Feasibility in the use of the UV-Visible region for the characterization of glucose in deionized water using Arduino 1 / Viabilidad en el uso de la región UV-Visible para la caracterización de glucosa en agua desionizada mediante Arduino 1

ABSTRACT With an estimated approximately 2 million deaths per year, diabetes is one of the top 5 deadliest noncommunicable diseases globally. Although this disease is not fatal, the degradation of the patient's health due to a bad plan to control their glucose levels can have a fatal outcome. In order to lay the foundations for the development of a device that allows estimating glucose levels in some body fluid, we present the results obtained not only for the estimation of glucose in deionized water, but also describe the development and configuration of the created device. After analyzing 50 signals obtained from 5 different glucose concentrations, the feasibility of using the developed device for the analysis is evident, since, considering the K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) algorithm, all the signals were associated correctly to the glucose group to which they belong.

RESUMEN Con un estimado de aproximadamente 2 millones de muertes por año, la diabetes es una de las 5 enfermedades no transmisibles más mortales a nivel mundial. Aunque esta enfermedad no es mortal, el deterioro de la salud del paciente por un mal plan para controlar sus niveles de glucosa puede tener un desenlace fatal. Con el fin de sentar las bases para el desarrollo de un dispositivo que permita estimar los niveles de glucosa en algún fluido corporal, presentamos los resultados obtenidos no solo para la estimación de glucosa en agua desionizada, sino que también describimos el desarrollo y configuración del dispositivo creado. Luego de analizar 50 señales obtenidos a partir de 5 concentraciones de glucosa diferentes, se evidencia la factibilidad de utilizar el dispositivo desarrollado para el análisis, ya que, considerando el algoritmo K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), todas las señales se asociaron correctamente al grupo de glucosa al que pertenecen.

Evaluación del polimorfismo Pro12Ala del gen PPARƴ en mujeres con diabetes mellitus gestacional / Evaluation of the Pro12Ala polymorphism of the PPARƴ gene in women with gestational diabetes mellitus

Resumen OBJETIVO: Determinar la frecuencia del alelo Ala en una muestra de mujeres mexicanas con diabetes mellitus gestacional y asociar su repercusión en la glucemia. MATERIALES Y MÉTODOS: Estudio ambispectivo, observacional, transversal y correlacional efectuado en una cohorte de pacientes con diabetes gestacional atendidas entre los meses de enero a junio del 2014 en el Hospital Militar de Especialidades de la Mujer y Neonatología de la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional en la Ciudad de México. Se evaluó el polimorfismo mediante amplificación de un fragmento de ADN mediante la reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR) y su secuenciación. RESULTADOS: Se estudiaron 81 pacientes; 3 de ellas con el alelo Ala, con concentraciones de glucosa menores y antecedente de más abortos en comparación con las mujeres sin el alelo Ala. CONCLUSIONES: La coexistencia del alelo Ala en mujeres embarazadas con diagnóstico de diabetes mellitus gestacional pudiera tener un efecto protector en contra de la hiperglucemia en el embarazo y el riesgo de aborto.

Abstract OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARg) polymorphism of proline substituted with an alanine in amino acid 12 (Pro12Ala), in women with gestational diabetes mellitus and associate its impact with glycemia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An ambispective, observational, cross-sectional and correlational study was carried out in a cohort of women with gestational diabetes that included 81 pregnant women treated at the Military Hospital for Women's Specialties and Neonatology of the Ministry of National Defense in the city from Mexico. Polymorphism was evaluated by amplification of a DNA fragment by PCR Polymerase Chain Reaction and its sequencing. RESULTS: The results indicated that 13.5% of the women carriers of the Ala allele also had lower blood glucose values and a history with a higher number of abortions compared to women without the Ala allele. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of the Ala allele in pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus could have a protective effect against hyperglycemia in pregnancy and a risk of abortion.

Identificación molecular de bacterias en salud y enfermedad periodontal / Molecular identification of bacteria in healthy and diseased periodontium

RESUMEN El estudio de la microbiota bacteriana asociada con periodontitis es esencial para desarrollar herramientas de diagnóstico y eficacia en las terapias, por esta razón el objetivo de este estudio fue identificar bacterias asociadas con periodontitis. Nosotros amplificamos el gen 16S rARN por reacción en cadena de polimerasa (PCR) y secuenciamos para investigar y comparar muestras subgingivales obtenidas de individuos sanos y pacientes con periodontitis moderada y severa. Identificamos Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Pseudomonas sp., Fusobacterium nucleatum, Haemophilus sp., Aggregatibacter sp. y Prevotella intermedia. P. gingivalis y F. nucleatum se asociaron con ambas periodontitis y Aggregatibacter sp. se asoció con periodontitis severa. Los resultados presentados aquí podrían contribuir en la toma de decisiones clínicas de la periodontitis.

ABSTRACT The study of bacterial microbiota associated with periodontitis is essential to develop effective diagnostic tools and therapies. Hence, the aim of this study was to identify the bacteria associated with periodontitis. We used 16S rRNA gene amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing to identify and compare 80 subgingival samples from patients with healthy periodontium and patients with severe and moderate periodontitis. We identified the following bacteria: Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Pseudomonas sp., Fusobacterium nucleatum, Haemophilus sp., Aggregatibacter sp., and Prevotella intermedia. P. gingivalis and F. nucleatum were associated with both moderate and severe periodontitis, and Aggregatibacter sp. was associated with severe periodontitis. The results of this research can be useful in clinical decision-making for treatment of patients with periodontitis.

