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Biomedical subjects

S Auricchio

Publications and source records attributed to S Auricchio.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

High frequency of lactose absorbers among adults with idiopathic senile and presenile cataract in a population with a high prevalence of primary adult lactose malabsorption.

22% of a group of adult Neapolitans were found to have persistent high lactase activity, and 16% were lactose absorbers as indicated by measurement of breath hydrogen concentration and rise in blood glucose after oral lactose administration. Among adults in the same area with idiopathic senile or presenile cataract 49% were identified as lactose absorbers with the breath hydrogen test and 55% by the rise in blood glucose. These results suggest that adults able to absorb galactose from a lactose-containing diet are especially susceptible to senile or presenile cataract.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Fetal forms of oligoaminopeptidase, dipeptidylaminopeptidase IV, and sucrase in human intestine and meconium.

Particles of meconium sedimenting at 105,000 g contain sucrase and various brush border peptidase activities. Oligoaminopeptidase, dipeptidylaminopeptidase, and sucrase solubilized by papain from meconium particles of preterm newborns or from brush border of human fetuses during the 4th month of gestation were compared with the same enzymes prepared from adult jejunal and ileal brush border. The following are characteristics of fetal intestinal brush border enzymes: (a) a faster anodal electrophoretic mobility in polyacrylamide and in agar gel; (b) the same specific activity, as measured by quantitative crossed immunoelectrophoresis utilizing an antiserum against adult brush border membranes; (c) complete fusion of the immunoprecipitation lines with the adult enzymes by using the same antiserum; and (d) a different binding pattern to Helix pomatia lectin and lentil lectin. The results suggest that the charge difference between adult and fetal human brush border enzymes, which causes the difference in the gel electrophoretic mobility, is most probably due, at least in part, to differences in carbohydrate composition of these glycoproteins. Extensive neuraminidase digestion causes no or only minor changes of the electrophoretic mobility of the meconial enzymes. The difference between adult and meconial enzymes is therefore apparently not, or not only, due to different sialic acid content. These results suggest that many intestinal brush border enzymes in fetal life and at birth are in forms structurally different from those in adult life.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Gastrointestinal transit time and anorectal manometry in children with fecal soiling.

Fifty-three children with chronic idiopathic constipation, 32 with fecal soiling and 21 without soiling, were investigated by total gastrointestinal transit time (TGITT) and anorectal manometry (ARM). TGITT and ARM were also performed, respectively, in 46 and 32 healthy subjects. Twenty-two of the 32 children with soiling were successfully managed by medical treatment and toilet training. TGITT was significantly longer in all constipated children than in normal children. Furthermore, some parameters of anorectal motility (threshold volume, amplitude of threshold inhibitory anal reflex) of the patients differed markedly from those measured in controls. Rectal compliance was significantly higher in children with fecal soiling than in children with constipation without soiling and healthy controls. In the successfully treated children, soiling disappeared, TGITT normalized, and anorectal variables changed significantly. It is concluded that TGITT is useful in assessing the degree of constipation. Electromanometry of the anorectum is of great help in the diagnosis of functional constipation by excluding aganglionosis; furthermore, it provides additional information allowing better understanding of the mechanisms involved in functional constipation in children.

Anal Canal↗
PubMed1984

Antacids and cimetidine treatment for gastro-oesophageal reflux and peptic oesophagitis.

Thirty three children aged 2 to 42 months (mean 9 months) with gastro-oesophageal reflux and peptic oesophagitis took part in a treatment trial comparing cimetidine (20 mg/kg/day) with an intensive regimen of antacids (Maalox, 700 mmol (mEq)/1 X 73 m2/day). All children were evaluated clinically and by radiology, acid reflux test, and endoscopy. After 12 weeks of treatment all were again evaluated clinically, by pH measurement, and endoscopy. Twenty nine children, 15 on antacid and 14 on cimetidine, completed the trial. Eight patients on antacid and seven on cimetidine were cured; five on antacid and six on cimetidine improved; and two patients on antacid and one on cimetidine underwent surgery. Both groups of children showed a statistically significant reduction in the score of clinical, pH, and endoscopic variables after treatment. Lower oesophageal sphincter pressure before treatment did not correlate significantly with the final total score. Antacids in large quantities are as effective as cimetidine in medical treatment of gastro-oesophageal reflux and peptic oesophagitis.

