The ingestion of the JVCP may contribute to establish a high-quality sleep and be used as a potential nutraceutical tool to prevent sleep disorders with the advance of age.

The incorporation of the lycopene-enriched virgin olive oil into the diet may enhance the health-promoting effects of the virgin olive oil, contributing as a functional tool against several disorders where oxidative stress plays an important role.

No abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the histopathological and apoptotic changes occurring in the rat ipsilateral and contralateral testes, after experimental spermatic cord torsion, and to explore and the role of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage in testicular torsion-detorsion injury. A total of 37 Wistar albino rats were subjected to 720° unilateral spermatic cord torsion for 1, 2 and 4 h, followed by 4-h reperfusion, or else to a sham operation (control group). Histology of the testicle was evaluated using haematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining and Johnsen's scoring system. Germ cell apoptosis was evaluated via active caspase-3 immunostaining, and PARP expression levels were evaluated via Western blotting. The mean Johnsen's tubular biopsy scores (JTBS) of the ipsilateral testicles were lower for all torsion groups than for the controls (P < 0.05), but the JTBS of the contralateral testicles were only lower in the 4-h torsion group (P < 0.05). The mean apoptosis score (AS) of the ipsilateral and contralateral testicles was significantly higher in the torsion groups than in the sham group. AS increased correlatively with torsion time, in both testicles. The effect of testicular torsion on PARP cleavage was time dependent, with the highest effect observed after 4 h of testicular torsion (P < 0.05). Testicular torsion caused time-dependent histological changes, apoptosis and increases in PARP cleavage. Our results suggest that testicular torsion-detorsion injury caused cell damage and germ cell apoptosis that apparently involved cleavage of PARP. Increased PARP cleavage could, in turn, lead to enhanced apoptosis.

Animal welfare has evolved during the past decades to improve not only the quality of life of laboratory animals but also the quality and reproducibility of scientific investigations. Bibliometric analysis has become an important tool to complete the current knowledge with academic databases. Our objective was to investigate whether scientific research on cannibalism/infanticide is connected with maternal aggression towards the offspring in laboratory animals. To carry out our research, we performed a specific search for published articles on each concept. Results were analyzed in the opensource environment RStudio with the package Bibliometrix. We obtained 228 and 134 articles for the first search (cannibalism/infanticide) and the second search (maternal aggression towards the pups) respectively. We observed that the interest in infanticide cannibalism started in the 1950s, while researchers started showing interest in maternal aggression towards the pups 30 years later. Our analyses indicated that maternal aggression had better citations in scientific literature. In addition, although our results showed some common features (e.g., oxytocin or medial preoptic area in the brain), we observed a gap between cannibalism/infanticide and maternal aggression towards the pups with only 18 published articles in common for both the searches. Therefore, we recommend researchers to combine both concepts in further investigations in the context of cannibalism for better dissemination and higher impact in laboratory animals’ welfare research.Highlights- Cannibalism/Infanticide and maternal aggression have been investigated separately.- Maternal aggression has a higher impact on scientific literature.- Combining both topics may increase cannibalism/infanticide impact.