Publications by authors named "Giacalone V"

Background: Ptotic breast deformity arises from decreased breast tissue volume and skin laxity, causing descent of breast tissue due to gravity. Mastopexy lifts and reshapes the breast and can be potentially associated with breast implants in case of need of volume increase. However, this option is not accepted by all the patients.

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Seed-based restoration methods are increasingly recognized as a relevant tool contributing to halt and reverse the loss of seagrass meadows while providing genetic and evolutionary benefit for the conservation of these habitats. protocols aimed at maximizing the survival of plantlets obtained from seeds in cultivation systems are therefore required. Previous trials of seedling culture of , the dominant seagrass of the Mediterranean Sea, recorded up to 40% loss due to mould development.

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Preexisting anti-interferon-α (anti-IFN-α) autoantibodies in blood are associated with susceptibility to life-threatening COVID-19. However, it is unclear whether anti-IFN-α autoantibodies in the airways, the initial site of infection, can also determine disease outcomes. In this study, we developed a multiparameter technology, FlowBEAT, to quantify and profile the isotypes of anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and anti-IFN-α antibodies in longitudinal samples collected over 20 months from the airways and blood of 129 donors spanning mild to severe COVID-19.

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The seismic water gun is widely used and plays an important role in seabed imaging acquisition; however, acoustic impacts on marine organisms are currently poorly understood. The aim of this study was to analyse the biochemical responses on the peristomial membrane (PM) of the sea urchin, Arbacia lixula, when exposed to water gun shots in open water. The PM (located around the mouth) is involved in vital functions, such as nutrition and protection.

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Dysregulated neutrophil recruitment drives many pulmonary diseases, but most preclinical screening methods are unsuited to evaluate pulmonary neutrophilia, limiting progress towards therapeutics. Namely, high throughput therapeutic screening systems typically exclude critical neutrophilic pathophysiology, including blood-to-lung recruitment, dysfunctional activation, and resulting impacts on the air-blood barrier. To meet the conflicting demands of physiological complexity and high throughput, we developed an assay of 96-well Leukocyte recruitment in an Air-Blood Barrier Array (L-ABBA-96) that enables -like neutrophil recruitment compatible with downstream phenotyping by automated flow cytometry.

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Seagrasses' ability to store information after exposure to stress (i.e. stress memory) and to better respond to further stress (i.

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Background And Objectives: Surgical meshes have demonstrated greater reliability compared to suture repair for abdominal wall hernia treatment. However, questions remain regarding the properties of these devices and their influence on surgical outcomes. Morphological properties, including pore size and porosity, play a crucial role in mesh integration and encapsulation.

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Background: In chronic cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease, neutrophilic inflammation and T-cell inhibition occur concomitantly, partly due to neutrophil-mediated release of the T-cell inhibitory enzyme Arg1. However, the onset of this tonic inhibition of T cells, and the impact of pulmonary exacerbations (PEs) on this process, remain unknown.

Methods: Children with CF aged 0-5 years were enrolled in a longitudinal, single-center cohort study.

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Background: Cystic fibrosis (CF) airway disease is characterized by chronic inflammation, featuring neutrophil influx to the lumen. Airway macrophages (AMs) can promote both inflammation and resolution, and are thus critical to maintaining and restoring homeostasis. CF AM functions, specifically scavenging activity and resolution of inflammation, have been shown to be impaired, yet underlying processes remain unknown.

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Article Synopsis
  • There are no specific standards for testing the strength of surgical meshes used in hernia and other surgeries, which makes it hard to compare how well they work.
  • This study aims to create a detailed testing process to compare different types of surgical meshes using three specific methods: the ball burst test, uniaxial tensile test, and suture retention test.
  • The new testing process worked well on different types of meshes and showed consistent results, meaning it could be used by other labs to check how reliable the meshes are.
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Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is an inflammatory rheumatic disorder. Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) are present in JIA synovial fluid (SF), but with variable frequency. SF PMNs in JIA were previously shown to display high exocytic but low phagocytic and immunoregulatory activities.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study highlights that Black/African American patients made up nearly 70% of COVID-19 deaths in certain areas, yet targeted research on them is limited.
  • Using advanced single-cell analyses of immune responses from Black/AA patients, researchers found that a specific type of neutrophil plays a critical role in causing severe respiratory issues during COVID-19, even when viral loads are low.
  • Key findings reveal that these neutrophils produce high levels of inflammatory proteins, contributing to a harmful immune response that can lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in this vulnerable population.
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Background: Macrophages are the major resident immune cells in human airways coordinating responses to infection and injury. In cystic fibrosis (CF), neutrophils are recruited to the airways shortly after birth, and actively exocytose damaging enzymes prior to chronic infection, suggesting a potential defect in macrophage immunomodulatory function. Signaling through the exhaustion marker programmed death protein 1 (PD-1) controls macrophage function in cancer, sepsis, and airway infection.