Aluminum Hydroxide↗
PubMed1984

An in vitro animal model for the study of cereal components toxic in celiac disease.

Peptic-tryptic-Cotazym (PTC) digests were obtained, simulating in vivo protein digestion, from rice, maize, rye, oats, barley, and sorghum prolamines and tested on small intestine cultures from rat fetus. The PTC digests of the prolamine fractions from rice and maize, even when tested at a concentration as high as 0.5 mg/ml, did not affect in vitro differentiation and maturation of fetal rat jejunum that took place in vitro in a way comparable to what happens in vivo. On the contrary, the PTC digests of prolamines from rye, oats, barley, and sorghum were very active in slowing down in vitro development of fetal rat intestine. These results further strengthen earlier findings and all together show that there is a strong correlation between toxicity results of cereal and/or cereal components assessed with clinical trials or in vitro systems based on bioptic specimens of intestinal mucosa from celiac patients and with the culture of rat fetal intestine. Therefore, the rat fetal intestine culture is considered to be an adequate model for screening and investigating cereal peptides which are toxic for the celiac small intestinal mucosa.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Evidence that celiac disease is primarily associated with a DC locus allelic specificity.

Sixty patients with celiac disease were typed by radioimmunoassay for the specificities HLA-DR3, HLA-DR7, and for an allelic specificity, DC3, of the HLA-associated DC locus. We found that celiac disease is primarily associated with the DC determinant. The previously described associations with DR3, DR7, B8, B13, and A1 can be explained by decreasing degrees of linkage disequilibrium with DC3.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Does breast feeding protect against the development of clinical symptoms of celiac disease in children?

A retrospective approach has been adopted to investigate the frequency and duration of breast feeding and the time of gluten introduction in the diet in 216 celiac children and their healthy siblings of three different centers--Naples, Milan, and Turin. In this matched case-control study, the selected controls were healthy siblings of the cases. Children formula-fed from birth, or breast-fed for less than 30 days, were found to have a relative risk of developing symptoms of celiac disease four times higher than children breast-fed for more than 30 days (p less than 0.0001). To investigate more deeply the effect of the duration of breast feeding as a possible protecting factor, the linear trend for different periods of breast feeding was tested and found to be highly significant (G1: 18.3 with 1 df). Therefore, increased duration of breast feeding is associated with decreased risk of developing celiac symptoms. On the contrary, there was no apparent relationship between early introduction of gluten into the diet and frequency of celiac disease. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that a wider diffusion of breast feeding is a factor underlying the recently reported decrease of the incidence of celiac disease in children.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1982

In vitro proliferation of lymphocytes from celiac children and their first-degree relatives in response to wheat gliadin-derived peptides.

Evidence is accumulating which indicates that immune reactions to gliadins are involved in the pathogenesis of celiac disease, as humoral- and cell-mediated immune responses to gliadins have been demonstrated in the jejunal mucosa and the peripheral blood of patients. An abnormal specific immunological response to gliadins is demonstrated not only in celiac children but also in their first-degree relatives. Seventy-eight percent of celiac patients, and 67, 87, and 100% of their fathers, siblings, and mothers, respectively, have a peripheral blood lymphocyte population reacting in vitro with a proliferation response to at least one of four peptide mixtures obtained from bread and durum wheat gliadins using a procedure simulating in vivo protein digestion. The specificity of this immunological hyperresponsiveness against wheat gliadins is shown by two sets of data: (a) Lymphocytes from celiac children and their relatives were much less sensitive to peptides from rice prolamin and not at all sensitive to peptides from wheat albumins. (b) Only 7% of 30 adult controls had a proliferative response of their peripheral lymphocytes to wheat gliadin peptides. It is not known at this time if healthy relatives of celiac patients mount an immune response against the intestine in vivo. However, it is possible that the presence of lymphocytes reactive to wheat gliadin peptides in apparently healthy relatives of celiac patients may explain why these relatives develop histologic evidence of celiac disease when their gluten intake is increased (Doherty M, Barry RF. Lancet 1981;1:517-20).

