Search Results (3)

Human intestinal microbiome plays vital role in maintaining intestinal homeostasis and interacting with xenobiotics. Few investigations have been conducted to understand the effect of arsenic-containing medicine exposure on gut microbiome. Most animal experiments are onerous in terms of time and resources and not in line with the international effort to reduce animal experiments. We explored the overall microbial flora by 16S rRNA genes analysis in fecal samples from acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) patients treated with arsenic trioxide (ATO) plus all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA). Gut microbiomes were found to be overwhelmingly dominated by Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes after taking medicines containing arsenic in APL patients. The fecal microbiota composition of APL patients after treatment showed lower diversity and uniformity shown by the alpha diversity indices of Chao, Shannon, and Simpson. Gut microbiome operational taxonomic unit (OTU) numbers were associated with arsenic in the feces. We evaluated Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Lactobacillus mucosae to be a keystone in APL patients after treatment. Bacteroides at phylum or genus taxonomic levels were consistently affected after treatment. In the most common gut bacteria Bacteroides fragilis, arsenic resistance genes were significantly induced by arsenic exposure in anaerobic pure culture experiments. Without an animal model, without taking arsenicals passively, the results evidence that arsenic exposure by drug treatment is not only associated with alterations in intestinal microbiome development at the abundance and diversity level, but also induced arsenic biotransformation genes (ABGs) at the function levels which may even extend to arsenic-related health outcomes in APL. Full article

Chronic or acute ambient temperature change alter the gut microbiota and the metabolites, regulating metabolic functions. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) produced by gut bacteria reduce the risk of disease. Feeding patterns and gut microbiota that are involved in SCFAs production are controlled by the circadian clock. Hence, the effect of environmental temperature change on SCFAs production is expected depending on the exposure timing. In addition, there is limited research on effects of habitual cold exposure on the gut microbiota and SCFAs production compared to chronic or acute exposure. Therefore, the aim was to examine the effect of cold or heat exposure timing on SCFAs production. After exposing mice to 7 or 37 °C for 3 h a day at each point for 10 days, samples were collected, and cecal pH, SCFA concentration, and BAT weight was measured. As a result, cold exposure at ZT18 increased cecal pH and decreased SCFAs. Intestinal peristalsis was suppressed due to the cold exposure at ZT18. The results reveal differing effects of intermittent cold exposure on the gut environment depending on exposure timing. In particular, ZT18 (active phase) is the timing to be the most detrimental to the gut environment of mice. Full article

Cities are exploding, occupying rural territory in dispersed and fragmented ways. A consequence of this phenomenon is that the demand for utilities includes more and more extensive territories. Among them, fulfilling the demand for services related to integrated water service presents many difficulties. The economic costs needed to meet service demand and the environmental costs associated with its non-fulfilment are inversely proportional to the population needing service in rural areas, since that population is distributed across a low-density gradient. Infrastructure planning, within the area of competence, generally follows a policy of economic sustainability, fixing a service coverage threshold in terms of a “sufficient” concentration of population and economic activity (91/271/CEE). This threshold, homogenous within the territorial limits of a water infrastructure plan, creates uncertainty in the planning of investments, which are not sized on the actual, appropriately spatialized, demand for service. Careful prediction of the location of infrastructure investments would guarantee not only economic savings but also reduce the environmental costs generated by the lack of utilities. Therefore, is necessary to create a link between water infrastructure planning and urban planning, which is responsible for the future spatial distribution of service demand. In this study, the relationships between the instruments of regulation and planning are compared by a multi-criteria spatial analysis network (analytic network process (ANP)). This method, tested on a sample of a city in southern Italy, allows us to optimize the design and location of the investment needed to meet the service criteria, looking at the actual efficiency of the networks. The result of this application is a suitability map that allows us to validate the criteria for defining urban transformations. Full article