Intermittent fasting (IF) is a dietary intervention often used as an alternative to caloric restriction (CR) and characterized by 24 hour cycles alternating ad libitum feeding and fasting. Although the consequences of CR are well studied, the effects of IF on redox status are not. Here, we address the effects of IF on redox state markers in different tissues in order to uncover how changes in feeding frequency alter redox balance in rats. IF rats displayed lower body mass due to decreased energy conversion efficiency. Livers in IF rats presented increased mitochondrial respiratory capacity and enhanced levels of protein carbonyls. Surprisingly, IF animals also presented an increase in oxidative damage in the brain that was not related to changes in mitochondrial bioenergetics. Conversely, IF promoted a substantial protection against oxidative damage in the heart. No difference in mitochondrial bioenergetics or redox homeostasis was observed in skeletal muscles of IF animals. Overall, IF affects redox balance in a tissue-specific manner, leading to redox imbalance in the liver and brain and protection against oxidative damage in the heart.

Taken together, our findings suggest that low levels of acetaldehyde are cardioprotective whereas high levels are damaging in an ex vivo model of I/R injury and that ALDH2 is a major, but not the only, regulator of cardiac acetaldehyde levels and protection from I/R.

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Acetaldehyde and crotonaldehyde are genotoxic aldehydes present in tobacco smoke and vehicle exhaust. The reaction of these aldehydes with 2'-deoxyguanosine in DNA produces α-methyl-γ-hydroxy-1,N(2)-propano-2'-deoxyguanosine (1,N(2)-propanodGuo). Online HPLC-tandem mass spectrometry was utilized to accurately quantify 1,N(2)-propanodGuo in human urinary samples from 47 residents of São Paulo City (SP) and 35 residents of the rural municipality of São João da Boa Vista (SJBV) in the state of São Paulo. Significantly higher 1,N(2)-propanodGuo levels were found in the samples from SP donors than in samples from SJBV donors. Our results provide the first evidence that elevated levels of 1,N(2)-propanodGuo in urinary samples may be correlated with urban air pollution.

Xanthomonas citri pv. aurantifolii Genomes in pathogenicity-related subsystems. These subsystems, the Types I and IV Secretion Systems, and the Type IV pilus, therefore emerge as important ones in helping explain the aggressiveness of the A type of citrus canker and the apparent dominance in the field of the corresponding strain over the B and C strains.