Quercetin reduced inflammation and increased antioxidant defense in rat adjuvant arthritis.

Novel therapies for rheumatoid arthritis also include the use of naturally occurring compounds possessing antioxidant properties. In the present work, the effects of oral administration of quercetin were investigated in a rat model of adjuvant arthritis. Arthritis was induced by a single intradermal injection of heat-inactivated Mycobacterium butyricum in incomplete Freund's adjuvant. The experimental groups were treated with an oral daily dose of 150 mg/kg b.w. of quercetin for 28 days. Results indicated that quercetin was able to ameliorate all markers of inflammation and oxidative stress measured. Quercetin lowered levels of interleukin-1ß, C-reactive protein, and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 and restored plasma antioxidant capacity. In addition, quercetin inhibited the enzymatic activity of pro-inflammatory 12/15-lipoxygenase in lung and liver and increased the expression of heme oxygenase-1 in joint and lung of arthritic rats. Finally, quercetin inhibited the 2-fold increase of NF-қB activity observed in lung, liver and joint after induction of arthritis.

Meiosis progression and donor age affect expression profile of DNA repair genes in bovine oocytes.

Several genetic and physiological factors increase the risk of DNA damage in mammalian oocytes. Two critical events are: (i) meiosis progression, from maturation to fertilization, due to extensive chromatin remodelling during genome decondensation; and (ii) aging, which is associated with a progressive oxidative stress. In this work, we studied the transcriptional patterns of three genes, RAD51, APEX-1 and MLH1, involved in DNA repair mechanisms. The analyses were performed by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in immature and in vitro matured oocytes collected from 17 ± 3-month-old heifers and 94 ± 20-month-old cows. Batches of 30-50 oocytes for each group (three replicates) were collected from ovarian follicles of slaughtered animals. The oocytes were freed from cumulus cells at the time of follicle removal, or after in vitro maturation (IVM) carried out in M199 supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum, 10 IU luteinising hormone (LH)/ml, 0.1 IU follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)/ml and 1 µg 17ß-oestradiol/ml. Total RNA was extracted by Trizol method. The expression of bovine GAPDH gene was used as the internal standard, while primers for bovine RAD51, APEX-1 and MLH1 genes were designed from DNA sequences retrieved from GenBank. Results obtained indicate a clear up-regulation of RAD51, APEX-1 and MLH1 genes after IVM, ranging between two- and four-fold compared with germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes. However, only RAD51 showed a significant transcript increase between the immature oocytes collected from young or old individuals. This finding highlights RAD51 as a candidate gene marker for discriminating bovine immature oocytes in relation to the donor age.

Dealcoholated red wine induces autophagic and apoptotic cell death in an osteosarcoma cell line.

Until recently, the supposed preventive effects of red wine against cardiovascular diseases, the so-called "French Paradox", has been associated to its antioxidant properties. The interest in the anticancer capacity of polyphenols present in red wine strongly increased consequently to the enormous number of studies on resveratrol. In this study, using lyophilized red wine, we present evidence that its anticancer effect in a cellular model is mediated by apoptotic and autophagic cell death. Using a human osteosarcoma cell line, U2Os, we found that the lyophilized red wine was cytotoxic in a dose-dependent manner with a maximum effect in the range of 100-200 µg/ml equivalents of gallic acid. A mixed phenotype of types I/II cell death was evidenced by means of specific assays following treatment of U2Os with lyophilized red wine, e.g., autophagy and apoptosis. We found that cell death induced by lyophilized red wine proceeded through a mechanism independent from its anti-oxidant activity and involving the inhibition of PI3K/Akt kinase signaling. Considering the relative low concentration of each single bioactive compound in lyophilized red wine, our study suggests the activation of synergistic mechanism able to inhibit growth in malignant cells.

[Routine clinical use of a new disposable bubble oxygenator: a comparative study (author's transl)]. / Impiego clinico rutinario di un nuovo ossigenatore a bolle monouso. Una valutazione comparativa.

The new bubble Oxybel oxygenator (Bellco Laboratories) has been used for routine clinical perfusions in this Institution. A comparison has been made between two groups of 51 patients each, one group perfused with on Oxybel oxygenator (OXY) and the other with the Harvey H 1000 oxygenator (H-H). Among these patients a wide range of acquired and congenital cardiac lesions have been encountered. Both series were comparable for patients' age, sex distribution, body weight, procedures performed, perfusion time and preoperative values of hematocrit, serum creatinine, platelet count, plasma hemoglobin. The gas/blood flow ratio was 2.09 +/- 0.07 (+/- SE) for the H-H oxygenator and 1.38 +/- 0.06 for the OXY series (P < 0.001). Serum-creatinine 24-hrs postoperative values (mg/100 ml) were 1.58 +/- 0.17 for the H-H and 1.30 +/- 0.06 for the OXY series (NS); 48-hrs postoperative values were 1.28 +/- 0.11 for the H-H and 1.20 +/- 0.11 for the OXY (NS). The 60 minutes postoperative platelet count was 127.9 +/- 7 X 10(3) for the H-H and 120.9 +/- 6 X 10(3) for the OXY series (NS). Fourtyeight-hrs postoperative platelet count was 153.0 +/- 5 X 10(3) for the H-H and 151.8 +/- 6 X 10(3) for the OXY series (NS). Postoperative plasma hemoglobin values (mg/100 ml) were 91.55 +/- 7.18 for H-H and 117 +/- 17.8 for the OXY series (NS). Total postoperative bleeding was 1037.9 +/- 94 ml in the H-H and 1056.7 +/- 98.9 ml in the OXY series (NS). The more favorable gas/blood flow ratio observed with the Oxybel oxygenator did not affect clinical and haematologic results. These were comparable in both series.