Effects, Safety, and Treatment Experience of Advanced Hybrid Closed-Loop Systems in Clinical Practice Among Adults Living With Type 1 Diabetes.

Background: There are few studies providing a more comprehensive picture of advanced hybrid closed-loop (AHCL) systems in clinical practice. The aim was to evaluate the effects of the AHCL systems, Tandem t: slim X2™ with Control IQ™, and MiniMed™ 780G, on glucose control, safety, treatment satisfaction, and practical barriers for individuals with type 1 diabetes.

Method: One hundred forty-two randomly selected adults with type 1 diabetes at six diabetes outpatient clinics in Sweden at any time treated with either the Tandem Control IQ (TCIQ) or the MiniMed 780G system were included.

Do not forget asthma comorbidities in pediatric severe asthma!

Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease in childhood. The long-term goals in managing asthma aim to control symptoms and prevent exacerbations, as well as to reduce side effects of therapy and mortality disease-related. Most of patients have mild to moderate asthma and respond well to standard therapies.

Clinical course and risk factors for severe COVID-19 among Italian patients with cystic fibrosis: a study within the Italian Cystic Fibrosis Society.

Purpose: To describe the clinical course of COVID-19 in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and to identify risk factors for severe COVID-19.

Methods: We conducted a prospective study within the Italian CF Society. CF centers collected baseline and follow-up data of patients with virologically confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between March 2020 and June 2021.

Exaggerated IL-17A activity in human in vivo recall responses discriminates active tuberculosis from latent infection and cured disease.

Host immune responses at the site of infection can mediate pathogenesis of tuberculosis (TB) and onward transmission of infection. We hypothesized that pathological immune responses would be enriched at the site of host-pathogen interactions modeled by a standardized tuberculin skin test (TST) challenge in patients with active TB compared to those without disease, and interrogated immune responses by genome-wide transcriptional profiling. We show exaggerated interleukin-17A (IL-17A) and T helper 17 (T17) responses among 48 individuals with active TB compared to 191 with latent TB infection, associated with increased neutrophil recruitment and matrix metalloproteinase-1 expression, both involved in TB pathogenesis.

Elevated serum IgE, oral corticosteroid dependence and IL-17/22 expression in highly neutrophilic asthma.

Information on the clinical traits associated with bronchial neutrophilia in asthma is scant, preventing its recognition and adequate treatment. We aimed to assess the clinical, functional and biological features of neutrophilic asthma and identify possible predictors of bronchial neutrophilia.The inflammatory phenotype of 70 mild-to-severe asthma patients was studied cross-sectionally based on the eosinophilic/neutrophilic counts in their bronchial lamina propria.

Bradykinin in asthma: Modulation of airway inflammation and remodelling.

Bradykinin, a pro-inflammatory molecule, and its related peptides have been studied for their effects on acute reactions in upper and lower airways, where they can be synthesised and metabolized after exposure to different stimuli including allergens and viral infection. Bradykinin B and B receptors are constitutively expressed in the airways on several residential and/or immune cells. Their expression can also be induced by inflammatory mediators, usually associated with eosinophil and neutrophil recruitment, such as IL-4, IL-13, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8, via intracellular MAPK and NF-κB signalling.

Vena Cava Responsiveness to Controlled Isovolumetric Respiratory Efforts.

Objectives: Respirophasic variation of inferior vena cava (IVC) size is affected by large variability with spontaneous breathing. This study aims at characterizing the dependence of IVC size on controlled changes in intrathoracic pressure.

Methods: Ten healthy subjects, in supine position, performed controlled isovolumetric respiratory efforts at functional residual capacity, attaining positive (5, 10, and 15 mmHg) and negative (-5, -10, and -15 mmHg) alveolar pressure levels.

Identification of IL-17F/frequent exacerbator endotype in asthma.

Background: Severe asthma might be associated with overexpression of T17 cytokines, which induce neutrophil recruitment via neutrophil-mobilizing cytokines in airways.

Objective: To study IL-17-related cytokines in nasal/bronchial biopsies from controls and mild asthmatics (MAs) to severe asthmatics (SAs) in relation to exacerbation rate.

Methods: Inflammatory cells and IL-17A, IL-17F, IL-21, IL-22, and IL-23 cells were examined by immunohistochemistry in cryostat sections of bronchial/nasal biopsies obtained from 33 SAs (21 frequent exacerbators [FEs]), 31 MAs (3 FEs), and 14 controls.

