Hypobaric hypoxia is of interest due to an increase of human populations working at high altitude. Testicular damage is related to the physiological response (neoangiogenesis) to increased intrascrotal blood flow as temperature rises. Hypoxia is a stress factor with overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The effect of hypoxia in mice reproductive parameters is analyzed. Animals were exposed to simulated hypoxia of 4,200 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.) in a chamber for 33.2 days, both to continuous (HH) or intermittent hypoxia (HI) with an intermittency period of 4 days hypoxia /4 days normoxia (500 m.a.s.l.). The anti-inflammatory drug Ibuprofen was administered to a group of mice to control vasodilation and increased blood flow. Melatonin was administered to another group of mice as a potent ROS scavenger. Animals in both HH and HI exposure were compared to normoxic non-treated controls. There was a hematological response in hypoxia, with an increase in hematocrit and reticulocytosis. There was also increased teratozoospermia. This damage was more pronounced in HH than HI, suggesting that alternating normoxic periods permits compensation for the effects of hypoxia. In both hypoxia systems, the level of lipoperoxidation and the instability of DNA increased. In HH, there was a reduction of teratozoospermia in melatonin-treated mice. Ibuprofen presented a protective effect on the same parameters as melatonin with both HI and HH. The quality of sperm DNA, fragmentation, unpacking and DNA stability diminished. In conclusion, reproductive damage elicited by HH or HI was partially ameliorated by simultaneous treatment with antiflogistic and/or antioxidant agents.

Inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate (IP ₃ ) receptors (IP ₃ Rs) drive calcium signals involved in skeletal muscle excitation‐transcription coupling and plasticity; IP ₃ R subtype distribution and downstream events evoked by their activation have not been studied in human muscle nor has their possible alteration in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). We studied the expression and localization of IP ₃ R subtypes in normal and DMD human muscle and in normal (RCMH) and dystrophic (RCDMD) human muscle cell lines. In normal muscle, both type 1 IP ₃ Rs (IP ₃ R1) and type 2 IP ₃ Rs (IP ₃ R2) show a higher expression in type II fibers, whereas type 3 IP ₃ Rs (IP ₃ R3) show uniform distribution. In DMD biopsies, all fibers display a homogeneous IP ₃ R2 label, whereas 24 ± 7% of type II fibers have lost the IP ₃ R1 label. RCDMD cells show 5‐fold overexpression of IP ₃ R2 and down‐regulation of IP ₃ R3 compared with RCMH cells. A tetanic stimulus induces IP ₃ ‐dependent slow Ca ²⁺ transients significantly larger and faster in RCDMD cells than in RCMH cells as well as significant ERK1/2 phosphorylation in normal but not in dystrophic cells. Excitation‐driven gene expression was different among cell lines; 44 common genes were repressed in RCMH cells and expressed in RCDMD cells or vice versa . IP ₃ ‐dependent Ca ²⁺ release may play a significant role in DMD pathophysiology.—Cárdenas, C., Juretić, N., Bevilacqua, J. A., García, I. E., Figueroa, R., Hartley, R., Taratuto, A. L., Gejman, R., Riveros, N., Molgó, J., Jaimovich, E. Abnormal distribution of inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate receptors in human muscle can be related to altered calcium signals and gene expression in Duchenne dystrophy‐derived cells. FASEB J . 24, 3210–3221 (2010). www.fasebj.org

Leptocarpha rivularis is a native South American plant used ancestrally by Mapuche people to treat gastrointestinal ailments. L. rivularis flower extracts are rich in molecules with therapeutic potential, including the sesquiterpene lactone leptocarpin, which displays cytotoxic effects against various cancer types in vitro. However, the combination of active molecules in these extracts could offer a hitherto unexplored potential for targeting cancer. In this study, we investigated the effect of L. rivularis flower extracts on the proliferation, survival, and spread parameters of gastric cancer cells in vitro. Gastric cancer (AGS and MKN-45) and normal immortalized (GES-1) cell lines were treated with different concentrations of L. rivularis flower extracts (DCM, Hex, EtOAc, and EtOH) and we determined the changes in proliferation (MTS assay, cell cycle analysis), cell viability/cytotoxicity (trypan blue exclusion assay, DEVDase activity, mitochondrial membrane potential MMP, and clonogenic ability), senescence (β-galactosidase activity) and spread potential (invasion and migration assays using the Boyden chamber approach) in all these cells. The results showed that the DCM, EtOAc, and Hex extracts display a selective antitumoral effect in gastric cancer cells by affecting all the cancer parameters tested. These findings reveal an attractive antitumoral potential of L. rivularis flower extracts by targeting several acquired capabilities of cancer cells.

This review briefly considers the testicular damage elicited by environmental chemical pollution. It includes a short comment on environmental toxicology as an introduction to environmental chemical pollution, highlighting the importance of this current field of study and its impact on male reproductive health. Furthermore an experimental animal model addressing the effect of organophosphorated agropesticides as a testicular toxicant is presented. Moreover two relevant chemical contaminants and their effect on the testis, such as the classical case of lead and the rarely reported case of Boron on spermatogenesis, are considered. Additionally, the subject of biosentinel species and their relevance for the monitoring of pollution in aquatic and/or terrestrial ecosystems is considered. In conclusión, it should be stressed that environmental health is closely related to the reproductive health of all living beings.

Open access policies have been progressing since the beginning of this century. Important global initiatives, both public and private, have set the tone for what we understand by open access. The emergence of tools and web platforms for open access (both legal and illegal) have placed the focus of the discussion on open access to knowledge, both for academics and for the general public, who finance such research through their taxes, particularly in Latin America. This historically unnoticed discussion must, we believe, be discussed publicly, given the characteristics of the Latin American scientific community, as well as its funding sources. This article includes an overview of what is meant by open access and describes the origins of the term, both in its philosophical sense and in its practical sense, expressed in the global declarations of Berlin and Bethesda. It also includes the notion of open access managed (or not) by some reputable institutions in Chile, such as CONICYT (National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research) and higher education institutions reputed nationally, such as the Universdad de Chile and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Various Latin American initiatives related to open access (Scielo, Redalyc, among others) are described, as well as the presence of Chilean documents in those platforms. The national institutional repositories are listed, as well as their current status and a discussion about what open access has implied in Latin America and its importance for the replicability of the investigations carried out locally. Finally, we describe some governmental initiatives (mainly legislative) at the Latin American level and propose some recommendations regarding the promotion and implementation of repositories for the access to scientific data (for access and replication purposes) of the national research.