High salt intake during puberty leads to cardiac remodelling and baroreflex impairment in lean and obese male Wistar rats.

Modern lifestyle increases the prevalence of obesity and its co-morbidities in the young population. High-salt (HS) diets are associated with hypertension and cardiac remodelling. The present study evaluated the potential effects of cardiometabolic programming induced by HS intake during puberty in lean and obese rats. Additionally, we investigated whether HS could exacerbate the impairment of cardiovascular parameters in adult life due to postnatal early overnutrition (PO). At postnatal day 3 (PN3), twenty-four litters of Wistar rats were divided into two groups: normal litter (NL, nine pups/dam) and small litter (SL, three pups/dam) throughout the lactation period; weaning was at PN21. At PN30, the pups were subdivided into two more groups: NL plus HS (NLHS) and SL plus HS (SLHS). HS intake was from PN30 until PN60. Cardiovascular parameters were evaluated at PN120. SL rats became overweight at adulthood due to persistent hyperphagia; however, HS exposure during puberty reduced the weight gain and food intake of NLHS and SLHS. Both HS and obesity raised the blood pressure, impaired baro- and chemoreflex sensitivity and induced cardiac remodelling but no worsening was observed in the association of these factors, except a little reduction in the angiotensin type-2 receptor in the hearts from SLHS animals. Our results suggest that the response of newborn offspring to PO and juveniles to a HS diet leads to significant changes in cardiovascular parameters in adult rats. This damage may be accompanied by impairment of both angiotensin signalling and antioxidant defence in the heart.

Thymic alterations in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice.

The primary function of the thymus is to develop immature T-cells into cells that further in the periphery will be able to carry out immune functions. The Literature has shown that thymus can be a target for many pathogens and severe structural alterations take place in this organ during infectious diseases. Here, we investigated if thymus is also a target organ during experimental malaria infection by analyzing the presence of parasites inside the organ and histological alterations in thymuses from Plasmodium berghei NK65-infected BALB/c. After 14 days of infection, parasites were found inside the thymus that presented a profound atrophy with total loss of its architecture. We propose that the presence of parasites in the thymus induces histological modifications that alter the microenvironment, impairing by consequence the successful T cell development. Additional studies are currently being developed in our laboratory to verify if such thymic alterations can influence the systemic immune response to the parasite.