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Melatonin is a hormone related to circadian rhythms and has potential clinical applications. Our objectives were to verify the effect of melatonin on the liver of zebrafish exposed to fructose and evaluate the expression of appetite-related genes (leptin, ghrelin, and melanocortin receptor 4 [MC4R]). Animals were divided into three groups: control (CG

Aim To evaluate the effects of chronic exposure to ethanol in the liver and the expression of inflammatory genes in zebrafish. Methods Zebrafish (n = 104), wild type, adult, male and female, were divided into two groups: Control and ethanol (0.05 v/v). The ethanol was directly added into water; tanks water were changed every two days and the ethanol replaced. The animals were fed twice a day with fish food until satiety. After two and four weeks of trial, livers were dissected, histological analysis (hematoxilin-eosin and Oil Red staining) and gene expression assessment of adiponectin, adiponectin receptor 2 (adipor2), sirtuin-1 (sirt-1), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (tnf-a), interleukin-1b (il-1b) and interleukin-10 (il-10) were performed. Ultrastructural evaluations were conducted at fourth week. Results Exposing zebrafish to 0.5% ethanol developed intense liver steatosis after four weeks, as demonstrated by oil red staining. In ethanol-treated animals, the main ultrastructural changes were related to cytoplasmic lipid particles and droplets, increased number of rough endoplasmic reticulum cisterns and glycogen particles. Between two and four weeks, hepatic mRNA expression of il-1b, sirt-1 and adipor2 were upregulated, indicating that ethanol triggered signaling molecules which are key elements in both hepatic inflammatory and protective responses. Adiponectin was not detected in the liver of animals exposed and not exposed to ethanol, and il-10 did not show significant difference. Conclusion Data suggest that inflammatory signaling and ultrastructural alterations play a significant role during hepatic steatosis in zebrafish chronically exposed to ethanol.

Introdução: A cirrose caracteriza-se por uma alteração crônica do parênquima hepático que frequentemente leva à desnutrição em crianças e adolescentes. A intervenção nutricional deve ser feita precocemente, o que requer um cuidadoso acompanhamento desses pacientes. Objetivos: Comparar os resultados da avaliação nutricional de crianças e adolescentes cirróticos realizada em dois períodos de tempo distintos. Métodos: Foram utilizados bancos de dados oriundos de duas pesquisas conduzidas com pacientes pediátricos com cirrose. Após a aplicação de critérios de inclusão e exclusão, 67 crianças e adolescentes foram avaliados em duas séries com intervalo de aproximadamente uma década entre elas. As duas séries tiveram as variáveis antropométricas estatura para idade (E/I) e dobra cutânea tricipital para idade (DCT/I) avaliadas de acordo com os padrões da Organização Mundial de Saúde. A gravidade da doença foi avaliada pelos modelos Pediatric End-stage Liver Disease (PELD)/ Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) e pelo escore Child-Pugh. O nível de significância foi estabelecido em 5%. Resultados: Os resultados da avaliação do estado nutricional dos pacientes nas duas séries não mostraram diferença estatisticamente significativa. Na série 1, 22,6% dos pacientes apresentaram desnutrição, e 27,8% na série 2 (p = 0,955). Conclusões: Podemos concluir que nas duas séries avaliadas, separadas por aproximadamente uma década, o percentual de desnutrição e a gravidade da cirrose se mantiveram estáveis. Introduction: Cirrhosis is characterized by a chronic alteration of the liver parenchyma that often leads to malnutrition in children and adolescents. Nutritional intervention should be performed early, requiring careful follow-up of these patients. Objectives: To compare the nutritional assessment of cirrhotic pediatric patients performed in two separate periods of time. Methods: This research used two different databases originated from studies conducted with pediatric patients with cirrhosis. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 67 children and adolescents were assessed in two series of tests performed within a time range of approximately a decade. Both series had standard deviation score for height-for-age (SDS-H/A), standard deviation score for triceps skinfold-for-age and (SDS-TSF/A), calculated according to the standards established by the World Health Organization. Disease severity was evaluated by the Pediatric End-stage Liver Disease (PELD)/Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) and by the Child-Pugh score. Results were considered significant at p < 0.05. Results: The present study did not find any statistically significant difference for the nutritional status of the researched subjects in any of the series. In the first series, 22.6% of patients were undernourished, compared to 27.8% in the second one (p = 0.955). Conclusions: We can conclude that in both series of tests conducted with an interval of about a decade from each other the percentage of malnutrition and the severity of cirrhosis remained stable.

The knowledge that the composition of intestinal microbiota is different in lean and obese humans indicates that the microbiota plays an important role in the pathophysiology of obesity. Studies show that diet composition promotes the modification of intestinal bacterial species, favoring the increase of energy extraction from the diet, insulin resistance and obesity. Unbalanced diets, with overload fat and low fiber content, lead to increased Firmicutes and Proteobacteria phyla favoring dysbiosis, endotoxemia and inflammation. The use of probiotics, prebiotics and symbiotics, in order to modulate the composition of intestinal microbiome, may be a promising therapy for the reduction of the metabolic complications of obesity; however, further studies should be conducted to establish which probiotic species are suitable to help in the treatment of obesity.