role of female sex hormone receptors

Funding Information: Funding: This study was supported by grant IECT-FAPEMA-05796/18 and FAPEMA IECT 30/2018-IECT Saúde, by the Research Center of the Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (project no. PI86-CI-IPOP-66-2017); by European Investment Funds by FEDER/COMPETE/POCI—Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Program, and national funds by FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under projects UID/AGR/04033/2020, UIDB/CVT/00772/2020 and by Base Funding-UIDB/00511/2020 of the Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology, and Energy—LEPABE—funded by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PID-DAC); Project 2SMART-engineered Smart materials for Smart citizens, with reference NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000054, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.A growing proportion of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OPSCC) are associated with infection by high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV). For reasons that remain largely unknown, HPV+OPSCC is significantly more common in men than in women. This study aims to determine the incidence of OPSCC in male and female HPV16-transgenic mice and to explore the role of female sex hormone receptors in the sexual predisposition for HPV+ OPSCC. The tongues of 30-weeks-old HPV16-transgenic male (n = 80) and female (n = 90) and matched wild-type male (n = 10) and female (n = 10) FVB/n mice were screened histologically for intraepithelial and invasive lesions in 2017 at the Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences (CITAB), Por-tugal. Expression of estrogen receptors alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ), progesterone receptors (PR) and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) was studied immunohistochemically. Collagen remodeling was studied using picrosirius red. Female mice showed robust ERα and ERβ expression in intraepithelial and invasive lesions, which was accompanied by strong MMP2 expression and marked collagen remodeling. Male mice showed minimal ERα, ERβ and MMP2 expression and unaltered collagen patterns. These results confirm the association of HPV16 with tongue base cancer in both sexes. The higher cancer incidence in female versus male mice contrasts with data from OPSCC patients and is associated with enhanced ER expression via MMP2 upregulation.publishersversionpublishe

Diversity of Bacteria Carried by Pinewood Nematode in USA and Phylogenetic Comparison with Isolates from Other Countries

Pine wilt disease (PWD) is native to North America and has spread to Asia and Europe. Lately, mutualistic relationship has been suggested between the pinewood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus the causal nematode agent of PWD, and bacteria. In countries where PWN occurs, nematodes from diseased trees were reported to carry bacteria from several genera. However no data exists for the United States. The objective of this study was to evaluate the diversity of the bacterial community carried by B. xylophilus, isolated from different Pinus spp. with PWD in Nebraska, United States. The bacteria carried by PWN belonged to Gammaproteobacteria (79.9%), Betaproteobacteria (11.7%), Bacilli (5.0%), Alphaproteobacteria (1.7%) and Flavobacteriia (1.7%). Strains from the genera Chryseobacterium and Pigmentiphaga were found associated with the nematode for the first time. These results were compared to results from similar studies conducted from other countries of three continents in order to assess the diversity of bacteria with associated with PWN. The isolates from the United States, Portugal and China belonged to 25 different genera and only strains from the genus Pseudomonas were found in nematodes from all countries. The strains from China were closely related to P. fluorescens and the strains isolated from Portugal and USA were phylogenetically related to P. mohnii and P. lutea. Nematodes from the different countries are associated with bacteria of different species, not supporting a relationship between PWN with a particular bacterial species. Moreover, the diversity of the bacteria carried by the pinewood nematode seems to be related to the geographic area and the Pinus species. The roles these bacteria play within the pine trees or when associated with the nematodes, might be independent of the presence of the nematode in the tree and only related on the bacteria’s relationship with the tree

Sodium nitrite downregulates vascular NADPH oxidase and exerts antihypertensive effects in hypertension

Dietary nitrite and nitrate are important sources of nitric oxide (NO). However, the use of nitrite as an antihypertensive drug may be limited by increased oxidative stress associated with hypertension. We evaluated the antihypertensive effects of sodium nitrite given in drinking water for 4 weeks in two-kidney one-clip (2K1C) hypertensive rats and the effects induced by nitrite on NO bioavailability and oxidative stress. We found that, even under the increased oxidative stress conditions present in 2K1C hypertension, nitrite reduced systolic blood pressure in a dose-dependent manner. Whereas treatment with nitrite did not significantly change plasma nitrite concentrations in 2K1C rats, it increased plasma nitrate levels significantly. Surprisingly, nitrite treatment exerted antioxidant effects in both hypertensive and sham-normotensive control rats. A series of in vitro experiments was carried out to show that the antioxidant effects induced by nitrite do not involve direct antioxidant effects or xanthine oxidase activity inhibition. Conversely, nitrite decreased vascular NADPH oxidase activity. Taken together, our results show for the first time that nitrite has antihypertensive effects in 2K1C hypertensive rats, which may be due to its antioxidant properties resulting from vascular NADPH oxidase activity inhibition511144152CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPNão temNão te

Sodium nitrite downregulates vascular NADPH oxidase and exerts antihypertensive effects in hypertension

AbstractDietary nitrite and nitrate are important sources of nitric oxide (NO). However, the use of nitrite as an antihypertensive drug may be limited by increased oxidative stress associated with hypertension. We evaluated the antihypertensive effects of sodium nitrite given in drinking water for 4weeks in two-kidney one-clip (2K1C) hypertensive rats and the effects induced by nitrite on NO bioavailability and oxidative stress. We found that, even under the increased oxidative stress conditions present in 2K1C hypertension, nitrite reduced systolic blood pressure in a dose-dependent manner. Whereas treatment with nitrite did not significantly change plasma nitrite concentrations in 2K1C rats, it increased plasma nitrate levels significantly. Surprisingly, nitrite treatment exerted antioxidant effects in both hypertensive and sham-normotensive control rats. A series of in vitro experiments was carried out to show that the antioxidant effects induced by nitrite do not involve direct antioxidant effects or xanthine oxidase activity inhibition. Conversely, nitrite decreased vascular NADPH oxidase activity. Taken together, our results show for the first time that nitrite has antihypertensive effects in 2K1C hypertensive rats, which may be due to its antioxidant properties resulting from vascular NADPH oxidase activity inhibition