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Besides trauma, several pathological conditions which directly affect the normal functioning of organs, require new therapeutic strategies to repair damaged or diseased tissues. Tissue regeneration is a complex and spatiotemporal process involving a plethora of cell types, including various immune cells and stem cells in a synchronized relationship. However, individual parameters, namely ageing, obesity, diabetes, and chronic conditions, have been intrinsically correlated with poor regenerative properties of adult tissues. While vast progress has been made regarding stem cell-based therapy to direct self-healing, the immune response is still the Achilles’ heel of such strategies. Whereas the role of effector immune cells has been well defined along the regenerative process, an understanding of the behavior of the main adult stem cells, namely mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), along the different phases of the regenerative process could clarify how these stem cells can be used to positively influence the immune response. In this scope, this review highlights the main interactions between these stem cells and immune cells during tissue repair, exploring the most important regenerative properties of stem cells and correlating them with the modulation of the immune response during tissue regeneration. Furthermore, the utmost strategies used to explore how the behavior and stem cell fate are affected by specific microenvironments and/or stimuli usually found during a regenerative process, are emphasized. This clarification may provide critical insight into the molecular mechanisms by which stem cells modulate the immune response in a positive feedback loop toward tissue repair.

Funding Information: The present research work was financed by the national funds through the ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), through the partnership agreement Portugal2020—PDR, under the project PDR2020-101-031020/17/18: SerpaFlora—Valorização da flora autóctone do queijo Serpa. The authors would also like to acknowledge the scientific collaboration of CBQF under the FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through project UIDB/50016/2020. In addition, this work also received funding support from national funds from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT), Portugal, through the research unit UIDB/04035/2020 (GeoBioTec). H. Araújo-Rodrigues gratefully acknowledges FCT for the PhD individual research grant (ref. 2020.05798.BD). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Serpa is a protected designation of origin (PDO) cheese produced with raw ewes’ milk and coagulated with Cynara cardunculus. Legislation does not allow for milk pasteurization and starter culture inoculation. Although natural Serpa’s rich microbiota allows for the development of a unique organoleptic profile, it also suggests high heterogeneity. This raises issues in the final sensory and safety properties, leading to several losses in the sector. A possible solution to overcoming these issues is the development of an autochthonous starter culture. In the present work, some Serpa cheese Lactic acid bacteria (LAB)-isolated microorganisms, previously selected based on their safety, technological and protective performance, were tested in laboratory-scale cheeses. Their acidification, proteolysis (protein and peptide profile, nitrogen fractions, free amino acids (FAA)), and volatiles generation (volatile fatty acids (VFA) and esters) potential was investigated. Significant differences were found in all parameters analyzed, showing a considerable strain effect. Successive statistical analyses were performed to compare cheese models and Serpa PDO cheese. The strains L. plantarum PL1 and PL2 and the PL1 and L. paracasei PC mix were selected as the most promising, resulting in a closer lipolytic and proteolytic profile of Serpa PDO cheese. In future work, these inocula will be produced at a pilot scale and tested at the cheese level to validate their application. publishersversion published

The novel disease caused by SARS·CoV-2 has been causing chaos worldwide due to its high mortality, morbidity and contagiousness nature, and therefore forced the scientific world to develop n'ew alternatives to combat and assist the fight against this virus. Plant extracts have bioactive molecules that might provide a starting point for the research on the use of plants as an excellent source ofoew antiviral agents able to inhibit or neutralize COVID-19. Therefore, the objective ofthis study was to obtain an extract !Tom a Plaot cultivated under controlled conditions in Portugal to be used as ao antiviral substance to be applied against COVID-19. MaterialslMethods: The plant extract obtained !Tom plant cultivated under controlled conditions in Portugal was extracted by maceration in a hydroethanolic solution under optimized conditions and submitted to freeze drying. The extracts were evaluated for their phenolic profile by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a diode array detector and a mass spectrometer detector (HPLCDAD- MS). Antioxidant activity was also measured, and antiviral properties were measured for SARSCoV- 2 in Vero cells. Remlts. HPLC analysis revealed the presence of different phenolic compounds in the extracts with relevance for caftaric acid, cis-chicoric acid and trans-chychoric acid. The extract showed a good antioxidant capacity demonstrated by the high value found for aRAC of3202,82 ± 32,52 Troloxlmg extrac!. Regarding the antiviral activity, the results achieved for the viral titer was 20 PFU/mL, and the antiviral activity for SARS-CoV-2 was 4.02 ± 0.00 Mv and the perceotage ofreduction was > 99.99%. Conclusion: The results showed that the obtained extract demonstrated consistent results of antiviral activity presenting a potential for applications against the SARS-CoV-2. Further studies are required for validation and application of this extract. Project was financed by the European Fund for Regional Development (Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER)) through the Programa Operacional Regional Norte 2020, within the "PlantCovid" project, NORTE-01-02B7-FEDER-054870 info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

