Breast Cancer in Tunisia: Association of Body Mass Index with Histopathological Aspects of Tumors

Bouguerra, Hichem,Guissouma, Hajer,Labidi, Soumaya,Stambouli, Nejla,Marrakchi, Raja,Chouaib, Salem,Elgaaied, Amel Ben Ammar,Boussen, Hammouda,Gati, Asma Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.16

Background: Previous studies have suggested a link between obesity and breast cancer (BC). However, there is no universal consensus, especially in population based studies. Because only few studies have been conducted on African women, we aimed here to assess the relationship between BMI at time of diagnosis and the BC histopathological features among Tunisian patients according to menopausal status using a hospital-based prospective cohort study. Materials and Methods: Clinical and pathological data were collected from 262 patients stratified on four groups according to their BMI. The relationship between BMI and histopathological features at diagnosis was analysed using univariate and multivariate analysis. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the performance of BMI in predicting of high tumor grade, in comparison to ki-67 index of proliferation. Results: Obesity was correlated with larger tumors, advanced grade and with ER-PR-Her2+ BC subtype. An association of BMI with tumor size and tumor grade was observed in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Additionally, a significant association between BMI and ER+, ER+PR+Her2+ and ER-PR-Her2+ status was revealed for premenopausal patients, while only ER+PR+Her2+ was associated with BMI for postmenopausal women. Finally, our results showed that compared to Ki67 proliferation index, BMI is a useful prognostic marker of high grade BC tumors. Conclusions: These data are the first to show that in Tunisia obese women suffering from BC have significantly larger tumors and advanced tumor grade and that higher BMI might influence tumor characteristics and behavior.

Efficacy of Tissue Culture in Virus Elimination from Caprifig and Female Fig Varieties (Ficus carica L.)

Bayoudh, Chokri,Elair, Manel,Labidi, Rahma,Majdoub, Afifa,Mahfoudhi, Naima,Mars, Messaoud The Korean Society of Plant Pathology 2017 Plant Pathology Journal Vol.33 No.3

Fig mosaic disease (FMD) is a viral disease that spreads in all Tunisian fig (Ficus carica L.) orchards. RT-PCR technique was applied to leaf samples of 29 fig accessions of 15 fig varieties from the fig germplasm collection of High Agronomic Institute (I.S.A) of ChattMariem, to detect viruses associated to FMD. Analysis results show that 65.5% of the accessions (19/29) and 80.0% (12/15) of the fig varieties are infected by FMD-associated viruses. From all fig accessions, 41.4% of them are with single infection (one virus) and 24.1% are with multi-infections (2 virus and more). Viruses infecting fig leaf samples are Fig mosaic virus (FMV) (20.7%), Fig milde-mottle-associated virus (FMMaV) (17.25%), Fig fleck associated virus (FFkaV) (3.45%), and Fig cryptic virus (FCV) (55.17%). A reliable protocol for FCV and FMMaV elimination from 4 local fig varieties Zidi (ZDI), Soltani (SNI), Bither Abiadh (BA), and Assafri (ASF) via in vitro culture of 3 meristem sizes was established and optimized. With this protocol, global sanitation rates of 79.46%, 65.55%, 68.75%, and 70.83% respectively for ZDI, SNI, BA, and ASF are achieved. For all sanitized varieties, the effectiveness of meristem culture for the elimination of FCV and FMMaV viruses was related to meristem size. Meristem size 0.5 mm provides the highest sanitation rates ranging from 70% to 90%.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer in Tunisia from 2005 to 2010: Epidemiologic and Anatomoclinical Transitions from Published Data

Mejri, N.,Boussen, H.,Labidi, S.,Bouzaiene, H.,Afrit, M.,Benna, F.,Rahal, K. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.3

