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Altres ajuts: Suported by IKERBASQUE, Basque foundation for Science (M.J. Perugorria and J.M. Banales), Spain; "Junta de Castilla y Leon" (J.J.G. Marin: SA06P17); "Diputación Foral Gipuzkoa" (J.M. Banales: DFG15/010, DFG16/004; M.J. Perugorria: DFG18/114, DFG19/081), BIOEF (Basque Foundation for Innovation and Health Research: EiTB Maratoia BIO15/CA/016/BD to J.M. Banales), Department of Health of the Basque Country (J.M. Banales: 2017111010; M.J. Perugorria: 2019111024), and Euskadi RIS3 (J.M. Banales: 2016222001, 2017222014, and 2018222029; 2019222054); La Caixa Scientific Foundation (J.M. Banales: HR17-00601); "Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer" (AECC Scientific Foundation, to J.M. Banales and J.J.G. Marin); and "Centro Internacional sobre el Envejecimiento", Spain (J.J.G. Marin: OLD-HEPAMARKER, 0348-CIE-6-E). A. Santos-Laso by the Basque Government (PRE_2018_2_0195), and Pui Y. Lee-Law by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL; Sheila Sherlock Award). Basque Government (F.P. Cossío: IT-324-07). I. Rivilla had a postdoctoral contract from the Donostia International Physics Center. ; Background and Aims: Polycystic liver diseases (PLDs) are genetic disorders characterized by progressive development of symptomatic biliary cysts. Current surgical and pharmacological approaches are ineffective, and liver transplantation represents the only curative option. Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and histone deacetylase 6 inhibitors (HDAC6is) have arisen as promising therapeutic strategies, but with partial benefits. Approach and Results: Here, we tested an approach based on the design, synthesis, and validation of a family of UDCA synthetic conjugates with selective HDAC6i capacity (UDCA-HDAC6i). Four UDCA-HDAC6i conjugates presented selective HDAC6i activity, UDCA-HDAC6i #1 being the most promising candidate. UDCA orientation within the UDCA-HDAC6i structure was determinant for HDAC6i activity and selectivity. Treatment of polycystic rats with UDCA-HDAC6i #1 reduced their ...

Kidney fibrosis is a key event in the development of chronic kidney disease, leading to end-stage renal failure. Unfortunately, there are now few drugs capable of preventing fibrosis in the kidneys, which is accompanied by the progression of chronic kidney disease in the terminal stage of renal failure. The results show the effectiveness of the use of a new dual-acting agent DM509 in the prevention of renal fibrosis using a model of unilateral obstruction of the ureter in mice. DM509 is both a farnesoid X-receptor agonist and a soluble epoxyhydrolase inhibitor. In this study, there were 8-12 week old C57BL/6J males undergoing surgery, which led to the development of unilateral ureteral obstruction and a control group. Mice received DM509 (10 mg/kg/day) or DM509-free solution together with drinking water for 10 days the day before surgery. Samples of kidney and blood tissues were collected at the end of the experiment. In the unilateral ureteral obstruction group, kidney dysfunction was detected, which was accompanied by increased urea nitrogen content in the blood compared to the control group (63 ± 7 vs. 34 ± 6 mg/d). The reduction of urea nitrogen in the blood by 36 % in mice with unilateral ureteral obstruction treated with DM509 is shown compared to mice with this pathology without treatment, which in turn proved the effectiveness of DM509 in preventing renal dysfunction. In mice with unilateral ureteral obstruction, which did not receive DM509, the development of kidney fibrosis with a high content of hydroxyproline in the kidneys and also increased collagen content in histological sections of the kidneys were detected. In the DM509 group, the renal and collagen hydroxyproline content was 34-66 % lower, indicating the effectiveness of this agent in the treatment of renal fibrosis. Thus, we have shown that the new DM509 is effective in preventing renal dysfunction and renal fibrosis using a murine model of unilateral ureteral obstruction.

