About
96
Publications
89,168
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
10,095
Citations
Publications
Publications (96)
Vanadium toxicology is a topic of considerable importance as this metal is widely used in industrial and biomedical fields. However, it represents a potential emerging environmental pollutant because wastewater treatment plants do not adequately remove metal compounds that are subsequently released into the environment. Vanadium applications are li...
The growing presence of lanthanides in the environment has drawn the attention of the scientific community on their safety and toxicity. The sources of lanthanides in the environment include diagnostic medicine, electronic devices, permanent magnets, etc. Their exponential use and the poor management of waste disposal raise serious concerns about t...
Metal pharmaceutical residues often represent emerging toxic pollutants of the aquatic environment, as wastewater treatment plants do not sufficiently remove these compounds. Recently, vanadium (V) derivatives have been considered as potential therapeutic factors in several diseases, however, only limited information is available about their impact...
Study question
Could the expression of the anti-apoptotic molecules AKT, p-Akt and ERK1/2 in Mural Granulosa Cells (MGC) be considered as marker of oocyte quality?
Summary answer
MGCs activate cell death pathways in analyzed follicles and it is not influenced by different stimulation protocols and it is not correlated to oocyte competence.
What i...
Il nuovo testo di Biologia e Tecniche della Riproduzione edito da Edi.Ermes è diretto agli studenti dei corsi di laurea in Biologia e Biotecnologie, ma anche dei Master e dei Corsi di perfezionamento e ai professionisti operanti nell’ambito della riproduzione umana.
Nella prima sezione sono sviluppati argomenti relativi alla biologia della riproduz...
Vanadium, a naturally occurring element widely distributed in soil, water and air, has received considerable interest because its compounds are often used in different applications, from industry to medicine. While the possible medical use of vanadium compounds is promising, its potential harmful effects on living organisms are still unclear. Here,...
Gradual ocean warming and marine heatwaves represent major threats for marine organisms already facing other anthropogenic-derived hazards, such as chemical contamination in coastal areas. In this study, the combined effects of thermal stress and exposure to gadolinium (Gd), a metal used as a contrasting agent in medical imaging which enters the aq...
Activated pERK1/2 and pAKT are key players in supporting cell survival and proliferation pathways. Translocation of pERK1/2 into the nucleus, where it interacts with transcription factors and DNA itself, is instrumental in exerting an anti-apoptotic effect. In this study, pAKT levels, pERK1/2 nuclear localization and DNA fragmentation index (DFI) i...
In recent years, researches about the defense strategies induced by cadmium stress have greatly increased, invading several fields of scientific research. Mechanisms of cadmium-induced toxicity continue to be of interest for researchers given its ubiquitous nature and environmental distribution, where it often plays the role of pollutant for numero...
Echinoderms have an extensive endoskeleton composed of magnesian calcite and occluded matrix proteins. As biomineralization in sea urchin larvae is sensitive to the Magnesium:Calcium ratio of seawater, we investigated the effects of magnesium deprivation on development and skeletogenesis in the sea urchin Arbacia lixula. We focused on the localizat...
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the agent of the most common sexually transmitted diseases causing a variety of clinical manifestations ranging from warts to cancer. Oncogenic HPV infection is the major cause of cervical cancer and less frequently of penile cancers. Its presence in semen is widely known, but the effects on fertility are still controv...
Environmental factors could have a key role in the continuous and remarkable decline of sperm quality observed in the last decades. This study compared the seminal parameters and sperm DFI in men living in areas with different levels of air pollution. Results demonstrate that both steel plants workers and patients living in a high polluted area sho...
Chelates of Gadolinium (Gd), a lanthanide metal, are employed as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging and are released into the aquatic environment where they are an emerging contaminant. We studied the effects of environmentally relevant Gd concentrations on the development of two phylogenetically and geographically distant sea urchin sp...
Background/aims:
FSH receptor (FSHR) Ala307Thr and Asn680Ser and LHβ chain (LHB) Trp28Arg and Ile35Thr polymorphisms affect the response to pharmacological ovarian stimulation with r-FSH in women undergoing assisted reproductive treatment (ART). Here, we evaluated the expression level of selected genes involved in follicle maturation and the possi...
To select from a single patient the best oocytes able to reach the blastocyst stage, we searched for valuable markers for oocytes competence. We evaluated the DNA fragmentation index (DFI) and the level of some survival molecules, such as AKT, pAKT and pERK1/2, in individual cumulus cell–oocyte complexes (COC). The study included normo-responder wo...
