Activity of selenium on cell proliferation, cytotoxicity, and apoptosis and on the expression of CASP9, BCL-XL and APC in intestinal adenocarcinoma cells

Intestinal cancers are correlated with diet. Thus, determining and understanding nutrient-genome interactions is important. The present work assessed the action of the oligoelement selenium on cell proliferation, cytotoxicity, and in situ apoptosis induction and on the expression CASP9, BCL-XL and APC genes in intestinal adenocarcinoma cells (HT29). HT29 cells were cultured and treated with selenium at concentrations of 5, 50 and 500 ng/mL with or without the damage-inducing agent doxorubicin. These cells were then evaluated for cytotoxicity (MTT), cell proliferation and in situ apoptosis induction. To evaluate gene expression, only the cells treated with 500 ng/mL of selenium were used. RNA was extracted from these cells, and the expressions of CASP9, BCL-XL and APC were analyzed by the RT-PCR method. The GAPDH gene was used as a reference gene. The MTT assay showed that selenium was not cytotoxic at any of the concentrations tested. The cell proliferation assay showed that selenium did not interfere with cell proliferation at the three concentrations tested. In contrast, when the three concentrations were combined with doxorubicin, a significant decrease in the proliferation rate was observed. The apoptosis rate was significantly increased in the selenium (500 ng/mL) and doxorubicin group. CASP9 expression was increased and BCL-XL expression decreased in the selenium (500 ng/mL) and doxorubicin group. APC was significantly increased in the selenium group alone. These results show that selenium increases apoptosis, especially when it is associated with a damage-inducing agent. Also, selenium has an important role in the expression of the APC gene, which is related to cell cycle regulation. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of frugivore impoverishment and seed predators on the recruitment of a keystone palm

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

Application of MALDI-MS analysis of Rainforest chemodiversity: a keystone for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use

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

A pest is a pest is a pest? The dilemma of neotropical leaf-cutting ants: Keystone taxa of natural ecosystems

Leaf-cutting ants of the genera Acromyrmex and Atta are considered the principal polyphagous pests of the Neotropics. Although some members of these genera are of economic importance, have a broad geographic distribution, and are extremely good colonizers, others are endemic and closely interact with native ecosystems. Control is generally practiced against any colony, irrespective of its taxonomic status. Indiscriminate control coupled with habitat destruction threatens endemic species with extinction, and, through habitat simplification, favors other pest species. As nests of Atta are large, having several square meters of nest surface, the endemic taxa can be easily used as environmental indicators for natural ecosystems. Likewise, the pest species can be used to detect environmental disturbance. As these ants are keystone species and easily identified by nonspecialists, efforts should be made to integrate these into viable conservation programs.

Differential seed germination of a keystone palm (Euterpe edulis) dispersed by avian frugivores

The effectiveness of seed dispersal by vertebrates has been analysed by examining both quantitative and qualitative components (Jordano & Schupp 2000, Schupp et al. 2010). While the quantitative component is relatively easily assessed in the field (e.g. visitation rate, number of fruits eaten per visit), the qualitative component (e.g. fate of dispersed seeds, seed treatment in the digestive system of the disperser) is rarely studied under natural conditions, because it is difficult to measure the effects on seeds once ingested by the dispersers (Cortes et al. 2009). © Cambridge University Press 2012.

Efeito α-tomatina na proliferação celular, apoptose e expressão de RNAm dos genes APC, Ciclina A2, Catenina, CASP9, BAK, BAX e BCL-XL em células HT29

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Atividade do micronutriente selênio na cinética de proliferação celular, citotoxicidade, indução de apoptose e expressão dos genes CASP9, BCL-XL e APC em células HT29

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Potencialidade do gps de navegação garmin 12 xl utilizando um sistema de baixo custo

Since 2000 the use of the GPS navigation increases considerably. The reason for that was the deactivation of the selective availability in May 2000. However, these receivers do not register the observables, they just estimate and store them and that prevents the post-processing data. Based in this aspect some softwares were developed and are available for free. They allow recording the GPS observables, pseudorange and carrier phase. These programs are able to read in binary files and record information concerning the GPS observables and to convert binary format to a RINEX format. This study presents the GPS Garmin 12 XL evaluation using free programs. Two experiments were carried out in Presidente Prudente-SP region using the relative static survey. The processing was carried out with intervals of 30, 15, 10 and 5 minutes. The results were compared with the coordinates from a geodetic receiver and show that 98.9 % of the points, the values in relation to the planimetric accuracy were better than 0.50 m. The only baseline which the value was larger or equal to 0.50 m is the point M0001 (baseline lesser than 2 km) referred to the first experiment. In terms of precision the values did not exceeded 0.30 m.

Patch size, shape and edge distance influences seed predation in a keystone palm in tropical rainforests

Pós-graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia) - IBRC