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Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Over the last decade, evidence has mounted for a prominent etiologic role of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) in the development of early hip osteoarthritis (OA). The aim of this study was to compare the ultrastructure and tissue composition of the hip labrum in healthy and pathological conditions, as FAI and OA, to provide understanding of structural changes which might be helpful in the future to design targeted therapies and improve treatment indications. We analyzed labral tissue samples from five healthy multi-organ donors (MCDs) (median age, 38 years), five FAI patients (median age, 37 years) and five late-stage OA patients undergoing total hip replacement (median age, 56 years). We evaluated morpho-functional by histology and transmission electron microscopy. Extracellular matrix (ECM) structure changes were similar in specimens from FAI compared to those from patients with OA (more severe in the latter) showing disorganization of collagen fibers and increased proteoglycan content. In FAI and in OA nuclei the chromatin was condensed, organelle degenerated and cytoplasm vacuolized. Areas of calcification were mainly observed in FAI and OA labrum, as well as apoptotic-like features. We showed that labral tissue of patients with FAI had similar pathological alterations of tissue obtained from OA patients, suggesting that FAI patients might have high susceptibility to develop OA., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The adverse effects of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) in marine environments have recently attracted great attention although their effects on marine benthic organisms such as foraminifera are still largely overlooked. Here we document the effects of three negatively charged ENM, different in size and composition, titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), polystyrene (PS) and silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ), on a microbial eukaryote (the benthic foraminifera Ammonia parkinsoniana) using multiple approaches. This research clearly shows the presence, within the foraminiferal cytoplasm, of metallic (Ti) and organic (PS) ENM that promote physiological stress. Specifically, marked increases in the accumulation of neutral lipids and enhanced reactive oxygen species production occurred in ENM-treated specimens regardless of ENM type. This study indicates that ENM represent ecotoxicological risks for this microbial eukaryote and presents a new model for the neglected marine benthos by which to assess natural exposure scenarios.

The human meniscus plays a crucial role for transmission and distribution of load across the knee, as well as shock absorption, joint stability, lubrication, and congruity. The aim of this study was to compare the complex geometry, and unique ultrastructure and tissue composition of the meniscus in healthy (control) and pathological conditions to provide understanding of structural changes that could be helpful in the future design of targetted therapies and improvement of treatment indications. We analyzed meniscus samples collected from 3 healthy multi-organ donors (median age, 66 years), 5 patients with traumatic meniscal tear (median age, 41 years) and 3 patients undergoing total knee replacement (TKR) for end-stage osteoarthritis (OA) (median age, 72 years). We evaluated the extracellular matrix (ECM) organization, the appearance and distribution of areas of calcification, and modifications of cellular organization and structure by electron microscopy and histology. The ECM structure was similar in specimens from traumatic meniscus tears compared to those from patients with late-stage OA, showing disorganization of collagen fibers and increased proteoglycan content. Cells of healthy menisci showed mainly diffuse chromatin and well preserved organelles. Both in traumatic and in OA menisci, we observed increased chromatin condensation, organelle degeneration, and cytoplasmic vacuolization, a portion of which contained markers of autophagic vacuoles. Areas of calcification were also observed in both traumatic and OA menisci, as well as apoptotic-like features that were particularly prominent in traumatic meniscal tear samples. We conclude that meniscal tissue from patients with traumatic meniscal injury demonstrate pathological alterations characteristic of tissue from older patients undergoing TKR, suggesting that they have high susceptibility to develop OA.

Oxidative stress increase induces cellular damage and apoptosis activation, a mechanism believed to represent a final common pathway correlated to sarcopenia and many skeletal muscle disorders. The goal of this study is to evaluate if melatonin, a ROS scavenger molecule, is able to counteract or modulate myotube death. Here, differentiated C2C12 skeletal muscle cells have been treated with melatonin before chemicals known to induce apoptotic death and oxidative stress, and its effect has been investigated by means of morpho-functional analyses. Ultrastructural observations show melatonin protection against triggers by the reducing of membrane blebbing, chromatin condensation, myonuclei loss and in situ DNA cleavage. Moreover, melatonin is able to prevent mitochondrial dysfunctions which occur in myotubes exposed to the trigger alone. These findings demonstrate melatonin ability in preventing apoptotic cell death in skeletal muscle fibers in vitro, suggesting for this molecule a potential therapeutic role in the treatment of various muscle disorders., (© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Hydrogen-bonding interactions lead to significant changes in the infrared (IR) spectrum, like frequency shifts of the order of magnitude of hundreds of cm(-1) and increases of IR intensity for bands related to vibrational modes of functional groups directly involved in the hydrogen-bonded bridges. We are actively developing a comprehensive and robust computational protocol aimed at the quantitative reproduction of the spectra of bio-organic and hybrid organic/inorganic molecular systems with a proper account of the variety of intra- and intermolecular interactions. We have resorted to fully anharmonic quantum mechanical computations within the generalized second-order vibrational perturbation theory (GVPT2) approach, combined with the B3LYP-D3 method, in conjunction with basis sets of double-ζ plus polarization quality. Such an approach has been validated in a previous work ( Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2014 , 16 , 10112 - 10128 ) for simulating the IR spectra of the monomers of nucleobases and some of their dimers. In the present contribution we have extended our computational protocol toward hybrid models, with the harmonic part computed at the B2PLYP level, in conjunction with the maug-cc-pVTZ basis set, or by a cost-effective ONIOM B2PLYP:B3LYP focused model, where only part of the molecular system forming the hydrogen bonds is treated at the B2PLYP level of theory. In this work experimental frequencies available for a set of four uracil-water complexes have been considered as references for the computational methodologies applied to the simulation of hydrogen-bonding effects on the infrared spectrum, obtaining average uncertainties of about 22 cm(-1) for B3LYP-D3/N07D and improved description within 10 cm(-1) by hybrid B2PLYP/B3LYP-D3 approaches. The same computational schemes have been next applied to simulate fully anharmonic IR spectra of six different hydrogen-bonded uracil dimers, providing reliable support for future experimental investigations on hydrogen-bonded systems.