In order to improve the efficacy of conventional radiotherapy, attention has been paid to immune cells, which not only modulate cancer cell response to therapy but are also highly recruited to ...tumours after irradiation. Particularly, the effect of ionizing radiation on macrophages, using therapeutically relevant doses, is not well understood. To evaluate how radiotherapy affects macrophage behaviour and macrophage-mediated cancer cell activity, human monocyte derived-macrophages were subjected, for a week, to cumulative ionizing radiation doses, as used during cancer treatment (2 Gy/fraction/day). Irradiated macrophages remained viable and metabolically active, despite DNA damage. NF-kappaB transcription activation and increased Bcl-xL expression evidenced the promotion of pro-survival activity. A significant increase of pro-inflammatory macrophage markers CD80, CD86 and HLA-DR, but not CCR7, TNF and IL1B was observed after 10 Gy cumulative doses, while anti-inflammatory markers CD163, MRC1, VCAN and IL-10 expression decreased, suggesting the modulation towards a more pro-inflammatory phenotype. Moreover, ionizing radiation induced macrophage morphological alterations and increased their phagocytic rate, without affecting matrix metalloproteases (MMP)2 and MMP9 activity. Importantly, irradiated macrophages promoted cancer cell-invasion and cancer cell-induced angiogenesis. Our work highlights macrophage ability to sustain cancer cell activities as a major concern that needs to be addressed to improve radiotherapy efficacy.
We aimed to assess the effects of age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and anatomical site on skin thickness in children and adults with diabetes.
We studied 103 otherwise healthy children and ...adolescents with type 1 diabetes aged 5-19 years, and 140 adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes aged 20-85 years. The thicknesses of both the dermis and subcutis were assessed using ultrasound with a linear array transducer, on abdominal and thigh skin.
There was an age-related thickening of both dermis (p<0.0001) and subcutis (p = 0.013) in children and adolescents. Girls displayed a substantial pubertal increase in subcutis of the thigh (+54%; p = 0.048) and abdomen (+68%; p = 0.009). Adults showed an age-related decrease in dermal (p = 0.021) and subcutis (p = 0.009) thicknesses. Pubertal girls had a thicker subcutis than pubertal boys in both thigh (16.7 vs 7.5 mm; p<0.0001) and abdomen (16.7 vs 8.8 mm; p<0.0001). Men had greater thigh dermal thickness than women (1.89 vs 1.65 mm; p = 0.003), while the subcutis was thicker in women in thigh (21.3 vs 17.9 mm; p = 0.012) and abdomen (17.7 vs 9.8 mm; p<0.0001). In boys, men, and women, both dermis and subcutis were thicker on the abdomen compared to thigh; in girls this was only so for dermal thickness. In both children and adults, the skin (dermis and subcutis) became steadily thicker with increasing BMI (p<0.0001).
Skin thickness is affected by age, pubertal status, gender, BMI, and anatomical site. Such differences may be important when considering appropriate sites for dermal/subcutaneous injections and other transdermal delivery systems.
Despite the lower levels of psychopathy in women than in men, the scientific interest in studying psychopathy in female participants is increasing. Nevertheless, the number of studies investigating ...psychopathy in women and associated phenomena remains low. The influence of psychopathy in women inmates on experimental tasks of emotional recognition and moral judgment was evaluated, aiming to contribute to this field of research. Utilitarian moral judgment was predicted by psychopathy, specifically by primary and secondary psychopathy, while primary psychopathy predicted a worse performance on the emotional recognition task. There was no significant influence of general intellectual abilities on either task. Contrarily to what was expected, emotional recognition did not prove to be a significant mediator of the relationship between psychopathy and utilitarian moral judgment. These results emphasize that the tendency to utilitarian moral judgment and worse recognition of facial expressions of emotion are associated to higher psychopathy scores in female inmates (especially primary psychopathy), but more studies are necessary to address the role of the emotional component in the process of moral judgment.
