Serotonin as a physiological substrate for myeloperoxidase and its superoxide-dependent oxidation to cytotoxic tryptamine-4,5-dione

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

4,5-Seco-Guaiane and a Nine-Membered Sesquiterpene Lactone from Holostylis reniformis

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Modelos alternativos para detecção de locos de características quantitativas (QTL) de carcaça e crescimento nos cromossomos 4, 5 e 7 de suínos

O conhecimento do genoma pode auxiliar na identificação de regiões cromossômicas e, eventualmente, de genes que controlam características quantitativas (QTLs) de importância econômica. em um experimento com 1.129 suínos resultantes do cruzamento entre machos da raça Meishan e fêmeas Large White e Landrace, foram analisadas as características gordura intramuscular (GIM), em %, e ganho dos 25 aos 90 kg de peso vivo (GP), em g/dia, em 298 animais F1 e 831 F2, e espessura de toucinho (ET), em mm, em 324 F1 e 805 F2. Os animais das gerações F1 e F2 foram tipificados com 29 marcadores microsatélites. Estudou-se a ligação entre os cromossomos 4, 6 e 7 com GIM, ET e GP. Análises de QTL utilizando-se metodologia Bayesiana foram aplicadas mediante três modelos genéticos: modelo poligênico infinitesimal (MPI); modelo poligênico finito (MPF), considerando-se três locos; e MPF combinado com MPI. O número de QTLs, suas respectivas posições nos três cromossomos e o efeito fenotípico foram estimados simultaneamente. Os sumários dos parâmetros estimados foram baseados nas distribuições marginais a posteriori, obtidas por meio do uso da Cadeia de Markov, algoritmos de Monte Carlo (MCMC). Foi possível evidenciar dois QTLs relacionados a GIM nos cromossomos 4 e 6 e dois a ET nos cromossomos 4 e 7. Somente quando se ajustou o MPI, foram observados QTLs no cromossomo 4 para ET e GIM. Não foi possível detectar QTLs para a característica GP com a aplicação dessa metodologia, o que pode ter resultado do uso de marcadores não informativos ou da ausência de QTLs segregando nos cromossomos 4, 6 e 7 desta população. Foi evidenciada a vantagem de se analisar dados experimentais ajustando diferentes modelos genéticos; essas análises ilustram a utilidade e ampla aplicabilidade do método Bayesiano.

Phylogenetic Relationships in Eleocharis (Cyperaceae): C-4 Photosynthesis Origins and Patterns of Diversification in the Spikerushes

Eleocharis (Cyperaceae) is a morphologically and physiologically diverse lineage of 250 + species with a cosmopolitan distribution. We here explore phylogenetic relationships in this lineage using maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference analyses of nrDNA ITS and cpDNA trnC-ycf6 and ycf6-psbM sequence data with the goals of comparing our phylogenetic hypotheses to previous classifications, morphological variation, and photosynthetic pathway variation. Our results suggest that in Eleocharis C, photosynthesis has been derived at least three times, with several cases of possible reversion to C-3-like or intermediate pathways and several additional origins of C-3-C-4 intermediate photosynthetic pathways, as inferred by carbon isotope ratio measurements. Many classification units currently recognized in Eleocharis are not monophyletic, however, E. subgenus Limnochloa and E. subgenus Scirpidium are monophyletic. Other classification units largely corresponding to clades include E. subgenus Zinserlingia, E. subseries Chaetariae, and E. series Maculosae. Problems with species circumscription and morphological variation in several groups are discussed in light of the phylogeny, particularly in the context of species membership of seven focal clades found in the analyses.

Síntese, caracterização e avaliação da citotoxidade de complexos de 'Pd'(II) contendo o ligante 4,4´,5,5´ - tetrametil-2,2´-bis-imidazol

Pós-graduação em Química - IQ

A novel hybrid composite formed by reaction of 4,5-diphenyl-2-imidazolethiol with hexacyanoferrate (iii) and subsequent reaction with copper (ii): preparation, characterization and a voltammetric application for determination of l-glutatione

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Fenólicos totais, polifenoloxidade e coloração em abacate 'Hass' submetido a radiação UV-C

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Involvement of the midbrain periaqueductal gray 5-HT1A receptors in social conflict induced analgesia in mice

