0000000000607869
AUTHOR
Rappa Francesca
Lack of Dystrophin Affects Bronchial Epithelium in mdx Mice
Mild exercise training may positively affect the course of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). Training causes mild bronchial epithelial injury in both humans and mice, but no study assessed the effects of exercise in mdx mice, a well known model of DMD. The airway epithelium was examined in mdx (C57BL/10ScSn-Dmdmdx) mice, and in wild type (WT, C57BL/10ScSc) mice either under sedentary conditions (mdx-SD, WT-SD) or during mild exercise training (mdx-EX, WT-EX). At baseline, and after 30 and 45 days of training (5 d/wk for 6 weeks), epithelial morphology and markers of regeneration, apoptosis, and cellular stress were assessed. The number of goblet cells in bronchial epithelium was much lower…
GLP-2 as Beneficial Factor in the Glucose Homeostasis in Mice Fed a High Fat Diet
Glucagon like peptide-2 (GLP-2) is a gastrointestinal hormone released in response to dietary nutrients, which acts through a specific receptor, the GLP-2 receptor (GLP-2R). The physiological effects of GLP-2 are multiple, involving also the intestinal adaptation to high fat diet (HFD). In consideration of the well-known relationship between chronic HFD and impaired glucose metabolism, in the present study we examined if the blocking of the GLP-2 signaling by chronic treatment with the GLP-2R antagonist, GLP-2 (3-33), leads to functional consequences in the regulation of glucose metabolism in HFD-fed mice. Compared with animals fed standard diet (STD), mice at the 10th week of HFD showed hy…
Loss of histone macroH2A1 in hepatocellular carcinoma cells promotes paracrine-mediated chemoresistance and CD4
Rationale: Loss of histone macroH2A1 induces appearance of cancer stem cells (CSCs)-like cells in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). How CSCs interact with the tumor microenvironment and the adaptive immune system is unclear. Methods: We screened aggressive human HCC for macroH2A1 and CD44 CSC marker expression. We also knocked down (KD) macroH2A1 in HCC cells, and performed integrated transcriptomic and secretomic analyses. Results: Human HCC showed low macroH2A1 and high CD44 expression compared to control tissues. MacroH2A1 KD CSC-like cells transferred paracrinally their chemoresistant properties to parental HCC cells. MacroH2A1 KD conditioned media transcriptionally reprogrammed parental …
Tissue and circulating miRNAs as biomarkers in bicuspid aortic valve disease.
Recent data suggested that bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) with left-right (L-R), right-non coronary (R-NC) and left-non coronary (L-NC) cusp fusion represents distinct pathological entities1. The rate of aortic enlargement varies according to the pattern of cusps fusion, with faster rates of aortic sinus and ascending aortic dilatation associated with the L-R compared to R-NC and L-NC morphology. In our study, we sought to investigate the histological fea-tures of aneurysms associated to different BAV phenotypes and we looked for specific mi-croRNAs (miRNA) as biomarkers of medial degeneration severity in order to optimize surgi-cal indication and prevent catastrophic complications such as rup…