In vitro evaluation of the prebiotic effect of red and white grape polyphenolic extracts.

Nowadays, the strong relationship between diet and health is well known. Although the primary role of diet is to provide nutrients to fulfill metabolic requirements, the use of foods to improve health and the state of well-being is an idea increasingly accepted by society in the last three decades. During the last years, an important number of scientific advances have been achieved in this field and, although in some situations, it is difficult to establish a distinction between "harmful" and "good" bacteria, experts agree in classifying the genera Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus as beneficial bacteria. Thus, several strategies can be used to stimulate the proliferation of these beneficial intestinal bacteria, being one of them the consumption of prebiotics. The development of new prebiotics, with added functionality, is one of the most serious challenges shared not only by the scientific community but also by the food industry. The objective of this work was to evaluate the potential prebiotic effect of red and white grape residues, both obtained during the winemaking process. For such purpose, an in vitro study with pure cultures of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium was first conducted. Secondly, a study with mixed cultures using human fecal inocula was carried out in a simulator of the distal part of the colon. The obtained results showed an increase in the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium population, indicating that these ingredients are serious candidates to be considered as prebiotics.

Evolution of resistance in poultry intestinal Escherichia coli during three commonly used antimicrobial therapeutic treatments in poultry.

The resistance rates of intestinal Escherichia coli populations from poultry were determined during treatment and withdrawal period with 3 antimicrobial agents commonly used as therapeutics in poultry medicine. A total of 108 chickens were considered: 18 were treated orally with enrofloxacin, 18 with doxycycline, and 18 with sulfonamides, whereas another 18 chickens were maintained as controls for each antimicrobial group. Fecal samples were taken during the treatment and after the withdrawal period, and E. coli were isolated through Fluorocult media plating. A total of 648 E. coli strains (216 per antimicrobial tested) were isolated and identified though biochemical methods. Minimal inhibitory concentrations to the antimicrobials used were also determined using a broth microdilution method. The resistance rates of intestinal E. coli to all of the antimicrobials tested significantly increased during the course of the therapeutic treatment. In addition, significant differences (P = 0.0136) in resistance rates persisted between the intestinal E. coli of the enrofloxacin-treated and control batches until the end of the withdrawal period, but this difference was not observed for the cases of doxycycline or sulfonamides treatments. Antimicrobial use in poultry medicine seems to select for antimicrobial-resistant strains of pathogenic bacterial species such as E. coli. In some cases, the higher frequencies of resistant strains may persist in the avian intestinal tract until the end of the withdrawal period, when it is legal to use these animals for human consumption.

Implementation of sentinel node biopsy in breast cancer patients in the Netherlands.

BACKGROUND: This population-based study describes the implementation of the sentinel node biopsy (SNB) in breast cancer patients in the Netherlands. We examined the extent of use over time of SNB in women who were considered eligible for SNB on the basis of their clinical status. METHODS: The study included a total of 35,465 breast cancer patients who were diagnosed with T1-2 tumours (5.0 cm), negative axillary lymph node status and no distant metastases upon clinical examination between 1st January 1998 and 31st December 2003 in six Comprehensive Cancer Centre regions in the Netherlands. Information on axillary surgery was classified as SNB alone, SNB+axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), ALND alone or none. Patterns of use of axillary surgery were summarised as the proportion of patients receiving each surgery type. RESULTS: Overall, 25.7% of patients underwent SNB alone, 19.1% underwent SNB+ALND, 50.0% had ALND alone and 5.2% did not have axillary surgery. SNB was more common in women who had breast-conserving surgery: 50.5% of patients who received breast-conserving surgery underwent SNB compared to 40.7% of patients who had mastectomy (p<0.0001). Amongst patients receiving breast-conserving treatment, 31.7% had SNB as final axillary surgery, whilst 20.5% of patients who had mastectomy had SNB alone (p<0.0001). The proportion of women who underwent a SNB alone or in combination with ALND increased over the period 1998-2003, from 2.1% to 45.8% and from 6.7% to 24.8%, respectively. There were marked differences in the patterns of dissemination of the use of SNB between regions: by 2003, the difference between the regions with the highest and lowest proportion of use was 25%. CONCLUSIONS: SNB has become the standard-of-care for the treatment of breast cancer patients clinically diagnosed with T1-2 tumours, clinically negative lymph nodes and without distant metastases. In 2003, 70.6% of patients with early breast cancer in the Netherlands received SNB, and within this group, 64.9% of patients had SNB as the final axillary treatment. Implementation of SNB may depend on factors associated with regional organisation of care.

