Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor in the Paraventricular Nucleus Plays a Major Role in the Sympathoexcitatory Response to Salt

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Important GABAergic mechanism within the NTS and the control of sympathetic baroreflex in SHR

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

Inhibition of the caudal pressor area reduces cardiorespiratory chemoreflex responses

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

Ventrolateral medulla mechanisms involved in cardiorespiratory responses to central chemoreceptor activation in rats

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

Chemosensory control by commissural nucleus of the solitary tract in rats

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

Use of Rectangular Grid Miniplates for Fracture Fixation at the Mandibular Angle

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome of patients with mandibular angle fractures treated by intraoral access and a rectangular grid miniplate with 4 holes and stabilized with monocortical screws.Patients and Methods: This study included 45 patients with mandibular angle fractures from the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery São Paulo State University, Araraquara, Brazil, and from the Clinic of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. The 45 fractures of the mandibular angle were treated with a rectangular grid miniplate of a 2.0-mm system by an intraoral approach with monocortical screws. Clinical evaluations were postoperatively performed at 15 and 30 days and 3 and 6 months, and the complications encountered were recorded and treated.Results: The infection rate was 4.44% (2 patients), and in 1 patient it was necessary to replace hardware. This patient also had a fracture of the left mandibular body; 3 patients (6.66%) had minor occlusal changes that have been resolved with small occlusal adjustments. Before surgery, 15 patients (33.33%) presented with hypoesthesia of the inferior alveolar nerve; 4 (8.88%) had this change until the last clinical control, at 6 months.Conclusions: The rectangular grid miniplate used in this study was stable for the treatment of simple mandibular angle fractures through intraoral access, with low complication rates, easy handling, and easy adjustment, with a low cost. Concomitant mandibular fracture may increase the rate of complications. This plate should be indicated in fractures with sufficient interfragmentaty contact. (C) 2011 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons J Oral Maxillofac Surg 69:1436-1441, 2011

Morphometric and morphological analysis of neuromuscular junction alterations in the denervated rat diaphragm

The morphological and structural alterations that occur in the neuromuscular junctions of the denervated rat diaphragm were studied. Fifteen adult male albino rats (Rattus norvegicus) aged about 60 days and with a mean weight of 200 g were used. Chronically denervated diaphragms were obtained and the animals were sacrificed after 4, 8 and 12 weeks of denervation. The left antimere of the diaphragm was denervated by section of the phrenic nerve and the right antimere was used as control. Each antimere was divided into three fragments: one was used for histochemical (nonspecific esterase) and morphometric study of neuromuscular junctions, and the other two were used for transmission and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. Histochemical analysis of the diaphragm neuromuscular junctions after denervation showed only small changes in junction morphology. However, these junctions became smaller and elongated and presented less visible contours with increasing time of denervation. Ultrastructural analysis of neuromuscular junctions after 12 weeks showed more or less organized junctional folds on the muscle fiber surface. The junctional cytoplasm exhibited important alterations such as mitochondrial degeneration and the presence of numerous filaments. SEM revealed the presence of deep primary synaptic grooves with peripheral excavations which housed the nerve terminal boutons and exhibited internally the secondary synaptic clefts present among the junctional folds of the sarcolemma. This study showed that some of the morphological changes demonstrated in other denervated striated skeletal muscles are not repeated at the same intensity or in the same temporal pattern in the rat diaphragm.

Morphologic alterations resulting from denervation of the diaphragm in rats

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Reduction of crotoxin-induced neuromuscular blockade by gamma radiation

A comparative study between crotoxin and gamma irradiated crotoxin was performed on the indirectly evoked twitches and tetani of sciatic nerve-extensor digitorum longus muscle of rats. Crotoxin (3 to 14 mu g/ml) decreased the amplitude of twitches and induced a slight tetanic fade, and irradiated crotoxin did not significantly affect either twitch amplitude or tetanic tension. Since gamma radiation reduced the neurotoxicity of crotoxin it may be useful for the production of anticrotalic serum. (C) 1998 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysis of Bothrops jararacussu venomous gland transcriptome focusing on structural and functional aspects: I - gene expression profile of highly expressed phospholipases A(2)

