Investigação do papel modulador do Haloperidol sobre os níveis de proteínas relacionadas à plasticidade e preferência por objetos novos em camudongos

Dopamine (DA) is known to regulate both sleep and memory formations, while sleep plays a critical role in the consolidation of different types of memories. We believe that pharmacological manipulation of dopaminergic pathways might disrupt the sleep-wake cycle, leading to mnemonic deficits, which can be observed in both behavioral and molecular levels. Therefore, here we investigated how systemic injections of haloperidol (0.3 mg/kg), immediately after training in dark and light periods, affects learning assessed in the novel object preference test (NOPT) in mice. We also investigated the hippocampal levels of the plasticity-related proteins Zif-268, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and phosphorylated Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinases II (CaMKII-P) in non-exposed (naïve), vehicle-injected controls and haloperidol-treated mice at 3, 6 and 12 hours after training in the light period. Haloperidol administration during the light period led to a subsequent impairment in the NOPT. In contrast, preference was not observed during the dark period neither in mice injected with haloperidol, nor in vehicle-injected animals. A partial increase of CaMKII-P in the hippocampal field CA3 of vehicle-injected mice was detected at 3h. Haloperidol-treated mice showed a significant decrease in the dentate gyrus of CaMKII-P levels at 3, 6 and 12h; of Zif-268 levels at 6h, and of BDNF levels at 12h after training. Since the mnemonic effects of haloperidol were only observed in the light period when animals tend to sleep, we suggest that these effects are related to REM sleep disruption after haloperidol injection

Novo sistema de aplicação de drogas em cirurgias oftalmológicas

The topical corneal application of antimitotic mitomycin-C (MMC) during refractive surgery is still characterized by a lack of standardization and considerable empirism. For this reason the creation of a system capable of reliable drug delivery represents a beneficial innovation for patients submitted to these procedures. Objective: Elaborate a new MMC delivery system during the transoperatory period of photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) followed by patent application. Methods: The project consists of an in vitro experimental study to create an MMC (0.02%) release system. The drug was impregnated in sterile Whatman® 41 paper filter discs with a diameter of 8 mm. After drying, the discs were applied to antibiogram plates seeded with Staphylococcus epidermidis (American Type Culture Collection ATCC 12228), followed by the addition of a drop of sterile water. At the end of 1 minute, the discs were removed and the plates incubated for 48 hours at 35oC. Mean drop volume in the collyrium flasks was measured using analytical balance weighing. The inhibition halo (mm) was correlated with the MMC impregnated into the disc. After completion of the invention design a patent application was lodged at the National Institute of Industrial Property. Results: The correspondence between MMC-produced inhibition halos indicated that a dose of 16μg was ideal for impregnating into the discs. The mean drop volume obtained from the collyrium flasks was 37.7 μL. A minute after the application of one drop of balanced saline solution, the system released an adequate concentration for PRK surgery. Conclusion: A new MMC delivery system was created for transoperatory application in photorefractive keratectomy (PRK). Publication of the patent application (number PI 0704739-8) gives the authors exclusive intellectual property rights. The study was sponsored by Ophthalmos Indústria e Comércio de Produtos Farmacêuticos S.A. (São Paulo-SP, Brazil) and received the indispensable scientific contribution of researchers from the fields of Pharmacy, Medicine, Biology, Statistics and Law, characterizing the work as multidisciplinary, in accordance with norms established by the Postgraduate Health Sciences Program of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)

Para uma andragogia do esporte:discutindo as diretrizes e a formação profissional para a Educação Física de Jovens e Adultos

