Travelling through the Natural Hierarchies of Type I Collagen with X-rays: From Tendons of Cattle, Horses, Sheep and Pigs.

Type I collagen physiological scaffold for tissue regeneration is considered one of the widely used biomaterials for tissue engineering and medical applications. It is hierarchically organized: five laterally staggered molecules are packed within fibrils, arranged into fascicles and bundles. The structural organization is correlated to the direction and intensity of the forces which can be loaded onto the tissue.

Decellularized pericardium tissues at increasing glucose, galactose and ribose concentrations and at different time points studied using scanning X-ray microscopy.

Diseases like widespread diabetes or rare galactosemia may lead to high sugar concentrations in the human body, thereby promoting the formation of glycoconjugates. Glycation of collagen, the formation of glucose bridges, is nonenzymatic and therefore cannot be prevented in any other way than keeping the sugar level low. It relates to secondary diseases, abundantly occurring in aging populations and diabetics.

Synthesis, crystal structure, polymorphism and microscopic luminescence properties of anthracene derivative compounds.

Anthracene derivative compounds are currently investigated because of their unique physical properties (e.g. bright luminescence and emission tunability), which make them ideal candidates for advanced optoelectronic devices.

Modulation of glucose-related metabolic pathways controls glucose level in airway surface liquid and fight oxidative stress in cystic fibrosis cells.

Direct and indirect evidences show that elevated glucose concentrations in airway surface liquid (ASL) promote lung infection by pathogens, playing a role in the progression of the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) disease. The joint action of transporter/s for glucose and of the cellular enzymes is essential in order to try to lower ASL glucose level. Inside the cell, the glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) compete for the utilization of glucose-6-phosphate (G6P), the product in which glucose, after entry within the cell and phosphorylation, is trapped.

Aberrant GSH reductase and NOX activities concur with defective CFTR to pro-oxidative imbalance in cystic fibrosis airways.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is associated to impaired Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) channel also causing decreased glutathione (GSH) secretion, defective airway bacterial clearance and inflammation. Here we checked the main ROS-producing and ROS-scavenging enzymes as potential additional factors involved in CF pathogenesis. We found that CFBE41o-cells, expressing F508del CFTR, have increased NADPH oxidase (NOX) activity and expression level, mainly responsible of the increased ROS production, and decreased glutathione reductase (GR) activity, not dependent on GR protein level decrease.