Gadolinium (Gd) concentration is constantly increasing in the aquatic environment, becoming an emergent environmental pollutant. We investigated the effects of Gd on Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin embryos, focusing on skeletogenesis and autophagy. We observed a delay of biomineral deposition at 24 h post fertilization (hpf), and a strong impairme...
Sea urchin represents an ideal model for studies on fertilization and early development, but
the achievement of egg competence and mitochondrial behaviour during oogenesis remain to be
enlightened. Oocytes of echinoid, such as sea urchin, unlike other echinoderms and other systems,
complete meiotic maturation before fertilization. Mitochondria, the...
Several lines of evidence showed that apoptosis rate of cumulus cells in oocytes derived by assisted reproductive technologies could be used as an indicator of fertilizing gamete quality. Aim of the study was to investigate the effects of three different ovarian stimulation protocols on the biological and clinical outcome in hyporesponder patients....
Autophagy is a major intracellular pathway for the degradation and recycling of cytosolic components. Emerging evidence has demonstrated its crucial role during the embryo development of invertebrates and vertebrates. We recently demonstrated a massive activation of autophagy in Paracentrotus lividus embryos under cadmium stress conditions, and the...
Anatomia comparata: alla ricerca dell’antenato comune. L’obiettivo fondamentale dello studio anatomico comparativo è la ricostruzione della filogenesi, dei caratteri informativi di un’ascendenza comune e questa nuova opera editoriale si pone come base per acquisire le conoscenze sulla morfologia descrittiva e funzionale e per valutare i principali...
Gadolinium (Gd), a metal of the lanthanide series used as contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging, is released into the aquatic environment. We investigated the effects of Gd on the development of four sea urchin species: two from Europe, Paracentrotus lividus and Arbacia lixula, and two from Australia, Heliocidaris tuberculata and Centrostep...
In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring au...
Concerning autophagy, the fruit fly provides an excellent model system for in vivo studies in the context of a developing organism. Because of its short life cycle, the well-characterized genetics of the organism and the expression of genes and their regulators, the D. melanogaster model system has proven to be very useful in the understanding of t...
Autophagy is used by organisms as a defense strategy to face environmental stress. This mechanism has been described as one of the most important intracellular pathways responsible for the degradation and recycling of proteins and organelles. It can act as a cell survival mechanism if the cellular damage is not too extensive or as a cell death mech...
We studied the apoptosis rate of the cumulus cells of individual
cumulus-oocyte complex (COC), to verify a relationship with clinical
outcomes, in terms of pregnancy and implantation rates. Usually
oocytes are selected using morphological criteria. We tried to verify if
cumulus cell apoptotic rate could be used as molecular criteria in
selecting oo...
Oocyte quality is one of the main factors for the success of in vitro fertilization protocols. Apoptosis is known to affect oocyte quality and may impair subsequent embryonic development and implantation. The aim of this study was to investigate the apoptosis rate of single and pooled cumulus cells of cumulus cell–oocyte complexes (COCs), as marker...
Atmosphere, earth and water compose the environment. The presence of heavy metals in the environment has grown because of their large employment in some industrial and agricultural activities. Although these metals are terrestrial products, they flow into the sea through effluents and sewage or are directly discharged from industries placed on the...
Research in autophagy continues to accelerate,(1) and as a result many new scientists are entering the field. Accordingly, it is important to establish a standard set of criteria for monitoring macroautophagy in different organisms. Recent reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose.(2,3) There are many useful an...
The sea urchin embryo is a suitable model that offers an excellent opportunity to investigate different defence strategies activated in stress conditions. We previously showed that cadmium accumulates in a dose- and time-dependent manner into embryonic cells, activating different stress and defence mechanisms, including the synthesis of HSPs and th...
Purpose:
An observational clinical and molecular study was designed to evaluate the effects of the administration of recombinant human FSH on sperm DNA fragmentation in men with a non-classical form of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and idiopathic oligoasthenoteratozoospermia.
Methods:
In the study were included 53 men with a non-classical form o...
In order to study the defense strategies activated by Paracentrotus lividus embryos in response to sub-lethal doses of CdCl(2), we compared the induced transcripts to that of control embryos by suppression subtractive hybridization technique. We isolated five metallothionein (MT) cDNAs and other genes related to detoxification, to signaling pathway...
In recent years, research on the autophagic process has greatly increased, invading the fields of biology and medicine. Several markers of the autophagic process have been discovered and various strategies have been reported studying this molecular process in different biological systems in both physiological and stress conditions. Furthermore, mec...
In recent years, research on the autophagic process has greatly increased, invading the fields of biology and medicine. Several markers of the autophagic process have been discovered and various strategies have been reported studying this molecular process in different biological systems in both physiological and stress conditions. Furthermore, mec...
