Técnica de peroxidase-antiperoxidase (PAP) em biópsia renal: estudo comparativo

Os métodos de imunoperoxidase têm muito em comum com os da imunofluorescência para a demonstração de antígenos teciduais e celulares como no campo das doenças renais relacionadas a imunoglobinas e imunocomplexos. Neste trabalho os autores fazem um estudo comparativo da sensibilidade dos dois métodos (IF e PAP) em tecido de congelação e blocos parafinizados de material de biópsia renal. A análise estatística dos resultados mostrou uma concordãncia significativa entre a IF de congelação e a imunoperoxidase em tecido parafinizado com exceções para a detecção de frações de complemento e de fibrinogênio. Não houve concordância entre a IF em congelação e IF em tecido parafinizado.

Mitochondrial ultrastructural and atpase changes during the life cycle of Ascaris Suum

Ultrastructural morphology and ATPase specific activities of mitochondria isolated from 1-celled fertilized egg, 10-day embryo, 21-day infective larvae and adult body wall muscle of Ascaris suum and rat liver were determined and compared. Although cristae of both muscle and egg mitochondria contained numerous elementary particles with head pieces of conventional diameter (85 A), each muscle mitochondrion contained relatively few, short cristae with a diminished frequency of elementary particles and associated ATPase activity. These morphological relationships are related to the previous conclusion that the transition from an aerobic to an essentially anaerobic metabolism is intimately associated with the mitochondrion and is a normal and mandatory feature of development.

The life cycle of Dendritobilharzia anatinarum cheatum, 1941 (Trematoda, Schistosomatidae)

The life cycle of Dendritobilharzia anatinarum was completed experimentally in the laboratory. Cairina moschata domestica (domestic duck) and Biomphalaria straminea served respectively as definitive and intermediate hosts. Eggs passed in duck faeces hatch miracidia in 10 minutes when placed in water. Eight days after the snail infection, the mother sporocyst contains daughter sporocysts ready to migrate. Cercariae are present within the daughter sporocysts 23 days after infection and emerge from the snail on the 25th day. They actively penetrate the skin of the duck and after a prepatent of 39 days, sexually mature trematodes are present in the blood vessels of the bird. The adult parasite is predominantly in the renal-portal system and to a lesser degree in the lungs and mesentery. A detailed morphological description of the egg. miracidium, sporocyst and cercaria is presented.

Acquired resistance of mice against S. mansoni and lung granulomatous reaction induced by BCG

Studies carried out in Sw outbred mice showed that there is no correlation between the degree of lung granulomatous reaction and the level of acquired resistance against S. mansoni infection induced by BCG.

Leishmaniasis in Bolivia: II. The involvement of Psychodopygus yucumensis and Psychodopygus llanosmartinsi in the selvatic transmission cycle of Leishmania braziliensis braziliensis in a lowland subandean region

An epidemiological survey of the vectors of cutaneous leishmaniasis ("espúndia" type) was caried out in the Alto Beni region of Bolivia, an area of Andean foothills at the Eastern limit of the Amazonian lowlands. The climate is typical wet tropical (15ºS latitude). Anthropophilic phlebotomine sandfly species were sampled at 20 sites, all forested. The importance of species from the Psychodopygus group, already suspected as a vector in the transmission of Leishmania from the braziliensis complex, was confirmed by: 1) the aggressiveness and diversity of the species encountered (83% of catches, nine species), 2) the discovery of a new anthropophilic species, P. yucumensis and 3) the isolation of a strain of Leishmania braziliensis braziliensis indistinguishable from human strains from the same area, from two species, P. llanosmartinsi and P. yucumensis.

From a mono to a digenetic life-cycle: how was the jump for flagellates of the family trypanosomatidae?

It has been found that species of the digenetic genus Trypanosoma as well as species of monogenetic trypanosomatids of insects can grow in the lumen of the scent glands of opossums reproducing the cycle they perform in the intestinal tract of their insect hosts. Based on these findings, speculations are made on the incompletely known cycles of many mammalian trypanosomes and on the evolution of the family Trypanosomatidae.

The life cycle of MetaCutereba apicalis (Diptera: Cuterebidae)

The development of Metacuterebra apicalis in laboratory conditions is described. The natural host, Oryzomys subflavus, and laboratory white rats were used as experimental hosts. The life cycle, from oviposition to the deaths of adults, was completed in about 73 days. The incubation period of eggs was about 10 days; the parasitic larval phase lasted 23 days in the natural host and 26 days in white rats; pupa lived for 32 days and adults survived for six days.

Experimental heteroxenous cycle of Lagochilascaris minor Leiper, 1909 (Nematoda: Ascarididae) in white mice and in cats

Reports of natural infections of sylvatic carnivores by adult worms of species similar to Lagochilascaris minor in the Neotropical region led to attempts to estabilish experimental cycles in laboratory mice and in cats. Also, larval development was seen in the skeletal muscle of an agouti (Dasyprocta leporina) infected per os with incubated eggs of the parasite obtained from a human case. In cats, adult worms develop and fertile eggs are expelled in the feces: in mice, larval stages of the parasite develop, and are encapsulate in the skeletal muscle, and in the adipose and subcutaneous connective tissue. From our observations, we conclude that the larva infective for the mouse is the early 3rd stage, while for the final host the infective form is the later 3rd stage. A single moult was seen in the mouse, giving rise to a small population of 4th stage larvae, long after the initial infection.