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We investigated the contribution of variants of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and MDR1 genes in the predisposition and response to medical therapy in a large pediatric cohort of patients with Crohn disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).In this study, 200 patients with CD, 186 patients with UC, 434 parents (217 trios), and 347 healthy unrelated controls were investigated. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms -G308A and -C857T of the TNF-alpha gene and C3435T of the MDR1 gene were investigated and correlated with clinical subphenotypes and efficacy of medical therapy.The frequency of the -308A allele of the TNF-alpha gene was significantly increased in both patients with CD (15%; odds ratio [OR] = 2.79; P0.01) and patients with UC (11%; OR = 1.96; P0.003) compared with controls (6%). Carriers of this allele were 27% in CD (OR = 2.94; P0.01) and 19% in UC (OR = 1.86; P = 0.015) compared with 11% in healthy controls. No significant difference was found for both the -C857T and C3435T single-nucleotide polymorphisms. With the genotype/phenotype analysis, no correlation in patients with UC with the MDR1 gene was found. CD carriers of the -308A allele had a higher frequency of surgical resection (35% vs 20%; OR = 2.1; P = 0.035) and more frequent resistance to steroids (22% vs 8%; OR = 0.29; P = 0.032) compared with noncarriers. These findings were confirmed by stepwise logistic regression.In our pediatric cohort, the promoter -308A polymorphism of TNF-alpha but not the MDR1 gene is significantly involved in the predisposition to both CD and UC. This polymorphism carries a significant reduction in response to steroid therapy, probably leading to a more frequent need for surgical resection.

In this paper we demonstrate the implementation of a micro-scaled integrated system with the aim to sort, estimate and monitor the biomass of living cancer cells suspended in a culture medium. For this purpose, a 3D microfluidic network is designed to route small volumes of biological samples to the testing sites and dielectric spectroscopy is chosen as investigation method. Comparative electrical analyses are guaranteed by the separation of sole medium and medium-cells mixture in two different areas of the chip. A polyimide-based micro-sieve, placed between two microfluidic channels, is used to perform cell filtering and sorting. Two couples of thin-film metal electrodes ensure the comparative dielectric measurements of the separated materials. Preliminary experiments were carried out in order to test the microfluidics and demonstrate its particle-separating capabilities. The first results prove the robustness of the chosen materials, the effectiveness of the micro-sieving device in terms of particle separation from a liquid solution and its successful integration in the microfluidics. The proposed system represents a promising step for the development of novel valid solutions in the field of micro-scaled integrated cell sorting, cell monitoring and cell counting for a wide range of applications, such as tissue engineering, tumor cells research and biological monitoring in space environment

This paper proposes an innovative system for monitoring domestic energy consumptions and for verifying the behavior of less-sufficient people during their everyday home life, on the basis of their interaction with surrounding environment and with household electrical appliances. It is composed by three different acquisition sections, a remote server for data storage and processing and an Android mobile application for remote data access. The remote application allows the user to check in almost real time the power absorptions of the monitored house, in addition to other environmental parameters acquired through different sensing technologies.

Background: To date, a number of high-profile studies have yielded over 50 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) disease genes/loci. The polymorphisms rs9858542 (BSN) and rs3197999 (MST1), on 3p21 locus, have been found associated with susceptibility to IBD. We aimed to replicate these associations in adult and early-onset cohorts of IBD Italian patients, by analyzing also potential gene–gene interactions with variants in NOD2/CARD15, IL23R, ATG16L1, and IRGM genes, and investigating genotype–phenotype correlation. Methods: In all, 1808 patients with IBD, 855 with Crohn's disease (CD) and 953 with ulcerative colitis (UC), including 539 patients with their initial diagnosis