Anti-MuSK-positive myasthenia gravis diagnosed during pregnancy: New challenges for an old disease

Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disorder affecting predominantly women in their reproductive age. The course of the disease during pregnancy is unpredictable, although it is more difficult to manage earlier in the gestation. Myasthenia gravis with antibodies against the muscle-specific receptor tyrosine kinase (anti-MuSK) has been described as a subtype of disease with more localised clinical features and a poorer response to treatment than acetylcholine receptor antibody (anti-AChR)-positive patients. Few cases have been reported in pregnant women, with deliveries being performed mainly by caesarean section. We report a successful case of vaginal delivery and describe our experience providing the first review of the management of this subtype of disease during pregnancy

Exclusive Breastfeeding After 40 Years of Age – Where Are We Going?

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Apocynin Dietary Supplementation Delays Mouse Ovarian Ageing

Advanced maternal age is associated with higher infertility rates, pregnancy-associated complications, and progeny health issues. The ovary is considered the main responsible for these consequences due to a continuous decay in follicle number and oocyte quality. Intracellular imbalance between oxidant molecules and antioxidant mechanisms, in favour of the former, results in oxidative stress (OS) that is believed to contribute to ovarian ageing. This work is aimed at evaluating whether an age-related increase in ovarian OS, inflammation, and fibrosis may contribute to tissue dysfunction and whether specific antioxidant supplementation with a NADPH oxidase inhibitor (apocynin) could ameliorate them. Mice aged 8-12 weeks (reproductively young) or 38-42 weeks (reproductively aged) were employed. Aged mice were divided into two groups, with one receiving apocynin (5 mM) in the drinking water, for 7 weeks, upon which animals were sacrificed and their ovaries collected. Ovarian structure was similar at both ages, but the ovaries from reproductively aged mice exhibited lipofuscin deposition, enhanced fibrosis, and a significant age-related reduction in primordial and primary follicle number when compared to younger animals. Protein carbonylation and nitration, and markers of OS were significantly increased with age. Moreover, mRNA levels of inflammation markers, collagens, metalloproteinases (MMPs), and tissue inhibitor MMPs (TIMPs) were upregulated. Expression of the antifibrotic miRNA29c-3p was significantly reduced. Apocynin supplementation ameliorated most of the age-related observed changes, sometimes to values similar to those observed in young females. These findings indicate that there is an age-related increase in OS that plays an important role in enhancing inflammation and collagen deposition, contributing to a decline in female fertility. Apocynin supplementation suggests that the imbalance can be ameliorated and thus delay ovarian ageing harmful effects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Childhood obesity and reduction of hours of sleep: results from cross-sectional study

Childhood obesity is a prevalent condition in modern societies which can negatively impact people's health during life. Although there are several factors contributing to obesity, sleep duration has been pointed out as an important risk factor. This study, held in the district of Porto, Portugal, aimed to analyze the association between sleep duration and the nutritional status of school-aged children studying in Portugal. 1396 students from 35 and 3 public and private schools, respectively, were contacted, of which 829 participated in this study (9.2 +/- 0.38 years old; 50.3% male; 49.7% female). Age, sex, sleep duration, height, weight and body composition were registered trough a questionnaire. According to the obtained z-score for Body Mass Index (BMI), 22.9% of the children were overweight and 15.2% were obese. The mean of sleep duration was 9.7 +/- 1.08 hours and z-score for BMI was 0.78 +/- 1.21, demonstrating a statistically significant (p<0.01) weak negative correlation (r=-0.15) between sleep duration and z-score of BMI. Results were also stratified and analyzed by sex, and the same finding was observed. Therefore, the results suggest a negative association between sleep duration and overweight/obesity in these children. Although more studies are necessary, this finding highlights the need of a global approach which includes sleep assessment and counselling when promoting an appropriate nutritional status

