Efficacy of respiratory tele-rehabilitation in COPD patients: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is a proven and effective intervention for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The recent pandemic has raised interest on new services, such as telerehabilitation (Tele-R). The aim of this study was to systematically review the effects of Tele-R in COPD on: 1) exercise capacity evaluated by the 6-minute walk test (6MWT); 2) dyspnea (modified Medical Research Council - mMRC); 3) COPD control (the COPD assessment test - CAT).

Anandamide degradation and N-acylethanolamines level in wild-type and CB1 cannabinoid receptor knockout mice of different ages.

CD1 mice lacking the CB1 receptors (knockout, KO) were compared with wild-type littermates for their ability to degrade N-arachidonoylethanolamine (anandamide, AEA) through a membrane transporter (AMT) and a fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH). The regional distribution and age-dependence of AMT and FAAH activity were investigated. Anandamide membrane transporter and FAAH increased with age in knockout mice, whereas they showed minor changes in wild-type animals.

Fast determination of phenols in contaminated soils.

An extraction method for the determination of phenols in contaminated soils, based on the application of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with GC-flame ionization detection analysis, was developed and tested. This method was developed using a natural soil spiked with phenol to a concentration level typical of an acute contamination event that can occur in an industrial site. The effects of the extraction parameters (pH, extraction time and salt concentration) on the extraction efficiency were studied and the method was then applied to determine the pollutant concentration at the beginning and during the biological treatment of a soil, contaminated with phenol and 3-chlorophenol, respectively.

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of endogenous cannabinoids in healthy and tumoral human brain and human cells in culture.

Endocannabinoids are lipid mediators thought to modulate central and peripheral neural functions. We report here gas chromatography-electron impact mass spectrometry analysis of human brain, showing that lipid extracts contain anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), the most active endocannabinoids known to date. Human brain also contained the endocannabinoid-like compounds N-oleoylethanolamine, N-palmitoylethanolamine and N-stearoylethanolamine.

A possible role of chromatin and tightly-bound chromatin proteins on enzyme-catalyzed methylation of DNA.

Upon extensive digestion with DNAaseI of placenta chromatin matrix, previously "stripped" from its loosely-bound components by high-salt extraction, a fraction is obtained that contains almost no endogenous DNA methylase activity but whose DNA, if still included in this whole fraction--not if it has been purified to a protein-free condition--is a good substrate for externally added enzyme. This chromatin matrix can even cause a significant stimulation of methylation of single-stranded Micrococcus luteus DNA by placental methylase. In vivo, this phenomenon may have possible counterparts in the existence of highly-methylated regions of chromatin loops that appear to be protected by tightly-bound protein components from digestion of the "stripped loops" with DNAaseI.

Localization, in human placenta, of the tightly bound form of DNA methylase in the higher order of chromatin organization.

In human placenta, the DNA of all subfractions of the third level of chromatin organization exhibits similar values of the methylcytosine-to-cytosine ratio. The tightly bound form of DNA methyltransferase is mostly recovered in the 'stripped loop' fraction, although, on the basis of the DNA content, the 'stripped loops' and the 'stripped matrix' appear to possess a similar amount of the enzyme. DNA methyltransferase activity is instead totally absent from the 'digested matrix', i.

Do tightly-bound chromatin proteins play a role in DNA methylation?

When chromatin matrix, "stripped" from its loosely-bound components by extraction with 3 M NaCl, is extensively digested with DNAase I, a fraction is obtained, which carries no endogenous DNA methyltransferase activity but which is a good substrate for externally added enzyme. Under the same conditions, protein-free DNA isolated from this fraction can instead hardly be methylated, this different behaviour pointing to a role of DNA-tightly-bound proteins in favoring or promoting the catalytic action of the enzyme. A similar stimulation of enzymatic methylation could also be shown when, in the presence of this same fraction, single stranded Micrococcus luteus DNA was incubated with placental methyltransferase, using S-adenosylmethionine as a methyl donor.

5-Methylcytosine levels in nucleosome subpopulations differently involved in gene expression.

Sucrose density gradient centrifugation in the presence or absence of Na-EDTA and at different ionic strengths allows one to obtain well-defined nucleosome subpopulations the DNA of which, examined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, is in all cases hypermethylated as compared to spacer regions, but to a different extent for the different subpopulations. The various nucleosomes differ also in their content of histones and of high-mobility-group proteins, as well as in the levels of RNA polymerase activity associated with them. Such data suggest that these nucleosome subpopulations originate from chromatin fractions differently involved in gene expression.