Publications (10)28.06 Total impact
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Article: Perinatal risk factors and mode of delivery correlated to survival and psychomotor disability in extremely low birth weight infants.
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ABSTRACT: Extreme preterm birth, <28 weeks of gestation, represents a public health concern with major economic implications, being the leading cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity. A single-centre retrospective cohort study was carried out to assess the role of caesarean section and to identify perinatal factors affecting neonatal survival and psychomotor development in these infants. 57 cases with complete maternal, obstetrical and neonatological information were selected for this study and neurological development was assessed for at least 18 months of life. Infant survival and neurological morbidity rates were directly and inversely correlated to birth weights and gestational age at birth, respectively. In multivariate analysis only extreme prematurity (<or=25 weeks) and birth weight <500 g were significantly associated with mortality, whereas no factor correlated to neuromotor impairment. The management of preterm labour at the limit of viability is always challenging. Knowledge of risk factors associated with obstetrical situations may affect medical management and indeed offer useful information for parent counselling.Gynecologic and Obstetric Investigation 04/2008; 66(2):91-7. · 1.28 Impact Factor -
Article: Smoking during pregnancy: a risk factor for peripheral neuropathy?
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ABSTRACT: Studies dealing with the outcomes of developmental carbon monoxide (CO) exposure on myelination in rat offspring are reviewed. Prenatal CO exposure from gestational day 0 to gestational day 20 impairs myelin deposition around peripheral axons resulting in a significant hypomyelination in juvenile and adult rats. Myelin protein patterns analyzed by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and lipid patterns analyzed by the HPTLC method are not altered in both peripheral and central nervous systems of CO-exposed offspring. Interestingly, when sphingomyelin is extracted and purified, the derivatization by OPA reagent and analysis by reversed-phase HPLC reveal a significant increase in sphingosine levels in peripheral nervous system but not in central nervous system of CO-exposed rats. The above morphological and biochemical alterations are not accompanied by motor disabilities.Developmental Neuroscience 02/2008; 30(4):224-30. · 3.63 Impact Factor -
Article: Acute exposure to methylmercury at two developmental windows: focus on neurobehavioral and neurochemical effects in rat offspring.
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ABSTRACT: The neurobehavioral and neurochemical effects produced by prenatal methylmercury exposure (8 mg/kg, gestational-days 8 or 15), were investigated in rats. On postnatal day 40, animals exposed to methylmercury and tested in the open field arena, showed a reduction in the number of rearings, whereas the number of crossings and resting time was not altered with respect to the age-matched control rats. The methylmercury-exposed groups showed a lower level of exploratory behavior as well as an impairment in habituation and working memory when subjected to the novel object exploration task. The neophobia displayed by methylmercury-exposed rats is unlikely to be attributed to a higher degree of anxiety. Prenatal methylmercury exposure did not affect motor coordination or motor learning in 40-day-old rats subjected to the balance task on a rotating rod, and it did not impair the onset of reflexive behavior in pups screened for righting reflex, cliff aversion and negative geotaxis. In cortical cell cultures from pups exposed to methylmercury during gestation, basal extracellular glutamate levels were higher, whereas the KCl-evoked extracellular glutamate levels were lower than that measured in cultures from rats born to control mothers. In addition, a higher responsiveness of glutamate release to N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor activation was evident in cortical cell cultures from pups born from methylmercury-treated dams than in cultures obtained from control rats. The present results suggest that acute maternal methylmercury exposure induces, in rat offspring, subtle changes in short-term memory as well as in exploratory behavior. These impairments seem to be associated to alterations of cortical glutamatergic signaling.Neuroscience 10/2006; 141(3):1619-29. · 3.38 Impact Factor -
Article: OP08.02: Fetal subcutaneous adipose tissue and gestational diabetes mellitus
Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology 08/2006; 28(4):468 - 468. · 3.01 Impact Factor -
Article: OP08.08: Ultrasound subcutaneous tissue measurements in fetuses of HIV infected pregnant women according to different antiretroviral therapies
Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology 08/2006; 28(4):470 - 470. · 3.01 Impact Factor -
Article: Glutamic acid decarboxylase and GABA immunoreactivities in the cerebellar cortex of adult rat after prenatal exposure to a low concentration of carbon monoxide.
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ABSTRACT: Glutamic acid decarboxylase and GABA immunoreactivities were qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated in the cerebellar cortex of adult rats prenatally exposed to a low concentration of carbon monoxide (75 parts per million). Carbon monoxide-exposed and control rats were perfused with modified Bouin's fluid and their cerebella were embedded in paraffin. Sections from the vermis of each cerebellum were stained with Toluidine Blue or assayed with anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase 65/67 or with anti-GABA antisera. In the Toluidine Blue-stained sections, no differences were observed in the microscopic structure of the cerebellar cortex between carbon monoxide-exposed rats and controls. The distribution patterns of glutamic acid decarboxylase and GABA immunoreactivities in the cerebellar cortex of the treated animals were qualitatively comparable to those of the controls, and in accordance with previous descriptions of glutamic acid decarboxylase and GABA immunoreactivities in the rat cerebellar cortex. However, quantitative analyses demonstrated a significant reduction of immunoreactivities to both substances in the exposed rats in comparison with the controls. The reduction regarded: in the molecular layer, the number of glutamic acid decarboxylase/GABA-immunoreactive neuronal bodies and of axon terminals and the area they covered; in the Purkinje neuron layer, the number and the area covered by glutamic acid decarboxylase/GABA immunoreactive axon terminals. The differences detected in the prenatally exposed adult rats could be due to carbon monoxide-induced impairment of the differentiation of cerebellar GABA synthesizing neurons. A consequently diminished synthesis of GABA might account for some behavioral disorders detected in adult rats submitted to the same experimental procedure.Neuroscience 02/2005; 135(3):897-905. · 3.38 Impact Factor -
Article: Transgenic mice expressing F3/contactin from the transient axonal glycoprotein promoter undergo developmentally regulated deficits of the cerebellar function.