Modelling the internal field distribution in human erythrocytes exposed to MW radiation.

This paper studies the internal electric field distribution in human erythrocytes exposed to MW radiation. For this purpose, an erythrocyte cell model is exposed to linearly polarized electromagnetic (EM) plane waves of frequency 900 MHz and the electric field within the cell is calculated by using a finite element (FE) technique with adaptive meshing. The results obtained show the dependence of the induced electric field distribution on the main modelling parameters, i.e., the electrical properties (permittivity and conductivity) of the membrane and cytoplasm and the orientation of the cell with respect to the applied field. It is found that for certain orientations, the field amplification within the membrane of the erythrocyte shape cell can be higher than the one observed in an equivalent simple spheroidal geometry cell, commonly used in bioelectromagnetism. The present work shows that a better insight of the interaction of electromagnetic fields with basic biological structures is obtained when the most possible realistic cell shape is used.

Determinación de la permitividad y conductividad eléctricas a la frecuencia de microondas de varios tejidos de rata tratadas con cadmio / Determination of permittivity and conductivity in several rat tissues treated with cadmium

Los campos electromagnéticos ambientales cada vez más presentes en el entorno, pueden afectar a los propios seres humanos y, según su intensidad (magnetoterapia), activar o modular procesos fisiológicos o inducir a posibles patologías. En este trabajo se pretende determinar las características fisicoquímicas (los parámetros permitividad, (e) y conductividad eléctrica (s)) de varios tejidos de rata, mediante la aplicación de microondas de radiofrecuencia, ante variaciones en la concentración de cadmio (Cd) y comprobar si se pueden utilizar como indicadores del efecto específico de la presencia de cadmio, evaluar su efecto por la contaminación del entorno y cuantificar su acúmulo. Por consiguiente, se pretende aportar nuevos datos sobre los efectos de la toxicidad del cadmio en diversos órganos sistémicos y comprobar si existe sinergismo entre el efecto tóxico del cadmio (contaminante ambiental) y el de los campos electromagnéticos. Se utilizan dos grupos de ratas macho Wistar, uno control y otro tratado con Cd (CdCl2 ), con doce dosis (una por día) por vía intraperitoneal desde 0,1 a 1 mg Cd/Kg rata/día. Se extrae la sangre bajo anestesia con éter por punción cardíaca hasta su muerte, y se diseccionan los órganos. Se analizan diversos parámetros sanguíneos, y se congelan los órganos siguientes: hígado, riñones, pulmones, corteza cerebral, testículos, páncreas y músculo, en los que se determina la permitividad y conductividad. Se determinan los coeicientes de reflexión y transmisión de estas muestras a la frecuencia industrial de 2,45 GHz. Esta frecuencia está comprendida dentro del rango de las frecuencias de microondas. Los coeficientes de reflexión y transmisión se miden mediante un analizador de redes, se usa un estimulador HFSS de HP que determina la permitividad de un tejido que produjera los mismos valores de los coeficientes de reflexión y transmisión medidos experimentalmente. Los resultados muestran que en el caso del riñón e hígado los valores de e (permitividad) y s (conductividad) son menores que en el control, lo que se puede explicar porque ambos órganos son los principales tejidos diana de la toxicidad del cadmio. Este elemento provoca disfunción en los túbulos proximales del riñón, y en el caso del hígado, el cadmio también se acumula en este órgano provocando daño hepático, un descenso de la integridad estructural de los hepatocitos y liberación de las transaminasas en el suero. Del análisis de sangre se observa que el cadmio provoca un estado anémico, de forma que se produce una disminución de los valores de hematocrito y hemoglobina con respecto a los controles (AU)