Comparison of the properties of compacted and porous lamellar chitosan-xanthan membranes as dressings and scaffolds for the treatment of skin lesions

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

Skin lesions in envenoming by cnidarians (Portuguese man-of-war and jellyfish): etiology and severity of accidents on the Brazilian coast

This work attempts to establish dermatological identification patterns for Brazilian enidarian species and it probable correlation with envenoming, severity In all observational prospective study, one hundred and twenty-eight patients from the North Coast re-ion of São Paulo State, Brazil were seen between 2002 and 2008. About 80% of these Showed only local effects (erythema, edema, and pain) with small, less than 20 cm, oval or round skin marks and impressions from Small tentacles. Approximately 20% of the victims had long, more than 20 cm, linear and crossed marks with frequent systemic phenomena, such as malaise, vomiting, dyspnea, and tachycardia. The former is compatible with the common hydromedusa from Southeast and Southern Brazil (Olindias sambaquiensis). The long linear marks with intense pain and systemic phenomena are compatible with envenoming, by the box jellyfish Tamoya haplonema and Chiropsalmus quadrumanus and the hydrozoan Portuguese man-of-war (Physalis physalis). There was an association between Skin marks and probable accident etiology. This simple observation rule can be indicative of severity as the Cubozoa Class (box jellyfish) and Portuguese man-of-war cause the most severe accidents. In such cases, medical attention, including intensive care, is important, as the systemic manifestations call be associated with death.

Leprosy patients: neurotrophic factors and axonal markers in skin lesions

Neurotrofinas são fatores de crescimento com papel fundamental na fisiopatologia neural. Esses mediadores modulam funcionalmente fibras nociceptivas. Mudanças em sua expressão têm sido relacionadas à perda precoce da nocicepção na hanseníase. Este estudo investigou a expressão de NGF, BDNF e NT3 em nervos dérmicos de pacientes hansenianos. A caracterização de fibras nervosas não mielinizadas foi feita por p75NTR e marcadores axonais NF-L e PGP 9.5. Os parâmetros clínicos de dano neural foram avaliados por monofilamentos Semmes-Wenstein. Nossos achados demonstram diminuição de NGF nos pacientes dimorfos em comparação aos controles. Resultados similares foram observados para PGP 9.5 (dimorfos: p<0,001; virchowianos: p<0,05) e NF-L (virchowianos: p<0.05), sugerindo degeneração avançada das terminações nervosas na hanseníase multibacilar. Foi observada correlação positiva entre p75NTR e PGP 9.5, indicando associação entre células de Schwann e axônios em fibras nervosas não mielinizadas. Os resultados indicam que o desequilíbrio na expressão das neurotrofinas pode participar do dano neural periférico.

Prevalence of precancerous skin lesions and non-melanoma skin cancer in Japanese-Brazilians in Bauru, São Paulo State, Brazil

Manifestações cutâneas pré-neoplásicas e neoplásicas em asiáticos são infreqüentes e pouco documentadas. O Brasil possui o maior contingente de imigrantes japoneses e 70% deles residem no Estado de São Paulo. A prevalência dessas lesões em nipo-brasileiros é desconhecida. O presente estudo tem como objetivo avaliar a prevalência de queratoses actínicas e tumores cutâneos não melanomas em nipo-brasileiros acima de trinta anos de 1ª geração ou 2ª geração, sem miscigenação, residentes na cidade de Bauru, no ano de 2006. Dos 567 nipo-brasileiros submetidos a exame dermatológico, diagnosticou-se queratose actínica em 76 pacientes, com média de idade de 68,9 anos, e único carcinoma basocelular em paciente do sexo feminino de 39 anos. No Japão, a prevalência de queratose actínica é de 0,76% a 5% e a incidência de tumores cutâneos não melanomas é de 1,2 a 5,4/100 mil. Os nipo-brasileiros de Bauru apresentaram prevalência de 13,4% de queratoses actínicas e idade mais precoce de aparecimento. Proximidade com o Equador e atividades rurais contribuem para esses achados. A presença de melanose solar demonstrou risco 1,9 vez maior de desenvolver queratose actínica.

Detection of cytokines and nitric oxide synthase in skin lesions of Jorge Lobo's disease patients

Studies investigating the immunopathological aspects of Jorge Lobo's disease have shown that the inflammatory infiltrate consists mainly of histiocytes and multinucleated giant cells involving numerous yeast-like cells of Lacazia loboi, with the T lymphocytes more common than B lymphocytes and plasma cells. The quantification of cytokines in peripheral blood mononuclear cells culture supernatant has revealed alterations in the cytokines profile, characterized by predominance of a Th2 profile. In view of these findings and of the role of cytokines in cell interactions, the objective of the present study was to investigate the presence of the cytokines IL-10, TGF-ss 1 and TNF-alpha, as well as iNOS enzyme in granulomas induced by L. loboi. Histological sections obtained from skin lesions of 16 patients were analyzed by immunohistochemistry for the presence of these cytokines and iNOS. The results showed that TGF-ss 1 was the cytokine most frequently expressed by cells present in the inflammatory infiltrate, followed by IL-10. There was a minimum to discrete positivity of cells expressing TNF-alpha and iNOS. The results suggest that the presence of immunosuppressive cytokines in skin lesions of patients with the mycosis might be responsible for the lack of containment of the pathogen as demonstrated by the presence of numerous fungi in the granuloma.