In the last years, the number of products for oral care has been expanded to adapt to consumer needs. Thus, in addition to conventional products, new “pocket products” such as sugar-free chewing gums and oral strips (OS) have been developed for oral care. In the present study, OS were formulated using chitosan as the film-forming polymer in adequate concentrations to also be used as antimicrobial agent. Other strip components, such as the type of plasticizer, were also optimized. Mechanical properties of the optimal OS were evaluated and, due to chitosan's characteristic astringency, the strips were also sensorially evaluated.

Serra da Estrela cheese was manufactured using a novel, customised apparatus – designed to meet the specialty cheese’s specifications, and the resulting product was compared with that obtained via traditional manufacture in the same dairy. Semiindustrial cheesemaking led to a significantly (p

Clotting and proteolytic activities are important parameters when evaluating rennets for cheesemaking. Both these activities were determined for extracts of the plant Cynara cardunculus in fresh form and after lyophilization followed by reconstitution, either in water or in citrate buffer (pH 5.4) and stored for up to 4 weeks at 4°C. The patterns of degradation of ovine and caprine caseins were followed by urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in attempts to qualitatively differentiate the activity of the enzyme extracts as storage time elapsed. Storage at 4°C significantly decreased the clotting power of the extracts but lyophilization retarded this decrease; β- and αs-casein breakdown generally increased with storage time, via patterns that depend on caseinate type and extract used, but lyophilized extracts reconstituted in citrate buffer were significantly less proteolytic than the other extracts. Therefore, it is suggested that lyophilized extracts (reconstituted with citrate buffer) of flowers of C. cardunculus be used rather than fresh extracts.

Serra da Estrela cheeses, produced following artisanal practices from raw ewe's milk in two consecutive years in ¢ve selected dairies, were sampled throughout a 60-day ripening period.The viable numbers of themajormicrobial groups (Enterobacteriaceae, staphylococci and yeasts, aswell as such lactic acid bacteria as lactobacilli, lactococci and enterococci)were determined and statistical signi¢cance of the results was assessed. Signi¢cant di¡erences in the viable counts of lactococci, lactobacilli, enterococci, Enterobacteriaceae and staphylococci were found for the various geographical locations, whereas the year ofmanufacture played a signi¢cant role only upon the viable numbers of yeasts and staphylococci.These data backup the claimthat thosemicrobial families usually implicatedwith health hazards are prone to a wide variability, which re£ects the intrinsic heterogeneity associated with production and handling of raw milk in traditional cheesemaking.

The purpose of this study was to assess the typical microbiological quality of the most famous Portuguese traditional cheese, Serra da Estrela, and to assess its ripening time and geographical dependence. Ninety-six experimental cheeses manufactured from sixteen batches of milk on eight dairy farms scattered over the Appellation d' Origine Protégée (AOP) region were qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated microbiologically at various ripening times. Viable counts were performed after inoculation on appropriate selective media for aerobic mesophiles and proteolytic and lipolytic microflora, as well as lactococci, lactobacilli, species of Enterobacteriaceae, lactic streptococci, staphylococci, and yeasts. Members of the Enterobacteriaceae and lactic acid bacteria were the predominant microbial groups on all dairy farms throughout maturation; the latter are probably the microbial group responsible for most proteolytic and lipolytic breakdown in Serra da Estrela cheese. The microbial groups whose numbers were most affected by dairy-to-dairy variation were species of Enterobacteriaceae staphylococci, and enterococci, which are the most critical groups in terms of health hazards. It is therefore suggested that tighter control should be implemented at the level of choice of raw materials, in milk-handling practices, and in general throughout the manufacturing process in attempts to standardize production and consistently reduce microbiological risks (even though the distinctiveness of a few final organoleptic characteristics may somehow be reduced.

Two purified aqueous extracts of Centaurea calcitrapa, a plant from the Compositae family, were shown to degrade bovine, ovine, and caprine milk caseinates. The corresponding hydrolysis patterns were monitored by urea-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and compared with those of a commercial mixture of chymosin and pepsin. The plant proteases degraded both Rs- and â-caseins more extensively than the commercial rennet, thus yielding proteolytic patterns where different specificities toward such substrates are apparent. The animal rennet was found to display the greatest clotting power per milligram of protein but the least specificity toward ovine and caprine caseins. It is, therefore, suggested that the said plant extracts be used as an alternative to commercial animal rennets especially in the manufacture of caprine and ovine milk cheeses.