Properties of a new fungal b-galactosidase with potential application in the dairy industry

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

Genetic differences between strains of Biomphalaria glabrata (Planorbidae) that are susceptible and unsusceptible to schistosomiasis

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

Structure and antimycobacterial activity of the novel organometallic [Pd(C-bzan)(SCN)(dppp)] compound

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Comparative Studies of the (Anti) Mutagenicity of Baccharis dracunculifolia and Artepillin C by the Bacterial Reverse Mutation Test

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

Fatigue strength of HVOF sprayed Cr(3)C(2)-25NiCr and WC-10Ni on AISI 4340 steel

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

A dominant function of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling in receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand expression and osteoclastogenesis induction by Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide

Background and Objective: Lipopolysaccharide from gram-negative bacteria is one of the microbial-associated molecular patterns that initiate the immune/inflammatory response, leading to the tissue destruction observed in periodontitis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway in lipopolysaccharide-induced receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand (RANKL) expression by murine periodontal ligament cells.Material and Methods: Expression of RANKL and osteoprotegerin mRNA was studied by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction upon stimulation with lipopolysaccharide from Escherichia coli and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans. The biochemical inhibitor SB203580 was used to evaluate the contribution of the p38 MAPK signaling pathway to lipopolysaccharide-induced RANKL and osteoprotegerin expression. Stable cell lines expressing dominant-negative forms of MAPK kinase (MKK)-3 and MKK6 were generated to confirm the role of the p38 MAPK pathway. An osteoclastogenesis assay using a coculture model of the murine monocytic cell line RAW 264.7 was used to determine if osteoclast differentiation induced by lipopolysaccharide-stimulated periodontal ligament was correlated with RANKL expression.Results: Inhibiting p38 MAPK prior to lipopolysaccharide stimulation resulted in a significant decrease of RANKL mRNA expression. Osteoprotegerin mRNA expression was not affected by lipopolysaccharide or p38 MAPK. Lipopolysaccharide-stimulated periodontal ligament cells increased osteoclast differentiation, an effect that was completely blocked by osteoprotegerin and significantly decreased by inhibition of MKK3 and MKK6, upstream activators of p38 MAPK. Conditioned medium from murine periodontal ligament cultures did not increase osteoclast differentiation, indicating that periodontal ligament cells produced membrane-bound RANKL.Conclusion: Lipopolysaccharide resulted in a significant increase of RANKL in periodontal ligament cells. The p38 MAPK pathway is required for lipopolysaccharide-induced membrane-bound RANKL expression in these cells.

Molecular adaptability of nucleoside diphosphate kinase b from trypanosomatid parasites: stability, oligomerization and structural determinants of nucleotide binding

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

On (b,c)-system at finite temperature in thermo field approach

We construct the finite temperature field theory of the two-dimensional ghost-antighost system within the framework of thermo field theory. (C) 2000 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Study of the (D)over-barN Interaction in a QCD Coulomb Gauge Quark Model

We study the (D) over barN interaction at low energies with a quark model inspired in the QCD Hamiltonian in Coulomb gauge. The model Hamiltonian incorporates a confining Coulomb potential extracted from a self-consistent quasiparticle method for the gluon degrees of freedom, and transverse-gluon hyperfine interaction consistent with a finite gluon propagator in the infrared. Initially a constituent-quark mass function is obtained by solving a gap equation and baryon and meson bound-states are obtained in Fock space using a variational calculation. Next, having obtained the constituent-quark masses and the hadron waves functions, an effective meson-nucleon interaction is derived from a quark-interchange mechanism. This leads to a short range meson-baryon interaction and to describe long-distance physics vector- and scalar-meson exchanges described by effective Lagrangians are incorporated. The derived effective (D) over barN potential is used in a Lippmann-Schwinger equation to obtain phase shifts. The results are compared with a recent similar calculation using the nonrelativistic quark model.