Aim: To report epidemiologic and anatomoclinical transitions of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) in Tunisia. Materials and Methods: Data including clinico-pathological data for 208 cases of T4d or PEV 3 non-metastatic breast cancer diagnosed between 2005 and 2010 were collected from patient records. Chi2 and Z tests were used to compare variables with two Tunisian historical series and a series about Arab-American patients. Results: Thirty three percent of our patients had their first child before 23 years of age and 56% had their menarche before 12 years, 75% never receiving oral contraception. Obesity was observed in 42% of women and IBC occurred during pregnancy in 13% of cases. Tumor grade was II-III in 90% of cases, HR was negative in 52%, HER2 was over expressed in 31% and invasion of more than 3 axillary nodes occurred in 18% of patients. We observed a pCR rate of 19% after neoadjuvant treatment (anthracyline-taxane used in 79%, trastuzumab in 27% ). Compared to historical Tunisian series (since 1996), IBC epidemiology remained stable in terms of median age, menopausal status and obesity. However we observed a significant decrease in median clinical tumor size and number of positive axillary lymph nodes. Comparison to IBC in Arab-Americans showed a significant difference in terms of median age, menopausal status, positivity of hormonal receptors and educational level. Conclusions: Our assessment of epidemiologic transition showed a reduction of clinco-pathological stage of IBC, keeping the same characteristics as compared to Tunisian historical series over a period of 14 years. Features seem to be different in Arab-American patients, probably related to migration, "occidentalization" of life style and improvement in socio-economic level.

Assessment of green approaches for the synthesis of physically crosslinked lignin hydrogels

Amaia Morales,Jalel Labidi,Patricia Gullón 한국공업화학회 2020 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.81 No.-

Lignin is an excellent candidate to be used as a starting material for hydrogel synthesis due to its highlyfunctional character. The exhaustible character of the fossil resources linked to the increase of plasticresidues in the environment encourages an intensive research on biorenewable and biodegradablepolymers to synthesize new materials. Taking into account this current scenario, this work searches fornew green routes to elaborate physical hydrogels with excellent capacity of swelling and suitableconsistency. To this end, lignin and poly(vinyl alcohol) were blended in different proportions following athree-level-two-factorial design and using six different routes of crosslinking and drying for each set ofexperiments. The hydrogels formed under the optimal conditions were characterized by FTIR, SEM, XRD,DSC and TGA and their mechanical properties were also evaluated by compression tests. The selectedoptimum synthesis routes enabled the obtaining of physically crosslinked hydrogels with up to 800%water retention ability. FTIR spectra confirmed the interactions between lignin and PVA showing shiftsand modifications on the characteristic bands of the raw polymers. Compression tests showed that all thehydrogels kept complete integrity even compressing them up to an 80% of their initial thickness.

Effect of different organosolv treatments on the structure and properties of olive tree pruning lignin

Xabier Erdocia,Jalel Labidi,Raquel Prado,M. Angeles Corcuera 한국공업화학회 2014 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.20 No.3

Different organosolv processes (acetosolv, formosolv and acetosolv/formosolv) were applied to extractlignin from olive tree pruning. Obtained lignins were characterized by several methods to determinetheir composition, structure and functional groups with the aim of evaluating their potential to be usedfor obtaining added value compounds. All lignins had very high purity and low sugar and inorganiccontamination, especially in the case of lignin obtained from formosolv treatment. Hydroxyl groupswere the main functional groups in all lignin samples while the carbonyl groups were the lowest. Finally,the main difference between the lignins was the average molecular weight.

Efficacy of Tissue Culture in Virus Elimination from Caprifig and Female Fig Varieties (Ficus carica L.)

Chokri Bayoudh,Manel Elair,Rahma Labidi,Afifa Majdoub,Naima Mahfoudhi,Messaoud Mars 한국식물병리학회 2017 Plant Pathology Journal Vol.33 No.3

Fig mosaic disease (FMD) is a viral disease that spreads in all Tunisian fig (Ficus carica L.) orchards. RT-PCR technique was applied to leaf samples of 29 fig accessions of 15 fig varieties from the fig germplasm collection of High Agronomic Institute (I.S.A) of Chatt- Mariem, to detect viruses associated to FMD. Analysis results show that 65.5% of the accessions (19/29) and 80.0% (12/15) of the fig varieties are infected by FMDassociated viruses. From all fig accessions, 41.4% of them are with single infection (one virus) and 24.1% are with multi-infections (2 virus and more). Viruses infecting fig leaf samples are Fig mosaic virus (FMV) (20.7%), Fig milde-mottle-associated virus (FMMaV) (17.25%), Fig fleck associated virus (FFkaV) (3.45%), and Fig cryptic virus (FCV) (55.17%). A reliable protocol for FCV and FMMaV elimination from 4 local fig varieties Zidi (ZDI), Soltani (SNI), Bither Abiadh (BA), and Assafri (ASF) via in vitro culture of 3 meristem sizes was established and optimized. With this protocol, global sanitation rates of 79.46%, 65.55%, 68.75%, and 70.83% respectively for ZDI, SNI, BA, and ASF are achieved. For all sanitized varieties, the effectiveness of meristem culture for the elimination of FCV and FMMaV viruses was related to meristem size. Meristem size 0.5 mm provides the highest sanitation rates ranging from 70% to 90%.

