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Pierluca Minelli,1 Maria Rosa Montinari2 1Faculty of Medicine and Surgery “A. Gemelli”, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy; 2Department of Biological and Environmental Science and Technology, University of Salento, Lecce, ItalyCorrespondence: Maria Rosa MontinariDepartment of Biological and Environmental Science and Technology, Complex Ecotekne, way Monteroni, University of Salento, Lecce 73100, ItalyTel +39 83 229 8855Email mariarosa.montinari@unisalento.itAbstract: Ancient Greece was the cradle of the Mediterranean food tradition, characterized by the Mediterranean “eternal trinity” wheat - olive oil - wine, the very essence of the country’s traditional agricultural and dietary regime, enriched by a culture of sharing and commensality. This food model, subsequently adopted and spread by the Romans, was rediscovered at the end of the Second World War by two American researchers, Leland Allbaugh and Ancel Keys. With the famous Seven Countries Study, Keys demonstrated for the first time that populations practicing a Mediterranean diet - such as the Greeks and southern Italians - showed low mortality rates from ischemic heart disease compared to the peoples of Northern Europe and North America. Since then, numerous subsequent epidemiological studies and randomized clinical trials have confirmed the beneficial effects of the Mediterranean diet both in primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases. This review will focus on the origins of the Mediterranean diet from its roots and its relationship to cardiovascular disease, with a brief overview of the nutritional mechanisms that influence atherosclerosis.Keywords: mediterranean diet, cardiovascular disease, medical history

Maria Rosa Montinari,1 Sergio Minelli2 1Department of Biological and Environmental Science and Technology, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy; 2Department of Cardiology, Local Health Unit Lecce, Lecce, Italy Abstract: Cardiac auscultation – even with its limitations – is still a valid and economical technique for the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases, and despite the growing demand for sophisticated imaging techniques, clinical use of the stethoscope in medical practice has not yet been abandoned. In 1816, René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec invented the stethoscope, while examining a young woman with suspected heart disease, giving rise to mediated auscultation. He described in detail several heart and lung sounds, correlating them with postmortem pathology. Even today, a correct interpretation of heart sounds, integrated with the clinical history and physical examination, allows to detect properly most of the structural heart abnormalities or to evaluate them in a differential diagnosis. However, the lack of organic teaching of auscultation and its inadequate practice have a negative impact on the clinical competence of physicians in training, also reflecting a diminished academic interest in physical semiotic. Medical simulation could be an effective instructional tool in teaching and deepening auscultation. Handheld ultrasound devices could be used for screening or for integrating and improving auscultatory abilities of physicians; the electronic stethoscope, with its new digital capabilities, will help to achieve a correct diagnosis. The availability of innovative representations of the sounds with phono- and spectrograms provides an important aid in diagnosis, in teaching practice and pedagogy. Technological innovations, despite their undoubted value, must complement and not supplant a complete physical examination; clinical auscultation remains an important and cost-effective screening method for the physicians in cardiorespiratory diagnosis. Cardiac auscultation has a future, and the stethoscope has not yet become a medical heirloom. Keywords: auscultation, stethoscope, medical history, medical sciences, cardiac physical examination

In this article, we are going to retrace the history of the Salento’s Mental Hospital, one of the largest psychiatric facilities in Southern Italy and we whilst addressing the use of somatic therapies in this institution. The Provincial Mental Hospital of Terra d’Otranto, established since 1897, started operation in1901, under the direction of Dr. Giovanni Libertini. In 1931, after the advent of fascism, with the split of the Lecce Province into three provinces (Lecce, Brindisi and Taranto), The Mental Hospital turned into a hospital consortium, called The Interprovincial Psychiatric Hospital of Salento (OPIS) and subsequently, from 1985 to 1998, The Psychiatric Hospital “Giovanni Libertini”. At The Interprovincial Psychiatric Hospital of Salento (O.P.I.S.) somatic therapies, and in particular Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), were widely used. Afterwards, in the 1950s, with the advent of psychotropic drugs (neuroleptics, antidepressants, MAO inhibitors tricyclics, benzodiazepines), the success of somatic therapies and in particular of ECT decreased significantly. The recent renewed interest in somatic therapies - again considered in the most advanced scientific studies and used in a large number of renowned hospitals and universities - is linked to the considerable deepening of the biological knowledge of such therapies and to drug resistance of many psychiatric illnesses. Therefore, we considered it opportune to historically analyze the use of somatic therapies in one of the most important psychiatric institutions of Southern Italy.

