Desigualdade da sobrevivência de trabalhadores de Botucatu, São Paulo, Brasil

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

FTY720 in combination with cyclosporine - an analysis of skin allograft survival and renal function

Acute and chronic nephrotoxicity caused by CsA Continuous administration impair kidney allograft survival. Several clinical and experimental protocols have shown benefits to the kidney after decreasing CsA dose, withdrawing the drug or delaying its introduction after transplantation.FTY720 is a new Compound that has immunosuppressive characteristics and increase allograft survival in animal models without causing the side effects of calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs). FTY720 described mechanism of action that consists to alter the lymphocyte migration pattern without impairment of the immune system response against pathogens.In our mice model, FTY720 administered alone or in combination with CsA during 21 days increased skin allograft survival in a fully mismatched strain combination and did not cause significant changes in renal function. Moreover, renal structure was normal in all groups suggesting that at low doses (10 mg/kg/day) CsA can be associated during short-term period to other immunosuppressive drugs, i.e. FTY720 without affecting the kidney.Combination of immunosuppressive compounds with FTY720 and/or delayed introduction of low cyclosporine dose Could prevent graft rejection and avoid nephrotoxicity. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Endurance training stimulates growth and survival pathways and the redox balance in rat pancreatic islets

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

Predictors of first-year survival in patients with advanced COPD treated using long-term oxygen therapy

Little evidence-based guidance is available to aid clinicians in determining short-term prognoses in very severe COPD patients. Therefore, the present study was designed to provide a prospective assessment (1) of the mortality rates and (2) whether the baseline measurements may be determinants of 1-year mortality in hypoxemic COPD patients receiving long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT).Seventy-eight clinically stable patients with advanced COPD treated using LTOT were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. Outcome variable: first-year mortality. Baseline measurements: categorical variables: age (<60 or >= 60 years); gender; body mass index (<20 or >= 20 kg/m(2)); fat-free mass (FFM) index (<16 [men] and <15kg/m(2) [women]; baseline dyspnea index (BDI) (<= 3 or >3); and corticosteroid use. Continuous variables: smoking history; lung function; FFM; fat mass; hemoglobin; hematocrit; arterial blood gases; forearm muscle strength; St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ); and comorbidity score. By the end of 1-year of follow-up, 12 patients (15.4%) had died. Kaplan-Meier curves showed that BDI <= 3 was the only variable associated with higher mortality. Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed that tower PaO2 and SPO2, higher PaCO2 and SGRQ scores were associated with reduced survival. In the multivariate analysis, BDI remained predictive of mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 0.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.31-0.81), as did PaO2 (HR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.26-0.95). These data suggest that readily available parameters as dyspnea intensity and hypoxemia severity may be useful in predicting first-year survival rates in advanced COPD patients receiving LTOT (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A function to predict the risk for death in the neonatal sepsis

This was a prospective study of 43 septic neonates at the NICU of the School of Medicine of Botucatu, São Paulo State University. Clinical and laboratory data of sepsis were analyzed based on outcome divided into two groups, survival and death. We calculated the discriminatory power of the relevant variables for the diagnosis of sepsis in each group, and using software for Discriminant Analysis, a function was proposed. There were 43 septic cases with 31 survivals and 12 deaths. The variables that had the highest discriminatory power were: n(o) of compromised systems, the SNAP, FiO2, and (A-a)O2. The study of these and others variables, such as birth weight, n(o) of risk factors, and pH using a Linear Discriminant Function(LDF) allowed us to identify the high-risk neonates for death with a low error rate (8.33%). The LDF was: F = 0.00043 (birth weight) + 0.30367 (n(o) of risk factors) - 0.1171 (n(o) of compromised systems) + 0.33223 (SNAP) + 2.27972 (pH) - 14.96511 (FiO2) + 0.01814 ((A-a)O2). If F > 22.77 there was high risk of death. This study suggests that the LDF at the onset of sepsis is useful for the early identification of the high-risk neonates that need special clinical and laboratory surveillance.

Stability of cp-Ti and Ti-6Al-4V alloy for dental implants as a function of saliva pH - an electrochemical study

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Survival rate, body size and food abundance in pure and mixed blowfly cultures

The influence of food abundance, larval density and interspecific interactions on the survival and body size of Chrysomya albiceps, Chrysomya megacephala and Cochliomyia macellaria was investigated in pure and mixed cultures, to determine the impact of competition and/or facultative predation on native and introduced blowfly species in South America. In mixed cultures there was complete elimination of C. megacephala and C. macellaria. Chrysomya albiceps exhibited higher survival in mixed compared to pure cultures, suggesting that predation offers more advantages than competition for food. Body size of C. albiceps was significantly affected by food scarcity in pure cultures. However, tibia size in males of all species suffered no significant variation as a function of food scarcity. The implications of these results for population dynamics of introduced and native blowfly species are discussed.