Albumins↗
PubMed1982

Effects of gliadin-derived peptides from bread and durum wheats on small intestine cultures from rat fetus and coeliac children.

Peptic-tryptic-cotazym (PTC) digests were obtained, simulating in vivo protein digestion, from albumin, globulin, gliadin and glutenin preparations from hexaploid (bread) wheat as well as from diploid (monococcum) and tetraploid (durum) wheat gliadins. The digest from bread wheat gliadins reversibly inhibited in vitro development and morphogenesis of small intestine from 17-day-old rat fetuses, whereas all the other digests (obtained both from nongliadin fractions and from gliadins from other wheat species) were inactive. The PTC-digest from bread wheat gliadins was also able to prevent recovery of and to damage the in vitro cultured small intestinal mucosa from patients with active coeliac disease (gluten-induced entheropathy). The PTC-digest from durum wheat gliadins caused a much less adverse effect on this human pathologic tissue culture system.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Development of brush border peptidases in human and rat small intestine during fetal and neonatal life.

The cytosol peptidase activities hydrolyzing glycl-L-leucine and L-leucyl-glycine as well as the activities of the brush border peptidases (oligoaminopeptidase, aminopeptidase A, gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase, dipeptidyl-aminopeptidase IV, and carboxypeptidase) are present in rat fetuses during the early differentiation of the intestine (17th to 19th days of fetal life); they increase then at a different rate, reaching a maximum at various times, in the second and third wk after birth, and then decrease to the adult values during the first month of postnatal life. Only the oligoaminopeptidase activity increases steadily after birth, reaching maximal activity in the last decade of the first month. In human fetuses aged between 8 and 22 wk, the gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase was the only brush border peptidase found to be higher than in adults and children. On the other hand, the aminopeptidase A is remarkably reduced. The dipeptidylaminopeptidase IV and the carboxypeptidase are already at adult level in the youngest fetuses, and the oligoaminopeptidase increases during the period of fetal life studied; at the end of this period, the enzyme activity does not differ from the values found in children and adults. The small intestine of the term and preterm newborn should, therefore be able, with some possible exceptions, to efficiently digest peptides.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Toxicity of wheat flour proteins and protein-derived peptides for in vitro developing intestine from rat fetus.

A peptic-tryptic-cotazym (PTC) digest of a crude wheat gliadin preparation was obtained under experimental conditions simulating in vivo protein digestion and then fractionated into 10 peaks by ion-exchange chromatography. PTC-gliadin digest and one of its subfractions (coded as fraction 9 according to its elution pattern) were very active in inhibiting in vitro development and morphogenesis of small intestine from 17- and 18-day-old rat fetuses, whereas they were harmless for the culture of jejunum from 21-day-old fetuses. PTC-digest also induced extensive tissue degeneration and necrosis of in vitro cultured small intestinal mucosa from patients with active celiac disease (gluten-induced entheropathy), but did not cause any detectable effect on histologically normal human small intestinal mucosa. Some wheat albumin and gliadin fractions were also tested on in vitro developing small intestine from 17-day-old rat fetus. Among all the tested protein fractions, only one gliadin fraction (coded as alpha 10-gliadin from its gel electrophoretic mobility) exhibited a toxic effect; morphologic alterations induced by alpha 10-gliadin were similar to those induced by PTC-digest and fraction 9.

Albumins↗