Maria Rosa Montinari

Omega-3 fatty acids, inflammation and angiogenesis: nutrigenomic effects as an explanation for anti-atherogenic and anti-inflammatory effects of fish and fish oils.

Atherosclerosis is a dynamic process with inflammatory aspects playing a considerable pathogenetic role. In this process, the vascular endothelium is the key regulator of vascular function, promoting the maintenance of vascular homeostasis or the progression towards vascular disease. In the past 30 years, the dietary intake of omega–3 (n–3) polyunsaturated fatty acids – mainly derived from fish – has emerged as an important way to modify cardiovascular risk through beneficial effects on all stages of atherosclerosis. This review specifically focuses on the modulating effects of n–3 fatty acids on molecular events involved in early and late atherogenesis, including effects on endothelial expression of adhesion molecules, as well as pro-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic enzymes. By accumulating in endothelial membrane phospholipids, omega–3 fatty acids have been shown to decrease the transcriptional activation of several genes through a decreased activation of the nuclear factor-ĸB system of transcription factors. This occurs secondary to decreased generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species. This series of investigations configures a clear example of nutrigenomics, i.e. how nutrients may affect gene expression, ultimately affecting a wide spectrum of human diseases.

Endothelial safety of radiological contrast media: why being concerned.

Iodinated radiocontrast media have been the most widely used pharmaceuticals for intravascular administration in diagnostic and interventional angiographic procedures. Although they are regarded as relatively safe drugs and vascular biocompatibility of contrast media has been progressively improved, severe adverse reactions may occur, among which acute nephropathy is one of the most clinically significant complications after intravascular administration of contrast media and a powerful predictor of poor early and long-term outcomes. Since radiocontrast media are given through the arterial or the venous circulation in vascular procedures, morphological and functional changes of the microvascular and macrovascular endothelial cells substantially contribute to the pathogenesis of organ-specific and systemic adverse reactions of contrast media. Endothelial toxicity of contrast media seems to be the result of both direct proapoptotic effects and morphological derangements, as well as endothelial dysfunction and induction of inflammation, oxidative stress, thrombosis, and altered vasomotor balance, with predominant vasoconstrictive response in atherosclerotic coronary arteries and kidney microcirculation. Further understanding of pathogenetic mechanisms underlying contrast media-induced adverse reactions in cellular targets, including endothelial cells, will hopefully lead to the development of novel preventive strategies appropriately curbing the pathogenesis of contrast media vasotoxicity.

Long term exposure to cadmium: Pathological effects on kidney tubules cells in Sparus aurata juveniles

The effects of an exposure to cadmium chloride 0.47μM for 150days were studied in kidneys of juveniles Sparus aurata by a multidisciplinary approach so to correlate uptake and detoxification potential to changes in brush border and glycocalyx sugar composition. Results demonstrated that cadmium concentration in kidney significantly increased from day 30 reaching a plateau on day 120 while metallothioneins reached a peak on day 90 and by day 120 were already decreasing to control values. Cytological damage was extensive on day 90, clearly detectable at both structural and ultrastructural levels, in tubular cells and brush-border. Staining with a panel of four lectins revealed a significant increase in N-Ac-Gal and a decrease in mannose in the glycocalyx and the tubular basal membranes. From day 120, when cadmium concentration was high and metallothionein concentration decreasing, a clear recovery was observed in tubular cells morphology and sugar composition. Possible significance of these apparently contrasting data are discussed.

The wounded maternity in the fine arts

Abstract The historian Fielding Garrison wrote that the history of medicine is the history of mankind, as it encompasses all of human life. This means that the history of medicine encourages us to critically reflect not only on the information (the what, the world of facts) but also invites us to move towards understanding (the who, the world of stories). Next to the historical change, there is the anthropological duration with its baggage of immutable values that art brings to light. The merit of art is to focus not only on the biological aspects, but also on the social and emotional ones that define the mother/child relationship. The paintings that we have analyzed “speak” of care and caregiving, grief and suffering where maternity is experienced in solitude, in misery, in sickness. And it is to this latter aspect that we have drawn our attention. Most of the works are autobiographical or relate to events actually experienced by the artist. The theme of the wounded maternity has many facets, but all are united by the absence and loss of something precious: a son, a husband, health, affection.

La tabacchicoltura nel Salento dal 1929 al 1993: possibili implicazioni sanitarie. (Tobacco cultivation in Salento (Apulia Region, Southern Italy) from 1929 to 1993: possible health implications).

The Province of Lecce (Apulia Region, Southern Italy) is one of the Italian areas where the prevalence of respiratory disease and cancer of the respitartory tract is very high. Through a descriptive analysis of the historical series of tobacco culture indicators, a historical reconstruction of the development of tobacco cultivation in Salento (the area where the Province of Lecce is located) is here presented, in order to provide an additional element of knowledge on potential risk factors for respiratory diseases and cancers. Data regarding extensions in hectares and crop productions in the province of Lecce, in Apulia, and in Italy are from the Chamber of commerce of Lecce province and from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat). From 1929 to 1993, the province of Lecce provided between 75% and 94% of the tobacco cultivated in Apulia Region and 25% of the national tobacco until 1945. Since the late Sixties, a growing increase in annual average production was observed, reaching 21.5 quintals per hectare in 1991 in Salento. This large tobacco production, associated with intensive use of pesticides, could be an element to be observed in analytical studies as a determining potential for the high prevalence of respiratory diseases and pulmonary cancers in the male population of the province of Lecce.