Water buffalo mozzarella cheese stored in polysaccharide-based gels: correlation between prolongation of the shelf-life and physicochemical parameters.

An innovative packaging system has been developed, based on natural gels, that has shown the peculiar characteristic to strongly increase the shelf life of water buffalo Mozzarella cheese. To explain the mechanism of action of the gel, measurements of Ca and Na in the cheese and in the storage liquid were carried out, together with pH determination. A correlation has been found between the constant level of Ca and pH in the cheese and the prolongation of nutritional characteristics; in fact, both parameters diminish significantly in the absence of gel. At the same time, the weight of the cheese in gel remained constant for as long as 30 d. Confocal laser microscopy gave direct evidence of the persistent physical structure of proteins and lipids of Mozzarella when stored in gel.

Migratory crustaceans as biomonitors of metal pollution in their nursery areas. The Lesina lagoon (SE Italy) as a case study.

The Lesina lagoon is located on the southern Adriatic coast of Italy; many marine species, such as the shrimp M. kerathurus, use the Lesina lagoon as a nursery, spending their initial growth phase there. In order to assess the usefulness of migratory species as biomonitors of the environmental quality of this nursery area, we evaluated the metal content of the M. kerathurus juveniles at the end of their growth phase in the lagoon (October), when they are assumed to have bioaccumulated the maximum level of metals from the lagoon environment. The concentrations of Cr, Cd, Pb, Zn, Mn and Cu were measured in the muscle and exoskeleton of the shrimp, and in the sediments and waters of three areas of the Lesina Lagoon. Both the water and sediment levels of the investigated metals tended to fall within the ranges recorded for other lagoon environments characterized by similar anthropic impact and texturally similar sediment; the juveniles of the shrimp M. kerathurus proved to be strong bioaccumulators of heavy metals such as Zn and Cu (biota-sediment accumulation factors - BSAFs - 6.01 and 25.0 respectively), which derive from agricultural activities; therefore, at the end of their growing phase in the lagoon they can be considered useful biomonitors of metal contamination of agricultural origin in their nursery area.

[Acute polyradiculoneuropathy of Guillain-Barré. Critical review of potential etiopathogeneses]. / La poliradicoloneuropatia acuta di Guillain-Barré. Revisione critica delle prospettive etiopatogenetiche.

The authors go over the etiopathogenetic hypothesis suggested, in the last years, a propos of the Guillain-Barrè syndrome. They point out that about two/thirds of cases are preceded by infectious symptoms of the upper respiratory and alimentary tracts, with prevailing viral etiology. The nervous lesion, which characterize the histology of the illness, seems related to immunological change. In particular one must emphasize the possibility that the Guillain-Barrè syndrome is an autoimmune disorder of delayed hypersensivity, the laboratoristics model of which is constituted from experimental allergic neuritis.