Maria Ángeles Esteban

University of Murcia | UM · Department of Cell Biology and Histology

Mitochondria are a crucial cellular organelle that organizes a wide range of biologicalprocesses, from energy production and calcium homeostasis to cell proliferation, differentiation, anddeath as well as inflammation. Mitochondria also support immune cell phenotypes and function.The aim of this communication is to evaluate the mitochondrial status...

Iron is essential for all living things but especially for marine organisms due to its low availability in the marine environment. Iron regulation is key in all vertebrates and is controlled by hepcidin-ferroportin. To improve the knowledge of iron homeostasis in fish, an iron overload was induced in gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata), chosen as a s...

Keywords: Pinus halepensis, resin, GC/MS, antioxidant activity, antifungal activity

The present study investigated the effect of partial substitution of soybean meal (SM) for fish meal (FM) with or without addition of inulin and oligofructose in pikeperch feed. A diet containing FM was considered as the basal diet, and then three other diets were prepared by: 1) replacing 50% of FM with SM (SM50), 2) replacing 50% of FM with SM an...

The role of subcutaneous adipose tissue adipocytes and the effects of fatty acids on carrageenan-induced skin inflammation in gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) were studied. Fish were injected intramuscularly with phosphate-buffered saline (control) or λ-carrageenin (1%), and skin samples collected at the injection site at 3 and 6 h post-injection...

The South Lagoon of Tunis (Tunisia) is a Mediterranean lagoon adversely affected by industrial contaminants, harbour activity and untreated urban sewage. In this lagoon, the clam Ruditapes decussatus has been widely used as a biomonitor of seawater pollution through measurements of parameters related to oxidative stress and neurotoxicity. However,...

Vitamin D3 (VD3) participated widely in the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB)-mediated inflammation, apoptosis, and autophagy through the vitamin D receptor (VDR). However, the molecular mechanisms remain not understood in teleost. The present study investigated the functions of VD3/VDR on intestinal inflammation, autophagy, and apoptosis of turbot in vivo...

The aim of this study was the induction and characterization of extracellular traps (ETs) produced by gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.) head-kidney leucocytes. The cells were incubated several times (10, 30, 60, 120, and 180 min) with different concentrations of the stimulants diluted in RPMI-1640 culture medium: RPMI-1640 (control), β-glucan fr...

Nanoparticles-based treatments is of utmost importance for aquaculture. In this scenario, chitosan-based nanoparticles have been proposed due to the properties of chitosan, which include mucoadhesiveness. Nevertheless, pivotal parameters of chitosan, such as degree of acetylation and molecular weight, are commonly underestimated in the available li...

The circadian clock of vertebrates regulates many biological processes, including the immune system. This paper investigated whether responsiveness to poly (I:C), a synthetic analog of double-stranded RNA used as an immunostimulant, exhibits day/night differences in zebrafish. Fish were intraperitoneally (IP) injected with either phosphate-buffered...

Herein, we describe the synthesis of Schiff base derived organosilatranes having pyridine moiety in the scaffold by using the simple synthetic method. The structure of the newly synthesized heterocyclic compounds was deduced by using various spectroscopic studies. The Chemosensor demonstrated the high selectivity and sensitivity for Zn²⁺ ions by di...

From the discovery of pleurocidin in skin mucus of winter flounder, many new related sequences have been found, forming a fish-exclusive family of antimicrobial peptides (AMP) called piscidin. Their mature peptides have a broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and can be involved in the innate immune response. In the present work, two paralogous tri...

The λ-carrageenin is a sulphated mucopolysaccharide that has been used for decades to induce experimental inflammation in mammals. However, it has been little considered in fish. We studied the in vitro effects of λ-carrageenin on gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.) head-kidney leucocytes (HKLs). For this purpose, HKLs were incubated with serial c...

