Comparison of dung beetle communities (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) in oil palm plantations and native forest in the eastern Amazon, Brazil

Abstract In order to evaluate the impact of oil palm cultivation on dung beetles in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, comparisons were made of communities in oil palm plantations and native forest. Pitfall traps baited with human feces were buried to soil level in plantations and surrounding forests. Fifty traps were used in each type of vegetation, placed at 50 m intervals along five transects. Dung beetle communities in oil palm plantations have lower species richness (18 spp.) than in surrounding tropical rainforest (48 spp.), as well as altered species composition. Total abundance of individuals was not significantly different between the two habitats, but species composition was greatly different. Species evenness was greater in the forest. Forest corridors for the preservation of dung beetle species may need to be much wider than current designs. The erosion of biodiversity in dung beetles due to oil palm monoculture parallels what has been seen in other animal taxa in tropical tree plantations.

Expresión inmunohistoquímica de p53 en individuos con liquen / Immunohistochemical expression of p53 in individuals with lichen planus

Objetivo: Estimar el riesgo del potencial de malignización del liquen plano bucal analizando la expresión de la proteína p53. Materiales y metodos: Se realizó un diseño de cohorte de sujetos con diagnostico histopatológico de liquen. El desenlace fue el desarrollo de cáncer si/no. El total de individuos que cumplió con los criterios de inclusión/exclusión fue de 58. A los 58 sujetos se les realizó la determinación de p53. Resultados: Cuarenta y nueve individuos mostraron una expresión de p53 menor al 5% con una P>0,05% intrasujeto no transformado. En los 9 individuos transformados se observaron diferencias significativas entre la determinación pre y post de la proteína p53. El Riesgo Relativo fue de 188 con una significación estadística de P< 0,01. Conclusion: La expresión de la proteína p53 en los individuos con liquen apoya la hipótesis que niveles superiores al 5%constituye un factor de incremento del riesgo en la transformación maligna de esta patología. Nuestros hallazgos deberían ser corroborados en el futuro con mayor número de individuos. La determinación de la p53 mediante IHQ en individuos con liquen plano bucal podría modificar el seguimiento clínico de estos individuos. Esto permitiría un diagnóstico precoz de cualquier alteración que pueda indicar un posible cambio hacia la malignización.

Objective: To determine the risk for potential malignant transformation of oral lichen planus by analyzing protein p53 expression. Materials and methods: Cohort study of subjects with a histopathologic diagnosis of lichen. The study analyzed whether or not subjects developed cancer. A total of 58 subjects fulfilled the inclusion/exclusion criteria, and were analyzed for p53. Results: Fortynine(49) subjects showed a p53 expression <5%, with a p>0.05 among subjects undergoing no transformation. In the 9 subjects undergoing malignant transformation, significant differences were observed between pre and post p53 expression. The relative risk was 188, with a statistical significance of p< 0.01. Conclusions: Protein p53 expression in subjects with lichen supports the hypothesis that levels >5% are associated with an increased risk of malignant transformation of this condition. Should our findings be proved in a larger series in the future, the clinical follow-up of these subjects could be modified. This would allow an early diagnosis of any disorder indicative of a potential malignant transformation.

Association of postalimentary lipemia with atherosclerotic manifestations

We identified different lipemic and metabolic responses after the ingestion of a standardized meal by healthy adults and related them to atherosclerotic markers. Samples from 60 normolipidemic adults were collected before and after a liquid meal (40 g fat/m² body surface) at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 h for measurements of lipids, free fatty acids (FFA), insulin, cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), autoantibodies to epitopes of oxidized LDL (oxLDL Ab), lipolytic activities, and apolipoprotein E polymorphism. Mean carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) was determined by Doppler ultrasound. The volunteers were classified into early (N = 39) and late (N = 31) triacylglycerol (TAG) responders to the test meal. Late responders showed lower HDL cholesterol concentration at fasting and in the TAG peak, lower insulin and higher FFA concentrations compared to early responders. Multivariate regression analyses showed that mean cIMT was associated with gender (male) and age in early responders and by cholesterol levels at the 6th hour in late responders. oxLDL Ab were explained by lipoprotein lipase and negatively by hepatic lipase and oxLDL Ab (fasting period) by CETP (negative) and FFA (positive). This study is the first to identify a postalimentary insulin resistance state, combined with a reduced CETP response exclusively among late responders, and the identification of the regulators of postalimentary atherogenicity. Further research is required to determine the metabolic mechanisms described in the different postalimentary phenotypes observed in this study, as well as in different pathological states, as currently investigated in our laboratory.