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In this work, we present a Deuteron Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (DNMR) study of the non-symmetric odd liquid crystal dimer α -(4-cyanobiphenyl-4'-yloxy)- ω -(1-pyrenimine-benzylidene-4'-oxy) heptane (CBO7O.Py), formed by a pro-mesogenic cyanobiphenyl unit and a bulky pyrene-containing unit, linked via alkoxy flexible chain. We have synthesized two partially deuterated samples: one with the deuterium atoms in the cyanobiphenyl moiety (dCBO7O.Py) and the other one with the deuterium atoms in the pyrenimine-benzylidene unit (CBO7O.dPy). We have performed angular distribution analysis in the SmA glassy state, obtaining the degree of order of both rigid cores and an estimation of the internal molecular angle between both structures. With the results from the angular study, we have been able to determine the degree of order of both rigid units in either the N phase and the SmA phase, far enough from the glass transition. Both rigid cores have the same degree of order close to the nematic-isotropic phase transition, but as the compound is cooled down, the degree of order of the cyanobiphenyl moiety is clearly higher than that of the pyrene-containing unit. The critical behaviour of the order parameter of the pyrene-containing moiety is consistent with the fact that, for CBO7O.Py, the N-I phase transition is tricritical, which seems to indicate that the uniaxial order parameter of the dimer is dominated by the degree of order of the pyrene-containing core.

We have performed dielectric spectroscopy and thermally stimulated-depolarization-current experiments to study the molecular dynamics of the twist-bend nematic phase close to the glass transition of two members of the 1″,7'-bis(4-cyanobiphenyl-4'-yl)alkane homologous series (CBnCB): the liquid crystal (LC) dimers CB9CB and CB7CB, as well as a binary mixture of both. By doping CB9CB with a small quantity of CB7CB, the crystallization is inhibited when cooling the sample down, while the bulk properties of CB9CB are retained and we can investigate the supercooled behavior close to the glass transition. The study reveals that the inter- and intramolecular interactions of the mixture are similar to those of pure CB9CB and confirms that there is a single glass transition in symmetric LC dimers.

There is now strong evidence to support the interest in using lactic acid bacteria (LAB)in particular, strains of lactococci and lactobacilli, as well as bifidobacteria, for the development of new live vectors for human and animal health purposes. LAB are Gram-positive bacteria that have been used for millennia in the production of fermented foods. In addition, numerous studies have shown that genetically modified LAB and bifodobacteria can induce a systemic and mucosal immune response against certain antigens when administered mucosally. They are therefore good candidates for the development of new mucosal delivery strategies and are attractive alternatives to vaccines based on attenuated pathogenic bacteria whose use presents health risks. This article reviews the most recent research and advances in the use of LAB and bifidobacteria as live delivery vectors for human and animal health.

Recent studies have shown that inflammatory diseases are becoming more frequent throughout the world. The causes of these disorders are multifactorial and include genetic, immunological, and environmental factors, and intestinal microbiota dysbiosis. The use of beneficial microorganisms has shown to be useful in the prevention and treatment of disorders such as colitis, mucositis, and even colon cancer by their immune-stimulating properties. It has also been shown that certain vitamins, especially riboflavin and folate derivatives, have proven to be helpful in the treatment of these diseases. The application of vitamin-producing lactic acid bacteria, especially strains that produce folate and riboflavin together with immune-stimulating strains, could be used as adjunct treatments in patients suffering from a wide range of inflammatory diseases since they could improve treatment efficiency and prevent undesirable side effects in addition to their nutrition values. In this review, the most up to date information on the current knowledge and uses of vitamin-producing lactic acid bacteria is discussed in order to stimulate further studies in this field.

Inflammatory bowel diseases are chronic and relapsing-remitting disorders that affect the gastrointestinal tract. Previously, the administration of folate and riboflavin-producing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) or an immune-modulating strain showed beneficial effects as they were able to reduce the acute inflammation in mouse models. The aim of this work was to evaluate a mixture of vitamin-producing and immune-modulating LAB administering together with an anti-inflammatory drug during the remission period of a mouse model of recurrent colitis. BALB/c mice were intrarectally instilled with trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) and those who recovered from this acute challenge were given the LAB mixture, mesalazine, or the combination of both (mesalazine + LAB) during 21 days, followed by a second challenge with TNBS. Control mice instilled with ethanol (vehicle of TNBS) and receiving the different treatments were also evaluated in order to study the effect of chronic anti-inflammatory therapy. The combination of mesalazine and LAB mixture was the most effective to decrease the intestinal damage at macroscopic and histological levels and to reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α) in intestinal fluids. In animals instilled with ethanol, mesalazine produced a loss of body weight and intestinal damages with increased IL-6. These side effects were prevented by the co-administration of mesalazine and the LAB mixture. The LAB blend did not affect the primary anti-inflammatory treatment, was able to improve it, and also prevented the side effects of this therapy.

