International Journal of Health, Animal science and Food safety最新文献

{"title":"17-ß-Estradiol and Testosterone concentrations in claws of puppies up to 60 days of age","authors":"J. Fusi, T. Peric, Cristina Bergamin, M. Veronesi","doi":"10.13130/2283-3927/9992","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13130/2283-3927/9992","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction The current 30% of canine perinatal mortality (Tonnessen et al., 2012) claims the need to deepen the knowledge about this phase, characterized by long-term hormonal and metabolic changes, that could benefit of long time-frame methods of investigation, reducing the quantity of samplings and respecting animal welfare (Veronesi et al., 2015). Therefore, blood, saliva, urine and feces, being invasive and providing punctual information, are not appropriate matrices. Given that sexual steroid hormones were reported to have an influence already from the perinatal period (Frey et al., 2017), in this work 17-β-Estradiol (E2) and Testosterone (T) concentrations were assessed from the claws of dogs up to 60 days of age. Material and Methods Ten male and 10 female puppies, viable and healthy, born by elective cesarean section, were enrolled. Samplings were performed by trimming claws at birth, and the regrowth at 30 and 60 days of age. Then, E2 and T concentrations were analyzed by RIA (Veronesi et al., 2015) and a possible effect of gender evaluated. Results All the hormonal claws concentrations showed a significant (p<0.001) drop from birth to 30 and 60 days of age, while no significant changes were observed between 30 and at 60 days of age (Table 1). No influence of the newborns’ gender was found. Discussion and Conclusions Because of the high levels of E2 and T observed at birth and at 30 days of age, it could be supposed that a source of production could be the placental and maternal compartments. However, the direct involvement of the fetus itself could not be excluded, given the reported accumulation from the nail capillary bed of those hormones (de Berker et al., 2007) and the production of sexual steroid hormones by feline fetal gonads (Braun and Jewgenow, 2017).","PeriodicalId":14105,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health, Animal science and Food safety","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84898945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Genome-wide CNV Mapping in Felis catus Using NGS Data","authors":"F. Genova, M. Longeri, Cristina M Cozzi, A. Bagnato, M. Strillacci","doi":"10.13130/2283-3927/10013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13130/2283-3927/10013","url":null,"abstract":"Copy Number Variations (CNVs) have become promising markers, representing a major source of genomic variation. CNV involvement in phenotypic expression and in different diseases onset have been widely demonstrated in humans as well as in many domestic animals. However, this genomic investigation is still missing in Felis catus. This work is the first CNV mapping from a large data set of Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) data in the domestic cat. A total of 42 cats of 14 different breeds were sequenced on the Illumina XTen (Washington University-St. Louis) which generated approximately 30-fold genome coverage from 150 paired-end reads (99 Lives Initiative). Maverix Biomics mapped the reads on the v6.2 reference assembly. CNV detection was performed using cn.mops and CNVnator, two Read Depth method software. One cat was excluded as outlier while, on the 41 remaining individuals, 1640 CNVs were detected by both the software and used to obtain 2891 CNVRs with BedTools. CNVRs covered the 0.4% of the total cat genome, with 136 loss, 127 gain and 26 complex detected (Fig. 1). A total of 164 singletons were identified and 9 CNVRs mapped in at least the 50% of the individuals. The number of CNVs in each cat ranged from 12 to 83. The clustering analysis of the detected CNVs was performed with R package “pvclust” and shows that same breed individuals cluster together. This study has led to the genetic characterization of 14 main cat breeds. Further analyses including other breeds and considering the genes located within these regions, could led to better evaluate the relationship between the presence of a specific CNV and a specific breed trait. This study can be considered a starting point for genomic CNV identification in the domestic cat, which could be further developed using the new released Felis catus vs9.0 reference aassembly.","PeriodicalId":14105,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health, Animal science and Food safety","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88627149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"MMP-9 immunohistochemical expression is correlated with histologic grade in feline diffuse iris melanoma","authors":"L. Nordio, S. Valentina, C. Giudice","doi":"10.13130/2283-3927/10000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13130/2283-3927/10000","url":null,"abstract":"Feline