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M Cocchi

Publications and source records attributed to M Cocchi.

38 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Effect of chemically defined formula diets on pancreatic mass in the rat.

To establish the effect of chemically defined formula diets on pancreatic mass, 58 male Wistar rats, weighing approximately 200 g, were fed orally one of the following diets for 20 days: standard diet; partially hydrolyzed diet; elemental diet. The diets were isocaloric and provided 73 cal/day per rat. At the end of the experiment, the rats were killed and pancreas removed to assess wet weight and DNA and RNA content. Compared to the controls, the elemental diet caused a reduction in pancreatic wet weight (p less than 0.005), pancreatic DNA (p less than 0.001), and RNA content (p less than 0.001). In the group fed partially hydrolyzed diet, only pancreatic DNA content showed an highly significant reduction when compared with the reference group (p less than 0.001), whereas the value of RNA failed to reach the statistical significance. We found an increase of the ratio mg RNA/mg DNA in the partially hydrolyzed and elemental diet groups. These results suggest that long-term nutrition with the partially hydrolyzed diet, and more strongly with the elemental diet, may induce pancreatic hypoplasia.

Animals↗

Fatty acids composition of plasma phospholipids and triglycerides in children with cystic fibrosis. The effect of dietary supplementation with an olive and soybean oils mixture.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by abnormal levels of essential fatty acids (EFA) in plasma phospholipids. The reduced availability of EFA has been reported to alter patterns of circulating and tissue esterified acids and may determine profound changes in membrane fluidity and cell signaling mechanisms. In the current study, the results of a new strategy aimed at the realization of a practical, low cost integrator, for daily use in the dietary management of FC subjects, are reported. We investigated the plasma phospholipids and triglycerides fatty acids composition of CF patients subjected to a dietary supplement constituted of a mixture of 50% extra virgin olive oil and 50% soybean oil and studied the clinical effects of this supplementation. The study included fourteen young subjects, aged between 6 and 15 years, affected by cystic fibrosis, with pancreatic insufficiency and heterozygotes or homozygotes for the delta F508 mutation. The subjects were matched by age and randomly assigned to either an oil mixture supplemented (OM) group (n = 7), or to a control (C) group (n = 7). In contrast to the control group, the patients with supplemented diet achieved significant increases of the relative amount of C18:1 in the triglycerides as well as a significant decrease in saturated fatty acids (C 16:0, C 17:0, C 18:0, C 22:0). Moreover, the ratio between LA acid and AA significantly increased in the triglycerides of the OM group. In the phospholipids of the OM group, the relative amount of C 18:1 and of palmitic acid increased significantly whereas the relative amount of the most important polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) decreased. These results show that oleic acid can be absorbed and incorporated into the plasma triglycerides of CF patients receiving pancreatic enzymes, whereas poor incorporation of LA occurs. Despite the reduction in the relative amounts of phospholipid PUFA, the supplemented subjects did not reported adverse effects There were no significant differences between groups in the clinical indexes recorded (height, weight, BMI, Schwachman-Kulczycki score and FEV 1s). The results of this study showed that the supplementation with a mixture of extravirgin olive and soybean oil was safe in seven CF patients treated during a 2-months period and no negative clinical effects were evident. However, further clinical trials will be necessary in order to better evaluate the consequence of the observed changes in plasma fatty acids composition in a longer testing period.

Adolescent↗