For the development of this research the following general objective has been formulated, indicator of the process of inquiry: To discuss the relation between the attitudinal and the sportive contents presented in the proposal of Curricular Lines for the Physical Education of Young and Adults in Brazil. According to the corporeity and the ludicity, questioning the formation of the professional of Physical Education and delineating the perspective for a sport andragogy that values the Being and the Life. From this general objective, the following objectives, which had given greater specificity to the investigative process, were defined: 1. To create the theoretical context from the corporeity/ludicity axis, articulating transversally sportive knowledge, aiming to contribute for a sport Andragogy; 2. To analyze the objectives proposed for the Physical Education of Young and Adults according to an elaborated theoretical reference and to the testimonies of the egresses of 2005 of the Physical Education course of the UFRN. 3. To interpret the relation between attitudinal and educative content from the academic reality lived by the egresses of the Physical Education course of the UFRN. 4. To understand the most urgent necessities of sustained formation of the egresses of 2005 for satisfactory performance with the Physical Education of Young and Adults. 5. To propose perspectives for the construction of a sport Andragogy from the corporeity/ludicity axis. In attendance to the nature of this research and as form of guiding ourselves in this epistemological adventure, the following ones had been basically and theoretically estimated. 1. Corporeity is a radiant focus, prime and main of educational criteria; 2. The task of the education must be carried through with men and not for men; 3. Man must only play with the beauty and with the beauty he only must play. ; 4. The sportive education must be based on esthetic and fair play. The adopted research approach is of a qualitative nature, using the interview procedure with a group consisting of twelve egresses of the Physical Education Course of the UFRN of the year of 2005.2 After the discussion of the results on the attitudinal objectives and content for the Physical Education for Adults and Young, the study shows nine themes presented by the investigated group as priorities for their sustained formation, aiming at the performance of the professional of Physical Education with the EJA: inclusive experiences; leisure and quality of life; relationships; body and personal care; social values; self esteem; sportive phenomenon; EJA training; attitudinal contents. As a contribution to the construction of knowledge for a Andragogy of Sports, the study presents a metaphorical structure called Galaxy of Knowledge righteous Glamor of integrating nine elements inspired by the Ode to the Sport of Pierre de Coubertin: life, beauty, justice, daring, honesty, joy; Fertility; progress; peace. At the heart of the structure of knowledge is righteous install a system that articulates five principles ludopoiético epistemological function of connecting with the righteous knowledge of the sport that must integrate the content attitudinal proposed for Fitness for Youth and Adults in order to facilitate the realization of their objectives proposed for this method of teaching

Avaliação, identificação e atividade enzimática de bactérias psicotróficas presentes no leite cru refrigerado

Extended storage of refrigerated milk can lead to reduced quality of raw and processed milk, which is a consequence of the growth and metabolic activities of psychrotrophic bacteria, able to grow under 7oC or lower temperatures. Although most of these microorganisms are destroyed by heat treatment, some have the potential to produce termoresistant proteolytic and lipolytic enzymes that can survive even UHT processing and reduce the processed products quality. Recently, the IN 51 determineds that milk should be refrigerated and stored at the farm what increased the importance of this group of microorganisms. In this work, psychrotrophic bacteria were isolated from 20 communitarian bulk tanks and 23 individual bulk tanks from dairy farms located at Zona da Mata region of Minas Gerais State and from southeastern Rio de Janeiro. Selected milk dilutions were plated on standard agar and after incubation for 10 days at 7oC, five colonies were isolated, firstly using nutrient agar and after using McConkey agar for 24 hours at 21oC. The isolates were identified by morphology, Gram stain method, catalase production, fermentative/oxidative metabolism and by API 20E, API 20NE, API Staph, API Coryne or API 50 CH (BioMerieux). In order to ensure reproductibility, API was repeated for 50% of the isolates. Species identification was considered when APILAB indexes reached 75% or higher. 309 strains were isolated, 250 Gram negative and 59 Gram positive. 250 Gram negative isolates were identified as: Acinetobacter spp. (39), Aeromonas spp. (07), A. Hydrophila (16), A. sobria (1), A. caviae (1), Alcaligenes feacalis (1), Burkholderia cepacia (12), Chryseomonas luteola (3), Enterobacter sp. (1), Ewingella americana(6), Hafnia alvei (7), Klebsiella sp. (1), Klebsiella oxytoca (10), Yersinia spp. (2), Methylobacterium mesophilicum (1), Moraxella spp. (4), Pantoea spp. (16), Pasteurella sp. (1), Pseudomonas spp. (10), P. fluorescens (94), P. putida (3), Serratia spp. (3), Sphigomonas paucomobilis (1). Five isolates kept unidentified. Pseudomonas was the predominant bacteria found (43%) and P. fluorescens the predominant species (37.6%), in accordance with previous reports. Qualitative analysis of proteolytic and lipolytic activity was based on halo formation using caseinate agar and tributirina agar during 72 hours at 21oC and during 10 days at 4°C, 10oC and 7°C. Among 250 Gram negative bacteria found, 104 were identified as Pseudomonas spp. and 60,57% of this group showed proteolytic and lipolytic acitivities over all four studied temperatures. 20% of Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, Alcaligenes, Burkholderia, Chryseomonas, Methylobacterium, Moraxella presented only lipolytic activity. Some isolates presented enzymatic activity in one or more studied temperatures. Among Gram positive bacteria, 30.51% were proteolytic and lipolytic at 10oC, 8.47% were proteolytic at 7oC, 10oC, and 21oC, 8.47% were proteolytic at all studied temperatures (4oC, 7oC, 10oC and 21oC) and 3.38% were proteolytic only at 21oC. At 4oC, only one isolate showed proteolytic activity and six isolates were lipolytic. In relation to Gram negative microorganisms, 4% were proteolytic and lipolytic at 7oC, 10oC and 21oC, 10% were proteolytic at 10oC and 4.4% were lipolytic at 4oC, 7oC, 10oC and 21oC, while 6.4% of all isolates were proteolytic and lipolytic at 10oC and 21oC as well as lipolytic at 4oC and 7oC. These findings are in accordance with previous researches that pointed out Pseudomonas as the predominant psycrotrophic flora in stored refrigerated raw milk