Performance of tau-lepton reconstruction and identification in CMS

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Search for B-S(0) -> mu(+)mu(-) and B-0 -> mu(+)mu(-) decays

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Responses of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters of the facultative halophyte and C-3-CAM intermediate species Mesembryanthemum crystallinum to salinity and high irradiance stress

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L. (Aizoaceae) is a facultative annual halophyte and a C-3-photosynthesis/crassulacean acid metabolism intermediate species currently used as a model plant in stress physiology. Both salinity and high light irradiance stress are known to induce CAM in this species. The present study was performed to provide a diagnosis of alterations at the photosystem 11 level during salinity and irradiance stress. Plants were subjected for up to 13 days to either 0.4M NaCl salinity or high irradiance of 1000 mu mol m(-2) s(-1), as well as to both stress factors combined (LLSA = low light plus salt; HLCO = high light of 1000 mu mol m(-2)s(-1), no salt; HLSA = high light plus salt). A control of LLCO = low light of 200 mu mol m(-2) s(-1), no salt was used. Parameters of chlorophyll a fluorescence of photosystem 11 (PSII) were measured with a pulse amplitude modulated fluorometer. HLCO and LLSA conditions induced a weak degree of CAM with day/night changes of malate levels (Delta malate) of similar to 12 mM in the course of the experiment, while HLSA induced stronger CAM of Delta malate similar to 20mM. Effective quantum yield of PSII, Delta F/F'(m), was only slightly affected by LLSA, somewhat reduced during the course of the experiment by HLCO and clearly reduced by HLSA. Potential quantum efficiency of PSII, F-v/F-m, at predawn times was not affected by any of the conditions, always remaining at >= 0.8, showing that there was no acute photoinhibition. During the course of the days HL alone (HLCO) also did not elicit photoinhibition; salt alone (LLSA) caused acute photoinhibition which was amplified by the combination of the two stresses (HLSA). Non-photochemical, NPQ, quenching remained low (< 0.5) under LLCO, LLSA and HLCO and increased during the course of the experiment under HLSA to 1-2. Maximum apparent photosynthetic electron transport rates, ETRmax, declined during the daily courses and were reduced by LLSA and to a similar extent by HLSA. It is concluded that A crystallinum expresses effective stress tolerance mechanisms but photosynthetic capacity is reduced by the synergistic effects of salinity and tight irradiance stress combined. (c) 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

DUCTAL CARCINOMA IN-SITU OF THE BREAST - HISTOLOGIC CATEGORIZATION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO PLOIDY AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL EXPRESSION OF HORMONE RECEPTORS, P53, AND C-ERBB-2 PROTEIN

Background. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast has been diagnosed increasingly since the advent of mammography. However, the natural history of these lesions remains uncertain. Ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast does not represent a single entity but a heterogeneous group with histologic and clinical differences. The histologic subtype of DCIS seems to have an influence on its biologic behavior, but there are few studies correlating subtype with biologic markers.Methods. The authors studied a consecutive series of 40 cases of DCIS and after its histologic categorization verified its relationship with ploidy using image analysis and analyzing estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), p53 and c-erbB-2 expression using immunohistochemistry.Results. The three groups proposed according to the grade of malignancy were correlated significantly with some of the additional parameters studied, including aneuploidy and c-erB-2 expression. Aneuploidy was detected in 77.5% of cases of DCIS mainly in high and intermediate grade subtypes (100% and 80% vs. 35.7% in low grade) whereas immunoreactivity for c-erbB-2 was detected in 45% of cases of DCIS mainly in the high grade group. Expression of ER and PR were observed frequently in this study (63.9% and 65.7% respectively), but without correlation with the histologic subtype of DCIS, although we found a somewhat significant association between high grade DCIS and lack of ER. p53 protein expression was detected in 36.8% of these cases, but no relationship between this expression and histologic subtype or grading of DCIS was found.Conclusions. These results provide further evidence for the morphologic and biologic heterogeneity of DCIS. Besides histologic classification and nuclear grading, some biologic markers such as aneuploidy and c-erbB-2 expression constitute additional criteria of high grade of malignancy.