In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring au...
It is well known that sea urchin embryos are able to activate different defense strategies against stress. We previously demonstrated that cadmium treatment triggers the accumulation of metal in embryonic cells and the activation of defense systems depending on concentration and exposure time, through the synthesis of heat shock proteins and/or the...
For abstracts see the DOI resource.
https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/26.s1.75
Manganese (Mn) has been associated with embryo toxicity as it impairs differentiation of neural and skeletogenic cells in vertebrates. Nevertheless, information on the mechanisms operating at the cellular level remains scant. We took advantage of an amenable embryonic model to investigate the effects of Mn in biomineral formation. Sea urchin (Parac...
Introduction:
Kartagener's syndrome (KS) is characterized by the classic triad of chronic sinusitis, bronchiectasis and situs inversus.
This is caused by dynein arm defects in axonemal microtubules in ciliary and flagellar structures. Male patients are invariably
infertile because of the immotility of spermatozoa. We report a healthy birth that wa...
It has been proposed that the apoptosis is an essential requirement for the evolution of all animals, in fact the apoptotic
program is highly conserved from nematodes to mammals. Throughout development, apoptosis is employed by multicellular organisms
to eliminate damaged or unnecessary cells. Here, we will discuss both developmental programmed cel...
Cadmium is a heavy metal that is toxic for living organisms even at low concentrations. The presence in the environment of this metal has grown because of its large employment in some industrial and agricultural activities. Although heavy metals are terrestrially produced, they flow into the sea through effluents and sewage or are directly discharg...
In the marine environment increasing concentrations of bio-available compounds often result from anthropogenic activities. Among metal ions, manganese represents a new emergent factor in environmental contamination. Here, we studied the effects of manganese on Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin embryos using biological and biochemical approaches for...
Sea urchin embryos and larvae represent suitable model systems on where to investigate the effects of heavy metals on development
and cell viability. Here, we tested the toxic effects of low (10−12M), medium (10−9M), and high (10−6M) cadmium chloride concentrations, mimicking unpolluted, moderately and highly polluted seawaters, respectively, on Pa...
It was previously demonstrated that Paracentrotus lividus Hsp56 mitochondrial chaperonin is constitutively expressed during development, that it increases after heat-shock and cadmium treatment, and that it has a specific territorial distribution, both in normal and heat-shocked embryos, as shown by immunolocalization experiments. In this work, we...
It was previously demonstrated that Paracentrotus lividus Hsp56 mitochondrial chaperonin is constitutively expressed during development, that it increases after heat-shock and cadmium treatment, and that it has a specific territorial distribution, both in normal and heat-shocked embryos, as shown by immunolocalization experiments. In this work, we...
In the present paper we applied confocal microscopy and fluorescence technologies for studying the distribution and the oxidative activity of sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) mitochondria during development, by in vivo incubating eggs and embryos with cell-permeant MitoTracker probes. We calculated, by a mathematical model, the intensity values,...
To investigate the effects of recombinant (r-) LH supplementation in "low responder" patients undergoing ovarian stimulation with r-FSH for an IVF program. The apoptosis rate in cumulus cells was used as an indicator of oocyte quality.
Comparison of the rate of DNA fragmentation and caspase-3 activity in cumulus cells in women stimulated with r-LH...
Cadmium is a heavy metal toxic for living organisms even at low concentrations. It does not have any biological role, and since it is a permanent metal ion, it is accumulated by many organisms. In the present paper we have studied the apoptotic effects of continuous exposure to subacute/sublethal cadmium concentrations on a model system: Paracentro...
Cadmium is a heavy metal considered one of the most toxic pollutants both in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, which causes a series of toxic effects in differents organisms. We have previously studied the effects of a continuous exposure to subacute/sublethal cadmium concentration in Paracentrotus lividus embryos, a very suitable model system fo...
To investigate the presence of programmed cell death in unfertilized oocytes after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), assuming that previous apoptotic events could be correlated with the fertilization failure.
Comparison of the rate of DNA fragmentation in human oocytes at different stages of maturation soon after pick-up (control) and in unf...
Marine organisms are highly sensitive to many environmental stresses, and consequently, the analysis of their bio-molecular responses to different stress agents is very important for the understanding of putative repair mechanisms. Sea urchin embryos represent a simple though significant model system to test how specific stress can simultaneously a...
