Submucosal fat accumulation in Crohn’s disease: evaluation with sonography

( Tomás Ripollés ),( María Jesús Martínez-pérez ),( José María Paredes ),( José Vizuete ),( Gregorio Martin ),( Lidia Navarro ) 대한장연구학회 2023 Intestinal Research Vol.21 No.3

Background/Aims: The study objective is to investigate the ultrasound features that allow suspecting the presence of submucosal fat deposition, called the fat halo sign (FHS), in the intestinal wall of patients with Crohn’s disease. Methods: Computed tomography (CT) examinations over a period of 10 years were reviewed for the presence of the FHS in the bowel wall. A measurement of less than -10 Hounsfield units was regarded as indicative of fat. We included only patients who had undergone ultrasound examinations 3 months before or after CT. The study cohort group comprised 68 patients. Wall and submucosal thickness were measured on longitudinal ultrasound sections. A receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed to determine the best cutoff of ultrasound submucosal wall thickness value for predicting FHS in the bowel wall determined on CT. Results: The FHS was present in 22 patients (31%) on CT. There were significant differences between submucosal thickness of patients with FHS and patients without FHS (4.19 mm vs. 2.41 mm). From the receiver operating characteristic curve, a threshold value of 3.1 mm of submucosal thickness had the best sensitivity and specificity to suspect FHS (95.5% and 89.1%, respectively; area under the curve, 0.962), with an odds ratio of 172. All of 16 patients with a submucosal thickness >3.9 mm had FHS. Conclusions: FHS in patients with Crohn’s disease can be suspected on ultrasound in cases with marked thickening of the submucosa layer. In these cases, the activity of the disease should be measured by other parameters such as the color Doppler. (Intest Res 2023;21:385-391)

Intestinal ultrasonography and fecal calprotectin for monitoring inflammation of ileal Crohn’s disease: two complementary tests

José María Paredes,Tomás Ripollés,Ángela Algarra,Rafael Diaz,Nadia Moreno,Patricia Latorre,María Jesús Martínez,Pilar Llopis,Antonio López,Eduardo Moreno-Osset 대한장연구학회 2022 Intestinal Research Vol.20 No.3

Background/Aims: Tight control of inflammation and adjustment of treatment if activity persists is the current strategy for the management of Crohn’s disease (CD). The usefulness of fecal calprotectin (FC) in isolated involvement of the small intestine in CD is controversial. To assess the usefulness of FC to determine the inflammatory activity detected by intestinal ultrasonography (IUS) in ileal CD. Methods: Patients with exclusively ileal involvement CD who underwent IUS and an FC were prospectively included. Simple ultrasound index was used to determine inflammatory activity. The usual statistical tests for comparison of diagnostic techniques were used. Results: One hundred and five patients were included, IUS showed inflammatory activity in 59% of patients and complications in 18.1%. FC showed a significant correlation with IUS in the weak range (Spearman coefficient <i>r</i>=0.502; <i>P</i><0.001); the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.79 (95% confidence interval, 0.70–0.88; <i>P</i><0.001). The FC value that best reflected the activity in IUS was 100 μg/g with sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of 73.0%, 71.4%, 79.3% and 63.8%, respectively. There were no differences in FC concentration between patients with or without transmural complications. The addition of serum C-reactive protein to FC did not improve the ability to assess IUS activity.Conclusions: FC has a significant correlation with IUS to monitor ileal CD activity. This correlation is weak and it does not allow assessing the presence of CD complications. Both tests should be used in conjunction for tight control of ileal CD. More studies on noninvasive tests in this location are needed.

Analytical crack growth in unidirectional composite flywheel

Lluis Ripoll,Jose L. Perez-Aparicio,Pere Maimi,Emilio V. Gonzalez Techno-Press 2023 Coupled systems mechanics Vol.12 No.2

Scarce research has been published on crack propagation fracture of flywheels manufactured with carbon fiber-reinforced polymers. The present work deals with a calculation method to determine the conditions for which a crack propagates in the axial direction of the flywheel. The assumptions are: flywheels made with just a single thick ply or ply clustering laminates, oriented following the hoop direction; a single crack is analyzed in the plane defined by the hoop and axial directions; the crack starts close to one of the free edges; its axial length is initially large enough so that its tip is far away from that free edge, and the crack expands the entire circumferential perimeter and keeps its concentric position. The developed method provides information for a good design of flywheels. It is concluded that a fracture-based crack propagation criterion generally occurs at a lower speed than a stress-based criterion. Also, that the evolution of failure with thickness using the fracture criterion is exponential, demonstrating that thin flywheels are relatively not sensitive to crack propagation, whereas thick ones are very prone.

Tobacco etch virus infectivity in Capsicum spp. is determined by a maximum of three amino acids in the viral virulence determinant VPg.

Perez, Kari,Yeam, Inhwa,Kang, Byoung-Cheorl,Ripoll, Daniel R,Kim, Jinhee,Murphy, John F,Jahn, Molly M APS Press 2012 Molecular plant-microbe interactions Vol.25 No.12

<P>Potyvirus resistance in Capsicum spp. has been attributed to amino acid substitutions at the pvr1 locus that cause conformational shifts in eukaryotic translation initiation factor eIF4E. The viral genome-linked protein (VPg) sequence was isolated and compared from three Tobacco etch virus (TEV) strains, highly aphid-transmissible (HAT), Mex21, and N, which differentially infect Capsicum genotypes encoding Pvr1(+), pvr1, and pvr1(2). Viral chimeras were synthesized using the TEV-HAT genome, replacing HAT VPg with Mex21 or N VPg. TEV HAT did not infect pepper plants homozygous for either the pvr1 or pvr1(2) allele. However, the novel chimeric TEV strains, TEVHAT(Mex21-VPg) and TEV-HAT(N-VPg), infected pvr1 and pvr1(2) pepper plants, respectively, demonstrating that VPg is the virulence determinant in this pathosystem. Three dimensional structural models predicted interaction between VPg and the susceptible eIF4E genotype in every case, while resistant genotypes were never predicted to interact. To determine whether there is a correlation between physical interaction of VPg with eIF4E and infectivity, the effects of amino acid variation within VPg were assessed. Interaction between pvr1(2) eIF4E and N VPg was detected in planta, implying that the six amino acid differences in N VPg relative to HAT VPg are responsible for restoring the physical interaction and infectivity.</P>

Interthalamic adhesion in humans: a gray commissure?

