinistra
Choosing wisely in obstetric anesthesia: Reexamining our practice
No full textFrom the need to contain the health expenditure and reduce the abuse of diagnostic tests and procedures which do not bring substantial benefits to patients, arises the “Choosing wisely” campaign. Every scientific society that has joined the campaign has developed a “top five list” of five avoidable diagnostic/therapeutic procedures, chosen by experts based on evidenced based medicine. The “top five list” provided by the American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) pertains the preoperative and intraoperative practices. In this review, we examine the possibility of applying the top-five list of ASA in obstetric anesthesia, highlighting the effects of “a wise choice” in this field
Anemia and chronic renal failure: a therapeutical approach by reduced glutathione parenteral administration
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