Micronucleus Frequency in Exfoliated Buccal Cells of Children Living in an Industrialized Area of Apulia (Italy).

Micronuclei (MN) are biomarkers of early biological effect often used for detecting DNA damage in human population exposed to genotoxic agents. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of MN in exfoliated buccal cells of children living in an industrialized (impacted) area compared with that found in children living in a control area without significant anthropogenic impacts. A total of 462 6-8-year-old children (206 in the impacted area, 256 in the control area) attending primary school were enrolled.

Adherence to Mediterranean diet of children living in small Southern Italian villages.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in the primary schools of five small villages of Salento Peninsula to evaluate the adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) of 282 6-8-years old children in relation to lifestyles and socio-economic factors. The parents of children completed a self-administered questionnaire to evaluate the prevalence of personal, behavioural and socio-economic factors of their sons. Children's anthropometric measurements were also taken.

Health Risk Associated with Exposure to PM and Benzene in Three Italian Towns.

Air pollution in urban areas is a major concern as it negatively affects the health of a large number of people. The purpose of this study was to assess the inhalation health risk for exposure to PM and benzene of the populations living in three Italian cities. Data regarding PM and benzene daily measured by "traffic" stations and "background" stations in Torino, Perugia, and Lecce during 2014 and 2015 were compared to the limits indicated in the Directive 2008/50/EC.

Micronuclei in Exfoliated Buccal Cells of Children Living in a Cluster Area of Salento (Southern Italy) with a High Incidence of Lung Cancer: The IMP.AIR Study.

During the years 2014⁻2016 the University of Salento performed the "Impact of Air Quality on Health of Residents in the Municipalities of Cutrofiano, Galatina, Sogliano Cavour, Soleto and Sternatia" (IMP.AIR) study, an epidemiological-molecular research project aiming to evaluate early DNA damage in children living in an area of Salento with high incidence of lung cancer among the male population. One hundred and twenty-two children aged 6⁻8 years attending primary school were enrolled and the frequency of micronucleated cells (MNC) in oral mucosa was evaluated.

Human bocavirus: Current knowledge and future challenges.

Human bocavirus (HBoV) is a parvovirus isolated about a decade ago and found worldwide in both respiratory samples, mainly from early life and children of 6-24 mo of age with acute respiratory infection, and in stool samples, from patients with gastroenteritis. Since then, other viruses related to the first HBoV isolate (HBoV1), namely HBoV2, HBoV3 and HBoV4, have been detected principally in human faeces. HBoVs are small non-enveloped single-stranded DNA viruses of about 5300 nucleotides, consisting of three open reading frames encoding the first two the non-structural protein 1 (NS1) and nuclear phosphoprotein (NP1) and the third the viral capsid proteins 1 and 2 (VP1 and VP2).