Likelihood approximations and discrete models for tied survival data

Ties among event times are often recorded in survival studies. For example, in a two week laboratory study where event times are measured in days, ties are very likely to occur. The proportional hazards model might be used in this setting using an approximated partial likelihood function. This approximation works well when the number of ties is small. on the other hand, discrete regression models are suggested when the data are heavily tied. However, in many situations it is not clear which approach should be used in practice. In this work, empirical guidelines based on Monte Carlo simulations are provided. These recommendations are based on a measure of the amount of tied data present and the mean square error. An example illustrates the proposed criterion.

The development of seedlings from fragments of monoembryonic seeds as an important survival strategy for Eugenia (Myrtaceae) tree species

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Hyperlipidemia as a risk factor of renal allograft function impairment

In this study, the graft outcome in renal allograft recipients with [high cholesterol group (HCG), n = 30] or without [normal cholesterol group (NCG), n = 42] hypercholesterolemia and with [high triglyceride group (HTG), n = 33] or without [normal triglyceride group (NTG), n = 36] hypertriglyceridemia were prospectively compared. At 6 months post-transplantation, no significant difference was observed between the groups (NTG compared with HTG, and NCG compared with HCG) regarding age, presence of arterial hypertension, kind of donor (living related or cadaveric), immunosuppressive therapy, number of rejection episodes per patient, frequency of patients with acute cellular rejection, prevalence of patients with diabetes mellitus or proteinuria > 3 g/24 h, and mean serum creatinine. The probability of doubling serum creatinine during follow-up was statistically different between NTG and HTG (12 months: NTG = 0.03, HTG = 0.15; 36 months: NTG = 0.08, HTG = 0.33; 60 months: NTG = 0.08, HTG = 0.48; and 120 months: NTG = 0.18, HTG = 0.48), but not between NCG and HCG (12 months: NCG = 0.05, HCG = 0.13; 36 months: NCG = 0.13, HCG = 0.24; 60 months: NCG = 0.19, HCG = 0.31; 84 months: NCG = 0.27, HCG = 0.31). There was no significant difference in actuarial graft survival between HCG and NCG or between NTG and HTG. Hypertriglyceridemia, but not hypercholesterolemia, was associated with loss of graft function.

Luteal Function and Follicular Growth Following Follicular Aspiration During the Peri-Luteolysis Period in Bos indicus and Crossbred Cattle

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

Influence of temperature on larval survival, development and respiration in Chasmagnathus granulata (Crustacea, Decapoda)

Larvae of an estuarine grapsid crab Chasmagnathus granulata Dana 1851, from temperate and subtropical regions of South America, were reared in seawater (32 ‰) at five different constant temperatures (12, 15, 18, 21, 24 °C). Complete larval development from hatching (Zoea I) to metamorphosis (Crab I) occurred in a range from 15 to 24 °C. Highest survival (60% to the first juvenile stage) was observed at 18°C, while all larvae reared at 12°C died before metamorphosis. The duration of development (D) decreased with increasing temperature (T). This relationship is described for all larval stages as a power function (linear regressions after logarithmic transformation of both D and T). The temperature-dependence of the instantaneous developmental rate (D-1) is compared among larval stages and temperatures using the Q10 coefficient (van't Hoff's equation). Through all four zoeal stages, this index tends to increase during development and to decrease with increasing T (comparing ranges 12-18, 15-21, 18-24 °C). In the Megalopa, low Q10 values were found in the range from 15 to 24 °C. In another series of experiments, larvae were reared at constant 18°C and their dry weight (W) and respiratory response to changes in T were measured in all successive stages during the intermoult period (stage C) of the moulting cycle. Both individual and weight-specific respiration (R, QO2) increased exponentially with increasing T. At each temperature, R increased significantly during growth and development through successive larval stages. No significantly different QO2 values were found in the first three zoeal stages, while a significant decrease with increasing W occurred in the Zoea IV and Megalopa. As in the temperature-dependence of D, the respiratory response to changes in temperature (Q10) depends on both the temperature range and the developmental stage, however, with different patterns. In the zoeal stages, the respiratory Q10 was minimum (1.7-2.2) at low temperatures (12-18 °C), but maximum (2.2-3.0) at 18-24 °C. The Megalopa, in contrast, showed a stronger metabolic response in the lower than in the upper temperature range (Q10 = 2.8 and 1.7, respectively). We interpret this pattern as an adaptation to a sequence of temperature conditions that should typically be encountered by C. granulata larvae during their ontogenetic migrations: hatching in and subsequent export from shallow estuarine lagoons, zoeal development in coastal marine waters, which are on average cooler, return in the Megalopa stage to warm lagoons. We thus propose that high metabolic sensitivity to changes in temperature may serve as a signal stimulating larval migration, so that the zoeae should tend to leave warm estuaries and lagoons, whereas the Megalopa should avoid remaining in the cooler marine waters and initiate its migration towards shallow coastal lagoons.

Modulation of cell proliferation, survival and gene expression by RAGE and TLR signaling in cells of the innate and adaptive immune response: role of p38 MAPK and NF-KB

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Origin and function of short-latency inputs to the neural substrates underlying the acoustic startle reflex

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