Despite the awareness that children with severe and complex difficulties experience child sexual abuse (CSA), the development of research in this area is still in its infancy. This call for relevant research seeks to identify the main gaps in knowledge in order to inform future debate, potential research questions, and raise issues for practice. Themes are identified relevant to researchers and practitioners globally. These include the complexity and duality of definition: recognition of CSA; barriers to communication with children and between services; diversity of segregated and inclusive settings; interaction of age and gender; adult and peer abuse in institutions; sexuality and disability; and intrusive care and medical practices. Recommendations for future research and practice in creating safe environments are provided.

Relaxor ferroelectrics (RF) are outstanding materials owing to their extraordinary dielectric, electromechanical, and electro-optical properties. Although their massive applications, they remain to be one of the most puzzling solid-state materials because understanding their structural local order and relaxation dynamics is being a long-term challenge in materials science. The so-called Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman (VFT) relation has been extensively used to parameterize the relaxation dynamics in RF, although no microscopic description has been firmly established for such empirical relation. Here, we show that VFT equation is not always a proper approach for describing the dielectric relaxation in RF. Based on the Adam-Gibbs model and the Grüneisen temperature index, a more general equation to disentangle the relaxation kinetic is proposed. This approach allows to a new formulation for the configurational entropy leading to a local structural heterogeneity related order parameter for RF. A new pathway to disentangle relaxation phenomena in other relaxor ferroics could have opened.

Mandatory fortification of foods with folic acid is being questioned by many scientists principally because of the potential adverse secondary effects associated with their excessive consumption. It has been shown that selected strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are able to produce natural forms of folate and these could be included in foods to prevent deficiencies without causing adverse effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate folate production and fol gene expression by Streptococcus gallolyticus subsp. macedonicus (S. macedonicus) CRL415 under different growth conditions in vitro and to assess its potential probiotic application. Results showed that glucose as the principal carbon source, and incubation at 42 °C under controlled pH conditions (6.0) increased folate production, fol gene expression, and growth of S. macedonicus CRL415. This strain was able to produce elevated folate concentrations during milk fermentation without the need of prolonged incubation times and was able to resist conditions simulating the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, S. macedonicus was susceptible to all required antibiotics, and had a good adhesion level to intestinal cells in vitro, making it a promising candidate for biotechnological application as functional starter cultures in the dairy industry., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represent a great therapeutic promise in pre-clinical models of osteoarthritis (OA), but many questions remain as to their therapeutic mechanism of action: engraftment versus paracrine action. Encapsulation of human MSCs (hMSCs) in sodium alginate microspheres allowed for the paracrine signaling properties of these cells to be isolated and studied independently of direct cellular engraftment. The objective of the present study was to quantitatively assess the efficacy of encapsulated hMSCs as a disease-modifying therapeutic for OA, using a medial meniscal tear (MMT) rat model. It was hypothesized that encapsulated hMSCs would have a therapeutic effect, through paracrine-mediated action, on early OA development. Lewis rats underwent MMT surgery to induce OA. 1 d post-surgery, rats received intra-articular injections of encapsulated hMSCs or controls (i.e., saline, empty capsules, non-encapsulated hMSCs). Microstructural changes in the knee joint were quantified using equilibrium partitioning of a ionic contrast agent based micro-computed tomography (EPIC-μCT) at 3 weeks post-surgery, an established time point for early OA. Encapsulated hMSCs significantly attenuated MMT-induced increases in articular cartilage swelling and surface roughness and augmented cartilaginous and mineralized osteophyte volumes. Cellular encapsulation allowed to isolate the hMSC paracrine signaling effects and demonstrated that hMSCs could exert a chondroprotective therapeutic role on early stage OA through paracrine signaling alone. In addition to this chondroprotective role, encapsulated hMSCs augmented the compensatory increases in osteophyte formation. The latter should be taken into strong consideration as many clinical trials using MSCs for OA are currently ongoing.

