Publications by authors named "R Ciccimarra"
Background: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a chronic lung condition of premature neonates, yet without an established pharmacological treatment. The BPD rabbit model exposed to 95% oxygen has been used in recent years for drug testing. However, the toxicity of the strong hyperoxic hit precludes a longer-term follow-up due to high mortality after the first week of life.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) primarily affects older individuals, but most research has been done using young mice; this study aimed to create an animal model that better represents older patients with IPF.* -
- The researchers induced pulmonary fibrosis in aged mice with a reduced dose of bleomycin, ensuring no significant mortality while monitoring lung health through micro-CT imaging and analyzing results through post-mortem histology.* -
- Findings showed that aged mice had worse lung function and more inflammation than younger ones, but treatment with Nintedanib significantly improved their condition, highlighting the importance of using appropriate models for drug testing and understanding IPF in older patients.*
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) with interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) lacks curative pharmacological treatments, thus necessitating effective animal models for candidate drug discovery. Existing bleomycin (BLM)-induced SSc-ILD mouse models feature spatially limited pulmonary fibrosis, spontaneously resolving after 28 days. Here, we present an alternative BLM administration approach in female C57BL/6 mice, combining oropharyngeal aspiration (OA) and subcutaneous mini-pump delivery (pump) of BLM to induce a sustained and more persistent fibrosis, while retaining stable skin fibrosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticular cartilage degradation due to injury, disease and aging is a common clinical issue as current regenerative therapies are unable to fully replicate the complex microenvironment of the native tissue which, being avascular, is featured by very low ability to self-regenerate. The extracellular matrix (ECM), constituting almost 90% of the entire tissue, plays a critical role in its function and resistance to compressive forces. In this context, the current tissue engineering strategies are only partially effective in restoring the biology and function of the native tissue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Premature birth, perinatal inflammation, and life-saving therapies such as postnatal oxygen and mechanical ventilation are strongly associated with the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD); these risk factors, alone or combined, cause lung inflammation and alter programmed molecular patterns of normal lung development. The current knowledge on the molecular regulation of lung development mainly derives from mechanistic studies conducted in newborn rodents exposed to postnatal hyperoxia, which have been proven useful but have some limitations.
Methods: Here, we used the rabbit model of BPD as a cost-effective alternative model that mirrors human lung development and, in addition, enables investigating the impact of premature birth per se on the pathophysiology of BPD without further perinatal insults (e.