Recent results from our laboratory have shown that 30-bites social conflict in mice produces a high-intensity, short-term analgesia which is attenuated by systemically injected 5-HT1A receptor agonists, such as BAY R 1531 (6-methoxy-4-(di-n-propylamino)-1,3,4,5-tetrahydrobenz(c,d)indole hydrochloride) and gepirone. The present study investigated the effects of these drugs, as well as the 5-HT1A receptor antagonist WAY 100135 (N-tert-butyl-3-(4-(2-methoxyphenyl)piperazine-1-yl)-2-phenylpropanamide) injected into the midbrain periaqueductal gray matter of mice on 30-bites analgesia. Four to five days after guide-cannula implantation, each mouse received microinjection of gepirone (30 nmol/0.2 mu l), BAY R 1531 (10 nmol/0.2 mu l), WAY 100135 (10 nmol/0.2 mu l), saline (0.9% NaCl) or vehicle (saline + 4% Tween 80) 5 min before either an aggressive (30 bites) or a non-aggressive interaction. Nociception was assessed by the tail-flick test made before as well as 1, 5, 10 and 20 min after social interaction. The full 5-HT1A receptor agonist BAY R 1531 blocked, whereas, WAY 100135 and gepirone intensified 30-bites analgesia, Neither non-aggressive interaction, per se, nor the three compounds given after this type of social interaction significantly changed nociception. These results indicate that 5-HT1A receptors in the periaqueductal gray inhibit analgesia induced by social conflict in mice. (C) 1998 Elsevier B.V. B.V.

Exposição de fibroblastos da cápsula de Tenon normal de portadores de pterígio ao 5-fluorouracil e à mitomicina C

OBJETIVO: Avaliar a atividade proliferativa dos fibroblastos da cápsula de Tenon normal, proveniente de portadores de pterígios primários e recidivados. MÉTODOS: Foi realizado estudo prospectivo, aleatório, avaliando-se fragmentos da cápsula de Tenon normal, removidos de 20 portadores de pterígios primários e 21, recidivados. A taxa de proliferação foi avaliada em fibroblastos de terceira passagem, quando as culturas foram expostas a agentes antimitóticos: mitomicina C e 5-fluorouracil. Os dados obtidos foram submetidos à análise estatística. RESULTADOS: Dentre os 41 espécimes cultivados, apenas 1 de pterígio primário e 2 de recidivado proliferaram. Quando expostos a mitomicina C e ao 5-fluorouracil não houve diferença estatisticamente significativa quanto a inibição de proliferação celular. CONCLUSÃO: Desta forma, in vitro, ambos os antimitóticos estudados têm a mesma eficácia na inibição da proliferação sobre os fibroblastos de cápsulas de Tenon normal.

Effect of a 4% titanium tetrafluoride (TiF4) varnish on demineralisation and remineralisation of bovine enamel in vitro

Objectives: This in vitro study assessed the effect of a 4% TiF4 varnish on demineralisation and remineralisation of sound enamel and artificial carious enamel lesions, respectively.Methods: Bovine sound and carious enamel (n = 110) were randomly allocated to each type of varnish: Duraphat (R))-D (NaF, 2.26%F, pH 4.5, Colgate-Brazil, n = 30), Duofluorid (R)-F (NaF, 2.71%F, pH 8.0, FGM-Brazil, n = 30), TiF4-T (2.45%F, pH 1.0, FGM-Brazil, n = 30) and no-fluoride-P (FGM-Brazil, pH 5.0, n = 20). For the formation of artificial enamel caries, half of the blocks were immersed in 32 mL buffer acetate solution (16 h), whereas the other half was maintained sound. The varnishes were applied onto the enamel surfaces. Thus, the samples were subjected to pH cycles (37 degrees C) for 7 days. The response variables tested were surface and cross-sectional hardness. Data were tested using Kruskal-Wallis test (p < 0.05).Results: All F varnishes significantly reduced demineralisation and increased remineralisation in comparison to placebo. The TiF4 did not significantly reduce the surface enamel softening when compared with the other F varnishes, but it decreased the loss of subsurface hardness to the same extent. In enamel blocks with previous artificial carious lesions, the TiF4 significantly improved the rehardening compared to the other varnishes up to 30 mu m depth.Conclusions: The TiF4 varnish was able to decrease the demineralisation and increase the remineralisation of previously sound and carious enamel, respectively. It was equally effective compared to NaF varnishes on reducing the demineralisation at subsurface, but it was more effective on improving the remineralisation at surface and subsurface. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Disparity between Multilocus Enzyme Electrophoresis, Microsatellite Markers and Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis in epidemiological tracking of Candida albicans

