153 research outputs found
Mediterranean diet, folic acid, and neural tube defects
No full textAbstract The Mediterranean diet has been for a very long time the basis of food habits all over the countries of the Mediterranean basin, originally founded on rural models and low consumption of meat products and high-fat/high-processed foods. However, in the modern era, the traditional Mediterranean diet pattern is now progressively eroding due to the widespread dissemination of the Western-type economy, life-style, technology-driven culture, as well as the globalisation of food production, availability and consumption, with consequent homogenisation of food culture and behaviours. This transition process may affect many situations, including pregnancy and offspring’s health. The problem of the diet during pregnancy and the proper intake of nutrients are nowadays a very current topic, arousing much debate. The Mediterranean dietary pattern, in particular, has been associated with the highest risk reduction of major congenital anomalies, like the heterogeneous class of neural tube defects (NTDs). NTDs constitute a major health burden (0.5-2/1000 pregnancies worldwide) and still remain a preventable cause of still birth, neonatal and infant death, or significant lifelong disabilities. Many studies support the finding that appropriate folate levels during pregnancy may confer protection against these diseases. In 1991 one randomised controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated for the first time that periconceptional supplementation of folic acid is able to prevent the recurrence of NTDs, finding confirmed by many other subsequent studies. Anyway, the high rate of unplanned/unintended pregnancies and births and other issues hindering the achievement of adequate folate levels in women in childbearing age, induced the US government and many other countries to institute mandatory food fortification with folic acid. The actual strategy adopted by European Countries (including Italy) suggests that women take 0,4 mg folic acid/die before conception. The main question is which intervention, between folic acid supplementation, foods fortification or both, linked to a healthy life-style and diet pattern may represent the best method in preventing NTDs. The aim of this review is to describe the actual situation in NTDs prevention, with a special attention to the Italiancontext concerning this delicate and controversial subject
Metabolomics in the diagnosis of sepsis
No full textSepsis is an important cause of mortality and morbidity for preterm and hospitalized newborn babies. Today, no single test satisfies the criteria as being the ideal marker for the early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. Analysis of the entire metabolome is a promising method for determining metabolic variations correlated with sepsis
Stem cell therapy for neonatal diseases associated with preterm birth
No full textIn the last decades, the prevention and treatment of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome with antenatal steroids and surfactant replacement allowed the survival of infants born at extremely low gestational ages. These extremely preterm infants are highly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of oxidative stress and infection, and are prone to develop lung and brain diseases that eventually evolve in severe sequelae: The so-called new bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and the noncystic, diffuse form of periventricular leukomalacia (PVL). Tissue simplification and developmental arrest (larger and fewer alveoli and hypomyelination in the lungs and brain, respectively) appears to be the hallmark of these emerging sequelae, while fibrosis is usually mild and contributes to a lesser extent to their pathogenesis. New data suggest that loss of stem/progenitor cell populations in the developing brain and lungs may underlie tissue simplification. These observations constitute the basis for the application of stem cell-based protocols following extremely preterm birth. Transplantation of different cell types (including, but not limited to, mesenchymal stromal cells, endothelial progenitor cells, human amnion epithelial cells) could be beneficial in preterm infants for the prevention and/or treatment of BPD, PVL and other major sequelae of prematurity. However, before this new knowledge can be translated into clinical practice, several issues still need to be addressed in preclinical in vitro and in vivo models
Anomalous Fusion of Right Pulmonary Artery to Aortic Arch: Case Report of a Rare and Fatal Congenital Malformation in a Newborn and a Literature Review
No full text
IBD risk loci are enriched in multigenic regulatory modules encompassing putative causative genes
