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Background: The rise in paediatric non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is particularly alarming. We recently reported that Hydroxytyrosol (HXT) and Vitamin E (VitE) may improve oxidative stress, insulin resistance, and steatosis in children with biopsy-proven NAFLD., Aim: Here, we investigated if HXT+VitE may reduce systemic inflammation in the above-mentioned patients., Methods: This study analysed the plasma levels of IL (interleukin)-6, IL-1β, IL-10, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, 4‑hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE) and 8-hydroxy-2'deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in children enrolled in the HXT+VitE trial (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02842567)., Results: Changes in markers of systemic inflammation were found in both placebo (Pla) and HXT+VitE. In particular, after four months, the levels of IL-1β and TNF-α were reduced in both groups, while IL-6 decreased, and IL-10 increased significantly only in the group treated with HXT+VitE. Children treated with HXT+VitE showed a significant decrease of 4-HNE and 8-OHdG that correlated with the improvement of triglyceride levels. Noticeably, only the 8-OHdG decrease correlated with steatosis amelioration and with the increase of IL-10 levels., Conclusion: The treatment with HXT and VitE reduced the NAFLD-related systemic inflammation in children, mainly by an increase of IL-10 circulating levels that occurred in response to DNA damage recovery, ultimately improving steatosis and hypertriglyceridemia., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of the study was to investigate the absorption and transport mechanisms as well as the anti-inflammatory properties of ideain on Caco-2 transwell model. A concentration and time-dependent bidirectional transport was highlighted; despite this, a clear saturation of the transepithelial absorption in the A-B direction was observed at ideain concentration > 10 μM, suggesting an involvement of membrane transporters. Comparing Papp and PDR values of ideain (10 μM) to reference drugs with a low to a high apparent permeability, it is possible to predict a low in vivo absorption, with a transport efficiency of 1.03%. Co-treatments with several EDTA-Na 2 concentrations (1-5 mM) and P-gp inhibition studies with verapamil 100 μM ruled out a passive diffusion of this molecule as well the possibility that P-gp could affect ideain absorption. Inhibition studies using 2 mM phloridzin (SGLT1 inhibitor) and 2 mM phloretin (GLUT2 inhibitor), showed a clear SGLT1 and GLUT2 involvement in the ideain absorption, with SGLT1, which plays the pivotal role. Finally, preliminary anti-inflammatory studies showed that ideain is able to modulate, at a pharmanutritional dose, and with a comparable activity in respect to the reference drug dexamethasone (10 μM), the LPS-induced inflammation in Caco-2 transwell model, which makes it a potentially useful molecule for nutraceutical purpose., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Tailored colloids of uniformly sized and engineered molybdenum oxide nanoparticles were produced, for the first time, by pulsed laser ablation in water. This green technique ensures the formation of contaminant-free nanostructures and the absence of by-products, very useful issues in biological applications. A selective tuning of MoO chemical bonding configurations and a suitable control of nanoparticles size distributions were achieved during the ablation processes by varying the water temperature and by applying an external electric field. The metal redox properties are fundamental factors governing both cell uptake and interaction mode with Mo oxide nanoparticles. Micro-Raman spectroscopy was used to investigate the existence of cellular changes induced by Mo oxide colloids on the fibroblast cell line NIH/3T3 in relation to the molecular vibrations due to proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. The label-free micro-Raman spectroscopy provides an easy and noninvasive method to monitor the harmful effect of toxic agents on cells through ROS production or redox-dependent mechanisms. In view of potential biological applications, molybdenum oxide nanoparticles cytotoxicity towards NIH/3T3 cells was also investigated. A statistical analysis shows that, in the 10-100 μg/mL Mo concentration range, all the colloids are cytotoxic, progressively reducing the cell viability down to 75% upon increasing the concentration. The effect is less pronounced for the oxygen deficient MoO 3 samples where cell viability does not fall below 85%. These results open the way to identify potential bioactive products affecting cellular redox status, by using only the Raman spectral data, even before performing lengthy and expensive specific clinical analyses., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This study compares in vitro and in vivo models of lipid digestion from almond particles within a complex food matrix (muffins) investigating whether the cell-wall barrier regulates the bioaccessibility of nutrients within this matrix. Muffins containing small (AF) or large (AP) particles of almond were digested in triplicate using an in vitro dynamic gastric model (DGM, 1 h) followed by a static duodenal digestion (8 h). AF muffins had 97.1 ± 1.7% of their lipid digested, whereas AP muffins had 57.6 ± 1.1% digested. In vivo digestion of these muffins by an ileostomy volunteer (0-10 h) gave similar results with 96.5% and 56.5% lipid digested, respectively. The AF muffins produced a higher postprandial triacylglycerol iAUC response (by 61%) than the AP muffins. Microstructural analysis showed that some lipid remained encapsulated within the plant tissue throughout digestion. The cell-wall barrier mechanism is the main factor in regulating lipid bioaccessibility from almond particles.

Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) nuts are a rich source of phenolic compounds, known for their high antioxidant activity, and contained not only in the seeds but also in the skin. A pistachio cultivar of high quality is typical of Bronte, Sicily, Italy. The purpose of our study was to investigate the chemical composition and antioxidant properties of two polyphenol-rich extracts from skins (TP) and decorticated seeds (SP) of Bronte pistachios, and to verify the potential use of these extracts for topical photoprotective products. Chemical analysis showed that the TP and SP extracts contain high levels of phenolic compounds, but the TP extract is about ten times richer in phenols than the SP extract, being anthocyanins the most abundant compounds found in the TP extract. Both these extracts, and especially the TP extract, possess good radical scavenger/antioxidant properties, as shown in a series of in vitro assays carried out using homogenous and non-homogenous chemical environment. Furthermore both the TP extract and, although at a lower degree, the SP extract reduce, when topically applied, UV-B-induced skin erythema in human volunteers. These findings suggest that extracts from Bronte TP and SP could be successfully employed as photoprotective ingredients in topical cosmetic and pharmaceutical formulations., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Desmoplastic fibroma (DFB) is a benign primary bone tumor that usually occurs in adolescents and young adults. The genetic information on DFB is very limited. We here present cytogenetic, fluorescence in situ hybridization and single nucleotide polymorphism array findings in a case that had a rearrangement involving chromosomes 11 and 19 at G-banding analysis. The results showed that the breakpoint in 11q was different from that in desmoplastic fibroblastomas, and a segment containing five genes was hemizygously deleted from 11q13., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Three extracts of different polarities of Glycyrrhiza glabra L. leaves were characterized and evaluated for their antioxidant, anti-genotoxic and anti-inflammatory activity. In total, thirty components have been identified and quantified through the use of liquid chromatography (LC) with ultraviolet-visible diode-array-detector (UV-vis-DAD) and mass spectrometry (MS). The main components belong to the polyphenols family, being flavonoid and dihydrostilbene derivatives. The extracts have been investigated for their antioxidant, anti-genotoxic and anti-inflammatory activities, which are fundamental requirements of efficacious chemo-preventive agents. The ethyl acetate extract proved to be the most valuable, evidently for the conspicuous presence of several polyphenols, namely flavonoids and dihydrostilbenes., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Pseudomyogenic hemangioendothelioma is a recently described morphologic entity among soft tissue tumors. It is more common in young individuals, shows a male predominance, is often multifocal and involves different tissue planes, and shows a high propensity for local recurrence. To our knowledge, no genetic characteristics of this tumor type have been presented before. Here, we describe the finding of a balanced t(7;19)(q22;q13) as the sole anomaly in three lesions from a 14-year-old girl. By means of fluorescence in situ hybridization, the breakpoints could be delineated, but reverse transcriptase−polymerase chain reaction for putative fusion genes did not reveal any fusion transcript. Interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization on sections from nine other pseudomyogenic hemangioendotheliomas indicated the presence of an unbalanced der(7)t(7;19) in one of them. Thus, the translocation between chromosomes 7 and 19 seems to be a recurrent phenomenon and is likely to be of pathogenetic significance in at least a subset of pseudomyogenic hemangioendotheliomas., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Nickel is a metal widely employed in dental alloys, and due to peculiar properties of certain nickel-based materials, it cannot be substituted with other metals in some applications. The release of nickel ions from dental alloys placed into long-term contact with mouth soft tissues is alarming because of the toxic, immunological and carcinogenic effects which have been well documented for some nickel compounds. Our study was focussed on the toxic effects induced "in vitro" on human oral epithelium by the exposure to low concentrations of nickel chloride. In view of this, we adopted a three-dimensional model of epithelial cultures, reconstituted from TR 146 cells, resembling the physiological environment of the oral cavity and useful for biocompatibility testing. The effects on cell viability, apoptosis, cellular content of reduced and oxidized glutathione (GSH and GSSG) and release of prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were investigated following topical application of a NiCl(2) solution ranging from 7.6mM to 0.05 mM for 72 h. Our findings show that nickel concentrations, which do not significantly modify cell viability and inflammation mediator release, can affect the redox equilibrium and stimulate apoptosis in oral epithelium cells. Further studies are needed to demonstrate the hypothesis that the oxidative imbalance induced by nickel might be implicated in the induction of apoptosis.