Effects of apelin on the cardiovascular system.

Apelin is an endogenous peptide acting on the APJ receptor. It consists of several isoforms characterized by different numbers of amino acids. The number of amino acids in the active isoforms range from 36 to 12.

The effect of bioartificial constructs that mimic myocardial structure and biomechanical properties on stem cell commitment towards cardiac lineage.

Despite the enormous progress in the treatment of coronary artery diseases, they remain the most common cause of heart failure in the Western countries. New translational therapeutic approaches explore cardiomyogenic differentiation of various types of stem cells in combination with tissue-engineered scaffolds. In this study we fabricated PHBHV/gelatin constructs mimicking myocardial structural properties.

Balance of nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species in myocardial reperfusion injury and protection.

Depending on their concentrations, both nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) take part either in myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury or in protection by ischemic and pharmacological preconditioning (Ipre) and postconditioning (Ipost). At the beginning of reperfusion, a transient release of NO is promptly scavenged by ROS to form the highly toxic peroxynitrite, which is responsible for a further increase of ROS through endothelial nitric oxide synthase uncoupling. The protective role of NO has suggested the use of NO donors to mimic Ipre and Ipost.

Self-renewal and multipotency coexist in a long-term cultured adult rat dental pulp stem cell line: an exception to the rule?

The stemness state is characterized by self-renewal and differentiation properties. However, stem cells are not able to preserve these characteristics in long-term culture because of the intrinsic fragility of their phenotype easily undergoing senescence or neoplastic transformation. Furthermore, although isolated from the same original tissue using similar protocols, adult stem cells can display dissimilar phenotypes and important cell clone/species contamination.

A lipophilic nitric oxide donor and a lipophilic antioxidant compound protect rat heart against ischemia-reperfusion injury if given as hybrid molecule but not as a mixture.

Low concentrations of a hydrophilic nitric oxide donor (NOD) are reported to reduce myocardial reperfusion injury only when combined with a lipophilic antioxidant (AOX) to form a hybrid molecule (HYB). Here we tested whether liposoluble NOD requires to be combined with AOX to be protective. Isolated rat hearts underwent 30 minutes of ischemia and 120 minutes of reperfusion.

Apelin-13 limits infarct size and improves cardiac postischemic mechanical recovery only if given after ischemia.

We studied whether apelin-13 is cardioprotective against ischemia/reperfusion injury if given as either a pre- or postconditioning mimetic and whether the improved postischemic mechanical recovery induced by apelin-13 depends only on the reduced infarct size or also on a recovery of function of the viable myocardium. We also studied whether nitric oxide (NO) is involved in apelin-induced protection and whether the reported ischemia-induced overexpression of the apelin receptor (APJ) plays a role in cardioprotection. Langendorff-perfused rat hearts underwent 30 min of global ischemia and 120 min of reperfusion.

Effect of apelin-apelin receptor system in postischaemic myocardial protection: a pharmacological postconditioning tool?

In the heart, a great part of ischaemia and reperfusion injuries occurs mainly during the first minutes of reperfusion. The opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pores is the end point of the cascade to myocardial damage. Also, oxidative stress contributes to cell death.

Effects of a protocol of ischemic postconditioning and/or captopril in hearts of normotensive and hypertensive rats.

Brief periods (a few seconds) of cyclic coronary occlusions applied early in reperfusion induce a cardioprotection against infarct size, called postconditioning (PostC) in which B(2)-bradykinin receptors play a pivotal role. Since angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors reduce degradation of kinins, we studied the effects of PostC on infarct size and postischemic myocardial dysfunction in both normotensive (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) acutely or chronically treated with the ACE inhibitor Captopril. Isolated hearts from SHR and WKY rats were subjected to the following protocols: (a) ischemia for 30- and 120-min reperfusion (I/R); (b) I/R + PostC protocol (5-cycles 10-s I/R); (c) pretreatment with Captopril for 4-weeks before to subject the hearts to I/R with or without PostC maneuvers.

Omega 3 has a beneficial effect on ischemia/reperfusion injury, but cannot reverse the effect of stressful forced exercise.

Background And Aim: The beneficial effects of exercise in reducing the incidence of cardiovascular diseases are well known. Several studies have demonstrated that forced exercise (FE) could activate a stress response similar to a restrain stress. Previous studies suggest that heart protection to ischemic events would be improved by an omega 3 free fatty acid (omega3-FFA)-enriched diet.