Acelaração do universo e criação gravitacional de matéria escura fria: novos modelos e testes observacionais

Recent astronomical observations (involving supernovae type Ia, cosmic background radiation anisotropy and galaxy clusters probes) have provided strong evidence that the observed universe is described by an accelerating, flat model whose space-time properties can be represented by the FriedmannRobertsonWalker (FRW) metric. However, the nature of the substance or mechanism behind the current cosmic acceleration remains unknown and its determination constitutes a challenging problem for modern cosmology. In the general relativistic description, an accelerat ing regime is usually obtained by assuming the existence of an exotic energy component endowed with negative pressure, called dark energy, which is usually represented by a cosmological constant ¤ associated to the vacuum energy density. All observational data available so far are in good agreement with the concordance cosmic ¤CDM model. Nevertheless, such models are plagued with several problems thereby inspiring many authors to propose alternative candidates in the relativistic context. In this thesis, a new kind of accelerating flat model with no dark energy and fully dominated by cold dark matter (CDM) is proposed. The number of CDM particles is not conserved and the present accelerating stage is a consequence of the negative pressure describing the irreversible process of gravitational particle creation. In order to have a transition from a decelerating to an accelerating regime at low redshifts, the matter creation rate proposed here depends on 2 parameters (y and ߯): the first one identifies a constant term of the order of H0 and the second one describes a time variation proportional to he Hubble parameter H(t). In this scenario, H0 does not need to be small in order to solve the age problem and the transition happens even if there is no matter creation during the radiation and part of the matter dominated phase (when the ß term is negligible). Like in flat ACDM scenarios, the dimming of distant type Ia supernovae can be fitted with just one free parameter, and the coincidence problem plaguing the models driven by the cosmological constant. ACDM is absent. The limits endowed with with the existence of the quasar APM 08279+5255, located at z = 3:91 and with an estimated ages between 2 and 3 Gyr are also investigated. In the simplest case (ß = 0), the model is compatible with the existence of the quasar for y > 0:56 whether the age of the quasar is 2.0 Gyr. For 3 Gyr the limit derived is y > 0:72. New limits for the formation redshift of the quasar are also established

