RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Occupational short-latency respiratory disease (SLRD; predominantly asthma, rhinitis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and occupational infections) prevalence is difficult to determine but certain occupations may be associated with increased susceptibility. AIMS: This study aimed to examine which occupations and industries are currently at high risk for SLRD and determine their respective suspected causal agents. METHODS: SLRD cases reported to the SWORD scheme between 1999 and 2019 were analysed to determine directly standardized rate ratios (SRR) by occupation against the average rate for all other occupations combined. RESULTS: 'Bakers and flour confectioners' and 'vehicle spray painters' showed significantly raised SRR for SLRD in general, mostly due to occupational rhinitis (234.4; 95% CI 200.5-274.0) and asthma (63.5; 95% CI 51.5-78.3), respectively. Laboratory technicians also showed significantly raised SRR for occupational rhinitis (18.7; 95% CI 15.1-23.1), primarily caused by laboratory animals and insects. Metal machining setters and setter-operators showed increased SRR for occupational hypersensitivity pneumonitis (42.0; 95% CI 29.3-60.3), largely due to cutting/soluble oils. The occupation mostly affected by infectious disease was welding trades (12.9; 95% CI 5.7-29.3), mainly attributable to microbial pathogenicity. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified the occupational groups at increased risk of developing an SLRD based on data recorded over a recent two-decade period in the UK. Occupational asthma and rhinitis were identified as the prevailing conditions and hypersensitivity pneumonitis as a potentially rising respiratory problem in the metalworking industry.

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: An increase in plasma branched-chain amino acids is associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. However, little is known about the basal plasma amino acid concentrations in young adults. Our aim was to determine the plasma amino acid profiles of young adults and to evaluate how these profiles were modified by sex, body mass index (BMI) and insulin resistance (IR). METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a transversal study with 608 Mexican young adults aged 19.9 ± 2.4 years who were applicants to the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí. The subjects underwent a physical examination and provided a clinical history and a blood sample for biochemical, hormonal and amino acid analyses. The women had higher levels of arginine, aspartate and serine and lower levels of α-aminoadipic acid, cysteine, isoleucine, leucine, methionine, proline, tryptophan, tyrosine, urea and valine than the men. The obese subjects had higher levels of alanine, aspartate, cysteine, ornithine, phenylalanine, proline and tyrosine and lower levels of glycine, ornithine and serine than the normal weight subjects. Subjects with IR (defined as HOMA > 2.5) had higher levels of arginine, alanine, aspartate, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, proline, tyrosine, taurine and valine than the subjects without IR. Furthermore, we identified two main groups in the subjects with obesity and/or IR; one group was composed of amino acids that positively correlated with the clinical, biochemical and hormonal parameters, whereas the second group exhibited negative correlations. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that young adults with obesity or IR have altered amino acid profiles characterized by an increase in alanine, aspartate, proline and tyrosine and a decrease in glycine.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

The amount of bone generated using current tissue engineering approaches is insufficient for many clinical applications. Previous in vitro studies suggest that culturing cells as 3D aggregates can enhance their osteogenic potential, but the effect on bone formation in vivo is unknown. Here, we use agarose wells to generate uniformly sized mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) aggregates. When combined with calcium phosphate ceramic particles and a gel prepared from human platelet-rich plasma, we generated a tissue engineered construct which significantly improved in vivo bone forming capacity as compared to the conventional system of using single cells seeded directly on the ceramic surface. Histology demonstrated the reproducibility of this system, which was tested using cells from four different donors. In vitro studies established that MSC aggregation results in an up-regulation of osteogenic transcripts. And finally, the in vivo performance of the constructs was significantly diminished when unaggregated cells were used, indicating that cell aggregation is a potent trigger of in vivo bone formation by MSCs. Cell aggregation could thus be used to improve bone tissue engineering strategies.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Upon contact with a biomaterial, cells and surrounding tissues respond in a manner dictated by the physicochemical and mechanical properties of the material. Traditionally, cellular responses are monitored using invasive analytical methods that report the expression of genes or proteins. These analytical methods involve assessing commonly used markers for a predefined readout, masking the actual situation induced in the cells. Hence, a broader expression profile of the cellular response should be envisioned, which technically limits up scaling to higher throughput systems. However, it is increasingly recognized that morphometric readouts, obtained non-invasively, are related to gene expression patterns. Here, we introduced distinct surface roughness to three PLA surfaces, by exposure to oxygen plasma of different duration times. The response of mesenchymal stromal cells was compared to smooth untreated PLA surfaces without the addition of differentiation agents. Morphological and genome wide expression profiles revealed underlying cellular changes which was hidden for the commonly used gene markers for osteo-, chondro- and adipogenesis. Using 3 morphometric parameters, obtained by high content imaging, we were able to build a classifier and discriminate between oxygen plasma-induced modified sheets and non-modified PLA sheets where evaluating classical candidates missed this effect. This approach shows the feasibility to use noninvasive morphometric data in high-throughput systems to screen biomaterial surfaces indicating the underlying genetic biomaterial-induced changes.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

A series of pirlindole analogues were tested as inhibitors of monoamine oxidase A and B. Although we did not find strict dependence between 3D-size of molecules and their inhibitory potency, rigid analogues exhibited potent and selective inhibition of MAO-A. They have 3D size limits of 13 angstroms (length) x 7 angstroms (height) x 4.4 angstroms (widths). Besides MAO-A inhibition flexible analogues also demonstrated potent inhibition of MAO-B. Five compounds were studied as inhibitors of purified human liver MAO-A. Their inhibitory potencies coincided with those obtained using rat liver mitochondrial MAO-A. Each compound induced changes in the spectrum of MAO-A but these did not correlate with the flexibility of the derivative. It is also possible that the oxygen bridge introduced with the flexibility might influence spectral patterns.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

An increased firing rate in lateral septal nuclei (LSN) appears in urethane-anesthetized rats after several acute drug and non-drug human antidepressant treatments. A still more pronounced increase in firing rate is produced in LSN after clomipramine (CMI) long-term treatment. In spite of urethane is a widely used anesthetic for single unit extracellular recordings, it modifies evoked potentials wave-form. Therefore, present study discards urethane interaction with CMI in LSN single unit extracellular recordings. CMI was acutely injected (1.25 mg/kg: IP) either to urethane-anesthetized, or non-anesthetized encephale-isolé rats. The CMI treated groups showed higher rates of firing in LSN regardless of the use of general anesthesia during recordings. Another group of urethane-anesthetized rats received intracerebroventricular (ICV) microinjections of CMI (100 micrograms/10 microliters/1 min). An amount of 42.8% of LSN-recorded neurons responded with a long-lasting increased firing rate. Results discard urethane and CMI interactions. Additionally, systemic actions of CMI on firing rate of LSN are reproduced by ICV/route microinjections.

Asunto(s)