diffuse iris melanoma (FDIM) is the most common primary intraocular neoplasm in cats. It is usually a malignant tumor, even if slowly progressive, thus representing an unique spontaneous model of the aggressive, although rare, human iris melanoma. In cats, the extent of the tumor within the eye, expressed as histological grade, is considered a good predictor of survival. In the context of the neoplastic cells-tumor microenvironment interaction, Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) is an endopeptidase able to digest the extracellular matrix with involvement in tumor invasion . MMP-9 expression has been positively correlated with metastasizing behavior in human posterior uveal melanoma. The present study investigates the expression of MMP-9 in a caseload of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded FDIMs in relation to the histological grade  and mitotic index (MI) (threshold=7/10 hpf). Sixty-one samples of FDIM evaluated on light microscopy (Fig. 1) were selected (grade I n=22, grade II n=20, grade III n=19). Immunohistochemical staining with standard ABC method was performed using a mouse anti-MMP-9 antibody. Results were semi-quantitatively scored and compared by Mann-Whitney U test. MMP-9 was expressed in 59,1% grade I FDIM, 90,0% grade II and 80,0% grade III. Tumors with MMP-9 expression in more than 50% of neoplastic cells were 13,6% in grade I cases, 40,0% in grade II and 36,8% in grade III. MMP-9 was expressed in 71,4% of FDIM with MI≤7 and 92,3% of FDIM with MI>7. MMP-9 expression differed significantly between grade I and the other two grades, and between groups with low and high MI. In conclusion, intense expression of MMP-9 seems to correlate with the histological aggressiveness of FDIM.","PeriodicalId":14105,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health, Animal science and Food safety","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73108307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Non-invasive intestinal biomarkers: a new ELISA test for Pancreatitis Associated Protein detection in pig","authors":"E. Mariani, G. Savoini, T. Niewold","doi":"10.13130/2283-3927/10033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13130/2283-3927/10033","url":null,"abstract":"Feed additives are commonly used to improve pig performance and health, but they need to be tested so new biomarkers for intestinal health, non- or minimally invasive, are under investigations.The quantification of Myeloperoxidase (MPO) and Pancreatitis Associated Protein (PAP) in feces could prove useful to non-invasively monitor intestinal health (Niewold, 2015). MPO is an enzyme that permits to quantify the number of inflammatory cells present in tissues and feces (Prokopowicz et al., 2012) , while PAP is a protein mainly produced in the small intestine with anti-inflammatory and bactericidal activity (Cash et al., 2006; Mukherjee et al., 2014). Because of the lack of a commercial ELISA kit for porcine PAP detection, the main aim of this study was to develop and validate a new sandwich ELISA test for the quantification of PAP in pig fecal samples. Our study consisted of two phases: test development and test validation. During the development phase we used polyclonal antibodies previously immunized from rabbit serum with a pure peptide containing the N-terminus of pig PAP (Soler et al., 2015). The validation of the test was then performed with fecal extraction samples derived from animals with known high or low growth performance.Moreover, the temperature stability of PAP in feces and the optimal extraction method was tested. Even if only preliminary, our results seem to show a fair relationship between fecal consistency, used as health indicator, and PAP fecal concentrations. Furthermore, no relevant differences in PAP concentration after 24h of incubation at 37 °C, 4°C or room temperature were detected.To date, the present results suggest that PAP seems to be exceptionally stable in feces and is a very promising candidate as a non-invasive (fecal) biomarker for intestinal health and growth.","PeriodicalId":14105,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health, Animal science and Food safety","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78359701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Meniscal femoral and tibial surfaces characterization in the swine model.","authors":"U. Polito, M. Giancamillo, G. Peretti, M. E. Andreis, S. Modina, F. Boschetti, A. Giancamillo","doi":"10.13130/2283-3927/10017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13130/2283-3927/10017","url":null,"abstract":"Menisci are wedge-like structures interposed, in the knee joint, between the femoral and the tibial articular heads (Kohn et al. 1995; Greis et al. 2002). Improving the articular surface, the cellular nutrition and the articular lubrication, they are essential