Fibrosis is a general complication in many diseases. It is the main complication during peritoneal dialysis (PD) treatment, a therapy for renal failure disease. Local inflammation and mesothelial to mesenchymal transition (MMT) are well known key phenomena in peritoneal damage during PD. New data suggest that, in the peritoneal cavity, inflammatory changes may be regulated at least in part by a delicate balance between T helper 17 and regulatory T cells. This paper briefly reviews the implication of the Th17/Treg-axis in fibrotic diseases. Moreover, it compares current evidences described in PD animal experimental models, indicating a loss of Th17/Treg balance (Th17 predominance) leading to peritoneal damage during PD. In addition, considering the new clinical and animal experimental data, new therapeutic strategies to reduce the Th17 response and increase the regulatory T response are proposed. Thus, future goals should be to develop new clinical biomarkers to reverse this immune misbalance and reduce peritoneal fibrosis in PD. ; This work was supported in part by grants from Ministerio de Economia y competitividad SAF2010-21249 to Manuel López-Cabrera, Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid 2010-BMD2321 (FIBROTEAM) to Manuel Lopez Cabrera, and Fondo de Investigaciones Santitarias RETICS 06/0016 and PI 09/0064 to Rafael Selgas and FIS 12/01175 to Abelardo Aguilera Peralta. Georgios Liappas is fully supported from European Union, Seventh Framework Program "EuTRiPD," under Grant Agreement PITN-GA-2011-287813. The authors would like to thank Juliette Siegfried and her team at ServingMed.com for editing the language of the paper. ; Peer Reviewed

Abstract
Sleep disturbances, including disrupted sleep and short sleep duration, are highly prevalent and are prospectively associated with an increased risk for various widespread diseases, including cardiometabolic, neurodegenerative, chronic pain, and autoimmune diseases. Systemic inflammation, which has been observed in populations experiencing sleep disturbances, may mechanistically link disturbed sleep with increased disease risks. To determine whether sleep disturbances are causally responsible for the inflammatory changes reported in population-based studies, we developed a 19-day in-hospital experimental model of prolonged sleep disturbance inducing disrupted and shortened sleep. The model included delayed sleep onset, frequent nighttime awakenings, and advanced sleep offset, interspersed with intermittent nights of undisturbed sleep. This pattern aimed at providing an ecologically highly valid experimental model of the typical sleep disturbances often reported in the general and patient populations. Unexpectedly, the experimental sleep disturbance model reduced several of the assessed proinflammatory markers, namely interleukin(IL)-6 production by monocytes and plasma levels of IL-6 and C-reactive protein (CRP), presumably due to intermittent increases in the counterinflammatory hormone cortisol. Striking sex differences were observed with females presenting a reduction in proinflammatory markers and males showing a predominantly proinflammatory response and reductions of cortisol levels. Our findings indicate that sleep disturbances causally dysregulate inflammatory pathways, with opposing effects in females and males. These results have the potential to advance our mechanistic understanding of the pronounced sexual dimorphism in the many diseases for which sleep disturbances are a risk factor.