The designing of chemosensors is a fascinating and growing research field among the scientific community. This article emphasizes the synthesis of thiosemicarbazone-triazole bearing siloxy framework (5a-5c) by utilizing an effective and biocompatible Cu(I) catalyzed “Click Silylation” approach. All the newly synthesized compounds (4a-4c and 5a-5c)...

A silatranyl linked Schiff base is designed and synthesized via a condensation technique utilizing 4-(Diethylamino)-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde and aminopropylsilane. Various methods, such as (¹H and ¹³C) NMR and mass spectrometry, were used to characterize the structure of the generated compounds. Further silatrane-3a was successfully immobilized over s...

Advances in fisheries and aquaculture science often follow the introduction of new tools or analytic methods [...]

Nucleobases, nucleosides and nucleotides can act as chemical markers and immunnostimulants. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization and quadrupole time of flight-mass spectrometry was used to determine bioactive compounds from different yeast species isolated from extremal marine environments, Yarrowia lipolytica,...

The impact of dietary supplementation with silk fibroin (SF) microparticles on the wound healing process in gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) skin was studied. A control diet was enriched with different SF levels: 0 (control), 50 (SF50 diet), and 100 (SF100 diet) mg Kg-1 to form three experimental diets and was fed to seabream for 30 days. Experime...

Host defense peptides (HDP) are among the most ancient immune molecules in animals and clearly reflect an ancestral evolutionary history involving pathogen-host interactions. Hepcidins are a very widespread family of HDPs among vertebrates and are especially diverse in teleosts. We have investigated the identification of new hepcidins in gilthead s...

Aquaculture sustainable development is necessary since it is categorized as the most important source of aquatic products for human consumption and it is expected to keep growing shortly. For this reason, the addition of natural immunostimulants to fish diet to improve fish health and to preserve the environment have great importance in aquaculture...

The current work aimed to carry out an in vivo study of the λ-carrageenin-induced inflammation in the skin of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). The fish were injected intramuscularly with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, as control) or λ-carrageenin (1% in PBS), and the injection zone was evaluated by real-time ultrasonography (Vevo Lab, VisualSoni...

Fish stress is a major concern in the aquaculture industry. Many stressors coming from routine practices can predispose fish to compromised growth, immunity and overall health. This study focuses on the characterization of the skin microbiota using next generation sequencing (NGS) platform by targeting a genomic marker 16S and to determine growth p...

Cantharidin is a toxic vesicant terpene used in folk and traditional medicine due to its various therapeutic effects. Since there are no previous data on the effect of cantharidin in fish, this study aimed to investigate the in vitro related-inflammatory effects of cantharidin in gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.) head-kidney leucocytes (HKLs). I...

In this manuscript, a new series of thiosemicarbazone-triazole linked organotriethoxysilanes (6a-6g) have been synthesized using Cu (I) catalyzed click reaction and characterized by spectroscopic techniques including IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, TGA and ESI-QTOF mass spectrometry. The compound 6a was screened for its photophysical properties using UV-Visibl...

The supply of nutrients, such as antioxidant agents, to fish cells still represents a challenge in aquaculture. In this context, we investigated solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) composed of a combination of Gelucire® 50/13 and Precirol® ATO5 to administer a grape seed extract (GSE) mixture containing several antioxidant compounds. The combination of...

To provide practical feeding management guidelines preceding a stressful episode during farming practices, European sea bass juveniles (initial weight: 72.3 g) were fed for 60-days different fish meal (FM) and fish oil (FO) dietary levels [high (30% FM, 15% FO, FM30/FO15), intermediate (20% FM, 7% FO, FM20/FO7), and low (10% FM, 3% FO, FM10/FO3)] i...

Mucosal immunology is the study of the immune responses that occur at mucosal surfaces, such as the gut, skin, gills, and nose. These tissues in fish are closely associated with the external environment. The mucosal immune system must provide protective immunity against pathogens but remaining tolerant to nonharmful environmental substances. In the...

