Weight-drop model as a valuable tool to study potential neurobiological processes underlying behavioral and cognitive changes secondary to mild traumatic brain injury.

The pathophysiology of post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) behavioral and cognitive changes is not fully understood, especially in its mild presentation. We designed a weight drop TBI model in mice to investigate the role of neuroinflammation in behavioral and cognitive sequelae following mild TBI. C57BL/6 mice displayed depressive-like behavior at 72 h after mild TBI compared with controls, as indicated by a decrease in the latency to first immobility and climbing time in the forced swim test.

An early-life microbiota metabolite protects against obesity by regulating intestinal lipid metabolism.

The mechanisms by which the early-life microbiota protects against environmental factors that promote childhood obesity remain largely unknown. Using a mouse model in which young mice are simultaneously exposed to antibiotics and a high-fat (HF) diet, we show that Lactobacillus species, predominant members of the small intestine (SI) microbiota, regulate intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) to limit diet-induced obesity during early life. A Lactobacillus-derived metabolite, phenyllactic acid (PLA), protects against metabolic dysfunction caused by early-life exposure to antibiotics and a HF diet by increasing the abundance of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPAR-γ) in SI IECs.

Inulin diet uncovers complex diet-microbiota-immune cell interactions remodeling the gut epithelium.

Background: The continuous proliferation of intestinal stem cells followed by their tightly regulated differentiation to epithelial cells is essential for the maintenance of the gut epithelial barrier and its functions. How these processes are tuned by diet and gut microbiome is an important, but poorly understood question. Dietary soluble fibers, such as inulin, are known for their ability to impact the gut bacterial community and gut epithelium, and their consumption has been usually associated with health improvement in mice and humans.

Butyrate: Connecting the gut-lung axis to the management of pulmonary disorders.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are metabolites released by bacterial components of the microbiota. These molecules have a wide range of effects in the microbiota itself, but also in host cells in which they are known for contributing to the regulation of cell metabolism, barrier function, and immunological responses. Recent studies indicate that these molecules are important players in the gut-lung axis and highlight the possibility of using strategies that alter their intestinal production to prevent or treat distinct lung inflammatory diseases.

GPR43 regulates sodium butyrate-induced angiogenesis and matrix remodeling.

Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) derived from microbiota and is involved in a range of cell processes in a concentration-dependent manner. Low concentrations of sodium butyrate (NaBu) were shown to be proangiogenic. However, the mechanisms associated with these effects are not yet fully known.

Enoxacin induces oxidative metabolism and mitigates obesity by regulating adipose tissue miRNA expression.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in oxidative metabolism and brown/beige adipocyte identity. Here, we tested whether widespread changes in miRNA expression promoted by treatment with the small-molecule enoxacin cause browning and prevent obesity. Enoxacin mitigated diet-induced obesity in mice, and this was associated with increased energy expenditure.

Photobiomodulation drives pericyte mobilization towards skin regeneration.

Photobiomodulation is being widely applied for improving dermal or mucosal wound healing. However, the underlying cellular and molecular processes that directly contribute to its effects remain poorly understood. Pericytes are relevant cells involved in the wound microenvironment and could be one of the main targets of photobiomodulation due to their plasticity and perivascular localization.

Cellular and Molecular Heterogeneity Associated with Vessel Formation Processes.

The microvasculature heterogeneity is a complex subject in vascular biology. The difficulty of building a dynamic and interactive view among the microenvironments, the cellular and molecular heterogeneities, and the basic aspects of the vessel formation processes make the available knowledge largely fragmented. The neovascularisation processes, termed vasculogenesis, angiogenesis, arteriogenesis, and lymphangiogenesis, are important to the formation and proper functioning of organs and tissues both in the embryo and the postnatal period.

Low Concentration of Sodium Butyrate from Ultrabraid+NaBu suture, Promotes Angiogenesis and Tissue Remodelling in Tendon-bones Injury.

