How to improve infraorbital hollows with neuromodulators-A clinical prospective interventional study about the application of facial biomechanics.

BACKGROUND: A previous injection algorithm termed the "Toxin Lift" was recently introduced and described volume increases in the midface following neuromodulator treatments of the jawline. Increase in midfacial volume due to soft tissue repositioning could also affect the severity of infraorbital hollows. OBJECTIVE: The objective is therefore to evaluate whether the severity of infraorbital hollows can be improved by injecting neuromodulators in the supra-mandibular segment of the platysma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 35 volunteers (11 males/24 females) with a mean age of 39.8 (9.6) years and a mean BMI of 25.2 (5.2) kg/m2 were investigated. Bilateral infraorbital regions were evaluated via clinical assessment and semi-quantitative 3D imaging. The applied injection technique targeted the platysma via four injection points administering 5 I.U. per injection point resulting in a total of 20 I.U. per facial side. RESULTS: Volume increase of the infraorbital region was 0.13 cc at 15 days (p = 0.001) and was 0.02 cc at 30 days (p = 0.452) whereas the skin displacement in cranial direction was 0.54 mm at 15 days (p < 0.001) and was 0.31 mm at 30 days (p < 0.001). Clinical evaluation revealed a highly statistically significant improvement of the tear trough, palpaebromalar groove, and of the lid-cheek junction when compared to baseline with all p < 0.001. CONCLUSION: The results of this clinical prospective interventional analysis revealed that the "Toxin Lift" injection technique is capable to improve the clinical appearance of infraorbital hollows. The effects can be explained by the concepts of facial biomechanics.

Growth hormone effect on body composition of children born small for gestational age: a systematic review

Abstract Objective The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of GH treatment on the body composition of children born with SGA. Methods This study is a systematic review of the literature. CINAHL, Embase; Medline/Pubmed, Scopus and Web of Science were searched from inception to March 2022. Results Four studies met the inclusion criteria, with an intervention time of 1 to 3 years, using doses from 0.03 to 0.07 mg/kg/day of GH. Bone densitometry by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) with whole-body scans was the most used method to assess body composition. Most studies (n= 3) had SGA children as a control group with the same characteristics as the case group; the mean age was similar between the groups (minimum of 5.1 ± 1.4 years and maximum of 6.7 ± 1 0.8 years) and all participants had an average height ≤ -3DP. The Lean Mass (LM) and Fat Mass (FM) outcomes of the studies were not presented in a standardized manner; thus, they cannot be compared. There was a significant increase in LM in the group treated with GH in relation to the pre-treatment period and in comparison, to the untreated control group. Three studies showed a significant decrease in FM at the end of the intervention period, and in two studies, this decrease occurred in the control group. Conclusions Despite the differences in the presentation of results and in the evaluation periods, the results of the studies showed that growth hormone favors the gain and maintenance of lean mass, and it also affects fat mass reduction and redistribution.

Improving Pregnant Women's Iodine Intake Estimates and Its Prevalence of Inadequacy through the Use of Salt and Seasoning Covariates.

(1) Measuring usual iodine intake is a complex task due to the food consumption variability and its natural concentration in food. Therefore, the use of covariates to adjust statistical methods to estimate usual intake could improve the estimates obtained through dietary surveys. This study aims to evaluate the influence of salt and seasoning usage covariates on the estimates of usual iodine intake and the prevalence of its inadequacy. (2) A cross-sectional study was conducted with Brazilian pregnant women's food consumption data obtained with 24-h recall (n = 2247). The usual iodine intake was adjusted for intraindividual variability, supplement use, temporal effects, data collection methods, and sociodemographic characteristics with the tool UCD/NCI SIMPLE in the SAS software. Then, salt and seasoning usage covariates were used to adjust the distribution. The harmonized intake reference values for populations were used to assess intake adequacy. (3) The adjustments for salt and seasoning usage yielded a higher mean of usual iodine intakes. The only exception was the adjustment for the "habit of adding salt to meals after preparing/cooking", which produced a lower mean of usual intake and increased the prevalence of insufficient intake. (4) Salt and seasoning usage covariates affect the estimates evaluated. However, more studies are necessary to evaluate the influence observed.

