Biomedical subjects

V Zappia

Publications and source records attributed to V Zappia.

112 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Homocysteine, a new crucial element in the pathogenesis of uremic cardiovascular complications.

Most large observational studies available today establish that moderate hyperhomocysteinemia, either genetically or nutritionally determined, is an independent risk factor for myocardial infarction, stroke, and thromboembolic disease. This is also true for chronic renal failure patients, who exhibit a high prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia (85-100%), which reaches high plasma concentrations (20-40 microM, while control values range between 8 and 12 microM). After a renal transplant, homocysteine levels decrease, but tend to be higher than normal. The cause of hyperhomocysteinemia in renal failure is still obscure, since recent data have questioned the previous notion that a net homocysteine renal extraction and/or excretion take place in man. No matter the cause of its increase, the sulfur amino acid homocysteine is thought to induce an increment in cardiovascular risk through three basic biochemical mechanisms: (1) homocysteine oxidation, with H2O2 generation; (2) hypomethylation through S-adenosylhomocysteine accumulation, and (3) protein acylation by homocysteine thiolactone. The final result is membrane protein damage, endothelial damage, and endothelial cell growth inhibition, among other effects. Hyperhomocysteinemia, in general, is susceptible of therapeutic intervention with the vitamins involved in its metabolism. Depending on the cause, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, betaine, and/or folic acid can be effectively utilized. Chronic renal failure patients benefit from folic acid in high dosage: 1-2 mg are usually not effective ('relative folate resistance'), while 5-15 mg reduce homocysteine levels to a 'normative' range (<15 microM) in a substantial group of patients. Good results are also obtained in transplant patients, best with a combination of folic and vitamin B6. The results of the interventional trials focusing on the possible reduction in cardiovascular risk after homocysteine-lowering therapy, both in the general population and in end-stage renal disease, are expected soon, as well as the genetic and biochemical studies in suitable models, with the aim to clarify the cause-effect link suggested by the numerous observational and basic science studies.

Cardiovascular Diseases↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Ex vivo expansion of bone marrow stromal cells by platelet-rich plasma: a promising strategy in maxillo-facial surgery.

The aim of our study is to evaluate in vitro the response of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) to platelet-rich plasma (PRP), in order to clarify the potential role of their combined use in a preclinical phase preceding BMSCs transplantation for bone repair and regeneration procedures. The incubation of BMSCs with PRP promoted a remarkable, dose- and time- dependent, growth stimulation, that was paralleled to a strong increase in the quantity of type I collagen and to a significant decrease in the activity of the early osteoblastic differentiation marker, alkaline phosphatase (AP). Once PRP was removed and osteogenic inducers were added, AP returned to levels comparable to the control, while the late phenotypic markers, osteocalcin and matrix calcification, were enhanced to higher levels than in controls. Our data demonstrate that PRP induces a remarkable ex vivo enrichment of BMSCs maintaining their differentiative potential. Thus PRP represents a valid preclinical tool for obtaining an effective, rapid and safe ex vivo expansion of BMSCs prior to their clinical utilization in bone engineering.

Bone Marrow Cells↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Anorexia in the first year of life. Case contribution].

The anorexia is a frequent cause for paediatric consultation, especially during the first year of life, during which often it is not due to illness or to some organic cause. Particularly interesting from the etiopathogenetic and most of all from the curative point of view are the protracted anorexias in which the relationships mother-child-surroundings appear disturbed. Generally, the loss or the simple reduction of the appetite could heal, all the same and also in a short while if the mother would accept willingly the new situation, trusting in a spontaneous resolution. On the contrary she usually forces the infant to take the meal even if incompletely, meeting at each new attempt, the infant's resistance initially passive and then more and more active and efficacious. Thus an "anorexia for opposition" is established by the conflict between mother and child that the mother stirfs up to then end looser if not even victim. An exemplar in this connection is given by the anorexias of the 16 personal cases extracted from a larger casuistry: infant of age between 40 days and 12 months in the most part of which the anorexia was arisen from different causes (illness from slight infections, the replacement of the human milk with the adapted milk, the weaning, copious rations); in some infants the loss of appetite was without an apparent cause. The anorexia became worse after the mother's reiterated attempts to force the infant to have a meal. During the hospitalization the mother was detained with the son; the giving of the meals was in a first time done by the paramedical personnel with the mother present an then by the mother only. In 14 infants the cyproheptadine was given. Only in a few cases the mothers were treated with anxiolytic. All the cases have been resolve positively.

Anorexia↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Headache in childhood with special reference to migraine. Discussion of a personal case material of 94 subjects].

After having characterized epidemiologically, etiopathogenetically diagnostically, prognostically and psychologically the childhood headache, the A.A. refer data relative to 94 children of age in between 6 and 16 years, of which 51 females and 43 males, suffering for migraine (diagnosed by Bille's criteria). The ratio between migraine and sex, age, relationships, clinical symptomatology, onset time, crisis appearance frequency and causing factors have been studied. The relations between migraine and spasmophilia have been treated with particular remark in our casuistry, since similar studies don't appear in the literature. The work ends with some informations about migraine's common therapy, our particular one and the results that we obtained.

Adolescent↗