Ricerc@Sapienza

BACKGROUND AND AIM: A personalized approach to therapy has great promise to improve disease outcomes. To this end, the identification of different subsets of patients according with the prevalent pathogenic process might guide in the choice of therapeutic strategy. We hypothesize that UC patients might be stratified according to distinctive cytokine profiles and/or to a specific mucosa-associated microbiota.

A large amount of data show that AR and asthma are associated both epidemiologically and clinically, introducing the definition of “united airway disease”. The mechanisms underlying such association were initially suggested to start from the nose, including the loss of the protective and homeostatic effects of nasal function, the activation of a naso-bronchial reflex and the spread of allergic inflammation from the nose to the lower airways. Later, other factors such as microbial stimuli and systemic inflammatory mechanisms, involving bloodstream and bone marrow, were advocated.

Sarcopenia, the progressive and generalised loss of muscle mass and strength/function, is a major health issue in older adults given its high prevalence and burdensome clinical implications. Over the years, this condition has been endorsed as a marker for discriminating biological from chronological age. However, the absence of a unified operational definition has hampered its full appreciation by healthcare providers, researchers and policy-makers.

We investigated the efficacy of different probiotics and bacteria used in dairy products to prevent the development of obesity and ameliorate established obesity in C57BL/6J mice fed a high fat diet (HFD). For the preventive efficacy, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, L. acidophilus LA1/K8, a mixture of Bifidobacterium lactis Bi1, B. breve Bbr8 and B. breve BL10 (B. mix), or a mixture of L. bulgaricus Lb2 and S. termophilus Z57 were given to mice before (2 weeks) and together with HFD (12 weeks). B.

Immunity to pathogens is ensured through integration of early responses mediated by innate cells and late effector functions taking place after terminal differentiation of adaptive lymphocytes. In this context, innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) and adaptive T cells represent a clear example of how prototypical effector functions, including polarized expression of cytokines and/or cytotoxic activity, can occur with overlapping modalities but different timing.

Differentiation of Natural Killer (NK) cells is a stepwise process having its origin in the bone marrow and proceeding in the periphery, where these cells follow organ specific trajectories. Several soluble factors and cytokines regulate the distinct stages of NK cell differentiation, and ultimately, their functional properties.