Atividade toxicológica do extrato das folhas de Kalanchoe brasiliensis em camundongos Swiss

The species of the genus Kalanchoe (Crassulaceae) are widely used in Brazil as a medicinal product to treat cough, boils, gastritis and other diseases. In this scenario stands out K. brasiliensis, popularly known as coirama or saião. This paper aims at the oral exposure of mice to a hydroalcoholic extract of leaves of Kalanchoe brasiliensis. The animals (total of 100) were divided into 12 groups (6 males and 6 females) for the acute assessment; and groups of 10 for subchronic evaluation. Test groups were treated with doses of 250 mg / kg, 500 mg / kg, 1000 mg / kg and 2000 mg / kg and the control group received 0.9% saline. The animals were observed for 14 days for acute evaluation and 30 days for subchronic evaluation, and in that period analyzed the appearance of clinical signs, changes in weight and consumption of water and food. After the observation period, histopathological analysis of the organs, biochemical serum and haematological parameters for the assessment of the subchronic groups were processed. Differences and changes in body weight were not observed among the groups, nor consumption of water and food, there were no deaths among the groups in the two types of assays. Histopathological analysis showed some alterations compatible with low acute hepatic toxicity. The results of blood glucose, triglycerides, ALT, urea and creatinine showed differences between the control group and the test concentrations studied (p <0.05), but these differences do not show relevant change in the clinical picture of animals. The results showed that the extract K. brasiliensis has low acute toxicity at the doses used and no toxicity when administered for 30 days. This highlights the importance of this species as future and promising candidate for phytotherapics, so has its pharmacological trials completed.

Applicability of non-pharmacological strategies for pain relief in parturient: integrative review

MORAES, Maísa Suares Teixeira; ROLIM, Lariane Thays Albuquerque; ENDERS, Bertha Cruz; FARIAS, Glaucea Maciel de; DAVIM, Rejane Marie Barbosa. Applicability of non-pharmacological strategies for pain relief in parturient: integrative review. Revista de Enfermagem UFPE on line, v.4, n.especial, p.131-136, May/June 2010. Disponivel em:< http://www.ufpe.br/revistaenfermagem/index.php/revista/>.

Diferenças funcionais das regiões hipocampais na formação da memória do tipo o quê", "quando" e "onde" em ratos

Episodic memory refers to the recollection of what, where and when a specific event occurred. Hippocampus is a key structure in this type of memory. Computational models suggest that the dentate gyrus (DG) and the CA3 hippocampal subregions are involved in pattern separation and the rapid acquisition of episodic memories, while CA1 is involved in memory consolidation. However there are few studies with animal models that access simultaneously the aspects ‗what-where-when . Recently, an object recognition episodic-like memory task in rodents was proposed. This task consists of two sample trials and a test phase. In sample trial one, the rat is exposed to four copies of an object. In sample trial two, one hour later, the rat is exposed to four copies of a different object. In the test phase, 1 h later, two copies of each of the objects previously used are presented. One copy of the object used in sample trial one is located in a different place, and therefore it is expected to be the most explored object.However, the short retention delay of the task narrows its applications. This study verifies if this task can be evoked after 24h and whether the pharmacological inactivation of the DG/CA3 and CA1 subregions could differentially impair the acquisition of the task described. Validation of the task with a longer interval (24h) was accomplished (animals showed spatiotemporal object discrimination and scopolamine (1 mg/kg, ip) injected pos-training impaired performance). Afterwards, the GABA agonist muscimol, (0,250 μg/μl; volume = 0,5 μl) or saline were injected in the hippocampal subregions fifteen minutes before training. Pre-training inactivation of the DG/CA3 subregions impaired the spatial discrimination of the objects (‗where ), while the temporal discrimination (‗when ) was preserved. Rats treated with muscimol in the CA1 subregion explored all the objects equally well, irrespective of place or presentation time. Our results corroborate the computational models that postulate a role for DG/CA3 in spatial pattern separation, and a role for CA1 in the consolidation process of different mnemonic episodes