Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2020-10-15"
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- Regucalcin as one of the guardians of the male reproductive functionPublication . Silva, Ana Manuela dos Santos; Baptista, Cláudio Jorge Maia; Correia, Sara Carina de LimaMale reproductive function is highly sensitive to extrinsic testicular damage or intrinsic modifications, which consequently affects spermatogenesis leading to declined sperm quality and compromised fertility. These reproductive modifications can represent a collateral effect, for example from an oncological therapy, or a natural consequence of living, such as ageing. Currently, due to early diagnostic and high survival rate, young cancer patients are living longer. Nevertheless, approaches to successfully restrain the undesirable secondary effects of oncological therapies are still missing. Furthermore, until recently, the decline in male reproductive function with the advance of age was frequently neglected. Lately, given the trend of modern society to delay the conception of a biological child, the decrease in sperm quality in older subjects has been drawing attention from the scientific community. Indeed, these problems are emerging topics on male fertility. Oxidative stress (OS) is known to be for itself associated with male infertility cases. Also, OS is implicated in radiotherapy and ageing. In this doctoral thesis, we aimed to disclose the potential of regucalcin (RGN) protein to counteract the damaging effects of testicular radiotherapy as well as to attenuate the ageing-associated changes in male reproductive tract. In recent years, RGN protein has been showing to be an important player in spermatogenesis and male fertility, managing the suppression of pro-oxidant and chemical apoptotic stimulus in seminiferous tubules. RGN is a protein widely expressed in testicular cells, and its biological function seems to be vast. Moreover, RGN is also known as Senescence Marker Protein-30 (SMP-30) as a result of its decreased expression with ageing. Recently, high levels of RGN prevented ageing-associated changes in the prostate. Using an in vivo approach, we studied the role of RGN by comparing transgenic rats overexpressing RGN (Tg-RGN) with their wild-type (Wt) counterparts. Ten weeks after rats were subjected to radiotherapy, we verified that RGN was able to mitigate radiation-induced testicular damage because Tg-RGN animals presented less affected sperm parameters as well as lower rate of testicular apoptosis in comparison with Wt rats. Moreover, Tg-RGN animals also presented unaffected sperm parameters in spite of the ageing concomitantly with lower OS levels. Interestingly, we detected an enhanced expression of RGN in irradiated testis as well as in senescent sperm both in Wt and Tg-RGN rats, reinforcing the involvement of RGN in response to stimuli or modifications that can negatively impact male reproduction. Overall, our results are strong evidence about the beneficial role of RGN as a guardian of male reproductive function, suggesting that RGN protein has great potential to be included in strategies to improve, protect, and/or recover male fertility in men undergoing oncological treatment or with advanced age who still intend to have biological descent.
- Autodeterminação e Qualidade de Vida na DiabetesPublication . Ferreira, Carlos Filipe Ribeiro; Ramos, Ludovina Maria de AlmeidaO presente trabalho, de revisão sistemática de literatura, procurou compreender a relação entre a autodeterminação e a qualidade de vida em sujeitos com diagnóstico de Diabetes. A pesquisa foi efetuada com recurso a quatro bases de dados, B-on, Pubmed, Ebsco, Scielo, Scopus, durante a segunda quinzena de julho de 2020. Tendo por base a metodologia de revisão sistemática da literatura, este trabalho consiste na compilação de artigos publicados sobre diabetes, Teoria da Autodeterminação (Self-determination Theory) e Qualidade de Vida (quality of life), passando por várias etapas de triagem, seleção, extração (Estratégia de Pesquisa) e comparação dos dados obtidos na literatura.
- Assessing the Combinatorial Chemo‐Photothermal Therapy Mediated by Sulfobetaine Methacrylate‐Functionalized Nanoparticles in 2D and 3D In Vitro Cancer ModelsPublication . Mó, Inês; Alves, Cátia; Diogo, Duarte de Melo; Sousa, Rita Lima; Correia, I.J.Combinatorial cancer therapies mediated by nanomaterials can potentially overcome the limitations of conventional treatments. These therapies are generally investigated using 2D in vitro cancer models, leading to an inaccurate screening. Recently, 3D in vitro spheroids have emerged in the pre-clinical testing stage of nanomedicines due to their ability to mimic key features of the in vivo solid tumors.