Humans exposed to altitude hypoxia experience dysfunctions of the urinary system. As a non-invasive, easily manageable and informative biological sample, urine represents a relevant matrix for detecting clinical impairments of urinary system, as well as alterations of other systems and extracellular vesicles (EVs) biology during high-altitude expeditions. Nevertheless, gaps exist in the comprehensive assessment of dysfunction, molecular burden and EVs biology due to high-altitude acute exposure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSCUBA diving poses risks due to pressure changes during descent (compression) and ascent (decompression). Decompression sickness (DCS) occurs due to gas bubble formation as the pressure decreases, causing joint pain, numbness, dizziness, or even paralysis and death. Immediate treatment involves 100% oxygen to help eliminate inert gases and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), which is essential to reduce gas emboli formation and inflammation, thus improving symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe environment can alter the homeostasis of humans and human microbiota. Oral health is influenced by high altitude through symptoms of periodontitis, barodontalgia, dental barotrauma, and a decrease in salivary flow. Microbiota and inflammatory state are connected in the oral cavity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Alcohol abuse is one of the most common causes of mortality worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of a treatment in reducing circulating ethanol and oxidative stress biomarkers.
Methods: Twenty wine-drinking subjects were investigated in a randomized controlled, single-blind trial (ClinicalTrials.
Oxylipins are powerful signalling compounds derived from polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and involved in regulating the immune system response. A mass spectrometry-based method was developed and validated for the targeted profiling of 52 oxylipins (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiving decompression theory hypothesizes inflammatory processes as a source of micronuclei which could increase related risks. Therefore, we tested 10 healthy, male divers. They performed 6-8 dives with a maximum of two dives per day at depths ranging from 21 to 122 msw with CCR mixed gas diving.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderwater activities are characterized by an imbalance between reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (RONS) and antioxidant mechanisms, which can be associated with an inflammatory response, depending on O availability. This review explores the oxidative stress mechanisms and related inflammation status (Oxy-Inflammation) in underwater activities such as breath-hold (BH) diving, Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) and Closed-Circuit Rebreather (CCR) diving, and saturation diving. Divers are exposed to hypoxic and hyperoxic conditions, amplified by environmental conditions, hyperbaric pressure, cold water, different types of breathing gases, and air/non-air mixtures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe brain's unique characteristics make it exceptionally susceptible to oxidative stress, which arises from an imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, reactive nitrogen species (RNS) production, and antioxidant defense mechanisms. This review explores the factors contributing to the brain's vascular tone's vulnerability in the presence of oxidative damage, which can be of clinical interest in critically ill patients or those presenting acute brain injuries. The brain's high metabolic rate and inefficient electron transport chain in mitochondria lead to significant ROS generation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe "normobaric oxygen paradox" (NOP) describes the response to the return to normoxia after a hyperoxic event, sensed by tissues as an oxygen shortage, up-regulating redox-sensitive transcription factors. We have previously characterized the time trend of oxygen-sensitive transcription factors in human PBMCs, in which the return to normoxia after 30% oxygen is sensed as a hypoxic trigger, characterized by hypoxia-induced factor (HIF-1) activation. On the contrary, 100% and 140% oxygen induce a shift toward an oxidative stress response, characterized by NRF2 and NF-kB activation in the first 24 h post exposure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExposure to high altitude might cause the body to adapt with negative energy and fluid balance that compromise body composition and physical performance. In this field study involving 12 healthy adults, sex-balanced, and aged 29 ± 4 years with a body mass index of 21.6 ± 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLong COVID-19 patients show systemic inflammation and persistent symptoms such as fatigue and malaise, profoundly affecting their quality of life. Since improving oxygenation can oppose inflammation at multiple tissue levels, we hypothesized that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) could arrest inflammation progression and thus relieve symptoms of COVID-19. We evaluated oxy-inflammation biomarkers in long COVID-19 subjects treated with HBOT and monitored with non-invasive methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntense, long exercise can increase oxidative stress, leading to higher levels of inflammatory mediators and muscle damage. At the same time, fatigue has been suggested as one of the factors giving rise to delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS). The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a specific electrical stimulation (ES) treatment (without elicited muscular contraction) on two different scenarios: in the laboratory on eleven healthy volunteers (56.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolecular oxygen (O) is one of the four most important elements on Earth (alongside carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen); aerobic organisms depend on it to release energy from carbon-based molecules [...
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To evaluate the changes in gustatory and olfactory sensitivity and dietary habits between healthy lean subjects (LS) and participants affected by overweight (OW), stage I and II obesity and to estimate possible impact of these factors on body mass index (BMI).
Methods: After a general and ear-nose-throat evaluation, taste and olfactory function testing by means of taste strips and sniffin' stick tests, respectively, and food habits analysis by means of food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), 221 participants (68 LS [33 female; mean age = 53.01 ± 7.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a therapeutical approach based on exposure to pure oxygen in an augmented atmospheric pressure. Although it has been used for years, the exact kinetics of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) between different pressures of hyperbaric oxygen exposure are still not clearly evidenced. In this study, the metabolic responses of hyperbaric hyperoxia exposures for 1 h at 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn imbalance of oxy-inflammation status has been involved in axonal damage and demyelination in multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of an antioxidant treatment (calcium disodium ethylenediaminetetracetic acid-EDTA) chelation therapy associated with a micronutrient complex in MS patients. A total of 20 MS patients and 20 healthy subjects, enrolled as a control group (CTR), were recruited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this study, the metabolic responses of hypoxic breathing for 1 h to inspired fractions of 10% and 15% oxygen were investigated. To this end, 14 healthy nonsmoking subjects (6 females and 8 males, age: 32.2 ± 13.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFunctional movement disorders (FMD) are characterized by the presence of neurological symptoms that cannot be explained by typical neurological diseases or other medical conditions. First evidence showed that, compared to healthy controls (CTR), FMD patients presented increased levels of glutamate+glutamine in the anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex, and decreased levels of glutamate in the cerebrospinal fluid, suggesting that a glutamatergic dysfunction might play a role in FMD pathophysiology. In this study, 12 FMD patients and 20 CTR were recruited and underwent venous blood sampling and urine collection: levels of glutamate, BDNF, dopamine, oxidative stress, creatinine, neopterin, and uric acid were analyzed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Approximately 70% of individuals critically buried in avalanche debris die within 35 minutes as a result of asphyxial cardiac arrest. An artificial air-pocket device (AAPD) that separates inhaled air from exhaled air may delay the onset of severe hypoxemia and eventual asphyxia during snow burial.
Objective: To investigate the efficacy of a new AAPD during snow burial in a supine position.
Differences in gustatory sensitivity, nutritional habits, circulating levels of modulators, anthropometric measures, and metabolic assays may be involved in overweight (OW) development. The present study aimed at evaluating the differences in these aspects between 39 OW (19 female; mean age = 53.51 ± 11.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExposure to acute normobaric hypoxia (NH) elicits reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, whose production kinetics and oxidative damage were here investigated. Nine subjects were monitored while breathing an NH mixture (0.125 FO in air, about 4100 m) and during recovery with room air.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF