Polysaccharide fraction of Agaricus brasiliensis avoids tumor-induced IL-10 production and changes the microenvironment of subcutaneous Ehrlich adenocarcinoma

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

Effects of Brazilian and Bulgarian propolis on bactericidal activity of macrophages against Salmonella Typhimurium

Propolis has been used in folk medicine since ancient times due to its, many biological properties: such as antimicrobial. antinflammatory, antioxidant, immunomodulatory activities, among others. 'Macrophages play an important role in the early phase of Salmonella infection. In this work, macrophages were prestimated with Brazilian or Bulgarian propolis and subsequently challenged with Salmonella Typhimurium at different macrophage/bacteria ratio. After 60 min of incubation. cells were harvested with Triton-X to lyse the macrophages. To assess the bactericidal activity. The number of colony-forming units (CFU) of S. typhimurium was determined by plating 0.1 mL in 'Mueller Hinton agar. After 24 h. CFU were counted. and the percentage of bactericidal activity was obtained. Propolis from Brazil and Bulgaria enhanced the bactericidal activity of macrophages, depending on its concentration. Brazilian propolis seemed to be more efficient than that from Bulgaria. because of their different chemical composition. In Bulgaria, bees collect the material mainly from the bud exudate of poplar tree, while in Brazil, Baccharis dracunculifolia DC. was shown to be the main propolis source. Our data also showed that the increased bactericidal activity of macrophages involved the participation of oxygen (H2O2) and nitrogen (NO) intermediate metabolites. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Staphylococcus epidermis e Staphylococcus haemolycus: detecção de genes de biofilme, toxinas, resistência a antimicrobianos e tipagem clonal em isolados de hemoculturas

Pós-graduação em Biologia Geral e Aplicada - IBB

Caracterização de Bacteriófagos Infectando Isolados Clínicos de Pseudomonas aeruginosa Armazenados em uma Coleção de Cultura

To isolate, to concentrate and to purify bacteriophages from isolates of P. aeruginosa; To observe the capacity of bacteriophages to infect isolates of P. aeruginosa susceptible and multiresitant to antimicrobial; To caractherize bacteriphages by electronic microscopy techniques. 10 isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from LEMC culture collection were submitted to the experiments of ideal temperature for the lyse region appearance in the MaConkey culture plate and 2 extraction methods for the concentration of the phages, clorophorm (Silankorva) and filtration plus centrifugation (Bergan). Three infected clinical isolates of multiresistant P. aeruginosa an one susceptible isolate ( PA01) were evaluated by 3 transmission electron microscopy techniques to caractherize phages morphologically (“on grid”, “on drop” and direct extraction from the lyse region of the culture plate). The ideal temperature to obtain lyses region was 37°C. The stock solutions, obtained through the methodologies of Sillankorva and Bergan, had satisfactory results in infecting the multiresistant isolate and the negative control. Among the 3 techniques of electronic microscopy tested the direct from the lyse plate was the best to obtain the micrography of the phages