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L Turco

Publications and source records attributed to L Turco.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Safety assessment of food-contact paper and board using a battery of short-term toxicity tests: European union BIOSAFEPAPER project.

An European Union (EU)-funded project QLK1-CT-2001-00930 (BIOSAFEPAPER) involves the development, validation and intercalibration of a short-term battery of toxicological tests for the safety assessment of food-contact paper and board. Dissemination of the results to industry, legislators (e.g. DG Consumer Protection, DG Enterprises, DG Research), standardization bodies such as CEN, and consumers will create an agreed risk evaluation procedure. The project involves pre-normative research in order to establish a set of in-vitro cytotoxicity and genotoxicity tests that will be easily adaptable to food-contact fibre-based materials and have endpoints relevant to consumer safety, including sub-lethal cellular events. These tests will be performed on samples representing actual migration conditions from food-contact paper and board with respect to different foodstuffs, and should form an experimental basis for scientifically sound recommendations for a harmonized system of risk evaluation and product testing.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Apoptosis evaluation in epithelial cells exposed to different chemicals: relevance of floating cells.

The recent increase in understanding of cell death has promoted new approaches in toxicological studies, mainly those dealing with in vitro systems where the evaluation of cell death has been the most widely adopted end-point in measuring the effects of chemical toxicants. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of improving the traditional cytotoxicity test protocols in order to produce more specific information on the type of cell death induced by exposure to toxicants. In particular, we characterized the mode of cell death in an established epithelial cell line, HEp-2 cells, which is frequently used in cytotoxicity testing owing to its easy handling and standardization of culture conditions. Reference chemicals for apoptosis and necrosis were selected as controls, together with other molecules that have been shown, in preliminary studies, to induce various morphological and structural modifications in relation to cell death. The results obtained show that: (a) the floating fraction of treated cells gives the clearest picture of the necrotic/apoptotic distribution; (b) morphological analysis is crucial for characterization of apoptosis; (c) more than one cytotoxic end-point is necessary to clearly identify the type of cell death.

Apoptosis↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Nitric oxide production in Caco-2 cells exposed to different inducers, inhibitors and natural toxins.

The involvement of the NO pathway in several intestinal inflammatory diseases is under investigation. In vitro models may provide a useful approach to better characterise this pathway at the cellular level. For this purpose, we have used Caco-2 cells, which are able to spontaneously differentiate in long-term culture to small intestine enterocytes. The effect of different NO pathway inducers [gamma-interferon (IFN-gamma) and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)] has been studied. Our results demonstrate that Caco-2 cells constitutively express NOS at very low levels, while the induction with PMA+IFN-gamma triggers the expression of the inducible isoform with a stronger effect starting from day 14 of differentiation. The use of specific inhibitors of gene expression, at transcriptional and translational level, suggests that new synthesis of iNOS mRNA is required, through direct activation of the gene or new synthesis of transcription-required factors, as indicated by CHX inhibition. The morphological alteration induced by PMA+IFN-gamma is reversed by iNOS inhibitor, suggesting that the NO pathway may be involved in the cytoskeletal alterations. The DSP toxins, OA and DTX-1, induce NO production at levels corresponding to their different toxicity, previously detected in Caco-2 cells.

Blotting, Western↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Care of skin infections in patients in peritoneal dialysis].

The incidence of exit-site infections among peritoneal home-dialysis patients was quantified following for 1 year all home dialysis patients of 23 dialysis centres. The exit site conditions were observed and classified according to Twardowsky. When an infection occurred data on its treatment were collected. 393 patients were observed. The infection occurred in 40 patients (10.1%). 82.2% of patients wear a Tenckoff catheter, 3% do not protect the exit site with any kind of dressing. The strategies adopted by different centres vary for the choice of antiseptics, the suggested frequency of changes dressing and the routine use of nasal swabs. Due to the limited number of patients with infection no association was found between tunnel direction or frequency of dressing changes and infections occurrence. Discussion on controversial aspects and the definition of common guidelines for instance for frequency of dressing changes, use of antiseptics is warranted.

Adult↗