In a previous paper we demonstrated that, in Paracentrotus lividus embryos, deciliation represents a specific kind of stress that induces an increase in the levels of an acidic protein of about 40 kD (p40). Here we report that deciliation also induces an increase in Hsp40 chaperone levels and enhancement of its ectodermal localization. We suggest t...
In this study, we demonstrate by a variety of approaches (ie, morphological analysis, Western blots, immunolocalization, and the use of specific antibodies) that hyperosmotic deciliation stress of sea urchin embryos induces a thermotolerant response. Deciliation is also able to activate a phosphorylation signaling cascade the effector of which migh...
In this study, we demonstrate by a variety of approaches (ie, morphological analysis, Western blots, immu-nolocalization, and the use of specific antibodies) that hyperosmotic deciliation stress of sea urchin embryos induces a thermotolerant response. Deciliation is also able to activate a phosphorylation signaling cascade the effector of which mig...
Paracentrotus lividus embryos at the early pluteus stage undergo spontaneous apoptosis. Using a TUNEL (TdT-mediated dUTP Nick-End Labelling) assay on whole mount embryos, we showed that there was a different distribution of the apoptotic cells in different optical sections. Not more than 20% of cells in plutei were spontaneously apoptotic, as confi...
We have previously demonstrated that Paracentrotus lividus nuclear genome encodes for the heat shock inducible chaperonin homolog Hsp 56 (1) and that the mature protein is localized in the mitochondrial matrix (2). In this paper we report that constitutive Hsp56 is maternally inherited, in fact it is present in the in unfertilized eggs, and that it...
Paracentrotus lividus embryos, at post-blastular stage, when subjected to a rise in temperature from physiologic (20 degrees C) to 31 degrees C, synthesize a large group of heat shock proteins (hsps), and show a severe inhibition of bulk protein synthesis. We show, by mono- and two-dimensional electrophoresis, that also EGTA (ethylene glycol-bis[be...
Chaperonins are ubiquitous proteins that facilitate protein folding in an adenosine triphosphate-dependent manner. Here we report the isolation of a sea urchin cDNA (Plhsp60) coding for mitochondrial chaperonin (Cpn60), whose basal expression is further enhanced by heat shock. The described cDNA corresponds to a full-length mRNA encoding a protein...
Work on stress proteins in sea urchin embryos carried out over the last 20 years is reviewed and the following major results are described. Entire sea urchin embryos, if subjected to a rise in temperature at any postblastular stage undergo a wave of heat shock protein (hsp) synthesis and survive. If subjected to the same rise between fertilization...
In this report, by using mono- and two-dimensional electrophoretic analysis, we demonstrate that deciliation on sea urchin embryos induces a stress response. Deciliation indeed causes not only the activation of ciliary subroutine, but also a transient decrease of bulk protein synthesis. This decrease is in agreement with our previous results on hea...
It is demonstrated by DNA electrophoresis analysis, morphological observations and TdT in situ reaction, that Paracentrotus embryos if treated with TPA plus heat undergo an apoptotic reaction. Indication is also obtained that non treated embryos undergo spontaneous apoptosis at the early pluteus stage, especially in the districts of arms and intest...
Paracentrotus lividus mitochondrial matrix contains a constitutive hsp of 56-KDa which cross reacts with a serum anti-hsp-60 chaperonine from yeast mitochondria. The localization of hsps preexisting or newly synthesized in different subcellular fractions of gastrula embryos is also analyzed by two-dimensional electrophoresis.
TPA treatment of sea urchin embryos is able to induce thermotolerance. Evidence is provided that TPA treatment induces phosphorylation of a constitutive stress protein of 38 KDa.
The synthesis of stress proteins in Paracentrotus lividus embryos has been analysed by two-dimensional electrophoresis following either heat shock or ZnSO4 administration. As already shown for the 70-KDa hsp (heat shock proteins) a non responsive period, that is before hatching, exists followed by a responsive period in which up to 16 hsps are synt...
We report the nucleotide sequence of a 4470-bp fragment derived from a sea urchin genomic clone containing part of a heat-shock protein 70 (Hsp 70)-encoding gene. This fragment, named hsp70 gene II, contains 1271 bp of the flanking region and 3299 bp of structural gene sequence interrupted by five introns and encoding the N-terminal 371 amino acids...
In Paracentrotus lividus embryos, treatment with zinc ions induces the synthesis of the two major stress proteins with the same molecular weight as those induced by heat shock. The developmental stages responsive to zinc ion treatment are the same as those responsive to heat shock. However, zinc treatment induces a longer lasting synthesis of the s...
Three clones containing Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin DNA sequences which cross-hybridize to Drosophila heat shock protein (hsp) 70 gene were isolated. The sequence arrangements in the three cloned DNA inserts were compared by restriction and cross-hybridization analysis. The results showed that they contain four different genes related to one D...