Dal 1969, studi epidemiologici esaminavano in Puglia gli incrementi di mortalità per diverse cause, attribuibili ad inquinanti ambientali. È invece assente una ricostruzione storica degli indicatori di mortalità nei periodi precedenti. Scopo del presente lavoro è effettuare un’analisi dei trend di mortalità per tumori e patologie dell’apparato respiratorio nelle provincie pugliesi versus le macroripartizioni italiane, dal 1931 al 2010.

This article examines the theme of suicide from a cultural-historical point of view, using art and literature as its sources, particularly in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Art and literature can be used as therapies and medications, as an excellent way of expressing existential distress that, in most cases, requires a symbolic and evocative language. The pain cannot be contained in a definition but rather in a story. So the truth of medical science needs another truth, one that includes the whole person, her psyche and her physicality. The theme of death and suicide concerns the essential questions of human life, issues which statistics, clinical and experimental researches do not address. The art and literature lay bare what a person feels, allowing immediate access to his experience. They can be a response to the suffering and be salvation and medicine, place of disclosure of the human labour on the disease, be it physical, psychological or existential. The modern age is dominated by a medical approach that explains the suicide as a result of a pathological derangement. For Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), suicide was the product of a mental illness. The author's aim is to underline how the artistic-literary language is a privileged instrument to study mankind's mood and existential status.

Taranto is the most polluted area of Italy (and, probably, of Europe), characterized by a strong industrial presence since the early sixties. The pollutants involved in this study are carcinogens, mutagens, teratogens and neurotoxins. The target of this study is to look for possible temporal trends of leukemia mortality in this small province (no similar systematic studies are available), and to provide a historical, occupational, and gender interpretation of the results. In addition, a comparison with the overall Italian situation is presented. The study supports the association of larger leukemia mortality with residential proximity to sources of industrial pollutants, and emphasizes the urgency of an actual application of the existing regulations about pollutant emissions.

L'analisi di 40 anni di mortalità mostra una lieve decrescita degli omicidi di donne a livello nazionale. Ciò depone per cause profondamente radicate nelle dinamiche relazionali tra uomini e donne, su tutto il territorio nazionale. La decrescita interessa principalmente Sud e Isole e gli SMR% sottolineano un'inversione del rapporto tra aree geografiche. Non si può escludere che almeno una parte della diminuzione degli omicidi di donne sia da attribuire alla generale diminuzione degli omicidi connessi alle attività criminali, più spiccata nel Sud e nelle Isole. La particolare dinamica degli omicidi di donne tra i 15 e i 49 anni, con un’inversione dei rapporti tra le aree geografiche del paese, sembra indicare la particolare criticità delle relazioni uomo – donna nel periodo in cui è maggiore il ruolo dei fattori sessuali.

La serie storica individua una decrescita degli omicidi di donne a livello nazionale. I tassi mostrano che la decrescita interessa in modo più evidente Sud e Isole. La particolare dinamica degli omicidi di donne tra i 15 e i 49 anni, con un'inversione dei rapporti tra le aree geografiche del Paese, sembra indicare la particolare criticità delle relazioni uomo-donna nel periodo in cui è maggiore il ruolo dei fattori sessuali.

La Puglia è una delle più industrializzate regioni del meridione d’Italia, tanto da essere considerata “il tacco nero d’Europa” per l’inquinamento ambientale. L’esposizione ad inquinanti ambientali, la residenza in zone industrializzate ed il fumo di tabacco sono fattori di rischio di mortalità documentati per malattie respiratorie e tumori polmonari. Questo lavoro si propone di analizzare l’evoluzione temporale della mortalità per tumori polmonari e tumori respiratori nelle provincie pugliesi dal 1931 al 2010. Una ricostruzione storica di mortalità per un arco temporale così lungo è del tutto assente in letteratura ma può essere molto utili nella ricerca di una eventuale correlazione tra l’incremento di alcune patologie e la dispersione di fattori inquinanti nel nostro territorio.