Efeitos das inomogeneidades da matéria em Cosmologias Aceleradas

The recent observational advances of Astronomy and a more consistent theoretical framework turned Cosmology in one of the most exciting frontiers of contemporary science. In this thesis, homogeneous and inhomogeneous Universe models containing dark matter and different kinds of dark energy are confronted with recent observational data. Initially, we analyze constraints from the existence of old high redshift objects, Supernovas type Ia and the gas mass fraction of galaxy clusters for 2 distinct classes of homogeneous and isotropic models: decaying vacuum and X(z)CDM cosmologies. By considering the quasar APM 08279+5255 at z = 3.91 with age between 2-3 Gyr, we obtain 0,2 < OM < 0,4 while for the j3 parameter which quantifies the contribution of A( t) is restricted to the intervalO, 07 < j3 < 0,32 thereby implying that the minimal age of the Universe amounts to 13.4 Gyr. A lower limit to the quasar formation redshift (zJ > 5,11) was also obtained. Our analyzes including flat, closed and hyperbolic models show that there is no an age crisis for this kind of decaying A( t) scenario. Tests from SN e Ia and gas mass fraction data were realized for flat X(z)CDM models. For an equation of state, úJ(z) = úJo + úJIZ, the best fit is úJo = -1,25, úJl = 1,3 and OM = 0,26, whereas for models with úJ(z) = úJo+úJlz/(l+z), we obtainúJo = -1,4, úJl = 2,57 and OM = 0,26. In another line of development, we have discussed the influence of the observed inhomogeneities by considering the Zeldovich-Kantowski-DyerRoeder (ZKDR) angular diameter distance. By applying the statistical X2 method to a sample of angular diameter for compact radio sources, the best fit to the cosmological parameters for XCDM models are OM = O, 26,úJ = -1,03 and a = 0,9, where úJ and a are the equation of state and the smoothness parameters, respectively. Such results are compatible with a phantom energy component (úJ < -1). The possible bidimensional spaces associated to the plane (a , OM) were restricted by using data from SNe Ia and gas mass fraction of galaxy clusters. For Supernovas the parameters are restricted to the interval 0,32 < OM < 0,5(20") and 0,32 < a < 1,0(20"), while to the gas mass fraction we find 0,18 < OM < 0,32(20") with alI alIowed values of a. For a joint analysis involving Supernovas and gas mass fraction data we obtained 0,18 < OM < 0,38(20"). In general grounds, the present study suggests that the influence of the cosmological inhomogeneities in the matter distribution need to be considered with more detail in the analyses of the observational tests. Further, the analytical treatment based on the ZKDR distance may give non-negligible corrections to the so-calIed background tests of FRW type cosmologies

O enigmático problema das gigantes ricas em Lítio e as perspectivas com o satélite Kepler

Lithium (Li) is a chemical element with atomic number 3 and it is among the lightest known elements in the universe. In general, the Lithium is found in the nature under the form of two stable isotopes, the 6Li and 7Li. This last one is the most dominant and responds for about 93% of the Li found in the Universe. Due to its fragileness this element is largely used in the astrophysics, especially in what refers to the understanding of the physical process that has occurred since the Big Bang going through the evolution of the galaxies and stars. In the primordial nucleosynthesis in the Big Bang moment (BBN), the theoretical calculation forecasts a Li production along with all the light elements such as Deuterium and Beryllium. To the Li the BNB theory reviews a primordial abundance of Log log ǫ(Li) =2.72 dex in a logarithmic scale related to the H. The abundance of Li found on the poor metal stars, or pop II stars type, is called as being the abundance of Li primordial and is the measure as being log ǫ(Li) =2.27 dex. In the ISM (Interstellar medium), that reflects the current value, the abundance of Lithium is log ǫ(Li) = 3.2 dex. This value has great importance for our comprehension on the chemical evolution of the galaxy. The process responsible for the increasing of the primordial value present in the Li is not clearly understood until nowadays. In fact there is a real contribution of Li from the giant stars of little mass and this contribution needs to be well streamed if we want to understand our galaxy. The main objection in this logical sequence is the appearing of some giant stars with little mass of G and K spectral types which atmosphere is highly enriched with Li. Such elevated values are exactly the opposite of what could happen with the typical abundance of giant low mass stars, where convective envelops pass through a mass deepening in which all the Li should be diluted and present abundances around log ǫ(Li) ∼1.4 dex following the model of stellar evolution. In the Literature three suggestions are found that try to reconcile the values of the abundance of Li theoretical and observed in these rich in Li giants, but any of them bring conclusive answers. In the present work, we propose a qualitative study of the evolutionary state of the rich in Li stars in the literature along with the recent discovery of the first star rich in Li observed by the Kepler Satellite. The main objective of this work is to promote a solid discussion about the evolutionary state based on the characteristic obtained from the seismic analysis of the object observed by Kepler. We used evolutionary traces and simulation done with the population synthesis code TRILEGAL intending to evaluate as precisely as possible the evolutionary state of the internal structure of these groups of stars. The results indicate a very short characteristic time when compared to the evolutionary scale related to the enrichment of these stars

