Search results for "sea urchin."

CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF MACROALGAE EXTRACTS

2023

Marine species are a rich source of bioactive molecules and among them, it is known that marine algae produce different secondary metabolites for which different biological activities such as: immunomodulatory (Raposo et al., 2016), antioxidant (Fisch et al., 2003) and antimicrobial (Pinteus et al., 2015) were demostrated. The aim of this study was chemical charac- terize the extracts of three macroalgae species: Carpodesmia crinite (Duby, Orellana & Sansón, 2019), Carpodesmia brachy- carpa (J. Agardh, Orellana & Sansón 2019, WoRMS, 2023), Ericaria brachycarpa (J. Agardh, Molinari & Guiry, 2020), Asparagopsis taxiformis (Delile) Trevisan 1845) to evaluate also their biological a…

Sea urchin embryos as an in vivo model for the assessment of manganese toxicity: developmental and stress response effects.

2008

Manganese (Mn), one of the most abundant metals in nature present in rocks, soil and water, is also found in soft bottom sediments of the oceans. It represents a trace element that is accumulated and utilized by all forms of life and plays multiple roles ranging from bone mineralization to cellular protection. Although Mn is an essential nutrient, exposure of cells/organisms to high levels of Mn cause toxicity. In the marine environment, increased concentrations of bio-available Mn often result from anthropogenic activities, and consequently, Mn represents a new important factor in environmental contamination. Emission of Mn into the marine environment occurs from metallurgic and chemical i…

Manganese-exposed embryos as blueprints to study signaling pathways involved in development

2012

The microbial community of the coelomic fluid of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus

2016

Molecular Network Establishing Dorsal-Ventral polarity during sea urchin embryogenesis

2015

Biological and Proteomic Characterization of the Anti-Cancer Potency of Aqueous Extracts from Cell-Free Coelomic Fluid of Arbacia lixula Sea Urchin i…

2022

Echinoderms are an acknowledged source of bioactive compounds exerting various beneficial effects on human health. Here, we examined the potential in vitro anti-hepatocarcinoma effects of aqueous extracts of the cell-free coelomic fluid obtained from the sea urchin Arbacia lixula using the HepG2 cell line as a model system. This was accomplished by employing a combination of colorimetric, microscopic and flow cytometric assays to determine cell viability, cell cycle distribution, the possible onset of apoptosis, the accumulation rate of acidic vesicular organelles, mitochondrial polarization, cell redox state and cell locomotory ability. The obtained data show that exposed HepG2 cells under…

The Paracentrotus lividus metallothionein gene family: structure and expression.

2014

Metallothioneins are metal binding proteins that play a pivotal role in metal homeostasis and detoxification. Since their initial discovery, they have been extensively studied in a variety of organisms ranging from microbes to plants and animals. Organisms often possess multiple genes encoding metallothionein homologs with distinct properties, such as varying affinities for different metals, and in many cases different functions. Despite the plethora of available studies, very little information is known about sea urchin P. lividus MT (1, 2). We previously identified five Pl-MT embryonic cDNAs and we studied their induction after cadmium treatment (3). Now we studied their expression during…

Maria Carmela Roccheri

2012

Research focus Control of autophagy during both physiological development and in stress conditions in the sea urchin embryo. Model system Sea urchin embryo and larvae in development. Education and career 1971, biology degree, University of Palermo, Italy; advisor: G. Giudice. 1972–1973, fellowship from the Italian Ministry of Public Education, Institute of Comparative Anatomy, University of Palermo. 1974–1980, associate scientist at the Institute of Comparative Anatomy, University of Palermo. 1981–2005, associate professor of cell biology, Department of Cell and Development Biology, University of Palermo. 2000–2005, member of the scientific committee for PhD in “Biotechnology applied to pre…

Localized expression of Strim1, a novel member of the TRIM-containing family, guides the skeletal morphogenetic program of the sea urchin embryo

2011

The building of the skeleton in the indirect developing sea urchin embryo is a complex morphogenetic process that is executed by the Primary Mesenchyme Cells or PMCs (Ettensohn et al, 1997; Wilt 2002). It is well known that the PMCs acquire most of the positional and temporal information from the overlying ectoderm for skeletal initiation and growth (Armstrong 1993; Cavalieri et al, 2003; Röttinger et al, 2008). In this study, we analyze the function of a novel gene, encoding for a tripartite motif-containing (TRIM) protein denoted strim1, that adds up to the list of genes constituting the epithelial-mesenchymal signaling network. We show that strim1 is expressed in ectoderm regions adjacen…

Vanadium Toxicity Monitored by Fertilization Outcomes and Metal Related Proteolytic Activities in Paracentrotus lividus Embryos

2022

Metal pharmaceutical residues often represent emerging toxic pollutants of the aquatic environment, as wastewater treatment plants do not sufficiently remove these compounds. Recently, vanadium (V) derivatives have been considered as potential therapeutic factors in several diseases, however, only limited information is available about their impact on aquatic environments. This study used sea urchin embryos (Paracentrotus lividus) to test V toxicity, as it is known they are sensitive to V doses from environmentally relevant to very cytotoxic levels (50 nM; 100 nM; 500 nM; 1 µM; 50 µM; 100 µM; 500 µM; and 1 mM). We used two approaches: The fertilization test (FT) and …