Jorge Eduardo Duque Parra,Álex Pava Ripoll,Juan Fernando Vélez García 대한해부학회 2022 Anatomy & Cell Biology Vol.55 No.1

Interthalamic adhesion is an inconstant part of the human diencephalic neuroanatomy, which some histological studies have indicated it is a gray commissure and others a white commissure. Its presence has been associated with alterations in health status, including schizophrenia, psychotic states, and hydrocephalus. Thirty-one fresh human brains were evaluated randomly, to determine the presence of interthalamic adhesion and its histological composition, by way of lamina terminalis puncture of the third ventricle. Photographic records were taken and histological processes was performed by hematoxylin-eosin staining, in the case of the existence of the adhesion. It was found that 51.71% did present interthalamic adhesion, and on histological examination, no neuron bodies were found in the median part, which implies that does not correspond to a gray commissure, but interthalamic adhesion in humans is variable, with a predominance of glial cells. There is no gray commissure in human interthalamic adhesions.

Preclinical Efficacy of [V4Q5]dDAVP, a Second Generation Vasopressin Analog, on Metastatic Spread and Tumor-Associated Angiogenesis in Colorectal Cancer

Juan Garona,Natasha T. Sobol,Marina Pifano,Valeria I. Segatori,Daniel E. Gomez,Giselle V. Ripoll,Daniel F. Alonso 대한암학회 2019 Cancer Research and Treatment Vol.51 No.2

Purpose Control of metastatic spread of colorectal cancer (CRC) remains as a major therapeutic challenge. [V4Q5]dDAVP is a vasopressin peptide analog with previously reported anticancer activity against carcinoma tumors. By acting as a selective agonist of arginine vasopressin type 2 membrane receptor (AVPR2) present in endothelial and tumor cells, [V4Q5]dDAVP is able to impair tumor aggressiveness and distant spread. Our aim was to evaluate the potential therapeutic benefits of [V4Q5]dDAVP on highly aggressive CRC disease using experimental models with translational relevance. Materials and Methods Murine CT-26 and human Colo-205 AVPR2-expressing CRC cell lines were used to test the preclinical efficacy of [V4Q5]dDAVP, both in vitro and in vivo. Results In syngeneic mice surgically implanted with CT-26 cells in the spleen, sustained intravenous treatment with [V4Q5]dDAVP (0.3 g/kg) dramatically impaired metastatic progression to liver without overt signs of toxicity, and also reduced experimental lung colonization. The compound inhibited in vivo angiogenesis driven by Colo-205 cells in athymic mice, as well as in vitro endothelial cell migration and capillary tube formation. [V4Q5]dDAVP exerted AVPR2-dependent cytostatic activity in vitro (IC50 1.08 M) and addition to 5-fluorouracil resulted in synergistic antiproliferative effects both in CT-26 and Colo-205 cells. Conclusion The present preclinical study establishes for the first time the efficacy of [V4Q5]dDAVP on CRC. These encouraging results suggest that the novel second generation vasopressin analog could be used for the management of aggressive CRC as an adjuvant agent during surgery or to complement standard chemotherapy, limiting tumor angiogenesis and metastasis and thus protecting the patient from CRC recurrence.

Importance of Extract Standardization and In Vitro/Ex Vivo Assay Selection for the Evaluation of Antioxidant Activity of Botanicals: A Case Study on Three Rosmarinus officinalis L. Extracts

Alvin Ibarra,Julien Cases,Antoine Bily,Kan He,Naisheng Bai,Marc Roller,Aure´lie Coussaert,Christophe Ripoll 한국식품영양과학회 2010 Journal of medicinal food Vol.13 No.5

The overproduction of free radicals and oxygen reactive species is suspected to be implicated in a wide range of metabolic reactions that can have pernicious consequences in the development of a variety of human diseases. Botanical extracts are sources of antioxidants that counteract both free radicals and oxygen reactive species. The processing conditions used in the botanical extraction may influence the antioxidant composition; therefore, different extracts from the same plant may have different antioxidant properties. To illustrate this fact, we conducted a study using three commercial rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) leaf extracts. The three extracts were standardized to contain, respectively, 20% carnosic acid, 40% ursolic acid, or 20% rosmarinic acid. They were evaluated for their total (hydrophilic+lipophilic) antioxidant effects on oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), their ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP), and their capacity to inhibit Cu2+-induced low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation ex vivo. The ursolic acid extract showed the lowest antioxidant capacity on all models. The rosmarinic acid extract had an antioxidant capacity 1.5 times higher on ORAC and four times higher on FRAP than the carnosic acid extract. However, the carnosic acid extract was better than the rosmarinic acid extract in inhibiting the oxidation of LDL ex vivo. These results encourage conducting further studies to evaluate the carnosic acid and rosmarinic acid extracts in vivo. Our study offers an example of the importance of the extraction procedures, on which depends the nature of the antioxidant composition, and highlights interest to proceed with in vitro/ex vivo assay selection for the evaluation of the antioxidant properties of botanical extracts.