Root Proliferation, Proton Efflux, and Acid Phosphatase Activity in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) Under Phosphorus Shortage

Saber Kouas,Ahmed Debez,Tarek Slatni,Nahla Labidi,Jean Jacques Drevon,Chedly Abdelly 한국식물학회 2009 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.52 No.5

The impact of phosphorus (P) availability on root proliferation, proton efflux, and acid phosphatase activities in roots and leaves was investigated in two lines of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris): BAT 477 and CocoT. Phosphorus was supplied as KH2PO4 at 0 and 60μmol per plant (0P and 60P, respectively). Under P shortage, the plant growth was more restricted in CocoT than in BAT 477, shoots being more affected than roots. The root area increased significantly at 0P in both lines. Up to 1 week following P shortage, the proton efflux increased in both lines despite a higher extent in BAT 477 as compared to CocoT. Root acid phosphatase activity was significantly higher under P limitation in the both lines, this trend being more pronounced in BAT 477 than in CocoT. This was also true for the leaf acid phosphatase. Regardless of the bean line, higher values were recorded for the old leaves as compared to the young ones for this parameter. Interestingly, a significant correlation between Pi content in old leaves and their acid phosphatase activity was found in P-lacking (0P) plants of the both bean lines, suggesting that acid phosphatase may contribute to increase the phosphorus use efficiency in bean through the P remobilization from the old leaves. As a whole, our results highlight the significance of the root H+ extrusion and the acid phosphatase activity rather than the root proliferation in the relative tolerance of BAT 477 to severe P deficiency. Keywords Phosphorus availability. Phaseolus vulgaris L . Root proliferation . Proton efflux . Acid phosphatase . Phosphorus use efficiency

Incorporation of sporopollenin enhances acid–base durability, hydrophobicity, and mechanical, antifungal and antioxidant properties of chitosan films

Murat Kaya,Lalehan Akyuz,Idris Sargin,Muhammad Mujtaba,Asier M. Salaberria,Jalel Labidi,Yavuz S. Cakmak,Behlul Koc,Talat Baran,Talip Ceter 한국공업화학회 2017 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.47 No.-

Sporopollenin-chitosan blendfilms were produced for thefirst time. Sporopollenin is a robust structuralcomponent of plant pollens exhibiting excellent features such as nontoxicity, biodegradability,biocompatibility, high thermal stability, durability to strong acid and base solutions and homogeneityin size. To benefit from these advantages, sporopollenin samples obtained from Betula pendula (silverbirch) were incorporated into chitosanfilm at different concentration; 10, 20 and 40 mg in 100 mLchitosan gel (1%). Stereo microscopy, FT-IR and TG/DTG analyses showed that sporopollenin wassuccessfully incorporated into the chitosan matrix. Incorporation of sporopollenin in gradually increasingamount into chitosanfilms was found advantageous in (1) enhancement in chemical durability of thefilms, (2) increment of hydrophobicity, (3) boosting the mechanical properties, (4) improvement ofantifungal and (5) antioxidant activities. This study revealed that sporopollenin can be suggested as aneffective blend material for biodegradable edible chitosanfilm production.

Hemicelluloses obtaining from rapeseed cake residue generated in the biodiesel production process

I. Egues,M. Gonzalez Alriols,Z. Herseczki,G. Marton,J. Labidi 한국공업화학회 2010 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.16 No.2

The processing of rapeseed oil seeds for biodiesel production generates huge amounts of lignocellulosic cake residue mainly composed by cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. In this work, the valorisation of these components, especifically the majoritary fraction, hemicelluloses, was studied. Hemicelluloses were extracted, purified and characterized by different techniques (FTIR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and GPC). Autohydrolysis and acid hydrolysis processes were applied to obtain sugar monomers and oligomers. Glucose and xylose were the main simple sugars in the obtained hydrolysates, representing 22.7% and 40.2% of total sugars content in the autohydrolysis hydrolysates and 27.7% and 36.6% in the acid hydrolysates respectively. Arabinose, galactose and mannose were present in relatively minor quantities.