Hyperdominance in the Amazonian tree flora

The vast extent of the Amazon Basin has historically restricted the study of its tree communities to the local and regional scales. Here, we provide empirical data on the commonness, rarity, and richness of lowland tree species across the entire Amazon Basin and Guiana Shield (Amazonia), collected in 1170 tree plots in all major forest types. Extrapolations suggest that Amazonia harbors roughly 16,000 tree species, of which just 227 (1.4%) account for half of all trees. Most of these are habitat specialists and only dominant in one or two regions of the basin. We discuss some implications of the finding that a small group of species--less diverse than the North American tree flora--accounts for half of the world's most diverse tree community.This work was supported by Alberta Mennega Stichting; ALCOA Suriname; Banco de la República; Center for Agricultural Research in Suriname; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Plano Nacional de Pós-Graduação); Conselho Nacional de Desenvovimento Científico e Tecnológico of Brazil (CNPq) projects Programa de Pesquisas Ecológicas de Longa Duração (PELD) (558069/2009-6), Programa de Apoio a Núcleos de Excelência da Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (PRONEX-FAPEAM) (1600/2006), Áreas Úmidas, and MAUA; PELD (403792/2012-6), PPBio, CENBAM, Universal (479599/2008-4), and Universal 307807-2009-6; Fundação de Amparo À Pesquisa Do Estado Do Amazonas (APEAM) projects DCR/2006, Hidroveg with FAPESP, and PRONEX with CNPq; FAPESP; Colciencias; Duke University; Ecopetrol; FEPIM 044/2003; the Field Museum; Conservation International/DC (TEAM/INPA Manuas), Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; Guyana Forestry Commission; Investissement d’Avenir grant of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) (Centre d’Étude de la Biodiversité Amazonienne ANR-10-LABX-0025); Margaret Mee Amazon Trust; Miquel fonds; National Geographic Society (7754-04, 8047-06 to P.M.J.); Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research WOTRO grants WB85- 335 and W84-581; Primate Conservation Incorporated; Programme Ecosystèmes Tropicaux (French Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development; Shell Prospecting and Development Peru; Smithsonian Institution’s Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield Program; Stichting het van Eeden-fonds; the Body Shop; the Ministry of the Environment of Ecuador; TROBIT; Tropenbos International; NSF (NSF-0743457 and NSF-0101775 to P.M.J.); USAID; Variety Woods Guyana; WWF-Brazil; WWF-Guianas; XIIéme Contrat de Plan Etat Région-Guyane (French Government and European Union); and grants to RAINFOR from the European Union, UK Natural Environment Research Council, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and U.S. National Geographic Society. O.L.P. is supported by a European Research Council Advanced Grant and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award

The role of peptides in bone healing and regeneration: A systematic review

Background: Bone tissue engineering and the research surrounding peptides has expanded significantly over the last few decades. Several peptides have been shown to support and stimulate the bone healing response and have been proposed as therapeutic vehicles for clinical use. The aim of this comprehensive review is to present the clinical and experimental studies analysing the potential role of peptides for bone healing and bone regeneration. Methods: A systematic review according to PRISMA guidelines was conducted. Articles presenting peptides capable of exerting an upregulatory effect on osteoprogenitor cells and bone healing were included in the study. Results: Based on the available literature, a significant amount of experimental in vitro and in vivo evidence exists. Several peptides were found to upregulate the bone healing response in experimental models and could act as potential candidates for future clinical applications. However, from the available peptides that reached the level of clinical trials, the presented results are limited. Conclusion: Further research is desirable to shed more light into the processes governing the osteoprogenitor cellular responses. With further advances in the field of biomimetic materials and scaffolds, new treatment modalities for bone repair will emerge

The cystic fibrosis microbiome in an ecological perspective and its impact in antibiotic therapy

The recent focus on the cystic fibrosis (CF) complex microbiome has led to the recognition that the microbes can interact between them and with the host immune system, affecting the disease progression and treatment routes. Although the main focus remains on the interactions between traditional pathogens, growing evidence supports the contribution and the role of emergent species. Understanding the mechanisms and the biological effects involved in polymicrobial interactions may be the key to improve effective therapies and also to define new strategies for disease control. This review focuses on the interactions between microbe-microbe and host-microbe, from an ecological point of view, discussing their impact on CF disease progression. There are increasing indications that these interactions impact the success of antimicrobial therapy. Consequently, a new approach where therapy is personalized to patients by taking into account their individual CF microbiome is suggested.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013-CEB and UID/EQU/00511/2013-LEPABE units. This study was also supported by FCT and the European Community fund FEDER, through Program COMPETE, under the scope of the Projects “DNA mimics” PIC/IC/82815/2007, RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462), “BioHealth—Biotechnology and Bioengineering approaches to improve health quality”, Ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000027 and NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000025—RL2_ Environment and Health, co-funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), QREN, FEDER. The authors also acknowledge the grant of Susana P. Lopes (SFRH/BPD/95616/2013) and of the COST-Action TD1004: Theragnostics for imaging and therapy

Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks

37 pages, 15 figures, revised version, accepted by JINSTALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 micron in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10^5 charged tracks from cosmic rays that have been collected during summer 2008, with the ALICE solenoidal magnet switched off.Peer reviewe

Study of hadronic event-shape variables in multijet final states in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

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