Snake venom glands are a rich source of bioactive molecules such as peptides, proteins and enzymes that show important pharmacological activity leading to in local and systemic effects as pain, edema, bleeding and muscle necrosis. Most studies on pharmacologically active peptides and proteins from snake venoms have been concerned with isolation and structure elucidation through methods of classical biochemistry. As an attempt to examine the transcripts expressed in the venom gland of Bothrops jararacussu and to unveil the toxicological and pharmacological potential of its products at the molecular level, we generated 549 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from a directional cDNA library. Sequences obtained from single-pass sequencing of randomly selected cDNA clones could be identified by similarities searches on existing databases, resulting in 197 sequences with significant similarity to phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)), of which 83.2% were Lys49-PLA(2) homologs (BOJU-1), 0.1% were basic Asp49-PLA(2)s (BOJU-II) and 0.6% were acidic Asp49-PLA(2)s (BOJU-III). Adjoining this very abundant class of proteins we found 88 transcripts codifying for putative sequences of metalloproteases, which after clustering and assembling resulted in three full-length sequences: BOJUMET-I, BOJUMET-II and BOJUMET-III; as well as 25 transcripts related to C-type lectin like protein including a full-length cDNA of a putative galactose binding C-type lectin and a cluster of eight serine-proteases transcripts including a full-length cDNA of a putative serine protease. Among the full-length sequenced clones we identified a nerve growth factor (Bj-NGF) with 92% identity with a human NGF (NGHUBM) and an acidic phospholipase A2 (BthA-I-PLA(2)) displaying 85-93% identity with other snake venom toxins. Genetic distance among PLA(2)s from Bothrops species were evaluated by phylogenetic analysis. Furthermore, analysis of full-length putative Lys49-PLA(2) through molecular modeling showed conserved structural domains, allowing the characterization of those proteins as group II PLA(2)s. The constructed cDNA library provides molecular clones harboring sequences that can be used to probe directly the genetic material from gland venom of other snake species. Expression of complete cDNAs or their modified derivatives will be useful for elucidation of the structure-function relationships of these toxins and peptides of biotechnological interest. (C) 2004 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

Rhabdias filicaudalis n. sp. (Nematoda: Rhabdiasidae) from the snake Spilotes pullatus (Serpentes: Colubridae) in Brazil

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

Pulmonary receptors in reptiles: discharge patterns of receptor populations in snakes versus turtles

This study examines the effects of lung inflation/deflation with and without CO2 on the entire population of pulmonary receptors in the vagus nerve in two species of snakes and two species of turtles. We asked the question, how does the response of the entire mixed population of pulmonary stretch receptors (PSR) and intrapulmonary chemoreceptors (IPC) in species possessing both differ from that in species with only PSR? This was studied under conditions of artificial ventilation with the secondary goal of extending observations on the presence/absence of IPC to a further three species. Our results indirectly illustrate the presence of IPC in the Burmese python and South American rattlesnake but not the side necked turtle, adding support to the hypothesis that IPC first arose in diapsid reptiles. In both species of snake, CO2-sensitive discharge (presumably from IPC) predominated almost to the exclusion of CO2-insensitive discharge (presumably arising from PSR) while the opposite was true for both species of turtle. The data suggest that for animals breathing air under conditions of normal metabolism there is little to distinguish between the discharge profiles of the total population of receptors arising from the lungs in the different groups. Interestingly, however, under conditions of elevated environmental CO2 most volume-related feedback from the lungs is abolished in the two species of snakes, while under conditions of elevated metabolic CO2, it is estimated that volume feedback from the lungs would be enhanced in these same species.

Phylogenetic signal and variation of visceral pigmentation in eight anuran families

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

Pseudechis australis Venomics: Adaptation for a Defense against Microbial Pathogens and Recruitment of Body Transferrin

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