Fibrosis is a general complication in many diseases. It is the main complication during peritoneal dialysis (PD) treatment, a therapy for renal failure disease. Local inflammation and mesothelial to mesenchymal transition (MMT) are well known key phenomena in peritoneal damage during PD. New data suggest that, in the peritoneal cavity, inflammatory changes may be regulated at least in part by a delicate balance between T helper 17 and regulatory T cells. This paper briefly reviews the implication of the Th17/Tregaxis in fibrotic diseases. Moreover, it compares current evidences described in PD animal experimental models, indicating a loss of Th17/Treg balance (Th17 predominance) leading to peritoneal damage during PD. In addition, considering the new clinical and animal experimental data, new therapeutic strategies to reduce the Th17 response and increase the regulatory T response are proposed.Thus, future goals should be to develop newclinical biomarkers to reverse this immunemisbalance and reduce peritoneal fibrosis in PD. ; This work was supported in part by grants from Ministerio de EconomIa y competitividad SAF2010-21249 to Manuel López-Cabrera, Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid 2010- BMD2321 (FIBROTEAM) to Manuel López Cabrera, and Fondo de Investigaciones Santitarias RETICS 06/0016 and PI 09/0064 to Rafael Selgas and FIS 12/01175 to Abelardo Aguilera Peralta. Georgios Liappas is fully supported from European Union, Seventh Framework Program "EuTRiPD," under Grant Agreement PITN-GA-2011-287813.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the pathophysiology of repetitive concussive traumatic brain injury (rcTBI) in large part due to the association with dramatic cases of progressive neurological deterioration in professional athletes, military personnel, and others. However, our understanding of the pathophysiology of rcTBI is less advanced than for more severe brain injuries. Most prominently, the mechanisms underlying traumatic axonal injury, microglial activation, amyloid-beta accumulation, and progressive tau pathology are not yet known. In addition, the role of injury to dendritic spine cytoskeletal structures, vascular reactivity impairments, and microthrombi are intriguing and subjects of ongoing inquiry. Methods for quantitative analysis of axonal injury, dendritic injury, and synaptic loss need to be refined for the field to move forward in a rigorous fashion. We and others are attempting to develop translational approaches to assess these specific pathophysiological events in both animals and humans to facilitate clinically relevant pharmacodynamic assessments of candidate therapeutics. In this article, we review and discuss several of the recent experimental results from our lab and others. We include new initial data describing the difficulty in modeling progressive tau pathology in experimental rcTBI, and results demonstrating that sertraline can alleviate social interaction deficits and depressive-like behaviors following experimental rcTBI plus foot shock stress. Furthermore, we propose a discrete set of open, experimentally tractable questions that may serve as a framework for future investigations. In addition, we also raise several important questions that are less experimentally tractable at this time, in hopes that they may stimulate future methodological developments to address them.

Fibrosis is a general complication in many diseases. It is the main complication during peritoneal dialysis (PD) treatment, a therapy for renal failure disease. Local inflammation and mesothelial to mesenchymal transition (MMT) are well known key phenomena in peritoneal damage during PD. New data suggest that, in the peritoneal cavity, inflammatory changes may be regulated at least in part by a delicate balance between T helper 17 and regulatory T cells. This paper briefly reviews the implication of the Th17/Tregaxis in fibrotic diseases. Moreover, it compares current evidences described in PD animal experimental models, indicating a loss of Th17/Treg balance (Th17 predominance) leading to peritoneal damage during PD. In addition, considering the new clinical and animal experimental data, new therapeutic strategies to reduce the Th17 response and increase the regulatory T response are proposed. Thus, future goals should be to develop new clinical biomarkers to reverse this immune misbalance and reduce peritoneal fibrosis in PD. ; This work was supported in part by grants from Ministerio de Economia y competitividad SAF2010-21249 to Manuel Lopez-Cabrera, Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid 2010-BMD2321 (FIBROTEAM) to Manuel Lopez Cabrera, and Fondo de Investigaciones Santitarias RETICS 06/0016 and PI 09/0064 to Rafael Selgas and FIS 12/01175 to Abelardo Aguilera Peralta. Georgios Liappas is fully supported from European Union, Seventh Framework Program ``EuTRiPD,´´ under Grant Agreement PITN-GA-2011-287813. The authors would like to thank Juliette Siegfried and her team at ServingMed.com for editing the language of the paper. ; Sí