The search for food products that promote health has grown over the years. Phenolic compounds present in grapes and in their derivatives, such as grape juices, represent today a broad area of ...research, given the benefits that they have on the human health. Grape juice can be produced from any grape variety once it has attained appropriate maturity. However, only in traditional wine producing regions, grape juices are produced from Vitis vinifera grape varieties. For example, Brazilian grape juices are essentially produced from Vitis labrusca grape varieties, known as American or hybrid, as they preserve their characteristics such as the natural flavour after pasteurisation. Grapes are one of the richest sources of phenolic compounds among fruits. Therefore, grape juices have been broadly studied due to their composition in phenolic compounds and their potential beneficial effects on human health, specifically the ability to prevent various diseases associated with oxidative stress, including cancers, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, this review will address grape juices phenolic composition, with a special focus on the potential beneficial effects on human health and on the grape juice sensory impact.
Consumers increasingly prefer and seek food and beverages, which, due to their natural characteristics, bring health benefits, both in the prevention of diseases and in their curative power. In this ...way, the production of nutraceutical foods and beverages gains more and more importance in the market. On the other hand, and because the eyes also eat, producing attractive foods due to their color, texture, appearance, and sensory characteristics is a permanent challenge in the food industry. Being able to gather healthy and attractive items in a single food is an even greater challenge. The long list of benefits associated with phenolic compounds, such as antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antiaging properties, among others, fully justifies their use in the enrichment of various food products. Thus, in this review, we propose to summarize the potential use of phenolic compounds used as ingredients of pleasant and functional beverages.
Recent social, economic, and technological evolutions have impacted consumption habits. The new consumer is more rational, more connected and demanding with products, more concerned with the ...management of the family budget, with the health, origin, and sustainability of food. The food industry over the last few years has shown remarkable technological and scientific evolution, with an impact on the development and innovation of new products using non-thermal processing. Non-thermal processing technologies involve methods by which fruit juices receive microbiological inactivation and enzymatic denaturation with or without the direct application of low heat, thereby lessening the adverse effects on the nutritional, bioactive, and flavor compounds of the treated fruit juices, extending their shelf-life. The recognition of the nutritional and protective values of fruit juices and fermented fruit beverages is evident and is attributed to the presence of different bioactive compounds, protecting against chronic and metabolic diseases. Fermentation maintains the fruit's safety, nutrition, and shelf life and the development of new products. This review aims to summarize the chemical and sensory characteristics of fruit juices and fermented fruit drinks, the fermentation process, its benefits, and its effects.
Silicon is an essential mineral nutrient, that plays a crucial role in the metabolic, biochemical, and functional mechanisms of many crops under environmental stress. In the current study, we ...evaluated the effect of SiK
fertilization on the biochemical defense response in plants exposed to water stress.
plants were fertilized with different concentrations of potassium silicate (0, 5, 7.5, and 10 mM of SiK
) and exposed to a non-irrigation phase and an irrigation phase. The results indicate that silicon promoted the synthesis of soluble proteins and decreased the proline content and the oxidative stress (reduced electrolyte leakage, lipid peroxidation, and hydrogen peroxide accumulation) in tissues, due to an increase in ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, and peroxidase activity, which was accompanied by the rise in total phenol compounds and the number of thiols under drought conditions. This study suggests that exogenous Si applications have a protective role in chestnut plants under water deficit by increasing their resilience to this abiotic stress.
With growing concern for the unsustainability of food systems, the international research community has turned its attention to small farms as key actors to potentially face the global food crisis. ...This study aims to support a policy design that values the diversity of small farms business models vis‐à‐vis environmental, economic, social and institutional challenges affecting European farming systems. Building on the existing classification of five small farm types in the EU, our analysis targets the business model dynamics of small farms in four Euro‐Mediterranean countries: Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. For this analysis, we applied resilience thinking to the Business Model Canvas framework. This innovative conceptual framework allows us to depict the architecture of small farms business models and their role in farming systems. The diversity of small farms business models and their continuous adaptation to changing conditions allows for the identification of a strongly heterogeneous assemblage of farms that contribute to the resilience of food systems at local, regional and multiple other scales.
By tradition, herbal infusions have been mainly consumed for their pleasant taste, but, nowadays, the consumer, along with the pleasantness of drinking a savory beverage, also looks for their health ...benefits. Grapes and grape/wine by-products are a rich source of health-promoting compounds, presenting great potential for the development of new beverages. Moreover, grape-infusion preparation is no more than a sustainable or green way of extracting polyphenols and other nutraceutical compounds from grapes and grape leaves. In this review, we summarize the benefits of drinking grape infusions and discuss the sustainable processes of extracting potential nutraceutical compounds from grapes and grape by-products, which are often considered fermentation waste and are discarded to the environment without proper treatment.
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