Objectives: Intestinal mucositis (IM) is a local inflammatory response that causes alterations of the intestinal structure that in turn affect nutrient absorption and a side effect that is commonly associated with cancer treatments. Lactobacillus plantarum CRL2130 is a riboflavin-overproducing strain that has previously been shown to provide antiinflammatory properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of this riboflavin-producing strain in a chemically induced murine mucositis model., Methods: Mucositis was induced by daily injections of 5-fluororacil (5-FU) after which mice were either given L. plantarum CRL2130, CRL725 (strain from which CRL2130 was derived that does not overproduce riboflavin), or commercial riboflavin twice daily during 6 d of chemotherapy agent injections. The effect of the strains and riboflavin was also evaluated in vitro using Caco-2 intestinal cancer cell cultures to determine if they interfere with 5-FU's anticancer activity., Results: The administration of L. plantarum CRL2130 significantly attenuated the pathologic changes induced by 5-FU in mice such as body weight loss, diarrhea, shortening of villus height, increases in proinflammatory cytokine concentrations, and elevated production of interleukin 10. In vitro assays using Caco-2 cells showed that the effectiveness of 5-FU was not affected by L. plantarum CRL2130 and that this strain exerted an inhibitory mechanism against oxidative stress., Conclusions: These results indicate that the riboflavin-overproducing strain L. plantarum CRL2130 could be useful to prevent mucositis during cancer treatments and would not affect the primary treatment., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Blood vessels convey essential nutrients to end organs, and when diseased, they must be replaced or bypassed. Traditionally plastic and synthetic materials have been used but are susceptible to thrombosis, stenosis, and poor patency rates. A recent report in Science Translational Medicine describes a decellularized matrix grown in vitro from commercially sourced fibroblasts that can be used as a vascular graft. Fibroblasts are grown for several weeks on a fibrin scaffold, laying down a collagen layer. After decellularization and transplantation as an arteriovenous fistula, this group showed that grafts remained patent for several weeks. The lack of cellular material in this graft at the time of transplantation reduced the risk of immune rejection. The matrix laid down by the fibroblasts can serve as a scaffold for recipient cells to colonize after implantation, but also provides structural support for arterial blood flow. Other tissue-engineered grafts of decellularized matrices have recently been tested in clinical trial. For these strategies, the cell type, scaffold material, and culture conditions are key components that dictate not only the type and quality of the end product, but also allow standardization and quality control necessary for widespread translation into clinical use. These off-the-shelf decellularized products may be the first in a new generation of therapies for patients with cardiovascular disease.

Background: Current therapies for against inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are sometimes limited by high costs, high toxicities and/or undesirable side effects, reasons for which new treatments are constantly being developed and studied. In this regards, an increasing mass of data has demonstrated that fecal transplantations and probiotic supplementations have shown promising effects and could be considered as adjunct IBD treatments to decrease some of the unwanted side effects caused by primary treatments. Furthermore, there is also mounting evidence that suggests that certain vitamins could provide antiinflammatory effects and it has been shown that certain strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), the most commonly used probiotic microorganisms, can produce biologically active forms of certain vitamins., Objective: To discuss the potential role of the vitamin-producing LAB on intestinal inflammatory diseases., Method: A thorough search of bibliographic databases for peer-reviewed research on the effect of vitamins produced by LAB on inflammatory processes was performed., Results: There is mounting research that vitamin producing LAB could provide antiinflammatory effects., Conclusion: The potential role of vitamin producing LAB was discussed not only because they could be used to decrease inflammation but also because they could provide the host with essential nutrients that are normally deficient in IBD patients due to altered intestinal morphologies., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.)