Schiff bases of veratraldehyde based organosilatranes have been synthesized. The colorimetric and fluorimetric detection of 3a and its hybrid silica nanoparticles (V-NPs) revealed significant sensorial ability only towards Cu ²⁺ and Fe ³⁺ ions.

In the present study, the modulation of the transcriptional immune response (microarray analysis) in the head kidney (HK) of the anadromous fish Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) fed a diet supplemented with an olive fruit extract (AQUOLIVE®) was evaluated. At the end of the trial (133 days), in order to investigate the immunomodulatory properties of t...

Inflammation is one of the main causes of loss of homeostasis at both the systemic and molecular levels. The aim of this study was to investigate in silico the conservation of inflammation-related proteins in the gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.). Open reading frames of the selected genes were used as input in the STRING database for protein–pro...

The yeast Yarrowia lipolytica has been industrially adopted for docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid production under good manufacturing practices over 2 decades. In recent years, it has claimed attention for novel biotechnological applications, such as a functional feed additive for animals. Studies have demonstrated that this yeast is s...

Although inflammation is a well-characterized process in mammals, few studies have dealt with the mechanisms involved in this process in fish. The present study evaluated the expression of inflammation-related genes in the skin of fish injected with carrageenin, which has previously been used in inflammatory models in mammals. In our case, fish wer...

Increased demand of potentialtherapeutics has stimulated an expeditious search of new organosilicon analogues in the field of drug designing and as sensor of essential nutrients. Herein, we design anthracene based triazolyl triethoxysilanes ATES(1–7) tethered via click chemistry and carried out introspection into their sensing ability towards free...

Gilthead seabream is bred mainly in fish farms in the Mediterranean Sea. One important factor responsible for the deterioration of fish quality is lipid oxidation. Moringa oleifera leaves have been described as having high antioxidant content. This work investigates the effect of dietary supplementation with Moringa leaves on the antioxidant activi...

Because the role of the liver of fishes in providing possible immunity remains largely unknown, the aim of this work was to identify and characterise different humoral defence mechanisms in the liver homogenates and bile of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) for the first time. Total protein levels and several immune parameters (complement activity,...

Ceratonia siliqua L. pods have been classically used in Mediterranean folk medicine as a potential source of natural antibacterial and antioxidant agents. The in vitro antiradical, immunostimulant, antibacterial and cytotoxic properties, as well as phytochemical composition of the ethanolic and aqueous extracts obtained from carob pods harvested at...

To date, the mechanisms of inflammation have been poorly studied in fish of commercial interest, due to the lack of development of appropriate experimental models. The current study evaluated a local inflammation triggered by a polymeric carrageenin mixture (a mucopolysaccharide derived from the red seaweed Chondrus crispus) in the skin of gilthead...

In this article, we proposed the synthesis of chalcone derived organosilanes based on polycyclic aromatic compounds. All the synthesized compounds were well categorized using numerous spectroscopic techniques such as IR, NMR (¹H and ¹³C) and mass spectroscopy. Additionally, the compound is used for the recognition study towards the various metal io...

Designing of chemo-sensors is a new scope of intrigue among researchers. After inspecting the beneficial and harmful effects of Sn(II) metal ions in living species, 1,2,3- Triazole based chemo-sensor 4 a have been synthesized via click route. In the current article, literarily new 1,2,3-Triazoles (4 a–4 d) have been synthesized and identified via v...

This article presents the design, synthesis and characterization of a series of new acetylenic bis-chalcones (5a-5c) and chalcone functionalized 1,2,3-triazole allied bis-organosilanes (6a-6c) using aldol condensation followed by the Cu(I) catalyzed click strategy. The absorption studies of the designed compounds 5a and 6a were examined towards var...

In the current study, five isatin hydrazone schiff base linked acetylinic scaffolds have been synthesized via condensation reaction of isatin hydrazone with aldehydic groups. In order to identify the structure characteristics of the prepared hydrazone derivatives, IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis and X- ray crystallography were c...