structures for the prevention of gonarthrosis (Proctor et al.1989; Makris et al. 2011). This study is focused upon the relationship between the contact forces at the femoral and tibial surfaces and the corresponding structure of these meniscal surfaces. For this purpose, 20 adult (~9 months old) female pigs (Landrace x Large white, average weight 75–90 kg; n=80 meniscal samples) were obtained from a local slaughterhouse and dissected to isolate the menisci. Swine meniscal samples were evaluated from morphological (Safranin-O, Sirius Red and collagen type I and II) (Di Giancamillo et al. 2014), biochemical (DNA and glycosaminoglycans, or GAGs, contents) and biomechanical (compression and traction tests) points of view at the level of femoral and tibial meniscal surfaces. Results revealed a characterization of the meniscus which is biomechanical-dependent.  The femoral surface, morphologically characterized by the interposition of radial and oblique fibers and biomechanically by the femoral condyles compression, sliding and rolling forces, shows a higher compressive modulus (p<0.05) and a greater amount of cells and GAGs deposition (p<0.01 for each analysis). On the other hand, results from traction test revealed a higher tensile modulus (p<0.05) in the tibial surface, characterized by a circumferential arrangement of the fibers and a poorer GAGs deposition and cellular distribution (p<0.01). Results (summarized in the figure 1) from this work suggest that a biphasic “femoral-to-tibial” scaffold that mimic the different behavior and composition of the two meniscal surfaces could be useful in the light of meniscal replacement.","PeriodicalId":14105,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health, Animal science and Food safety","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80098593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diagnosis of sepsis in dogs by measuring carbonylated proteins (PCOs) and paraoxonase (PON-1)","authors":"B. Ruggerone, R. Troìa, E. Murgia, M. Giunti, F. Dondi, S. Paltrinieri","doi":"10.13130/2283-3927/10011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13130/2283-3927/10011","url":null,"abstract":"An early diagnosis of sepsis could allow a better prognosis and avoid the abuse of antibiotic administration; unfortunately, in veterinary medicine, specific and sensitive markers of sepsis are not available.Because Protein Carbonyls (PCOs), that result from protein oxidation, are widely used in human medicine as sepsis markers , the aim of our study was to validate an ELISA kit (Enzolifesciences, 3V Chimica, Roma) on canine serum and to measure PCOs, after a preliminary validation study, in three groups (homogeneous for age and size): healthy dogs without clinical or laboratory abnormalities (A, n=14), dogs with septic (B, n=14) and non-septic inflammation (C, n=12) at the first presentation and without previous treatments. Moreover, Paraoxonase-1, a negative acute phase protein with anti-oxidant properties (PON-1) was measured in each group with a method already validated in dogs.A Kruskal-Wallis test followed by a Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to evaluate differences between groups.The ELISA method for measuring PCOs showed a very good precision (coefficient of variation <12%) and a good accuracy in spiking-recovery tests.Compared with controls, the concentration of PCOs was significantly higher either in dogs with sepsis (P<0.001) or in dogs with non-septic inflammation (P=0.005) but no significant differences were found between the two groups of sick dogs. Conversely, PON-1 was significantly lower in sick dogs compared with controls (P<0.001 for both groups) and in septic dogs compared with dogs with non-septic inflammation (P=0.001).A negative correlation between the two markers was found (P<0.001, r=-0.594) Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves demonstrated that both markers may discriminate dogs with sepsis with the other groups. However, PCO was less sensitive than PON-1 in diagnosing sepsis.Future studies should be focused on the association of PCOs with other inflammatory markers, as well as the possible prognostic role of PCOs based on the outcome of the enrolled patients.","PeriodicalId":14105,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health, Animal science and Food safety","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88175759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Borrelia and host interaction: a tangled tale","authors":"M. Bhide","doi":"10.13130/2283-3927/10265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13130/2283-3927/10265","url":null,"abstract":"Knowledge of host-pathogen interactions at molecular level is crucial for understanding of pathogenesis, disease prevention and cure. Here Borrelia is presented as a model neuroinvasive pathogen which  employs vast immune evasion mechanisms like - drastic change in antigenic proteins, complement regulatory protein