Efeitos não-gaussianos em astrofísica e cosmologia

The recent astronomical observations indicate that the universe has null spatial curvature, is accelerating and its matter-energy content is composed by circa 30% of matter (baryons + dark matter) and 70% of dark energy, a relativistic component with negative pressure. However, in order to built more realistic models it is necessary to consider the evolution of small density perturbations for explaining the richness of observed structures in the scale of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. The structure formation process was pioneering described by Press and Schechter (PS) in 1974, by means of the galaxy cluster mass function. The PS formalism establishes a Gaussian distribution for the primordial density perturbation field. Besides a serious normalization problem, such an approach does not explain the recent cluster X-ray data, and it is also in disagreement with the most up-to-date computational simulations. In this thesis, we discuss several applications of the nonextensive q-statistics (non-Gaussian), proposed in 1988 by C. Tsallis, with special emphasis in the cosmological process of the large structure formation. Initially, we investigate the statistics of the primordial fluctuation field of the density contrast, since the most recent data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) indicates a deviation from gaussianity. We assume that such deviations may be described by the nonextensive statistics, because it reduces to the Gaussian distribution in the limit of the free parameter q = 1, thereby allowing a direct comparison with the standard theory. We study its application for a galaxy cluster catalog based on the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (hereafter HIFLUGCS). We conclude that the standard Gaussian model applied to HIFLUGCS does not agree with the most recent data independently obtained by WMAP. Using the nonextensive statistics, we obtain values much more aligned with WMAP results. We also demonstrate that the Burr distribution corrects the normalization problem. The cluster mass function formalism was also investigated in the presence of the dark energy. In this case, constraints over several cosmic parameters was also obtained. The nonextensive statistics was implemented yet in 2 distinct problems: (i) the plasma probe and (ii) in the Bremsstrahlung radiation description (the primary radiation from X-ray clusters); a problem of considerable interest in astrophysics. In another line of development, by using supernova data and the gas mass fraction from galaxy clusters, we discuss a redshift variation of the equation of state parameter, by considering two distinct expansions. An interesting aspect of this work is that the results do not need a prior in the mass parameter, as usually occurs in analyzes involving only supernovae data.Finally, we obtain a new estimate of the Hubble parameter, through a joint analysis involving the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE), the X-ray data from galaxy clusters and the baryon acoustic oscillations. We show that the degeneracy of the observational data with respect to the mass parameter is broken when the signature of the baryon acoustic oscillations as given by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) catalog is considered. Our analysis, based on the SZE/X-ray data for a sample of 25 galaxy clusters with triaxial morphology, yields a Hubble parameter in good agreement with the independent studies, provided by the Hubble Space Telescope project and the recent estimates of the WMAP