Genetic, Protein and FTIR Spectroscopic Comparison of Anterior and Posterior Deciduous Dental Pulp for Subsequent Obtention of SHED

Background: Stem cells from Human Exfoliated Deciduous teeth (SHED) were identified by Miura in 2003. SHED have been described as a suitable, accessible and potential source for regenerative medicine and therapeutic applications. However, the best group of deciduous teeth for the obtention of stem cells (SCs) has not been established. Therefore, this research aimed to determine the dental organs group from which SHED can be obtained with higher potentiality, considering their biomolecular features. Methodology: Deciduous teeth from 64 healthy children were collected and divided into two groups: anterior and posteriors. Dental pulp tissue was removed to determine their genetic, phenotypic, and spectroscopic profiles by RT-qPCR, immunofluorescence, and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy respectively. Results: The results showed a higher gene (CD73 and NANOG) and protein (NANOG and SOX2) expression of mesenchymal and pluripotent markers in anterior SHED. CD146 gene expression between the two groups shows no statistical significant difference. Furthermore, the analysis of deciduous dental pulps by FTIR spectroscopy showed spectral bands related to biological samples, indicating the higher state of potentiality in anterior deciduous dental pulps. Conclusion: The deciduous dental pulp harbor a heterogenous population of SCs with different potentiality; however, the expression of multipotent and pluripotent markers was higher in the pulps from anterior deciduous teeth respect to posterior deciduous teeth. The storage and obtention of SHED from anterior teeth is more recommended respect to posterior teeth. However, it is necessary to analyze more stem cell markers and to study the differentiation capability of SHED.

Morphological, molecular and FTIR spectroscopic analysis during the differentiation of kidney cells from pluripotent stem cells

BACKGROUND: Kidney diseases are a global health problem. Currently, over 2 million people require dialysis or transplant which are associated with high morbidity and mortality; therefore, new researches focused on regenerative medicine have been developed, including the use of stem cells. RESULTS: In this research, we generate differentiated kidney cells (DKCs) from mouse pluripotent stem cells (mPSCs) analyzing their morphological, genetic, phenotypic, and spectroscopic characteristics along differentiation, highlighting that there are no reports of the use of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to characterize the directed differentiation of mPSCs to DKCs. The genetic and protein experiments proved the obtention of DKCs that passed through the chronological stages of embryonic kidney development. Regarding vibrational spectroscopy analysis by FTIR, bands related with biomolecules were shown on mPSCs and DKCs spectra, observing distinct differences between cell lineages and maturation stages. The second derivative of DKCs spectra showed changes in the protein bands compared to mPSCs. Finally, the principal components analysis obtained from FTIR spectra allowed to characterize chemical and structurally mPSCs and their differentiation process to DKCs in a rapid and non-invasive way. CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that we obtained DKCs from mPSCs, which passed through the chronological stages of embryonic kidney development. Moreover, FTIR spectroscopy resulted in a non-invasive, rapid and precise technic that together with principal component analysis allows to characterize chemical and structurally both kind of cells and also discriminate and determine different stages along the cell differentiation process.

Generalidades y aplicaciones de las células madre / Generalities and applications of the stem cells

Una célula madre (CM) es capaz de dividirse indefinidamente y diferenciarse en distintos tipos de células especializadas, no sólo morfológicamente sino también de forma funcional. A finales del siglo XX los histoembriólogos Boveri y Haeckel acuñaron el término de células madre (CM). Atendiendo a su origen, las CM se clasifican en embrionarias y adultas, en tanto que de acuerdo a su potencial y capacidad de diferenciación se clasifican en: totipotenciales, pluripotenciales, multipotenciales y unipotenciales. Dentro de las características principales de las CM se encuentran a) autorrenovación, debida a la actividad de la telomerasa; b) potencialidad, que es la capacidad de diferenciarse en otro tipo celular; c) baja inmunogenicidad, debido a una baja expresión del complejo principal de histocompatibilidad I (MHC I) y carencia de la expresión de MHC II. Las principales investigaciones que se han desarrollado con CM han sido con la finalidad de diferenciarlas in vitro hacia otros tejidos como: páncreas, condrocitos y cardiomiocitos, entre otros, con el objetivo de llegar a ser una fuente de reemplazo celular. Sin embargo, tienen otras aplicaciones, como el vehículo terapéutico de genes para enfermedades monogénicas o como vehículo de terapias antitumorales, además de la tecnología de CM pluripotentes inducidas (iPSC) que ha permitido evaluar la toxicidad en diversos fármacos.

A stem cell (SC) is capable to divide indefinitely and differentiate into several specialized cell types, not only morphologically but also functionally. The term of SC emerged at the late twentieth century, by histologists and embryologist Boveri and Haecker. According to their origin the SC are classified in embryonic and adult, while according to their potential and differentiation capacity, they are classified in: totipotential, pluripotential, multipotential and unipotential. The main SC features are: a) self-renewal, which is due to the telomerase activity; b) pluripotentiallity, which is their ability to differentiate into other cell types; c) low immunogenicity, due to the low expression of the major histocompatibility complex I (MHC I) and lack expression of MHCII. The major SC works have been developed with aimed to differentiate the SC in vitro to other tissues such as pancreas, chondrocytes and cardiomyocytes among others, in other to become a cell replacement source; however, there are other applications such as gene therapy vehicle for monogenic diseases, or as a vehicle for antitumor therapies. In additions, the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) technology has allowed human toxicity evaluation of various drugs.