Various molecular systems are available for epidemiological, genetic, evolutionary, taxonomic and systematic studies of innumerable fungal infections, especially those caused by the opportunistic pathogen C. albicans. A total of 75 independent oral isolates were selected in order to compare Multilocus Enzyme Electrophoresis (MLEE), Electrophoretic Karyotyping (EK) and Microsatellite Markers (Simple Sequence Repeats - SSRs), in their abilities to differentiate and group C. albicans isolates (discriminatory power), and also, to evaluate the concordance and similarity of the groups of strains determined by cluster analysis for each fingerprinting method. Isoenzyme typing was performed using eleven enzyme systems: Adh, Sdh, M1p, Mdh, Idh, Gdh, G6pdh, Asd, Cat, Po, and Lap (data previously published). The EK method consisted of chromosomal DNA separation by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis using a CHEF system. The microsatellite markers were investigated by PCR using three polymorphic loci: EF3, CDC3, and HIS3. Dendrograms were generated by the SAHN method and UPGMA algorithm based on similarity matrices (S(SM)). The discriminatory power of the three methods was over 95%, however a paired analysis among them showed a parity of 19.7-22.4% in the identification of strains. Weak correlation was also observed among the genetic similarity matrices (S(SM)(MLEE) x S(SM)(EK) x S(SM)(SSRs)). Clustering analyses showed a mean of 9 +/- 12.4 isolates per cluster (3.8 +/- 8 isolates/taxon) for MLEE, 6.2 +/- 4.9 isolates per cluster (4 +/- 4.5 isolates/taxon) for SSRs, and 4.1 +/- 2.3 isolates per cluster (2.6 +/- 2.3 isolates/taxon) for EK. A total of 45 (13%), 39(11.2%), 5 (1.4%) and 3 (0.9%) clusters pairs from 347 showed similarity (Si) of 0.1-10%, 10.1-20%, 20.1-30% and 30.1-40%, respectively. Clinical and molecular epidemiological correlation involving the opportunistic pathogen C. albicans may be attributed dependently of each method of genotyping (i.e., MLEE, EK, and SSRs) supplemented with similarity and grouping analysis. Therefore, the use of genotyping systems that give results which offer minimum disparity, or the combination of the results of these systems, can provide greater security and consistency in the determination of strains and their genetic relationships. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Measurement of the WW production cross section in p(p)over-bar collisions at root(s)over-bar=1.96 TeV

We present a measurement of the W boson pair-production cross section in p(p) over bar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s=1.96 TeV. The data, collected with the Run II D0 detector at Fermilab, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 224-252 pb(-1) depending on the final state (ee, e mu, or mu mu). We observe 25 candidates with a background expectation of 8.1 +/- 0.6(stat)+/- 0.6(syst)+/- 0.5(lum) events. The probability for an upward fluctuation of the background to produce the observed signal is 2.3x10(-7), equivalent to 5.2 standard deviations. The measurement yields a cross section of 13.8(-3.8)(+4.3)(stat)(-0.9)(+1.2)(syst)+/- 0.9(lum) pb, in agreement with predictions from the standard model.

Measurement of the top quark mass in the lepton plus jets final state with the matrix element method

We present a measurement of the top quark mass with the matrix element method in the lepton+jets final state. As the energy scale for calorimeter jets represents the dominant source of systematic uncertainty, the matrix element likelihood is extended by an additional parameter, which is defined as a global multiplicative factor applied to the standard energy scale. The top quark mass is obtained from a fit that yields the combined statistical and systematic jet energy scale uncertainty. Using a data set of 0.4 fb(-1) taken with the D0 experiment at Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, the mass of the top quark is measured using topological information to be: m(top)(center dot+jets)(topo)=169.2(-7.4)(+5.0)(stat+JES)(-1.4)(+1.5)(syst) GeV, and when information about identified b jets is included: m(top)(center dot+jets)(b-tag)=170.3(-4.5)(+4.1)(stat+ JES)(-1.8)(+1.2)(syst) GeV. The measurements yield a jet energy scale consistent with the reference scale.

Measurement of the p(p)over-bar -> t(t)over-bar + X production cross section at root s=1.96 TeV in the fully hadronic decay channel

A measurement of the top quark pair production cross section in proton antiproton collisions at an interaction energy of root s=1.96 TeV is presented. This analysis uses 405 +/- 25 pb(-1) of data collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Fully hadronic t (t) over bar decays with final states of six or more jets are separated from the multijet background using secondary vertex tagging and a neural network. The t (t) over bar cross section is measured as sigma(t (t) over bar)=4.5(-1.9)(+2.0)(stat)(-1.1)(+1.4)(syst)+/- 0.3(lumi) pb for a top quark mass of m(t)=175 GeV/c(2).

Search for W H associated production in 5.3 fb(-1) of p(p)over-bar collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)