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ABSTRACT: We have shown that transgenic transient axonal glycoprotein (TAG)/F3 mice, in which the mouse axonal glycoprotein F3/contactin was misexpressed from a regulatory region of the gene encoding the transient axonal glycoprotein TAG-1, exhibit a transient disruption of cerebellar granule and Purkinje cell development [Development 130 (2003) 29]. In the present study we explore the neurobehavioural consequences of this mutation. We report on assays of reproductive parameters (gestation length, litter size and offspring viability) and on somatic and neurobehavioural end-points (sensorimotor development, homing performance, motor activity, motor coordination and motor learning). Compared with wild-type littermates, TAG/F3 mice display delayed sensorimotor development, reduced exploratory activity and impaired motor activity, motor coordination and motor learning. The latter parameters, in particular, were affected also in adult mice, despite the apparent recovery of cerebellar morphology, suggesting that subtle changes of neuronal circuitry persist in these animals after development is complete. These behavioural deficits indicate that the finely coordinated expression of immunoglobulin-like cell adhesion molecules such as TAG-1 and F3/contactin is of key relevance to the functional, as well as morphological maturation of the cerebellum.Neuroscience 02/2004; 123(1):155-66. · 3.38 Impact Factor -
Article: Antinutritional effects of fumonisin B1 and pathophysiological consequences.
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ABSTRACT: Due to its structural similarity with sphingosine, fumonisin B(1) (FB(1)) inhibits ceramide synthase (a key enzyme of sphingolipid biosynthesis) leading to an intracellular accumulation of sphingoid bases with a consequent increase of sphinganine/sphingosine (SA/SO) ratio. In adult male rats, dietary exposure to fumonisin induces a significant increase in both SA concentrations and SA/SO ratio in kidney, but not in liver and brain, as well as a significant reduction of body weight gain. Regarding the brain, the developing rat is more sensitive to FB(1) than the adult rat. FB(1) treatment produces in the forebrain and brainstem: (i) an increase in SA levels and SA/SO ratio, (ii) a reduction in myelin deposition, and (iii) an impairment of 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphohydrolase (CNP) activity. FB(1) effects on myelin are similar to those produced by starvation (temporary removal of pups from dam during postnatal period), thus suggesting that hypomyelination could be due, at least partly, to a nutritional deficiency. Finally, FB(1) reduces the uptake of folate in different cell lines. The resulting folate deficiency could explain the association of FB(1) exposure with neural tube defects.Toxicology Letters 05/2003; 140-141:459-63. · 3.23 Impact Factor -
Article: In vivo neurochemical effects of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor ENA713 in rat hippocampus.
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ABSTRACT: Oral ENA713 (0.5, 1.5 and 4.5 mg/kg), an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEI), dose-dependently enhanced extracellular acetylcholine concentrations in the hippocampus of freely moving rats. This effect was paralleled by changes in both noradrenergic and dopaminergic transmission. In particular, ENA713 significantly decreased noradrenaline concentrations, whereas it significantly increased homovanillic acid levels, without affecting dopamine concentrations. Neither serotonin nor gamma-aminobutyric acid levels were modified by ENA713. These findings extend the neurochemical profile of ENA713 and suggest that it could be useful for the treatment of Alzheimer-type dementia which is associated with multiple neurotransmitter abnormalities in the brain.Brain Research 06/2000; 865(2):268-71. · 2.73 Impact Factor -
Article: Neurofunctional effects of developmental sodium fluoride exposure in rats.
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ABSTRACT: Contrasting studies on the toxic effects of sodium fluoride (NaF) during developmental stages of Wistar rats, lead us to investigate the neurofunctional effects caused by its perinatal exposure, devoid of any overt sign of toxicity and/or gross malformation. NaF solution was administered to pregnant rats by intragastric gavage at a daily dose of 2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg from gestational day 0 to day 9 after parturition. Developmental NaF exposure caused sex and dose specific behavioural deficits which affected males more than females in the majority of the evaluated end-points. In particular, the perinatal exposure to NaF 5.0 mg/kg, significantly affected learning, memory, motor coordination and blood pressure only in male rats. Conversely, a lack of habituation upon the second presentation of the objects and failure in the ability to discriminate between the novel and the familiar object were observed only in NaF 5.0 mg/kg female rats. Finally, a significant impairment of sexual behaviour was observed in male rats at both NaF dose levels. The present data indicate that perinatal rat exposure to NaF results in long lasting functional sex-specific alterations which occur at fluoride levels approaching those experienced by offspring of mothers.European review for medical and pharmacological sciences 11(4):211-24. · 1.04 Impact Factor
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Institutions
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2000–2008
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Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro
Bari, Apulia, Italy
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