Sobre a composição química em estrelas evoluídas do aglomerado aberto M67

The Galaxy open clusters have a wide variety of physical properties that make them valuable laboratories for studies of stellar and chemical evolution of the Galaxy. In order to better settle these properties we investigate the abundances of a large number of chemical elements in a sample of 27 evolved stars of the open cluster M67 with different evolutionary stages (turn-off, subgiant and giant stars). For such a study we used high-resolution spectra (R 47 000) and high S/N obtained with UVES+FLAMES at VLT/UT2, covering the wavelength interval 4200-10 600 Å. Our spectral analysis is based on the MARCS models of atmosphere and Turbospectrum spectroscopic tool. The oxygen abundances were determined from the [O I] line at 6300 Å. In addition, we have also computed abundances of Si I, Na I, Mg I, Al I, Ca I, Ti I, Co I, Ni I, Zr I, La II and Cr I. The abundances investigated in this work, combined with their stellar parameters, offers an opportunity to determine the level of mixing and convective dilution of evolved stars in M67. Based on the obtained parameters, the abundances of these seem to follow a similar trend to the curve of solar abundances. Additionally, following strategies of other studies have investigated the relative abundances as a function of effective temperature and metallicity, where it was possible to observe an abundance of Na, Al and Si to the stars in the field of giants. A large dispersion from star to star, is observed in the ratios [X / Fe] for the Co, Zr and La, and the absence of Zr and La, in the stars of the turn-off. Comparisons made between our results and other studies in the literature show that values of abundances are in agreement and close to the limits of the errors

Macrofauna de ambientes não consolidados adjacentes à recifes da área de proteção ambiental dos recifes de corais Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil

This study aimed to characterize, for the first time, the benthic invertebrates that inhabit the region of soft bottoms adjacent to the APARC reefs in order to situate them as an important component of infralittoral coastal areas of Northeast Brazil. Soft bottoms areas of APARC corresponds to infralittoral zones vegetated by seagrass Halodule wrightii and unvegetated infralittoral zones, both subjected to substantial hydrodynamic stress. Through scuba diving, biological and sedimentary samples of both habitats were analyzed, with a cylindrical sampler. We identified 6160 individuals belonging to 16 groups and 224 species. The most abundant macrofaunal group was Polychaeta (43%), followed by Mollusca (25%) and Crustacea (14%), what was expected for these environments. In the first chapter, regarding vegetated areas, we tested three hypotheses: the existence of differences in the faunal structure associated with H. wrightii banks submitted to different hydrodynamic conditions; the occurrence of minor temporal variations on the associated macrofauna of banks protected from hydrodynamic stress; and if the diversity of macrofauna is affected by both benthophagous predators and H. wrightii biomass. It was observed that macrofauna associated at the Exposed bank showed differences in structure when comparing the Protected bank, the granulometry of the sediments, that co-varies with the hydrodynamism, was the cause of these variations. The results also pointed to a lower temporal variation in the macrofaunal structure on the Protected bank and a negative relation between macrofaunal and benthophagous fish abundance. At the Exposed bank, a greater faunal diversity was observed, probably due to the higher seagrass biomass. The second chapter compares the vegetated and non-vegetated areas in order to test the hypothesis that due to greater seasonal stability in tropical environments, seagrass structure would act to distinguish the vegetated and non-vegetated areas macrofauna, over time. It was also expected that depositivores were the most representative invertebrates on non-vegetated environments, on the assumption that the seagrass bank would work as a source of debris to adjacent areas, enriching them. Considering all sampling periods, the total macrofauna abundance and diversity were higher in vegetated areas, when compared to non-vegetated ones. Seasonally, the structural complexity provided by Halodule differentiated more clearly the fauna from vegetated and non-vegetated areas, but only at the climatic extremes, i.e. Dry season (extreme climatic stability, with low hydronamism variation) and Rainy season (great hydrodynamism variation and probably vegetated bank burial). Furthermore, the high organic matter levels measured in the sandy banks coincided with an outstanding trophic importance of deposit feeders, proving the debris-carrying hypothesis. The last chapter focused on the non-vegetated areas, where we tested that the hypothesis infaunal halo in tropical reefs depending on local granulometry. In this context, we also tested the hypothesis that benthophagous fish predation would have an effect on the low abundance of macrofaunal groups due to the high hydrographic stress, thus allowing other predatory groups to have greater importance in these environments. Proving the hypothesis, no spatial variation, both on abundance families neither on community structure, occur along distance of the edge reefs. However, we found that complex combinations of physical factors (grain size and organic matter levels originated from local hydronamic conditions) covary with the distance from the reefs and has stronger influence on macrofauna than considered biological factors, such as predation by benthophagous fishes. Based on the main results, this study shows that unconsolidated areas around APARC reefs are noteworthy from an ecological and conservational point of view, as evidenced by the biota-environment and organismal relations, never before described for these areas