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SARS-CoV-2-infected subjects are generally asymptomatic during initial viral replication but may suffer severe immunopathology after the virus has receded and monocytes have infiltrated the airways. In bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from severe COVID-19 patients, monocytes express mRNA encoding inflammatory mediators and contain SARS-CoV-2 transcripts. We leverage a human small airway model of infection and inflammation, whereby primary blood monocytes transmigrate across SARS-CoV-2-infected lung epithelium to characterize viral burden, gene expression, and inflammatory mediator secretion by epithelial cells and monocytes.

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Background: In this pilot study, we investigated whether induced sputum (IS) could serve as a viable alternative to bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and yield robust inflammatory biomarkers in toddlers with cystic fibrosis (CF) featuring minimal structural lung disease.

Methods: We collected IS, BAL (right middle lobe and lingula), and blood, and performed chest computed tomography (CT) scans from 2-year-olds with CF (N = 11), all within a single visit. Inflammatory biomarkers included 20 soluble immune mediators and neutrophil elastase (NE), as well as frequency and phenotype of T cells, monocytes/macrophages, and neutrophils.

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Article Synopsis
  • Seawater is getting warmer and causing marine heatwaves, which can harm coastal plants like seagrasses.
  • Scientists tested a method called thermo-priming on Mediterranean seagrass seedlings to help them handle stress from heat better.
  • The treated seedlings grew better and had stronger gene activity related to stress and photosynthesis compared to those that weren't treated, showing promise for protecting these plants in a changing environment.
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Neutrophils are difficult to study, particularly in tissues, due to their short half-life and propensity for activation. We describe an organotypic airway model that uses patient airway fluid to enable the transmigration of blood neutrophils to acquire an airway-like phenotype in order to better understand their contribution to airway diseases. In particular, we showcase how conditioned neutrophils modulate their bacteria-killing abilities.

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Loss of function of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) causes cystic fibrosis (CF). In the lungs, this manifests as immune cell infiltration and bacterial infections, leading to tissue destruction. Previous work has determined that acute bacterial sphingomyelinase (SMase) decreases CFTR function in bronchial epithelial cells from individuals without CF (nHBEs) and with CF (cfHBEs, homozygous ΔF508-CFTR mutation).

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Article Synopsis
  • * In CF airways, neutrophils shift their gene expression rapidly, increasing anabolic (building) genes while decreasing antimicrobial (killing) genes, which impacts their ability to fight infections.
  • * Inhibiting certain RNA polymerases can reverse this altered gene expression, boosting the neutrophils' capacity to kill bacteria and indicating that their function can change based on local inflammation.
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Cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease is dominated by the recruitment of myeloid cells (neutrophils and monocytes) from the blood which fail to clear the lung of colonizing microbes. In prior in vitro studies, we showed that blood neutrophils migrated through the well-differentiated lung epithelium into the CF airway fluid supernatant (ASN) mimic the dysfunction of CF airway neutrophils in vivo, including decreased bactericidal activity despite an increased metabolism. Here, we hypothesized that, in a similar manner to neutrophils, blood monocytes undergo significant adaptations upon recruitment to CFASN.

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Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune blistering disease characterized by recruitment of leucocytes into skin and release of damaging enzymes, resulting in epidermal detachment and blister formation. To better understand the role of leukotriene B4 (LTB4) and other inflammatory factors in BP pathophysiology, we conducted microscopic and immunohistochemical analyses of preserved skin biopsy sections and conducted flow cytometry and ELISA analyses of matched blood and blister fluid from BP patients. Neutrophils predominated in BP blister fluid, which also contained monocytes/macrophages and T cells, but few to no eosinophils and B cells.

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Cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease is characterized by unconventional mechanisms of inflammation, implicating a chronic immune response dominated by innate immune cells. Historically, therapeutic development has focused on the mutated cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), leading to the discovery of small molecules aiming at modulating and potentiating the presence and activity of CFTR at the plasma membrane. However, treatment burden sustained by CF patients, side effects of current medications, and recent advances in other therapeutic areas have highlighted the need to develop novel disease targeting of the inflammatory component driving CF lung damage.

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Neutrophils have a prominent role in all human immune responses against any type of pathogen or stimulus. The lungs are a major neutrophil reservoir and neutrophilic inflammation is a primary response to both infectious and non-infectious challenges. While neutrophils are well known for their essential role in clearance of bacteria, they are also equipped with specific mechanisms to counter viruses and fungi.

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Shallow-water marine organisms are among the first to suffer from combined effects of natural and anthropogenic drivers. The orange coral Astroides calycularis is a shallow-water bioconstructor species endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. Although raising conservation interest, also given its special position within the Dendrophylliidae, information about the threats to its health is scant.

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Neutrophils are recruited to the airways of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) where they acquire an activated pro-survival phenotype with an enhanced respiratory burst thought to contribute to ARDS pathophysiology. Our in vitro model enables blood neutrophil transepithelial migration into cell-free tracheal aspirate fluid from patients to recapitulate the primary airway neutrophil phenotype observed in vivo. Neutrophils transmigrated through our model toward airway fluid from children with lower respiratory viral infections coinfected with bacteria had elevated levels of neutrophil activation markers but paradoxically exhibited an inability to kill bacteria and a defective respiratory burst compared with children without bacterial coinfection.

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