Short communication: Extended-spectrum AmpC-producing Escherichia coli from milk and feces in dairy farms in Brazil.

The AmpC enzyme is normally expressed constitutively in Escherichia coli, and its overproduction confers resistance to cefoxitin. A newly reported AmpC, the extended-spectrum AmpC (ESAC), is related to resistance to cefepime, a fourth-generation cephalosporin. This enzyme presents more flexibility in the active site due to insertions, replacements, and deletions on AA sequences. Many isolates producing ESAC were reported in human clinical isolates, but E. coli ESAC producers were reported in animals only in France. The animal E. coli strains can produce this enzyme and possibly disseminate it to human and production environments. In our study, 3 strains of E. coli from milk and feces bovine samples, collected in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were suspected to produce ESAC. After excluding other mechanisms of resistance, the gene was sequenced to verify ESAC characteristics. These strains presented replacement of AA in omega and R2 loops, suggesting ESAC production. This is the first report to study ESAC E. coli in dairy farms in Brazil.

[Orthotopic liver transplantation. Experience in the University Hospital of Monterrey, N.L]. / Trasplante hepático ortotpico. Experiencia en el Hospital Universitario de Monterrey, N.L.

INTRODUCTION: Several programs of organ and tissues transplantation have been developed for over a decade at the University Hospital. OBJECTIVE: To describe long term complications and survival in the liver transplant program at the University Hospital, UANL. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The long term complications and survival were analyzed in the liver transplant program at the University Hospital Dr. José Eleuterio González in the period between 1991 and 2011. RESULTS: Ninety six liver transplants were performed during this period, four of them received one re-transplant and one patient received 2 retransplants. Most common long term complications were metabolic 62%, bony 31% and infectious 28%. Median survival was 78 months. CONCLUSIONS: Liver transplant program at the University Hospital UANL has grown, being the most active in the state of Nuevo Leon, with 1-, 5- and 10-years survival of 66.1, 53.3 and 46.2%, respectively.

Characterization of typical aquatic humic substances in areas of sugarcane cultivation in Brazil using tetramethylammonium hydroxide thermochemolysis.

Aquatic humic substances (AHSs) differ from one environment to another depending on land use and occupation. In addition, the effects of planting sugarcane on AHSs are not well known. Thus, the aim of this study was to characterize AHSs extracted from a river in a typical region of sugarcane cultivation during dry and rainy seasons. The main characteristics of the AHSs were obtained using Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and off-line pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (off-line tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH)-GC-MS-thermochemolysis). The FTIR and NMR results were used to infer that no distinctions occurred between the sampling periods. The samples were composed of aromatic groups that were potentially associated with the presence of residual vegetable materials (lignin). The results of the off-line TMAH-GC-MS-thermochemolysis indicated that the structures of the AHSs had uniform compositions that were rich in fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), polysaccharide derivatives, aliphatic biopolymers derived from plants, long hydrocarbon chains, branched alkyl groups and methylene carbons. Thus, the results showed that the AHSs obtained from the sugarcane cultivation area during the crop period mainly consisted of resistant aliphatic hydrocarbons, which are derivatives of lignin and FAMEs in compounds rich in humic acid. Therefore, we concluded that sugarcane cultivation produces changes in AHSs because greater amounts of lignin derivatives were observed during the dry season, corresponding to sugarcane cultivation.