Prevention of oral lesions in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common form of cancer in children and is responsible for severe stomatologic complications. Treatment consists of four phases of chemotherapy, the main side effect of methotrexate, the drug most used during the intensification phase, is oral mucositis. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical aspects of the oral mucosa of children with ALL and to determine the effect of 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate on the prevention of stomatologic complications in these patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty-three children treated for ALL ranging in age from 2 to 15 years, without distinction of gender or race, were submitted to visual examination, digital palpation of the oral mucosa and cytologic examination of the buccal mucosa, and divided into two groups: group I consisted of 23 children using an oral solution of 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate twice a day, and group II consisted of 10 children who did not receive this solution. All children received daily oral hygiene care guided by the dentist throughout treatment. RESULTS: Mucositis was observed in six children of group I and eight of group II, and was characterized by erythema, edema and ulcers. Uniform cytologic findings were obtained for the two groups, with a clear predominance of cells of the intermediate layer in all smears, in addition to a perinuclear halo in 18% of the smears. CONCLUSION: The present results suggest that systematic preventive treatment with 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate and oral hygiene care reduce the occurrence of oral complications in children with ALL undergoing antineoplastic chemotherapy.

Prevention of oral lesions in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common form of cancer in children and is responsible for severe stomatologic complications. Treatment consists of four phases of chemotherapy, the main side effect of methotrexate, the drug most used during the intensification phase, is oral mucositis. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical aspects of the oral mucosa of children with ALL and to determine the effect of 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate on the prevention of stomatologic complications in these patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty-three children treated for ALL ranging in age from 2 to 15 years, without distinction of gender or race, were submitted to visual examination, digital palpation of the oral mucosa and cytologic examination of the buccal mucosa, and divided into two groups: group I consisted of 23 children using an oral solution of 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate twice a day, and group II consisted of 10 children who did not receive this solution. All children received daily oral hygiene care guided by the dentist throughout treatment. RESULTS: Mucositis was observed in six children of group I and eight of group II, and was characterized by erythema, edema and ulcers. Uniform cytologic findings were obtained for the two groups, with a clear predominance of cells of the intermediate layer in all smears, in addition to a perinuclear halo in 18% of the smears. CONCLUSION: The present results suggest that systematic preventive treatment with 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate and oral hygiene care reduce the occurrence of oral complications in children with ALL undergoing antineoplastic chemotherapy.

Investigação do papel modulador do Haloperidol sobre os níveis de proteínas relacionadas à plasticidade e preferência por objetos novos em camudongos

Dopamine (DA) is known to regulate both sleep and memory formations, while sleep plays a critical role in the consolidation of different types of memories. We believe that pharmacological manipulation of dopaminergic pathways might disrupt the sleep-wake cycle, leading to mnemonic deficits, which can be observed in both behavioral and molecular levels. Therefore, here we investigated how systemic injections of haloperidol (0.3 mg/kg), immediately after training in dark and light periods, affects learning assessed in the novel object preference test (NOPT) in mice. We also investigated the hippocampal levels of the plasticity-related proteins Zif-268, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and phosphorylated Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinases II (CaMKII-P) in non-exposed (naïve), vehicle-injected controls and haloperidol-treated mice at 3, 6 and 12 hours after training in the light period. Haloperidol administration during the light period led to a subsequent impairment in the NOPT. In contrast, preference was not observed during the dark period neither in mice injected with haloperidol, nor in vehicle-injected animals. A partial increase of CaMKII-P in the hippocampal field CA3 of vehicle-injected mice was detected at 3h. Haloperidol-treated mice showed a significant decrease in the dentate gyrus of CaMKII-P levels at 3, 6 and 12h; of Zif-268 levels at 6h, and of BDNF levels at 12h after training. Since the mnemonic effects of haloperidol were only observed in the light period when animals tend to sleep, we suggest that these effects are related to REM sleep disruption after haloperidol injection