No full textGWAS have identified >200 risk loci for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The majority of disease associations are known to be driven by regulatory variants. To identify the putative causative genes that are perturbed by these variants, we generate a large transcriptome data set (nine disease-relevant cell types) and identify 23,650 cis-eQTL. We show that these are determined by ∼9720 regulatory modules, of which ∼3000 operate in multiple tissues and ∼970 on multiple genes. We identify regulatory modules that drive the disease association for 63 of the 200 risk loci, and show that these are enriched in multigenic modules. Based on these analyses, we resequence 45 of the corresponding 100 candidate genes in 6600 Crohn disease (CD) cases and 5500 controls, and show with burden tests that they include likely causative genes. Our analyses indicate that ≥10-fold larger sample sizes will be required to demonstrate the causality of individual genes using this approach. © 2018 The Author(s)
Macrophage Activation in Pediatric Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) Correlates with Hepatic Progenitor Cell Response via Wnt3a Pathway
No full textNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease is one of the most important causes of liver-related morbidity in children. In non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, the activation of liver resident macrophage pool is a central event in the progression of liver injury. The aims of the present study were to evaluate the polarization of liver macrophages and the possible role of Wnt3a production by macrophages in hepatic progenitor cell response in the progression of pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. 32 children with biopsy-proven non-alcoholic fatty liver disease were included. 20 out of 32 patients were treated with docosahexaenoic acid for 18 months and biopsies at the baseline and after 18 months were included. Hepatic progenitor cell activation, macrophage subsets and Wnt/β-catenin pathway were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. Our results indicated that in pediatric non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, pro-inflammatory macrophages were the predominant subset. Macrophage polarization was correlated with Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease Activity Score, ductular reaction, and portal fibrosis; docosahexaenoic acid treatment determined a macrophage polarization towards an anti-inflammatory phenotype in correlation with the reduction of serum inflammatory cytokines, with increased macrophage apoptosis, and with the upregulation of macrophage Wnt3a expression; macrophage Wnt3a expression was correlated with β-catenin phosphorylation in hepatic progenitor cells and signs of commitment towards hepatocyte fate. In conclusion, macrophage polarization seems to have a key role in the progression of pediatric non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; the modulation of macrophage polarization could drive hepatic progenitor cell response by Wnt3a production. © 2016 Carpino et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Malaria Neonatale
No full textLa malaria è una malattia causata dal protozoo del genere Plasmodium, trasmessa attraverso la
puntura de la zanzara del genere Anopheles. Ne l’uomo è causata da cinque specie di plasmodi:
Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P ovale, P. malariae e, in alcune parti del sud-est asiatico, P.
knowlesi. La malaria neonatale è considerata un evento raro, grazie a l'e fetto sinergico protettivo
di diversi fattori: la trasmissione de l'immunità materna dopo la nascita, l’a lattamento, l’elevata
concentrazione di emoglobina fetale. Gli anticorpi materni (IgG) sono acquisiti dal feto attraverso
la placenta in utero e si riducono nel corso del primo anno di vita. Durante l’a lattamento, inoltre,
i neonati sono protetti da fattori che inibiscono la crescita del parassita, come la lattoferrina e le
IgA secretorie che si trovano nel latte materno. Infine l’emoglobina F (HbF), presente in
concentrazioni elevate a la nascita, sembra essere in grado di inibire lo sviluppo del parassita e
può proteggere il bambino nei primi mesi di vita. Raggiunto il picco a 6 settimane di età, sia i
live li di emoglobina fetale che le IgG materne diminuiscono, con una conseguente maggiore
suscettibilità infantile a la malaria da P. falciparum
Cytogenetic study on children living in Southern Urals contaminated areas (nuclear incidents 1948-1967)
No full textAs a result of the activities of the first Soviet plutonium production reactor, large territories of the Southern Urals were exposed to radioactive contamination. Three different incidents occurring between 1948 and 1967 lead to major exposure. A total of 280,000 people residing on the contaminated territories were exposed both to external and internal contamination particularly due to the long-lived radionuclides 137Cs and 90Sr. The highest doses were received by 28,000 people living on the Techa riverside villages. In the present paper 15 presumably exposed children coming from the Muslyumovo village on the Techa river have been analyzed using conventional cytogenetic procedure in order to assess a radiation-induced damage. The data obtained have been compared to a group of matched unexposed controls. The results show a statistical difference between the two cohorts which suggests a possible residual contamination representing a continuous hazard for the new generations
- …