The state of knowledge on climate change adaptation at the international level shows several experiences both in the field of research and urban politics that aim at defining methods and procedures, adaptation plans and guidelines for action. However, the specificity of the issues at the local scale requires further experimentations to implement suitable actions based on downscaling processes. Within the Metropolis project, the research group of the Department of Architecture at the Federico II University of Naples has carried out research work aimed at assessing the capacity of the urban system to adapt to the effects of climate change. The research work resulted in the development of a model of knowledge on the vulnerability to heat waves and pluvial flooding based on the study of the information about the features of the social and physical system. By developing downscaling experimental models, hazard scenarios have been built at the local scale based on the IPCC scenarios on CO2 emissions - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Finally, a decision-making process has been developed to assess the adaptive capacity of the urban system It allows the making of a long term adaptive design oriented towards processes of urban rehabilitation that are resilient to climate change. The adaptation solutions have been selected grading by their compatibility with the specific context and evaluated for the correspondence to the technological and environmental requirements, to the socio-economic conditions and the effects on the ecosystem.

Pyruvate is a normal constituent of the body that participates in carbohydrate metabolism and functions as a scavenger of free radicals. Calcium pyruvate monohydrate (CPM) is a more stable derivative that has proved its anti-inflammatory effect in experimental colitis, among other disorders, and that could also be considered a source of calcium. Thus, it would be useful for the treatment of diseases with an inflammatory component and a high prevalence of osteoporosis like the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effects of CPM in a rat model of chronic post-inflammatory visceral pain induced by deoxycholic acid (DCA) that resembles IBS. Rats were administered DCA for three days intracolonically and then treated daily with CPM (40 and 100 mg/kg) or gabapentin (70 mg/kg) (positive control) by oral gavage for 17 days. The treatments reduced the visceral hypersensitivity measured by response to colorectal distension and referred pain. DCA induced changes in the colonic immune response characterized by increased expression of the cytokine Il-1b and the inducible enzyme Cox-2, which was reduced by the treatments. DCA also decreased the gut expression of the mucins Muc-2 and Muc-3, which was normalized by CPM, whereas gabapentin only increased significantly Muc-3. Moreover, DCA increased the expression of Tlr3, which was decreased to basal levels by all the treatments. However, the serotonin receptor Htr-4, which was also elevated, was not affected by any of the treatments, indicating no effect through this signalling pathway. In conclusion, CPM ameliorated the visceral hypersensitivity and the referred pain caused by DCA, being as effective as the control drug. Furthermore, it improved the immune status of the animals, which could contribute to the visceral analgesia and the regeneration of the intestinal epithelial barrier integrity. ; This work was supported by the Junta de Andalucía (CTS 164) and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (AGL2015-67995-C3-3-R) with funds from the European Union. The CIBER-EHD is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. ; Sirenomelia is a severe congenital malformation of the lower body characterized by the fusion of the legs into a single lower limb. This striking external phenotype consistently associates severe visceral abnormalities, most commonly of the kidneys, intestine, and genitalia that generally make the condition lethal. Although the causes of sirenomelia remain unknown, clinical studies have yielded two major hypotheses: i) a primary defect in the generation of caudal mesoderm, ii) a primary vascular defect that leaves the caudal part of the embryo hypoperfused. Interestingly, Sirenomelia has been shown to have a genetic basis in mice, and although it has been considered a sporadic condition in humans, recently some possible familial cases have been reported. Here, we report that the removal of one or both functional alleles of Shh from the Bmp7-null background leads to a sirenomelia phenotype that faithfully replicates the constellation of external and internal malformations, typical of the human condition. These mutants represent an invaluable model in which we have analyzed the pathogenesis of sirenomelia. We show that the signaling defect predominantly impacts the morphogenesis of the hindgut and the development of the caudal end of the dorsal aortas. The deficient formation of ventral midline structures, including the interlimb mesoderm caudal to the umbilicus, leads to the approximation and merging of the hindlimb fields. Our study provides new insights for the understanding of the mechanisms resulting in caudal body malformations, including sirenomelia. © 2012 Garrido-Allepuz et al. ; The authors should acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministery of Science and Innovation (BFU2011-24972 to MAR) and I+D+I cooperative projects in Biomedicine and Biotechnology from the Government and University of Cantabria. This work was supported by grant BFU2011-24972 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to MAR. ; Peer Reviewed