Berry fruits

Abstract

Berries contain flavonoids involved in several mechanisms related to prevention of cognitive deficit, obesity, and insulin resistance. Accumulating evidence suggests that insulin resistance is the link associating obesity and Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, a high-fat diet was used to induce obesity and insulin resistance in mice and compared to a normal-fat standard diet. We have supplemented the both diets with 5% powder of freeze-dried Syzygium malaccense fruit (SMF) and investigated proofs of peripheral insulin resistance, hippocampal insulin sensitivity, learning/memory performance, tau protein stability, and brain frontal lobe oxidative stress. The high-fat diet supplemented with SMF (HS group) did not prevent weight gain but showed peripheral insulin sensitivity, improved insulin signaling in the hippocampus, which consequently reduced GSK3-β activity and lowered tau phosphorylation. The results from Morris water maze cognitive test were consistent with the finding, once the HS group showed better performance on learning/ memory tasksrelated to the hippocampus. Brain frontal lobe antioxidant enzyme activities were down-regulated when high-fat diet was consumed but the supplementation with SMF prevented lipid peroxidation and improved activities of catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase. SMF intake also elevated serum antioxidant defenses. The therapeutic intervention with SMF was effective in minimizing cognitive dysfunctions and in preventing risk factors associated to AD development in mice fed high-fat diet without changing energy metabolism.

Os desafios enfrentados por docentes mulheres em cursos jurídicos

“…Apesar do aumento da presença feminina na docência em Direito, tendo chegado a 38% em 2013, conforme o Observatório do Ensino do Direito -FGV/SP, a hegemonia masculina permanece. O curso é tradicionalmente pautado pelo patriarcado, refletindo o ideal do homem branco, heterossexual e de classe média, tido como o "sujeito de direito" detentor do poder de dizer e fazer a realidade, o que acaba por reforçar os problemas oriundos da discriminação de gênero e do preconceito estrutural (Tcheou;Valentim;Campos, 2017, p. 3-6).…”