Fatty Acid Hydroxytyrosyl Esters of Olive Oils Are Bioaccessible According to Simulated In Vitro Gastrointestinal Digestion: Unraveling the Role of Digestive Enzymes on Their Stability.

Recently, new bioactive compounds were identified in olive oil, lipophenols, which are composed of a fatty acid (FA) and a phenolic core, such as HT (HT-FA). However, their bioaccessibility remains unknown. Thus, the present study uncovers the impact of the separate phases of gastrointestinal digestion on the release and stability of HT-FAs from oily matrices under in vitro simulated conditions. Accordingly, it was found that the bioaccessibility of HT derivatives is largely dependent on the type of FA that esterifies HT, as well as the food matrix. Also, the generation of HT-FAs during intestinal digestion was observed, with pancreatin being the enzyme responsible, to a higher extent, for the de novo formation of lipophenolic derivatives. These findings prompt us to identify new applications to oily matrices and their byproducts as potential functional ingredients for the promotion of health, where the possible formation of new lipophenols during digestion should be taken into consideration.

Phytoprostanes and phytofurans modulate COX-2-linked inflammation markers in LPS-stimulated THP-1 monocytes by lipidomics workflow.

Inflammation is a fundamental pathophysiological process which occurs in the course of several diseases. The present work describes the capacity of phytoprostanes (PhytoPs) and phytofurans (PhytoFs) (plant oxylipins), present in plant-based foods, to modulate inflammatory processes mediated by prostaglandins (PGs, human oxylipins) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated THP-1 monocytic cells, through a panel of 21 PGs and PG's metabolites, analyzed by UHPLC-QqQ-ESI-MS/MS. Also, the assessment of the cytotoxicity of PhytoPs and PhytoFs on THP-1 cells evidenced percentages of cell viability higher than 90% when treated with up to 100 µM. Accordingly, 50 µM of the individual PhytoPs and PhytoFs 9-F1t-PhytoP, 9-epi-9-F1t-PhytoP, ent-16-F1t-PhytoP, ent-16-epi-16-F1t-PhytoP, ent-9-D1t-PhytoP, 16-B1-PhytoP, 9-L1-PhytoP, ent-16(RS)-9-epi-ST-Δ14-10-PhytoF, ent-9(RS)-12-epi-ST-Δ10-13-PhytoF, and ent-16(RS)-13-epi-ST-Δ14-9-PhytoF were evaluated on their capacity to modulate the expression of inflammatory markers. The results obtained demonstrated the presence of 7 metabolites (15-keto-PGF2α, PGF2α, 11ß-PGF2α, PGE2, PGD2, PGDM, and PGF1α) in THP-1 monocytic cells, which expression was significantly modulated when exposed to LPS. The evaluation of the capacity of the individual PhytoPs and PhytoFs to revert the modification of the quantitative profile of PGs induced by LPS revealed the anti-inflammatory ability of 9-F1t-PhytoP, ent-9-D1t-PhytoP, 16-B1-PhytoP, 9-L1-PhytoP, and ent-9(RS)-12-epi-ST-Δ10-13-PhytoF, as evidenced by their capacity to prevent the up-regulation of 15-keto-PGF2α, PGF2α, PGE2, PGF1α, PGDM, and PGD2 induced by LPS. These results indicated that specific plant oxylipins can protect against inflammatory events, encouraging further investigations using plant-based foods rich in these oxylipins or enriched extracts, to identify specific bioactivities of the diverse individual molecules, which can be useful for nutrition and health in the frame of well-defined pathophysiological processes.

Reliability and validity of the student stress inventory-stress manifestations questionnaire and its association with personal and academic factors in university students.

BACKGROUND: Stress affects us in every environment and it is also present in the educational sphere. Previous studies have reported a high prevalence of stress in university students. The Student Stress Inventory-Stress Manifestations (SSI-SM), identify stressors and evaluate stress manifestations in adolescents but its validity in university students remains uncertain. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to determine the internal consistency and validity of an adapted version of the Student Stress Inventory-Stress Manifestations (SSI-SM) for university students and to investigate if high stress levels are associated with personal and academic factors. DESIGN AND METHODS: In this quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study, we included 115 university students of the Nursing Degree during the second semester of the 2014/2015 academic year. Information about personal issues, lifestyle and academic performance was recorded and the stress was evaluated with the SSI-SM questionnaire. The internal consistency and homogeneity of the SSI-SM questionnaire was tested and a factorial analysis was performed. RESULTS: After the homogeneity analysis, the final version of the SSI-SM questionnaire included 19 items, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.924. In the factorial analysis, 4 factors were found ('Self-concept', 'Sociability', 'Uncertainty' and 'Somatization'; all Cronbach's alpha >0.700). Students with higher values on the SSI-SM were, in overall, women (41.0 ±â€¯12.7 vs. 33.2 ±â€¯9.5; p = 0.001) and had significantly more family conflicts (47.6 ±â€¯13.8 vs. 35.2 ±â€¯9.6; p < 0.001), consumed less alcohol (R = -0.184, p = 0.048), slept less hours (R = -0.193, p = 0.038) and had worse academic performance in Clinical Nursing (36.3 ±â€¯10.4 vs. 41.2 ±â€¯13.3, p = 0.039). CONCLUSIONS: After exclude three items of the original SSI-SM, higher scores in the SSI-SM are correlated with stress level in a cohort of university students of the Nursing Degree. Family conflicts, female gender, absence of alcohol consumption, few sleep hours and poor academic performance are associated with higher stress levels.

Dietary habits of patients with schizophrenia: a self-reported questionnaire survey.

The present study was carried out to determine the dietary habits of patients with schizophrenia and the influence of these habits on the degree of obesity. The study was developed in a sample of 159 patients, who were given a self-reported questionnaire, to ascertain the influence of socio-familiar aspects, pharmacological treatment, and dietary habits. Anthropometric measurements (body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC)) were also taken. Patients with schizophrenia presented unhealthy dietary habits, as indicated by the finding that 51% of the patients took no longer than 15 min to eat, 40.8% did not eat fruit daily, and 63.1% did not eat fish. Women were three times more likely to be obese than men (odds ratio (OR) = 2.91, P = 0.021). Patients classified as having unhealthy dietary habits have a 2.33-fold higher risk of obesity than patients with good dietary habits (OR = 2.33, P = 0.034). In summary, this paper highlights the fact that patients with schizophrenia have a detrimental dietary pattern that is associated with an increase in BMI and WC, with the consequent development of obesity and related metabolic alterations, regardless of the pharmacological treatment being followed. Future research directions will include exploring the need for nutritional education programmes to improve the dietary habits of such patients.