Dal 1969, si documentavano alcune criticità sanitarie in Puglia, soprattutto nelle province di Taranto, Brindisi e Lecce. La ricostruzione storica degli andamenti di mortalità dal 1929 al 2010 per le patologie respiratorie evidenziano, nelle province di Taranto, Brindisi e Lecce, un quadro sanitario particolarmente compromesso e concomitante con l’inizio del processo di industrializzazione.

La vita degli organismi è determinata dal genoma che ognuno di essi possiede. Il genoma è il depositario delle informazioni biologiche indispensabili per l’espletamento di tutte le attività cellulari ed è costituito dall’insieme dei geni funzionali e non funzionali di un organismo. La maggioranza dei genomi, tra cui quelli degli organismi unicellulari, sono costituiti da DNA (acido desossiribonucleico) mentre alcuni virus possiedono genomi ad RNA (acido ribonucleico). DNA ed RNA sono acidi nucleici, macromolecole che rivestono enorme importanza nella cellula per il ruolo che svolgono nell’immagazzinamento, trasmissione ed espressione dell’informazione genetica.

To estimate mortality trends by total and respiratory causes in 1949-2008, to evaluate the possible loss in health of Southern Italy residents

Il genoma umano, analogamente al genoma degli eucarioti, è formato da due componenti: 1) Il genoma nucleare: contiene 24 molecole lineari di DNA ognuna compattata a costituire un cromosoma diverso; dei 24 cromosomi, 22 sono autosomi e due cromosomi sessuali, X e Y. Le cellule somatiche hanno due copie di ogni autosoma, più una coppia di cromosomi sessuali, XY per gli uomini e XX per le donne; possiedono quindi un corredo cromosomico diploide con 46 cromosomi. 2) Il genoma mitocondriale: localizzato nei mitocondri, è rappresentato da una molecola di DNA circolare. Sia le cellule somatiche che le cellule germinali contengono 8000 copie del genoma mitocondriale.

Dalla fine degli anni '60, la Puglia è teaaatro di una vasta industrializzazione. Lo studio, storico-epidemiologico mira a valutare l'andamento della mortalità generale e dei tumori respiratori in quinquenni che coprono la finestra temporale 1949-2008.

Antioxidant phytochemicals, including the polyphenols from olive oil oleuropein (OE) and hydroxytyrosol (HT), and red wine antioxidant resveratrol (RSV) and quercetin (Q), are associated with low prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Angiogenesis is a key process both in cancer and atherosclerosis, and is tightly regulated by molecular mediators including reactive oxygen species (ROS), cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). We studied the effects of olive oil and red wine antioxidants on the angiogenic potential in an in vitro model of angiogenesis, and explored underlying mechanisms.

The aim of this study is to investigate leukaemia mortality in Salento. Leukaemia mortality in Salento’s population is compared to data for Apulia and Italy, for 1902 to 2002. With particular reference to the period from 1969 to 2002, the paper looks at leukaemia mortality in male and female populations. Data on all eligible leukaemia deaths was obtained from the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). An increase of leukaemia mortality was observed both in male and female populations. Leukaemia mortality in Salento’s female population was greater than amongst males.