Sodium butyrate (NaBu), a form of short-chain fatty acid (SCFA), acts classically as a potent anti-angiogenic agent in tumour angiogenesis models, some authors demonstrated that low concentrations of NaBu may contribute to healing of tendon-bone injury in part at least through promotion of tissue remodelling. Here, we investigated the effects of low-range concentrations of NaBu using in vitro and in vivo assays using angiogenesis as the primary outcome measure and the mechanisms through which it acts. We demonstrated that NaBu, alone or perfused from the UltraBraid+NaBu suture was pro-angiogenic at very low-range doses promoting migration, tube formation and cell invasion in bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs).

Differential Contribution of Acute and Chronic Inflammation to the Development of Murine Mammary 4T1 Tumors.

Based on the notion that inflammation favors tumorigenesis, our experiments comparatively assessed the influence of acute and chronic inflammation on the development of a murine mammary tumor (4T1). In addition, we characterized angiogenic and inflammatory markers in the tumor tissue and systemically. Subcutaneous implantation of polyether-polyurethane sponge discs in Balb/c mice was used to host 4T1 tumor cells (1x10(6)), which were inoculated intraimplant 24 h or 10 days post implantation.

Deletion of the chemokine receptor CCR2 attenuates foreign body reaction to implants in mice.

Subcutaneous implantation of synthetic materials and biomedical devices often induces abnormal tissue healing - the foreign body reaction - which impairs their function. Here we investigated the role of the chemokine receptor CCR2 in this reaction to subcutaneous implants in mice. We measured angiogenesis, inflammation and fibrogenesis induced by implantation, for 1, 4, 7 and 14days, of polyether-polyurethane sponges in mice with genetic deletion of CCR2 (KO) and WT mice.

Genetic strain differences in the development of peritoneal fibroproliferative processes in mice.

Fibroproliferative processes are regulated by a wide variety of tissue components and genetic factors. However, whether there are genetic differences in peritoneal fibroproliferative tissue formation, with consequent differences in response to drug treatment, is unclear. We characterize the influence of the genetic background on peritoneal fibroproliferative tissue induced by sponge implants in DBA/1, Swiss, C57BL/6, and BALB/c mouse strains.

Genetic background determines inflammatory angiogenesis response to dipyridamole in mice.

Inflammation and angiogenesis, key components of fibrovascular tissue growth, exhibit considerable variability among species and strains. We investigated whether the response of inbred and outbred mice strains to dipyridamole (DP) on these processes would present similar variability. The effects of the drug on blood vessel formation, inflammatory cell recruitment, collagen deposition and cytokine production were determined on the fibroproliferative tissue induced by sponge implants in Swiss and Balb/c mice.

Kinetics of implant-induced inflammatory angiogenesis in abdominal muscle wall in mice.

Injury of skeletal abdominal muscle wall is a common medical condition and implantation of synthetic or biological material is a procedure to repair musculofascial defects. We proposed to characterize the dynamics of inflammatory cell recruitment, newly formed blood vessels, cytokine production and fibrogenesis in the abdominal skeletal muscle in response to polyether-polyurethane sponge implants in mice. At 2, 4, 7 and 10days after implantation the muscle tissue underneath the sponge matrix was removed for the assessment of the angiogenic response (hemoglobin content, vascular endothelial growth factor and morphometric analysis of the number of vessels) and inflammation (myeloperoxidase and n-acethyl-B-d-glucosaminidase activities, cytokines).

Genetic background determines mouse strain differences in inflammatory angiogenesis.

Inflammation and angiogenesis are key components of fibrovascular tissue growth, a biological event underlying both physiological (wound healing) and pathological conditions (tumor development, chronic inflammation). We investigated these components in three frequently used mouse strains (Swiss, Balb/c and C57BL/6J) to verify the influence of genetic background on the kinetics of inflammatory cell recruitment/activation, neovascularization, extracellular matrix deposition, and cytokine production in polyether-polyurethane sponge implanted subcutaneously in male mice of these strains. The kinetics of neutrophil recruitment/activation as assessed by myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity was 2- and 3-fold higher in Balb/c implants at day 1 compared with Swiss and C57BL/6J implants, respectively.