Publications by authors named "Georgia C Atella"

Palm oil is widely used in the food industry owing to its high stability and versatility. The interesterified version has been used as an alternative to oils rich in trans fatty acids. However, the health effects of these vegetable oils are not yet fully understood.

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Background: Obesity poses a significant global health challenge, given its association with the excessive accumulation of adipose tissue (AT) and various systemic disruptions. Within the adipose microenvironment, expansion and enrichment with immune cells trigger the release of inflammatory mediators and growth factors, which can disrupt tissues, including bones. While obesity's contribution to bone loss is well established, the direct impact of obese AT on osteoblast maturation remains uncertain.

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Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is defined as morphofunctional changes in the liver. Studies have shown that Westernized eating patterns and environmental pollutants can directly induce the development of MASLD. This study evaluates the effect of co-exposure to interesterified palm oil (IPO) and 3,3',4,4',5-pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB-126) on the progression of MASLD in an animal model.

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Environmental pollutants, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), act as endocrine disruptors and impair various physiological processes. PCB 126 is associated with steatohepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and other hepatic injuries. These disorders can be regulated by microRNAs (miRNAs).

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Phospholipases A (PLA) comprise a superfamily of enzymes that specifically catalyze hydrolysis of the ester bond at the sn-2 position of glycerophospholipids, generating lysophospholipids and fatty acids. In Rhodnius prolixus, one of the main vectors of the Chagas's disease etiologic agent Trypanosoma cruzi, it was previously shown that lysophosphatidylcholine, a bioactive lipid, found in the insect's saliva, contributes to the inhibition of platelet aggregation, and increases the production of nitric oxide, an important vasodilator. Due to its role in potentially generating LPC, here we studied the PLA present in the salivary glands of R.

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Article Synopsis
  • Endosymbionts are tiny organisms that live inside corals and are super important for their health.
  • Pollution in the ocean, especially from oil spills and toxic substances like a dispersant called Corexit-9500, can seriously hurt these endosymbionts.
  • When exposed to oil and dispersants, two types of endosymbionts showed a big drop in their survival and ability to perform photosynthesis, meaning they can't grow properly and get damaged quickly.
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Background: The high prevalence of metabolic syndrome in low- and middle-income countries is linked to an increase in Western diet consumption, characterized by a high intake of processed foods, which impacts the levels of blood sugar and lipids, hormones, and cytokines. Hematophagous insect vectors, such as the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti, rely on blood meals for reproduction and development and are therefore exposed to the components of blood plasma. However, the impact of the alteration of blood composition due to malnutrition and metabolic conditions on mosquito biology remains understudied.

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Cerebellar ataxia is a heterogeneous group of neural disorders clinically characterized by cerebellar dysfunction. The diagnosis of patients with progressive cerebellar ataxia is complex due to the direct correlation with other neuron diseases. Although there is still no cure for this pathological condition, some metabolic, hereditary, inflammatory, and immunological factors affecting cerebellar ataxia are being studied and may become therapeutic targets.

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Chagas disease, endemic from Latin America, is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi and is transmitted by triatomine feces. This parasite undergoes complex morphological changes through its life cycle, promoted by significant changes in signal transduction pathways. The activity of protein kinase CK2 has been described in trypanosomatids.

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Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by the intracellular bacillus Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae), which is known to infect skin macrophages and Schwann cells. Although adipose tissue is a recognized site of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, its role in the histopathology of leprosy was, until now, unknown.

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During its life cycle, Trypanosoma rangeli invades the hemolymph of its invertebrate host and colonizes hemocytes and salivary glands. The parasite cannot synthesize some lipid classes, and during its cycle, it depends on the uptake of these molecules from its vertebrate and invertebrate hosts to meet growth and differentiation requirements. However, until now, knowledge on how the parasite affects the lipid physiology of individual insect organs has been largely unknown.

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Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has proved beneficial effects in skin wound healing of chronic lesions; however, the effects of EVOO in acute wounds are not completely understood. This study investigated the effects of short-term and long-term administration of a diet rich in EVOO on acute wound healing. To check this, mice were fed with a diet rich in EVOO for 1 week (short term), 1 month, or 3 months (long term).

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Introduction: Maternal high-fat (HF) diet during gestation and lactation programs obesity in rat offspring associated with sex-dependent and tissue-specific changes of the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS activation induces food intake and preference for fat as well as lipogenesis. We hypothesized that maternal HF diet would increase the lipid endocannabinoid levels in breast milk programming cannabinoid and dopamine signaling and food preference in rat offspring.

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Brown marine macroalga (Phaeophyceae, Ochrophyta) produces both secondary metabolites (phlorotannins) and precipitate calcium carbonate (CaCO-aragonite) on its surface as potential defensive strategies against herbivory. Here, we have evaluated the effect of natural concentrations of organic extracts (dichloromethane-DI; ethyl acetate-EA and methanol-ME, and three isolated fractions) and mineralized tissues of as chemical and physical resistance, respectively, against the sea urchin through experimental laboratory feeding bioassays. Fatty acids (FA), glycolipids (GLY), phlorotannins (PH) and hydrocarbons (HC) were also characterized and/or quantified in extracts and fractions from using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and gas chromatography (GC) coupled to mass spectrometry (CG/MS) or GC coupled to flame ionization detector (FID) and chemical analysis.

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Scope: Perinatal maternal moderately high-fat diet (mHFD) is associated with obesity and fatty liver disease in offspring, and maternal fish oil (FO: n-3 PUFA source) supplementation may attenuate these disorders. This study evaluates the effects of FO given to pregnant rats fed a mHFD on the offspring's liver at weaning.

Methods And Results: Female Wistar rats receive an isoenergetic, control (CT: 10.

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Aims: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress poses a new pathological mechanism for metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). MAFLD treatment has encompassed renin-angiotensin system (RAS) blockers and aerobic exercise training, but their association with hepatic ER stress is not well known. Therefore, we aimed to compare the effects of hepatic RAS modulation by enalapril and/or aerobic exercise training over ER stress in MAFLD caused by a diet-induced obesity model.

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Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae infection in Schwann cells. Axonopathy is considered a hallmark of leprosy neuropathy and is associated with the irreversible motor and sensory loss seen in infected patients. Although M.

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Article Synopsis
  • Corals face threats from global warming, with bleaching caused by the loss of symbiotic dinoflagellates being a significant immediate impact.
  • The study explores how increased temperatures affect the biochemical and cellular characteristics of these important endosymbionts, showing that heat stress leads to an increase in oxygen levels while causing a decrease in key proteins and pigments.
  • Observations via transmission electron microscopy reveal that heat stress compromises the structural integrity of the dinoflagellates, resulting in thinner cell walls, chloroplast deformation, and an accumulation of lipid droplets after just three days at elevated temperatures.
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  • Sponges have co-evolved with microbes for over 400 million years, classified into Low Microbial Abundance (LMA) and High Microbial Abundance (HMA) based on their microbial content.
  • This study investigates sponges from the Great Amazon Reef System (GARS), revealing that LMA sponges derive nutrition from the Amazon River Plume, while HMA sponges maintain specialized symbiotic microbes.
  • Findings indicate distinct microbial communities in LMA and HMA sponges, with LMA sponges showing higher phage abundance and HMA sponges exhibiting mechanisms for phage defense, highlighting their ecological roles and interactions in nutrient cycling.
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The liver is an essential regulator of energy metabolism, and its function can be disrupted by nutritional alterations. Since liver development continues during breastfeeding nutritional challenges during this period predispose patients to diseases throughout life. A maternal protein-restricted (PR) diet during lactation promotes reductions in the body weight, adiposity, and plasma glucose and insulin, leptin resistance and an increase in corticosterone and catecholamines in adult male rat offspring.

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A significant percentage of exogenous cholesterol was found in promastigotes and amastigotes of all studied species of Leishmania, suggesting a biological role for this molecule. Previous studies have shown that promastigotes of Leishmania uptake more low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles under pharmacological pressure and are more susceptible to ergosterol inhibition in the absence of exogenous sources of cholesterol. This work shows that the host's LDL is available to intracellular amastigotes and that the absence of exogenous cholesterol enhances the potency of sterol biosynthesis inhibitors in infected macrophages.

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Maternal high-fat diet (HFD) is associated with metabolic disturbances in the offspring. Fructose is a highly consumed lipogenic sugar; however, it is unknown whether skeletal muscle of maternal HFD offspring respond differentially to a fructose overload. Female Wistar rats received standard diet (STD: 9% fat) or isocaloric high-fat diet (HFD: 29% fat) during 8 weeks before mating until weaning.

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We have previously shown that 21-benzylidene digoxin (21-BD) increases the total cholesterol and phospholipid content on the membrane of HeLa cells. Lipid modulation caused by cardiotonic steroids (CTS) is still unexplored. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the cholesterol and phospholipid modulation of the cell membrane caused by ouabain and 21-BD and the possible involvement of the caveolae on this modulation.

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Upon infection, , an obligate intracellular bacillus, induces accumulation of cholesterol-enriched lipid droplets (LDs) in Schwann cells (SCs). LDs are promptly recruited to -containing phagosomes, and inhibition of this process decreases bacterial survival, suggesting that LD recruitment constitutes a mechanism by which host-derived lipids are delivered to intracellular . We previously demonstrated that has preserved only the capacity to oxidize cholesterol to cholestenone, the first step of the normal cholesterol catabolic pathway.

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