The association between inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer is well documented. The genetic modification of lactic acid bacteria as a tool to increase the anti-inflammatory potential of these microorganisms has also been demonstrated. Thus the aim of the present work was to evaluate the anti-cancer potential of different genetically modified lactic acid bacteria (GM-LAB) producing antioxidant enzymes (catalase or superoxide dismutase) or the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 (protein or DNA delivery) using a chemical induced colon cancer murine model. Dimethilhydrazine was used to induce colorectal cancer in mice. The animals received GM-LAB producing anti-oxidant enzymes, IL-10 or a mixture of different GM-LAB. Intestinal damage, enzyme activities and cytokines were evaluated and compared to the results obtained from mice that received the wild type strains from which derived the GM-LAB. All the GM-LAB assayed showed beneficial effects against colon cancer even though they exerted different mechanisms of action. The importance to select LAB with innate beneficial properties as the progenitor strain was demonstrated with the GM-LAB producing anti-oxidant enzymes. In addition, the best effects for the mixtures GM-LAB that combine different anti-inflammatory mechanism. Results indicate that mixtures of selected LAB and GM-LAB could be used as an adjunct treatment to decrease the inflammatory harmful environment associated to colorectal cancer, especially for patients with chronic intestinal inflammation who have an increased risk to develop colorectal cancer., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To establish the diagnostic value of the determination of leukocyte composition of inflammatory infiltrate in chronic gastroduodenite in childhood., Patients and Methods: We examined 103 patients aged 8-17 with chronic gastroduodenitis associated with Helicobacter pylori. To detect Hp and Epstein-Barr viral infections we used esophagogastroduodenoscopy, quick urease test, bacterioscopy of gastrobiopsies. We performed the analysis of the cellular composition of the inflammatory infiltrate., Results: It was found that the number of lymphocytes and neutrophils located in the lamina and intraepithelial increases, which is associated with the degree of inflammation. Increased to the maximum was the number of intraepithelial lymphocytes, both in the body, and in the antrum. Intensity of leukocyte infiltration is directly correlated with the increased prevalence of inflammation. Persistence of Epstein-Barr virus (35.9% of patients) is followed by more severe intraepithelial lymphocytic infiltration in the stomach. In 4-6 months after treatment 18 patients with severe gastritis were repeatedly studied for the inflammatory infiltrate. A significant decrease in the number of intraepithelial neutrophils was found., Conclusion: Cellular composition of the infiltrate is an objective characteristic of chronic inflammation in the gastric mucosa. Persistence of Epstein-Barr virus is accompanied by an increase in the amount of intraepithelial lymphocytes and neutrophils.

The experimental phase diagram of the CBrCl3+CBr4 system has been determined by means of X-ray powder diffraction and thermal analysis techniques from 200 K to the liquid state. Before melting, the two components have the same orientationally disordered (OD) face-centered cubic phase, and solid-liquid equilibrium is explained by simple isomorphism. The application of multiple crossed isopolymorphism formalism to the low-temperature solid-solid equilibria has enabled the inference of an OD rhombohedral metastable (at normal pressure) phase for CBr4. Experimental determination of the pressure-volume-temperature and construction of the pressure-temperature phase diagrams for CBr4 reveal the existence of a high-pressure phase, the rhombohedral symmetry of which is inferred by means of the thermodynamic assessment of the experimental phase diagram and demonstrated by means of high-pressure neutron diffraction measurements. The procedure used in this work confirms the connection between the appearance of metastable phases at normal pressure and their existence at high-pressure.

Interleukin-9 (IL-9) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of allergic disorders. To examine the interaction between IL-9 and eosinophils, we evaluated mature peripheral blood eosinophils for their expression of the specific alpha-subunit of the IL-9 receptor (IL-9R-alpha). The expression of IL-9R-alpha by human eosinophils was detected at the messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), flow cytometry, and immunocytochemical analysis, respectively. Functional analyses demonstrated that recombinant human (rh)IL-9 inhibited in vitro peripheral blood human eosinophil apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner. We then examined the role of IL-9 in eosinophil differentiation using the human cord blood CD34(+) cells and human promyelocytic leukemia cells (HL-60). The addition of IL-9 to CD34(+) cells cultured in IL-3 and IL-5 enhanced eosinophil development, and IL-9 alone induced the expression of IL-5R-alpha. IL-9 also up-regulated the IL-5R-alpha chain cell surface expression during terminal eosinophil differentiation of the HL-60 cell line. Our findings suggest that IL-9 may potentiate in vivo eosinophil function by increasing their survival and IL-5-mediated differentiation and maturation. Taken together, these results suggest a mechanism by which IL-9 potentiates airway and tissue eosinophilia.

This report describes our experience with absorbable gelfilm in retinal detachment and intraocular foreign body surgical cases. The material was used as an intrascleral implant in 100 trapdoor retinal procedures. In 10 other cases it was used as a meridional implant under a silicone buckle, and in 2 cases it was used as a vitreous tamponade over the site where an intraocular foreign body was removed. The gelatin was found to be an excellent adjunct in retinal surgery. The material was easy to work with and there were no complications of erosion, extrusion, or infection. The indications for use of this material, as well as the advantages and disadvantages, are discussed.