Atomic force microscopy as a tool for biomedical and biotechnological studies.

This work presents different applications in progress with the aid of the atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique for biomedical and biotechnological applications, comprising both the acquisition of three-dimensional images and spectroscopic force measurements, in the following systems: first, low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-glycosaminoglycans; second, lectins-polysaccharides; third, mycobacterium leprae cellular wall and Vesicular Stomatites Virus (VSV) with fibronectin laminin, and lipidic membranes; fourth, DNA-complex; and fifth, actin, as well as the development of surface functionalizing protocols and image restoration by means of mathematical techniques.

[Danish contributions to early cell biology: with a point of departure in films, among others about the inauguration of the biological institute of the Carlsberg Foundation October 19, 1932]. / Danske bidrag til den tidlige cellebiologi: med udgangspunkt i film bl.a. om indvielsen af Carlsbergfondets Biologiske Institut den 19. oktober 1932.

Louis Pasteur in France saw that microbes might cause disease, Gerhard Armauer Hansen in Norway established a connection between a bacterium and a human disease, and Robert Koch in Germany supplied the final proof that linked bacteria to disease. From then on there was an explosion in interest and techniques for cultivation of bacteria. It lasted about 30 years before Harrison in the USA succeeded in growing cells from multicellular organisms in pure culture. His technique came to Denmark at an early time point and the Rockefeller Foundation in New York and the Carlsberg Foundation in Copenhagen joined forces and built the Biological Institute of the Carlsberg Foundation in order to support Albert Fischer in his study of cell biology. His first assistant at this Institute, Fritz Lipmann, won the Nobel Prize for 1953 for work initiated there. The Institute remained a center for cell biology for almost 50 years. At the neighboring Rockefeller Institute in Copenhagen Einar Lundsgaard obtained results showing in the short perspective that current concepts of cellular utilization of energy were wrong, and in the long perspective his assistant, Herman Kalckar, would formulate modern concepts of cellular oxidative phosphorylations. This review is based in part on films from the 1930's.

A proliferaçao celular epitelial em lesoes cutâneas de pacientes com hanseníase está reduzida-evidência radioautográfica / ?

Neste trabalho foi comparado a resposta proliferativa da epiderme humana, em biópsias de áreas com e sem lesao anestésica de pacientes com hanseníase indeterminada, tuberculóide e virchowiana. Para tanto foi injetado timidina (3H-Td), via intradérmica, e após uma hora de injeçao foram determinados, nas preparaçoes radioautográficas, os índices de células marcadas nas camadas basais e suprabasais. Houve reduçao significativa da proliferaçao de células epidérmicas em áreas com lesao de pacientes hansenianos, mais acentuada no grupo virchowiano e menos acentuada nos grupos indeterminados e tuberculóide, que mostraram comportamento semelhante. Os índices de marcaçao de áreas sem lesao de pacientes hansenianos dos três grupos é semelhante ao do índice de áreas sem lesao de nao hansenianos. Estes dados sugerem que a reduçao da proliferaçao celular da epiderme em pacientes hansenianos nao parece estar relacionada com a desnervaçao da pele desde que esta reduçao foi maior nos pacientes virchowianos, enquanto que a desnervaçao é mais intensa nos pacientes com lesao tuberculóide. É mais provável que a reduçao esteja relacionada com o distúrbio da resposta imune, mais intenso nos pacientes com lesoes virchowianas