Growth hormone effect on body composition of children born small for gestational age: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of GH treatment on the body composition of children born with SGA. METHODS: This study is a systematic review of the literature. CINAHL, Embase; Medline/Pubmed, Scopus and Web of Science were searched from inception to March 2022. RESULTS: Four studies met the inclusion criteria, with an intervention time of 1 to 3 years, using doses from 0.03 to 0.07 mg/kg/day of GH. Bone densitometry by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) with whole-body scans was the most used method to assess body composition. Most studies (n = 3) had SGA children as a control group with the same characteristics as the case group; the mean age was similar between the groups (minimum of 5.1 ± 1.4 years and maximum of 6.7 ± 1 0.8 years) and all participants had an average height ≤ -3DP. The Lean Mass (LM) and Fat Mass (FM) outcomes of the studies were not presented in a standardized manner; thus, they cannot be compared. There was a significant increase in LM in the group treated with GH in relation to the pre-treatment period and in comparison, to the untreated control group. Three studies showed a significant decrease in FM at the end of the intervention period, and in two studies, this decrease occurred in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the differences in the presentation of results and in the evaluation periods, the results of the studies showed that growth hormone favors the gain and maintenance of lean mass, and it also affects fat mass reduction and redistribution.

The Effect of a 10-MDP-Based Dentin Adhesive as Alternative for Bonding to Implant Abutment Materials.

Bonding to different dental restorative materials is challenging. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a 10-MDP-based dentin adhesive on the shear bond strength (SBS) of self-adhesive resin cement (RC) to implant abutment materials. One hundred and twenty specimens were obtained from zirconia (ZO), cobalt-chromium alloy (CoCr), and commercially pure titanium (Ti), which were treated as follows (n = 10): control group-non-treated (CG), 10-MDP-based dentin adhesive (SB), light-cured SB (SB-LC), and zirconia primer (ZP). Blocks of RC were buildup and, after 24 h, were tested for bond strength. Data of SBS (MPa) were submitted to two-way ANOVA and Tukey test (α = 0.05). There was no difference in SBS among materials for CG and ZP, higher SBS were recorded for Ti SB and Ti SB-LC compared to ZO upon the same surface treatments. For the comparisons among treatments, SB-LC showed the highest SBS for CoCr. For ZO and Ti, higher SBS were recorded with SB and SB-LC. No cohesive failures were observed. It was concluded that the surface treatment with 10-MDP-based materials increased the bond strength of the resin cement to abutment materials, which showed to be material dependent.

Associated factors with dietary patterns among children under 2 years of age: a study in childcare centres and homes of South Brazil.

Identifying dietary patterns in different environments attended by children is relevant to guide public politics. The aim of this study was to analyse the factors associated with dietary patterns of children under 2 years of age in childcare centres and at homes. This transversal study was enrolled in municipal childcare centres of Guaratuba, Paraná, Brazil. Food consumption data from 256 children were obtained by the food record method. From the consumption data, four dietary patterns were identified by factor analysis using the principal component method in each environment. 'Traditional' patterns were observed in both environments; the 'less healthy' pattern was found only at homes. Other patterns identified in childcare centres include 'snacks', 'nutritive' and 'pasta and meats'; at homes, it was possible to identify patterns such as 'milk and cereals' and 'mixed'. Children over 12 months presented higher scores for all the patterns in both environments. Obese children had lower scores for all the patterns in childcare centres. There was an association between maternal age below 21 years and higher adherence to a 'less healthy' pattern, maternal level of education less than 8 years and lower adherence to the 'mixed' pattern and lower familiar income per capita and higher adherence to the 'snacks' and 'traditional' patterns in childcare centres. In conclusion, adherence to dietary patterns was associated with socio-economic, demographic variables and nutritional status and further studies are needed, especially those with a longitudinal design, enabling the monitoring of dietary patterns.

Subjects' Perception in Quantifying Printed and Digital Photos of Food Portions.