Preheating at 31 degrees C induces thermotolerance in Paracentrotus lividus embryos, which therefore become able to withstand 1-h treatment at the otherwise lethal temperature of 35 degrees C, and to develop normally. The acquisition of thermotolerance is positively correlated with the amount of heat shock proteins produced during the 31 degrees C...
It is demonstrated that sea urchin embryos of the species Sphaerechinus granularis are able to respond to heat shock by producing heat shock proteins at the same stage as embryos of Paracentrotus lividus, i.e. after hatching. Arbacia lixula embryos are able to synthesize heat shock proteins already at the stage of 64-128 blastomeres. Embryonic surv...
In situ hybridization experiments with a labeled DNA probe indicate that the ability to respond to heat shock with the production of the mRNA for the 70 kd heat shock protein is segregated into the ectodermal cells already at the gastrula stage or earlier during the embryonic development of Paracentrotus lividus.
Embryos dissociated into cells retain the stage-specific response to heat shock. The dissociated cells, irrespectively of whether they are reaggregated or not, undergo the developmental changes in their ability to respond to heat shock, at the same time as the entire embryos. The conclusion of the present experiments is that sea urchin embryonic ce...
The production of heat-shock proteins in sea urchin embryos is accompanied by the appearance at the polysomal level of their relative mRNAs, as shown by their translation in a cell-free system; thus suggesting that the regulation of their production occurs at a transcriptional level. The mechanism for the inhibition of the bulk protein synthesis an...
Of the sea urchin embryonic tissues, the ectoderm is that which is able to respond to heat shock with the synthesis of heat shock proteins (hsp), whereas the other tissues seem to be unable to synthesize hsp. The hsp are highly concentrated in the soluble cytoplasm; very little if any are found in the polysomes, monosomes and RNP particles; one of...
Heating sea urchin embryos at 31°C greatly reduces the synthesis of the bulk proteins, whereas it highly stimulates the synthesis of some new proteins, the main ones being two closely migrating proteins of about 70,000 daltons. The production of heat-shock proteins is obtained only if the embryos are heated after hatching. Stages which produce heat...
Heating at 31 degrees C produces in sea urchin gastrulae a general and severe inhibition of the protein synthesis together with a marked increase in the rate of synthesis of one or very few classes of specific proteins.
Paracentrotus lividus embryos were continuously labeled with P32 from hatching blastula to pluteus. The archenteron cells were then separated from the rest of the embryo and the radioactivity accumulated into the ribosomal RNA of the two cell groups measured. The results clearly indicate that the bulk of ribosomal RNA is mainly if not entirely, syn...
Experiments of short term and long term labeling of the nuclear and cytoplasmic RNA of sea urchin blastulae indicate that RNA capping occurs in the nucleus and are in agreement with the hypothesis that capped RNA is transferred to the cytoplasm.
Paracentrotus lividus embryos at the hatching blastula stage very quickly incorporate radioactivity from labeled nucleosides (except uridine) or 32P- or methyl-labeled methionine into a portion of the RNA that has been identified as a "cap". The most probable sequence of this cap is m7G (5') ppp (5')mAmpCp. A very active "capping" and methylation o...
Cells of sea urchin hatching blastulae and gastrulae when reaggregated together do not influence each other with respect to the rate of rRNA synthesis. Extracts from unfertilized eggs and embryos inhibited rRNA synthesis by gastrulae. However, the inhibition was equally strong with extracts from stages that have a low rate of rRNA synthesis (eggs,...
A cell-free system has been developed that allows incubation of prelabeled oocyte nucleoli, with no spontaneous processing of the 32-S rRNA precursor.It is shown that the addition of a nuclear lysate of embryos, of a stage that in vivo shows a fast rRNA maturation, causes the specific cleavage of the 32-S rRNA precursor into the 27-S and 21-S produ...
It has been shown in a previous paper (Sconzo et al., 1970a) that when fertilized Paracentrotus lividus eggs are exposed to exogenous P32 for 8 hr, the latter becomes incorporated into the nucleotidic pool and that the specific activity of the α phosphates of the nucleotides remains constant at least for a further 16 hr. This knowledge enables one...
It is demonstrated that isolated nuclei of sea urchin embryos are able to incorporate radioactive nucleotides into RNA.Some properties of the incorporation system are described.
e="Abs1">It is demonstrated that isolated nuclei of sea urchin embryos are able to incorporate radioactive nucleotides into RNA.Some properties of the incorporation system...