Endometrial Cancer is the more frequent tumor in Occidental ands, with 142,000 new cases for year and 42,000 deaths; this cancer typically trikes women between 55 and 65 years and it is on the fourth place in female tumors. Edogen predisposing conditions to endometrial cancer development are: late menopause, early menarche, and hyperestrogenism, while hormone replacement theraphy, obesity, alcoholm diabetes, diet rich of animal fats and chronic liver disease represent exogenous factors. This tumor can arise even as hereditary predisposition, as in Lynch Syndrome or HNPCC (Hereditary NonPolyposis Colorectal Cancer), since the genetic modifications induced by "mismatch repair" (MMR) genes lead to a tumoral development susceptibility, not only in colon. The phenotypical consequence of these genetic modifications is the microsatellite instability (MSI) and in loss of heterozygosity (LOH), whom create the RER (replication errors in repeats) positive phenotype, who express the incapability to repair short nucleotide insertions or deletions, generates by an uncorrected DNA replication; by these genetic modifications, new allelic variants arise in endometrial tissue, confirming te elevate degree of genetic disorder. Recent studies showed that the MSI and LOH in endomerial cells can be associated to the loss of cellular control expression and to degeneration of cellular growth phenomenon. It exist the possibility to utilize these new genetic markers in the endometrial mucosa, to study by genomic these tissue and to detect the possible neoplastic transformation.

L’HPV è un piccolo virus a DNA responsabile di molte lesioni benigne e maligne dell'apparato genitale femminile e maschile; nel nostro studio abbiamo determinato la prevalenza singola o multipla di HPV in pazienti a rischio, per definire la presenza di eventuali casi di co-infezione da HPV ed vari i genotipi coinvolti e, infine, dimostrare quale sia la tecnicamolecolare più affidabile nell’individuare l’infezione singola omultipla daHPV

Il papillomavirus (HPV) è un virus molto studiato per la sua capacità di trasformazioneneoplastica, nellecellulecheinfetta, soprattuttoa livellogenitale femminile,per integrazione del DNA virale nel DNA cellulare; il problema clinico strettamente attuale è capire quali siano ledonneinfettatechepresentinoattivitàviraleo meno,perpoterdefinirel’eventualeproduttività del virusesottoporleaunofollowupclinicostrumentale personalizzato.

La clonazione è uno dei grandi temi del dibattito sollevati dallo sviluppo tecnico-scientifico, soprattutto perchè se ne prevede un' applicazione sull'uomo. Il dibattito però assume connotazioni diverse a seconda che si parli di clonazione riproduttiva o clonazione terapeutica.

Exposition to 60 hertz (MFs) magnetic fields may be risk factor for human cancer. A cocarcinogenic and comutagenetic effect of MFs has been hypothesized. One mechanism through which MFs could influence neoplastic development is by interfering with the apoptotic program.

U937 cells induced to apoptosis, progressively and dramatically modified their cell shape by intense blebbing formation, leading to the production of apoptotic bodies. The blebs evolved with time; milder forms of blebbing involving only a region or just the cortical part of the cytoplasm were observed within the first hour of incubation with puromycin; blebbing involving the whole cell body with very deep constrictions is the most frequent event observed during late times of incubation. The ultrastructural analysis of apoptotic cells revealed characteristic features of nuclear fragmentation (budding and cleavage mode) and cytoplasmatic modifications. The cytoplasm of blebs does not contain organelles, such as ribosomes or mitochondria. Scarce presence of endoplasmic reticulum can be observed at the site of bleb detachment. However, blebbing is a dispensable event as evaluated by using inhibitor of artin polymerization. In the present study, the progressive modifications of the nucleus, mitochondria, nuclear fragmentation, cytoplasmic blebs formation and production of apoptotic bodies in U937 monocytic cells induced to apoptosis by puromycin (an inhibitor of protein synthesis) were simultaneously analyzed.

The aim of study was to compare, in the rat caudate-putamen (CP), the distribution of [125I]-NCQ 298 and [125I]-epidepride,binding sites.

Trends in Neurosciences September 1997, Vol. 20 No 9, supplement ISSN 0166-2236

The aim of study was to compare, in the rat caudate-putamen (CP), quantitative autoradiography data on the [125I]-NCQ298 binding sites and the Tyrosine Hydroxylase (TH)-like immunoreactive fibers distribution, mostly with regards to differences between medial and lateral subregions of CP.

Distribution of dopamine D2-like receptors in the rat entorhinal cortex subdivisions was studied by quantitative autoradiography. Layers I and III of medial entorhinal area (MEA) and intermediate entorhinal area (IEA) were found to be rich in specific binding sites. Instead, lower densities of labelling were detected in the layers IV-VI of these entorhinal area subdivisions.