Although digital photos have the potential to improve the precision of reported portions in dietary assessment, there are few studies investigating its accuracy in comparison to printed photos. The aim of this study was to evaluate the perception of adults in quantifying food portion sizes using printed and digital photos, displayed on computer-screens and tablets. In total, 1165 evaluations were performed for 60 photos of portion sizes in Brazil. Each participant (n = 58) attended two sessions in the study center, with an interval of at least one week. In each session, twelve food portions were prepared and randomly evaluated by each participant in its printed and digital forms. The mean error (difference between the estimated and true portions) was not significantly different between the printed photos (2.1 g ± 47.2) and the digital ones (-6.4 g ± 53.7). The agreement on using the printed and digital photos was 91% and 90%, respectively. Furthermore, the use of the tablet was more prone to underestimation when compared to printed and computer-screen photos (p < 0.001). Overall, participants did not present major difficulties in perceiving the portion sizes using the printed and digital photos, but the use of tablets led to less accurate results, indicating that this needs to be further evaluated.

The haem-copper oxygen reductase of Desulfovibrio vulgaris contains a dihaem cytochrome c in subunit II.

The genome of the sulphate reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough, still considered a strict anaerobe, encodes two oxygen reductases of the bd and haem-copper types. The haem-copper oxygen reductase deduced amino acid sequence reveals that it is a Type A2 enzyme, which in its subunit II contains two c-type haem binding motifs. We have characterized the cytochrome c domain of subunit II and confirmed the binding of two haem groups, both with Met-His iron coordination. Hence, this enzyme constitutes the first example of a ccaa3 haem-copper oxygen reductase. The expression of D. vulgaris haem-copper oxygen reductase was found to be independent of the electron donor and acceptor source and is not altered by stress factors such as oxygen exposure, nitrite, nitrate, and iron; therefore the haem-copper oxygen reductase seems to be constitutive. The KCN sensitive oxygen reduction by D. vulgaris membranes demonstrated in this work indicates the presence of an active haem-copper oxygen reductase. D. vulgaris membranes perform oxygen reduction when accepting electrons from the monohaem cytochrome c553, thus revealing the first possible electron donor to the terminal oxygen reductase of D. vulgaris. The physiological implication of the presence of the oxygen reductase in this organism is discussed.

Escherichia coli di-iron YtfE protein is necessary for the repair of stress-damaged iron-sulfur clusters.

DNA microarray experiments showed that the expression of the Escherichia coli ytfE gene is highly increased upon exposure to nitric oxide. We also reported that deletion of ytfE significantly alters the phenotype of E. coli, generating a strain with enhanced susceptibility to nitrosative stress and defective in the activity of several iron-sulfur-containing proteins. In this work, it is shown that the E. coli ytfE confers protection against oxidative stress. Furthermore, we found that the damage of the [4Fe-4S](2+) clusters of aconitase B and fumarase A caused by exposure to hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide stress occurs at higher rates in the absence of ytfE. The ytfE null mutation also abolished the recovery of aconitase and fumarase activities, which is observed in wild type E. coli once the stress is scavenged. Notably, upon the addition of purified holo-YtfE protein to the mutant cell extracts, the enzymatic activities of fumarase and aconitase are fully recovered and at rates similar to the wild type strain. We concluded that YtfE is critical for the repair of iron-sulfur clusters damaged by oxidative and nitrosative stress conditions.

The role of the hybrid cluster protein in oxidative stress defense.

Hybrid cluster proteins (HCP) contain two types of Fe/S clusters, namely a [4Fe-4S](2+/1+) or [2Fe-2S](2+/1+) cluster and a novel type of hybrid cluster, [4Fe-2S-2O], in the as-isolated state. Although first isolated from anaerobic sulfate-reducing bacteria, the analysis of the genomic sequences reveals that genes encoding putative hybrid cluster proteins are present in a wide range of organisms, aerobic, anaerobic, or facultative, from the Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya domains. Despite a detailed spectroscopic and structural characterization, the precise physiological function of these proteins remained unknown. The present work shows that the transcription of the Escherichia coli hcp gene is induced by hydrogen peroxide, and this induction is regulated by the redox-sensitive transcriptional activator, OxyR. The E. coli hcp mutant strain exhibits higher sensitivity to hydrogen peroxide, a behavior that reverts to the wild type phenotype once a plasmid carrying the hcp gene is reintroduced. Furthermore, the purified HCPs from E. coli and Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774 show an alternative enzymatic activity, which under physiological conditions exhibited K(m) values for hydrogen peroxide (approximately 0.3 mM) within the range of other peroxidases. Altogether, the results reveal that HCP is involved in oxidative stress protection.