Characterization of texture in image of skin lesions by support vector machine

Due to the increased incidence of skin cancer, computational methods based on intelligent approaches have been developed to aid dermatologists in the diagnosis of skin lesions. This paper proposes a method to classify texture in images, since it is an important feature for the successfully identification of skin lesions. For this is defined a feature vector, with the fractal dimension of images through the box-counting method (BCM), which is used with a SVM to classify the texture of the lesions in to non-irregular or irregular. With the proposed solution, we could obtain an accuracy of 72.84%. © 2012 AISTI.

Properties of films obtained from biopolymers of different origins for skin lesions therapy

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

In vitro and skin lesion cytokine profile in Brazilian patients with borderline tuberculoid and borderline lepromatous leprosy

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Necrotic skin lesion in a dog attributed to Loxosceles (brown spider) bite: a case report

Envenomations caused by Loxosceles (brown spider) have been reported throughout the world. Clinical signs associated to bites of these spiders involve dermonecrotic lesions and intense local inflammatory response, besides systemic manifestations such as intravascular hemolysis, thrombocytopenia, disseminated intravascular coagulation and acute renal failure. The present study aimed to report and to describe dermonecrotic lesions probably caused by a Loxosceles envenomation in a four year-old poodle female dog, treated at the Dermatology Service of the Veterinary Hospital of the Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry School, São Paulo State University, Botucatu, Brazil. Initially, the animal presented two skin lesions with blackish aspect that evolved into ulcerative crusts. The owner reported the presence of a brown spider near the place where the animal spent most of the time. Histological examination of lesions revealed necrosis of the epidermis extending to adnexa and panniculi, which is compatible with Loxosceles bite reaction. The animal was treated with systemic antibiotic and local curatives. Lesions healed by second intention in two months.

Allelic imbalance studies of chromosome 9 suggest major differences in chromosomal instability among nonmelanoma skin carcinomas

CONTEXTO: Vários estudos de perda de heterozigozidade na região 9p21-p22, que abriga os genes supressores tumorais CDKN2a/p16INK4a, p19ARF e p15INK4b, têm sido realizados em uma ampla série de tumores humanos, incluindo os melanomas familiares. Perdas e ganhos em outras regiões do cromossomo 9 também têm sido observados com freqüência e podem indicar mecanismos adicionais no processo de tumorigênese dos carcinomas basocelulares da pele. OBJETIVO: Investigar o equilíbrio alélico existente na região 9p21-p22 em carcinomas basocelulares. TIPO DE ESTUDO: Análise molecular de marcadores de microssatélites em tumores e controles. LOCAL: Dois serviços de dermatologia de atendimento terciário em universidades públicas de São Paulo e o Laboratório de Genética Molecular do Câncer da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brasil. PARTICIPANTES: Examinamos 13 casos benignos, incluindo 4 queratoses solares, 3 queratoacantomas, 3 nevos melanocíticos, 2 doenças de Bowen e 1 neurofibroma cutâneo, além de 58 tumores malignos da pele: 14 de células escamosas, 40 carcinomas basocelulares e 4 melanomas; em pacientes consecutivamente encaminhados à clínica de Dermatologia da Unicamp e que concordaram em participar do estudo. VARIÁVEIS ESTUDADAS: O tumor principal e uma porção normal de pele não-adjacente foram removidos cirurgicamente de pacientes que consecutivamente procuraram os ambulatórios de dermatologia da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) e da Universidade Estadual de São Paulo (Unesp), São Paulo, por causa de lesões cutâneas. Extraímos DNA tanto de tecido tumoral como do correspondente tecido normal de cada paciente. Para amplificar regiões de repetição polimórfica de microssatélites do cromossomo 9, foram utilizados quatro pares de primers, sendo dois deles destinados à região 9p21-p22. RESULTADOS: Identificamos oito casos (20%) de desequilíbrio alélico entre os carcinomas basocelulares, sendo dois casos de perda de heterozigozidade e seis casos de instabilidade de microssatélite na região 9p21-p22. Outros marcadores também mostravam anormalidades em três destes tumores, enquanto nenhuma alteração foi detectada entre os casos benignos e nos outros tumores malignos. CONCLUSÃO: Esta dependência fenotípica sugere que existem diferenças importantes no comportamento das formas mais comuns de tumores cutâneos não-melanocíticos em relação à sua tendência para instabilidade de microssatélite no cromossomo 9. Considerando-se que os genes CDKN2a/p16INK4a, p19ARF e p15INK4b não parecem responsáveis pelas anormalidades observadas, outros genes em 9p21-p22 podem estar envolvidos na etiopatogenia e na progressão dos carcinomas basocelulares.

Leishmania chagasi infection in cats with dermatologic lesions from an endemic area of visceral leishmaniosis in Brazil

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

Leishmania chagasi infection in cats with dermatologic lesions from an endemic area of visceral leishmaniosis in Brazil

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

Sodium fluorescein for early detection of skin ulcers in Aeromonas hydrophila infected Piaractus mesopotamicus

The increase in aquaculture global fish production has been associated with an increase in infectious diseases affecting aquacultured species.. The aim of this study was to identify ulcers in pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus) with sodium fluorescein before it was possible to observe them visually. Twenty one fish with no apparent skin lesions were divided into three groups. Group 1 were injected with saline 0.65% (Group 1), Group 2 with 6 x 10(8) CFU of Aeromonas hydrophila and group 3 with 6 x 10(8) CFU of Streptococcus agalactiae into the peritoneal cavity. All animals showed a positive reaction to fluorescein. A. hydrophila infected fish presented with large round marks with irregular borders, the characteristic ulcers caused by this agent. However, the other groups only displayed markings associated with handling caused by the netting procedures. We concluded that sodium fluorescein may be useful for an early and fast evaluation of cutaneous infection of A. hydrophila in pacu.