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Urban air pollution represents a global problem, since everyday many mutagenic and carcinogens compounds are emitted into the atmosphere, with consequent adverse health effects on humans and biota. Specifically, particulate matter air pollution was associated with increased risks in human mortality and morbidity. In this paper, we analyse the genomic effects on human lymphocytes of different concentrations of annual Turin PM2.5 extract by an in vitro micronuclei assay. Samplings were collected from an urban meteorological-chemical station positioned in Turin (Italy), one of the most polluted cities in Europe. PM2.5 sampled on filters was used for organic extraction in monthly pools and successively aggregated to produce a mixture representative for a full year PM2.5 collection. Lymphocytes were exposed to four concentrations of PM2.5: 5, 10, 15 and 20 μg/mL and micronuclei, nucleoplasmic bridges and nuclear buds were scored. With respect to controls, PM2.5 significantly increased the frequencies of all analysed biomarkers at all tested concentrations, whereas the CBPI index was significantly reduced only at the concentration of 20 μg/mL. Such in vitro effects can both to stimulate local authorities to adopt efficient measures for air pollution mitigation and to improve human monitoring to detect early precancer lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meta-analysis can be applied to study the effectiveness of the summary estimates for experimental papers, producing objective and unbiased results. We investigated the effects of phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) on the inflammatory profile in allergic mouse models, which are currently under development in signal transduction materials. PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science databases were searched for relevant literature using the search terms " PI3K inhibitor" and "allergy" or "asthma". Cochrane Review Manager and R were used for handling continuous variables. The primary outcomes of the inflammatory profile were divided into cell counts and inflammatory cytokines. We used a random effects model to draw a forest plot. Through the database search and subsequent selection, 17 articles were identified. Regarding the cell counts, both the PI3K pan-inhibitors and PI3K-δ inhibitors effectively reduced the total cell counts, eosinophils, neutrophils and lymphocytes. In contrast to PI3K-δ inhibitors, PI3K pan-inhibitors effectively reduced macrophages. Regarding the inflammatory cytokines, PI3K pan-inhibitors and PI3K-δ inhibitors effectively reduced total IgE, IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, TNF-α, IL-1β, VEGF and had no effect on IL-6. Compared to the PI3K pan-inhibitors, which block all pathways, selective PI3K-δ inhibitors are expected to be relatively less toxic. Regarding the efficacy, PI3K-δ inhibitors have at least the same or better efficacy than PI3K pan-inhibitors in effector cells and inflammatory mediators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the routine commercial karyotype analysis on 5,481 boars, we identified 32 carriers of mosaic reciprocal translocations, half of which were carrying a specific recurrent translocation, mos t(7;9). An additional 7 mosaic translocations were identified through lymphocyte karyotype analysis from parents and relatives of mosaic carriers (n = 45), a control group of non-carrier boars (n = 73), and a mitogen assessment study (n = 20), bringing the total number of mosaic carriers to 39 cases. Mosaic translocations in all carriers were recognized to be confined to hematopoietic cells as no translocations were identified in fibroblasts cells of the carriers. In addition, negative impact on reproduction was not observed as the fertility of the carriers and their relatives were comparable to breed averages, and cryptic mosaicism was not detected in the family tree. This paper presents the first study of mosaic reciprocal translocations identified in swine through routine screening practices on reproductively unproven breeding boars while presenting evidence that these type of chromosome abnormalities are not associated with any affected phenotype on the carrier animals. In addition, the detection of recurrent mosaic translocations in this study may emphasize the non-random nature of mosaic rearrangements in swine and the potential role of genomic elements in their formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the first study of stiffness/deformability changes of lymphocytes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients, demonstrating that at the single cell level, leukemic metastasis progresses are accompanied by biophysical property alterations. A microfluidic device was utilized to electrically measure cell volume and transit time of single lymphocytes from healthy and CLL patients. The results from testing thousands of cells reveal that lymphocytes from CLL patients have higher stiffness (i.e., lower deformability), as compared to lymphocytes in healthy samples, which was also confirmed by AFM indentation tests. This observation is in sharp contrast to the known knowledge on other types of metastatic cells (e.g., breast and lung cancer cells) whose stiffness becomes lower as metastasis progresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]