Nanoplastics (NPs) are one of the most abundant environment-threatening nanomaterials on the market. The objective of this study was to determine in vitro if functionalized NPs are cytotoxic by themselves or increase the toxicity of metals. For that, we used 50 nm polystyrene nanoparticles with distinct surface functionalization (pristine, PS-Plain...

Microalgae are attracting considerable interest worldwide. In the present study, two native microalgae strains isolated from Tunisian cost were identified as Chlamydomonas sp. and Navicula sp. We characterized their pigment and protein contents, as well as their carbohydrate and lipid productivity. The predominant fatty acids were found to be α-lin...

The digestive system presents daily rhythms at both physiological and histological levels. Although cell morphology rhythms in mammals have been reported, they have scarcely been investigated in fish. The aim of the present research was to investigate the existence of daily rhythms in the morphology of cells in the liver and intestine of a teleost...

The external mucus layer that covers fish skin contains numerous immune substances scarcely studied that act as the first line of defence against a broad spectrum of pathogens. This study aimed to characterize and describe for the first time several humoral immune defence parameters in the skin mucus of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) after in...

This study investigated the acute inflammatory response induced by subcutaneous injection of carrageenin (1%) or phosphate‐buffered saline (control) in gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). Skin mucus, serum, head kidney (HK) and liver were sampled at 1.5, 3 and 6 hr post‐injection (p.i.) to determine the immune and antioxidant status of this fish spe...

Disease outbreaks continue to represent one of the main bottlenecks for the sustainable development of the aquaculture industry. In marine aquaculture, many species from the Vibrio genus are serious opportunistic pathogens responsible for significant losses to producers. In this study, the effects on the immune response and the skin microbiota of E...

Vibrosis is one of the major threats in aquaculture farming, and due to the increasing antimicrobial resistance of different Vibrio species, there is an urgent need to replace conventional treatments with more sustainable solutions. Antimicrobial molecules such as organic acids (OA) and nature-identical compounds (NIC) are currently finding a centr...

This study investigated the antioxidant enzyme activities in the skin mucus of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.) at 3 and 7 days post-wounding (dpw). The expression levels of the genes that encode stress proteins (grp170, grp94, grp75, sod and hsp70) and skin regeneration-related proteins (tf, igf1, tgfb1, der1, apo1 and erdj3) in the skin also...

The effect of dietary grape (Vitis vinifera) seed extract (GSE) on growth performance and mucosal immune parameters in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fry was studied. Fish (1.3 g mean weight) were randomly distributed in nine tanks (15 fish per tank) and fed diets containing GSE at 0 (control), 100, and 200 mg kg−1for 60 days. The results show...

This work aimed to carry out an in vivo study of the skin healing process in gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) after being experimentally wounded. Firstly, the structure of normal skin was studied by real‐time ultrasonography (Vevo Lab, VisualSonics) and light microscopy. Besides this, experimental wounds were made on the left flank of each fish wi...

The present article reports the synthesis and structural characterization of triazole appended isatin linked silane-based sensor using highly efficient click chemistry approach. The yellow-coloured solution of highly selective chemosensor turned red in the presence of Ag+ ions and red shift in the absorption spectra was also observed during additio...

Debaryomyces hansenii BCS004 strain is a non‐pathogenic, polyamine and superoxide dismutase secreting marine yeast. The objective of this study was to investigate the marine yeast DhBCS004 as probiotics and evaluate its antimicrobial properties and dietary immunostimulant effect on gilthead seabream specimens when administered at 106 colony‐forming...

This study evaluates the effects of dietary inclusion of grape pomace flour (GPF) on growth, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, innate-adaptive immunity, and immune genes expression in Labeo rohita against Flavobacterium columnaris. In both normal and challenged fish the growth rate, hematology and biochemical parameters significantly increased when f...