binding, antigenic variation etc. It is proposed that Borrelia may employ multiple strategies to evade host's complement system by binding complement regulatory proteins like factor H, vitronectin, C4BP and CD59. Amplitude of these mechanisms, their pathogen species dependent disparity, and characterization of interacting proteins from both sides (host and pathogen) will be presented during VAS presentations. Borrelia is also capable of invading central nervous system (CNS) in hide in the immune privileged site – the CNS. To do so it must cross the blood brain barrier (BBB). The mechanisms of the BBB crossing of this organism, like many of the other CNS invading pathogens, are still subject of on-going research. Our decade of research indicate the paracellular mechanism of the BBB penetration of Borrelia . Paracellular penetration of pathogen needs multiple protein:protein interactions between pathogen surface proteins and endothelial cells. The second part of my presentation in VAS will be dedicated to mechanisms employed by Borrelia to modulate cell signaling events in brain microvascular endothelial cells to cross the BBB. This presentation will also give sneak peak of several state-of-the-art technologies in  genomics and proteomic used to understand the mechanisms of neuroinvasive and complement evasion by Borrelia . I hope that doctoral fellows will take advantage of the experimental pipeline that will be presented in VAS and apply successfully in their research","PeriodicalId":14105,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health, Animal science and Food safety","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87574270","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exercise in water in the horse: physiological adaptations and potential benefits for training and rehabilitation","authors":"A. Muñoza","doi":"10.13130/2283-3927/10268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13130/2283-3927/10268","url":null,"abstract":"Recently, a scientific interest in exercise in water in equine athletes, both from training and rehabilitation purposes has been developed. Before an extended use of this practice in equine exercise physiology and medicine, the physiological adaptations to this type of exercise need to be elucidated. Six horses were subjected to sessions of 40 minutes in water treadmill, with speeds of 5.5-6 km/h and with water at different depths: baseline (BL, exercise in water treadmill without water), and with the water at level of the metacarpophalangeal/metatarsophalangeal (MCPJ; MTPJ), tarsal (TJ) and stifle joints (SJ). Hematology and blood lactate (LA) were measured before and after each session, and heart rate (HR) was monitored with a pulsometer. Horses also wore a portable gait analyzer, consisting of three orthogonal accelerometers, fixed at the sternum and at the sacrum, and the following parameters were measured: stride length (SL), stride frequency (SF), regularity (REG, measurement of the acceleration pattern similarity of successive strides in a period of time), symmetry (SYM, measurement of the similarities between left and right acceleration patterns), dorsoventral displacement (DVD, displacement of the gravity center in a dorsoventral direction), dorsoventral DVP, propulsion PP, mediolateral MLP and total power TP, representing the amount of acceleration and deceleration along the dorsoventral, longitudinal and lateral axes and the sum of the three powers respectively. Significant changes in hematological parameters and in blood LA concentrations before and after each exercise session were not found. Blood LA concentrations after BL, MCPJ, TJ and SJ sessions reached mean values of 1.03±0.41, 1.05±0.28, 1.05±0.52 and 1.11±0.22 mmol/l respectively. HR increased significantly in the four sessions, with significant differences after exercise between BL (66.13±8.92 bpm), TJ (81.89±10.67 bpm) and SJ (81.13±14.68 bpm) levels. Further, significant differences were also found between exercise at the level of MCPJ (71.09±8.90 bpm) and TJ. With the accelerometer fixed on the sternum, increased SL, DVD, DVP and TP together with a decreased SF was found with the water at the level of TJ, compared to the other water depths. With the accelerometer fixed on the sacrum, significant changes were not observed in SF between the different water depths. The highest values for SL, DVD, DVP, PP, MLP and TP were found with the water at the level of the TJ. Our results reveal that exercise in WT, nevertheless of the water depth (at least until stifle joint), represents a mild aerobic exercise, with low HR and blood LA under the aerobic threshold of 2 mmol/l. However, this type of exercise leads to profound changes in locomotion, mainly in stride length and frequency and in muscle power, with the highest values with water depths at the tarsal and stifle joints. Consequently, the low cardiovascular and metabolic demands are expected to be of interest for the recovery