Antibiotic administration in targeted nanoparticles protects the faecal microbiota of mice.

Antibiotic therapy comes with disturbances on human microbiota, resulting in changes of bacterial communities and thus leading to well-established health problems. In this study, we demonstrated that targeted teicoplanin administration maintains the faecal microbiota composition undisturbed in a mouse model while reaching therapeutic improvements for S. aureus infection.

Sleep disturbances and affecting factors in young children with food allergy and their mothers.

OBJECTIVE: To examine sleep patterns and sleep disturbance of children with food allergy (FA) and their mothers. METHODS: The food allergy group included 71 children with mean age, 2.97±1.52 years, and 58 control children were recruited the study. Mothers of children completed the Childhood Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) and The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) in order to evaluate sleep disturbance in both children and themselves. Depressive symptomatology of mothers of children with or without food allergy was assessed with Beck-Depression Inventory II (BDI-II). RESULTS: The mean total scores of CSHQ was 49.33±7.93 (range=31-68) in the FA and 42.39±6.43 (range=30-62) in controls. The total CSHQ scores were significantly higher in children with FA than in controls (p=0.002). The total PSQI score was significantly higher in mothers of children with FA than in mothers of children without FA (7.09±3.11 vs 5.15±2.59, p<0.001) indicating that the mothers of children with FA had worse sleep quality. The mothers of children with FA had more depressive symptoms than mothers of children without FA. The mean total scores of BDI-II were 10.10±6.95 in mothers of children with FA and 7.78±6.64 in mothers of children without FA (p=0.005). CONCLUSION: The presence of a food allergy in a child may be associated with a deterioration in sleep quality in children and mothers as well as increased depressive symptoms in mothers.

Treatment of segmental bone defects in rats by the stimulation of bone marrow osteo-progenitor cells with prostaglandin E2.

An alternative to bone grafting is engineered osteo-conductive material that carries osteo-progenitor cells with osteo-stimulant factors impregnated on a malleable osteo-conductive material. We used bone marrow stem cells as the source of osteo-progenitor cells and stimulated them with prostaglandin E2 using demineralised bone matrix as a carrier. We treated 35 skeletally mature male Wistar albino rats with segmentary radial bone defects using five different treatment groups. Group I received no treatment; the remaining four groups all received a mixture of bone marrow and demineralised bone matrix. In group III, a copolymer was added. In group IV, prostaglandin E2 and in group V prostaglandin E2 within a copolymer was added to the mixture. Eight weeks after the surgical procedure, the rats were sacrificed. Radiological and histological evaluation of the radial bone showed that while there was no significant healing in groups I, II and III, there was a significant healing response in groups IV and V.