Effect of diet on carboxylesterase activity of tadpoles (Rhinella arenarum) exposed to chlorpyrifos.

An outdoor microcosm was performed with tadpoles (Rhinella arenarum) exposed to 125µgL-1 chlorpyrifos and fed two types of food, i.e., lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and a formulated commercial pellet. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and carboxylesterase (CbE) activities were measured in liver and intestine after 10 days of pesticide exposure. Non-exposed tadpoles fed lettuce had an intestinal AChE activity almost two-fold higher than that of pellet-fed tadpoles. No significant differences were observed, however, in liver AChE activity between diets. Likewise, intestinal CbE activity - measured using two substrates, i.e. 1-naphthyl acetate (1-NA) and 4-nitrophenyl valerate (4-NPV) - was higher in tadpoles fed lettuce than in those fed pellets. However, the diet-dependent response of liver CbE activity was opposite to that in the intestine. Chlorpyrifos caused a significant inhibition of both esterase activities, which was tissue- and diet-specific. The highest inhibition degree was found in the intestinal AChE and CbE activities of lettuce-fed tadpoles (42-78% of controls) compared with pellet-fed tadpoles (<60%). Although chlorpyrifos significantly inhibited liver CbE activity of the group fed lettuce, this effect was not observed in the group fed pellets. In general, intestinal CbE activity was more sensitive to chlorpyrifos inhibition than AChE activity. This finding, together with the high levels of basal CbE activity found in the intestine, may be understood as a detoxification system able to reduce intestinal OP uptake. Moreover, the results of this study suggest that diet is a determinant factor in toxicity testing with tadpoles to assess OP toxicity, because it modulates levels of this potential detoxifying enzyme activity.

Neurotrophic activity of 2,4,4-trimethyl-3-(15-hydroxypentadecyl)-2-cyclohexen-1-one in cultured central nervous system neurons.

Endogenous neurotrophic factors are essential for the development and maintenance of the nervous system. This suggests their potential utilization as therapeutic agents for neurodegenerative diseases. However, the clinical use of these proteic factors is still restricted, and brings about undesirable consequences, including adverse side effects, and bioavailability and stability difficulties. Therefore, the development of low-molecular weight, non-proteic synthetic compounds with neurotrophic properties appears as a promising approach. The aim of this study was to explore the biological activity of 2,4,4-trimethyl-3-(15-hydroxypentadecyl)-2-cyclohexen-1-one (tCFA15), a trimethyl cyclohexenonic long-chain fatty alcohol. To this end, neurons from fetal rat cerebral hemispheres were cultured in the presence of increasing doses of tCFA15 ranging from 0.1 to 1000 nM. Quantification of cell numbers after 48-h culture showed that 100 nM tCFA15 induced a significant increase in the number of surviving cells. Measurement of total neurite length in microtubule-associated protein 2-positive cells also revealed a stimulatory effect in a wider range of concentrations. The extent of this neuritogenic action was similar to that induced by dibutyryl-cyclic AMP, a well-known neurite outgrowth stimulator, but used at much higher concentration (1 mM). Analysis of structure-activity relationships with different tCFA15 analogs and derivatives corroborated the neurotrophic activity. Taken together, these findings provide strong evidence that tCFA15 exhibits neurotrophic properties in vitro.

Brain death and transcranial Doppler: experience in 130 cases of brain dead patients.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Diagnosis of brain death requires confirmation of the clinical diagnosis by appropriate tests, generally electroencephalography (EEG) and angiography. The diagnostic limitations or logistical problems inherent to these tests indicate the need to develop other more appropriate methods. The results obtained with transcranial Doppler (TCD) led us to conduct this prospective study of TCD recordings in brain dead patients. METHODS: 130 patients, aged 2-88 years were diagnosed as brain dead between July 1987 and June 1993. Clinical criteria were confirmed in all cases by EEG (n=88) and or angiography (n=64). Intracranial anterior circulation was insonated via temporal windows or, when impossible, via a transorbital approach. The posterior circulation was studied only in more recent patients. Examinations were made as soon as possible after brain death diagnosis and repeated for about 30 min. Vital parameters and treatments were taken into account. RESULTS: There was only one false negative result, in a patient with an extended skull defect, who retained TCD and angiographic intracranial circulation despite confirmed irreversible brain death. All other patients displayed typical ultrasonic patterns of cerebral circulation arrest: an oscillating signal (n= 190, 73%), a systolic spike (n=62, 24%) or a unilateral absence of signal (n=5). Despite a total correlation for positive diagnosis, TCD and angiography may differ as to the level of circulation arrest. TCD is useful for patients under sedative drugs. No false positive result was encountered but we were unable to insonate any intracranial artery in 5 patients. CONCLUSION: Data from previous studies and the results of this study indicate that TCD is a very sensitive and safe method for diagnosing cerebral circulatory arrest. TCD may be used as a confirmatory test alongside EEG and angiography. TCD is more widely applicable than EEG and may be earlier and safer than angiography.

Toxicity of the fungicide trifloxystrobin on tadpoles and its effect on fish-tadpole interaction.

Contamination of aquatic systems is a major environmental stress that can interfere with predator-prey interactions, altering prey or predator behavior differentially. We determined toxicity parameters of the fungicide trifloxystrobin (TFS) and examined its effects on predation rate, using a fish predator (Synbranchus marmoratus) and four anuran tadpole species as prey (Rhinella arenarum, Physalaemus santafecinus, Leptodactylus latrans, and Elachistocleis bicolor). TFS was not equally toxic to the four tadpole species, E. bicolor being the most sensitive species, followed by P. santafecinus, R. arenarum, and L. latrans. Predation rates were evaluated using different treatments that combined predator and prey exposed or not to this fungicide. TFS would alter the outcome of eel-tadpole interaction by reducing prey movements; thus, prey detection would decrease and therefore tadpole survival would increase. In addition, eels preyed selectively upon non-exposed tadpoles avoiding the exposed ones almost all throughout the period evaluated. Predation rate differed among prey species; such differences were not due to TFS exposure, but to interspecific differences in behavior. The mechanism that would explain TFS-induced reduction in predation rates remains unclear; however, what is clear is that sublethal TFS concentrations have the potential to alter prey behavior, thereby indirectly altering predator-prey interactions. In addition, we consider that predator-prey relationships are measurable responses of toxicant exposure and provide ecological insight into how contaminants modify predator-prey interactions.

3-(15-Hydroxypentadecyl)-2,4,4-trimethyl-2-cyclohexen-1-one and its effect on neuropeptide secretion.

The aim of the present study was to describe the synthesis of a trimethyl cyclohexenonic long chain fatty alcohol (t-CFA), and analyze its biological activity. Specifically, 3-(15-hydroxypentadecyl)-2,4,4-trimethyl-2-cyclohexen-1-one, the t-CFA containing 15 carbon atoms on the side chain (t-CFA n = 15) stimulated arginine vasopressin secretion in nerve terminals of the neurohypophysis. This effect was inhibited by extracellular calcium depletion, which suggests that t-CFA n = 15 stimulates neuropeptide secretion through a calcium-dependent exocytosis mechanism.