of","PeriodicalId":14105,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health, Animal science and Food safety","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86791975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The saponification of lauric acid with calcium soaps as an alternative to in-feed antibiotics in post-weaning piglets","authors":"S. Giorgi, M. Comí, M. Ghiringhelli, V. Bontempo","doi":"10.13130/2283-3927/10041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13130/2283-3927/10041","url":null,"abstract":"In the search for the reduction of antibiotics in farm animals, a concept was developed based on studies with medium-chain fatty acid with 6-12 atoms (MCFA). In particular, they have been shown to exhibit against Gram+ bacteria in piglets at relatively high concentrations. However they can be hardly used as such because of their repellent odour and taste and for their rapid absorption in upper gastrointestinal tract. These problems could be overcome by the generation of monoacylglycerol, but esterification is usually carried out on a silica base, which reduces the concentration of FA, therefore limiting the antibacterial effects. Our hypothesis is that the saponification with calcium salts might positively affect their concentration in the GIT. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of Laurate calcium soap (C12-Ca soap) on growth performance and health of post-weaning piglets. At weaning, 192 crossbreed Topics piglets were assigned to 3 experimental groups consisting of 16 pens (4 pigs/pen each): CTR (negative control), T1 (basal diet plus Amoxycillin at 400 mg/kg), and T2 (basal diet plus C12-Ca soap at 1 kg/ton). Gain and feed consumption did not differ among groups. Feed efficiency was higher in T1 (0,61) and T2 (0,58) than CTR (0,51) (P<0,01). Mortality was 0 in T1, and reduced in T2 (4,7%) compared to CTR (10,9%). These preliminary results suggest that saponification of MCFA may be a valuable alternative to in-feed antibiotics, used for growth promotion, and even for enhancing health in post-weaning piglets.","PeriodicalId":14105,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health, Animal science and Food safety","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81026523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Matrix stiffness boosts pancreatic differentiation via the YAP/TAZ mechanotransduction mediated pathway","authors":"E. Manzoni, S. Arcuri, T. Brevini, F. Gandolfi","doi":"10.13130/2283-3927/10002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13130/2283-3927/10002","url":null,"abstract":"In the last years, many papers highlighted the possibility to use epigenetic modifiers to directly interact with the epigenetic signature of an adult mature cell (Pennarossa et al., 2013; Chandrakantan et al., 2016). In particular, the molecule 5-azacytidine (5-aza-CR), which is able to interfere with DNA methylation, through both a direct and an indirect effect (Manzoni et al., 2016), can be used to remove the epigenetic ‘blocks’ responsible for tissue specification and to facilitate  cell transition to a different lineage. In parallel, recent evidence has also shown that epigenetic conversion is influenced by the 3D rearrangement and by the mechanical properties of the cellular microenvironment (Pennarossa et al., 2017). In the experiments here presented, we investigated the effect of a selected 3D culture system on the conversion process. We used INS-eGFP porcine fibroblasts, that express enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) under the control of insulin gene promoter, as experimental model, and wild-type pig fibroblasts, as control. Both cell types , were plated either on plastic or on 1kPa polyacrylamide (PAA) gel, that mimics the stiffness of pancreatic tissue in vivo . Cells were erased with 5-aza-CR for 18h and exposed to specific differentiation stimuli for 36 days (Pennarossa et al., 2014). The use of INS-eGFP fibroblasts allowed real-time monitoring of cells progressing towards the pancreatic phenotype. Morphological analysis and pancreatic marker expression were checked for the entire length of the experiment. PAA gels encouraged the induction of islet-like structures, suggesting that the of tridimensional clusters may be a crucial aspect of pancreatic differentiation in vitro . Moreover, the use of an adequate substrate accelerated cell differentiation process and anticipated insulin secretion ability. The results obtained demonstrated the direct implication of the yes-associated protein/transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif (YAP/TAZ) mechanotransduction-mediated pathway, indicating  that mechanical cues exert a key role in pancreatic phenotype definition.","PeriodicalId":14105,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health, Animal science and Food safety","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77146881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}