Selenium is involved in regulation of periplasmic hydrogenase gene expression in Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough.

Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough is a good model organism to study hydrogen metabolism in sulfate-reducing bacteria. Hydrogen is a key compound for these organisms, since it is one of their major energy sources in natural habitats and also an intermediate in the energy metabolism. The D. vulgaris Hildenborough genome codes for six different hydrogenases, but only three of them, the periplasmic-facing [FeFe], [FeNi]1, and [FeNiSe] hydrogenases, are usually detected. In this work, we studied the synthesis of each of these enzymes in response to different electron donors and acceptors for growth as well as in response to the availability of Ni and Se. The formation of the three hydrogenases was not very strongly affected by the electron donors or acceptors used, but the highest levels were observed after growth with hydrogen as electron donor and lowest with thiosulfate as electron acceptor. The major effect observed was with inclusion of Se in the growth medium, which led to a strong repression of the [FeFe] and [NiFe]1 hydrogenases and a strong increase in the [NiFeSe] hydrogenase that is not detected in the absence of Se. Ni also led to increased formation of the [NiFe]1 hydrogenase, except for growth with H2, where its synthesis is very high even without Ni added to the medium. Growth with H2 results in a strong increase in the soluble forms of the [NiFe]1 and [NiFeSe] hydrogenases. This study is an important contribution to understanding why D. vulgaris Hildenborough has three periplasmic hydrogenases. It supports their similar physiological role in H2 oxidation and reveals that element availability has a strong influence in their relative expression.

Escherichia coli YtfE is a di-iron protein with an important function in assembly of iron-sulphur clusters.

Our previous analysis of the transcriptome of Escherichia coli under nitrosative stress showed that the ytfE gene was one of the highest induced genes. Furthermore, the E. coli strain mutated on the ytfE gene was found to be more sensitive to nitric oxide than the wild-type strain. In the present work, we show that the mutation of the ytfE gene in E. coli yielded a strain that grows poorly under anaerobic respiratory conditions and that has an increased sensitivity to iron starvation. Furthermore, all examined iron-sulphur proteins have decreased activity levels in the strain lacking ytfE. Altogether, the results suggest a role for ytfE in iron-sulphur cluster biogenesis. YtfE was overexpressed in E. coli and it is shown to contain a di-iron centre of the histidine-carboxylate family.

Proton-assisted two-electron transfer in natural variants of tetraheme cytochromes from Desulfomicrobium Sp.

The tetraheme cytochrome c3 isolated from Desulfomicrobium baculatum (DSM 1743)(Dsmb) was cloned, and the sequence analysis showed that this cytochrome differs in just three amino acid residues from the cytochrome c3 isolated from Desulfomicrobium norvegicum (Dsmn): (DsmnXXDsmb) Thr-37 --> Ser, Val-45 --> Ala, and Phe-88 --> Tyr. X-ray crystallography was used to determine the structure of cytochrome c3 from Dsmb, showing that it is very similar to the published structure of cytochrome c3 from Dsmn. A detailed thermodynamic and kinetic characterization of these two tetraheme cytochromes c3 was performed by using NMR and visible spectroscopy. The results obtained show that the network of cooperativities between the redox and protonic centers is consistent with a synergetic process to stimulate the hydrogen uptake activity of hydrogenase. This is achieved by increasing the affinity of the cytochrome for protons through binding electrons and, reciprocally, by favoring a concerted two-electron transfer assisted by the binding of proton(s). The data were analyzed within the framework of the differences in the primary and tertiary structures of the two proteins, showing that residue 88, close to heme I, is the main cause for the differences in the microscopic thermodynamic parameters obtained for these two cytochromes c3. This comparison reveals how replacement of a single amino acid can tune the functional properties of energy-transducing proteins, so that they can be optimized to suit the bioenergetic constraints of specific habitats.