Search results for "Biochimica"
showing 10 items of 644 documents
PPAR alpha gene variants as predicted performance-enhancing polymorphisms in professional Italian soccer players
2014
Patrizia Proia,1 Antonino Bianco,1 Gabriella Schiera,2 Patrizia Saladino,2 Valentina Contrò,1 Giovanni Caramazza,3 Marcello Traina,1 Keith A Grimaldi,4 Antonio Palma,1 Antonio Paoli5 1Sport and Exercise Sciences Research Unit, 2Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy; 3Regional Sports School of CONI Sicilia, Sicily, Italy; 4Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece; 5Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, Padua, Italy Background: The PPARα gene encodes the peroxisome proliferato…
Angiogenic and/or pro-apoptotic factors are shed from brain cells via extracellular vesicles
2008
We set a three-cell type coculture system in which neurons and astrocytes synergistically induce brain capillary endothelial cells to form a monolayer with permeability properties resembling those of the physiological blood-brain barrier (BBB) (Schiera et al., 2003; Schiera et al., 2005). On the basis of immunofluorescence, scanner electron microscopy and western blot analyses, we also suggested that both astrocytes and neurons in culture shed extracellular vesicles that contain FGF-2 and VEGF, as well as beta1-integrin, a membrane protein that can be considered a marker of shedding (Schiera et al, 2007; Proia et al., 2008). In addition, it was already known that transformed glial cells (ol…
Effect of the serum from multiple sclerosis patients on an in vitro model of blood-brain barrier.
2008
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized by focal inflammatory demyelination, largely due to autoimmune responses against different components of the myelin sheet. It is also generally accepted that the pathogenesis of MS consists of inflammatory and neurodegenerative phases, where demyelination should produce partially reversible clinical deficits that can remit, due to limited remyelination, while axonal degeneration produces permanent non-remitting clinical damage. It is also assumed that nervous system inflammation is initiated by autoreactive, myelin-specific T cells that permeate the blood-brain barrier and trigger a series of events leading to tissue destruction. In addition to antib…
Sicilian pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) nut inhibits expression and release of inflammatory mediators and reverts the increase of paracellular permeabi…
2014
Background Dietary approaches to control inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) may include proanthocyanidin-rich foods. Our previous research showed that a hydrophilic extract from Sicilian pistachio nut (HPE) contains sub- stantial amounts of proanthocyanidins and possesses anti- inflammatory activities. Purpose We studied the effects of HPE and of its poly- meric proanthocyanidin fraction (PPF) in a cell model that simulated some conditions of IBD, consisting of interleukin (IL)-1b-stimulated Caco-2 cells. Methods HPE was prepared by Pistacia vera L. nuts, and PPF was isolated from HPE by adsorbance chromatogra- phy. Proanthocyanidins were quantified as anthocyanidins after acidic hydrolysis.…
Biocompatible Lipid Nanoparticles as Carriers to Improve Curcumin Efficacy in Ovarian Cancer Treatment
2017
Curcumin is a natural molecule with proved anticancer efficacy on several human cancer cell lines. However, its clinical application has been limited due to its poor bioavailability. Nanocarrier-based drug delivery approaches could make curcumin dispersible in aqueous media, thus overtaking the limits of its low solubility. The aim of this study was to increase the bioavailability and the antitumoral activity of curcumin, by entrapping it into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs). For this purpose here we describe the preparation and characterization of three kinds of curcumin-loaded NLCs. The nanosystems allowed the achievement of a controlled release of curcumin, the amounts of curcumin r…
Modulation of Human Motor Cortical Excitability and Plasticity by Opuntia Ficus Indica Fruit Consumption: Evidence from a Preliminary Study through N…
2022
Indicaxanthin (IX) from Opuntia Ficus Indica (OFI) has been shown to exert numerous biological effects both in vitro and in vivo, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuro-modulatory activity in rodent models. Our goal was to investigate the eventual neuro-active role of orally assumed fruits containing high levels of IX at nutritionally-relevant amounts in healthy subjects, exploring cortical excitability and plasticity in the human motor cortex (M1). To this purpose, we applied paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation and anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) in basal conditions and followed the consumption of yellow cactus pear fruits containing IX or white ca…
Carbohydrates consumption pre exercise attenuate bone resorption marker in young female gymnasts
2019
Purpose: Bone mineral density (BMD) is modified by environmental factors like diet, nutritional status and exercise. Athletes have higher bone turnover than sedentary individuals but prolonged exercise might result in a negative remodeling balance and compromise skeletal health. Strenuous exercise and fasting may induce osteoclastic activity that is not necessarily accompanied by a compensatory increase in osteoblastic activity. The purpose of this study was to understand if there is specific nutrition to allow best performance and reduce bone resorption that occurs after exercise in athletes. Methods: A group of 28 gymnasts aged between 9 and 14 years old (13 ± 1.71) playing artistic gymna…
Synthesis, structural characterization and antitumor activity of di- and tri-organotin(IV) complexes of D-galacturonic acid
2015
Sex steroid hormone receptors, their ligands, and nuclear and non-nuclear pathways
2015
The ability of a cell to respond to a particular hormone depends on the presence of specific receptors for those hormones. Once the hormone has bound to its receptor, and following structural and biochemical modifications to the receptor, it separates from cytoplasmic chaperone proteins, thereby exposing the nuclear localization sequences that result in the activation of the receptor and initiation of the biological actions of the hormone on the target cell. In addition, recent work has demonstrated new pathways of steroid signaling through orphan and cell surface receptors that contribute to more rapid, “non-nuclear” or non-transcriptional effects of steroid hormones, often involving G-pro…