A multibiomarker approach in rats to assess the impact of pollution on Sinos River, Southern Brazil

The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of combining water quality analysis with different biomarkers to characterise the relationship between anthropogenic contamination and biotic response in the Sinos River, southern Brazil. Wistar rats were studied using three biomarkers combined with physical, chemical and microbiological analysis to assess the effects of pollution at four sampling sites. The induction of oxidative stress was quantified by MDA levels in peripheral blood, lymphocyte DNA damage was determined using the comet assay, and histopathological changes were analysed in the liver. After sampling, animals were allowed to drink the river water during a 48 hours period. No increase in oxidative stress and DNA damage was observed. However, liver damage was observed in the animals exposed to water samples, indicating that the Sinos River is contaminated with hepatotoxic substances. Water analyses confirmed that water quality decreased downriver.

O objetivo deste estudo foi determinar a viabilidade de combinar a análise da qualidade da água com o estudo de biomarcadores para caracterizar a relação entre contaminação antropogênica e resposta biótica no rio dos Sinos, sul do Brasil. Ratos Wistar machos foram estudados usando três biomarcadores combinados com análises físicas, químicas e microbiológicas para determinar os efeitos da poluição em quatro locais de amostragem de água. A indução do estresse oxidativo foi quantificada pelos níveis de MDA no sangue periférico, o dano do DNA linfocitário foi determinado usando o ensaio cometa, e as alterações histopatológicas foram analisadas no fígado. As amostras da água do rio dos Sinos (dos quatro pontos selecionados) foram administradas por via oral (como água para beber) por 48 horas. Nenhum aumento do estresse oxidativo ou do dano do DNA foi observado. Entretanto, dano do tecido hepático foi verificado nos animais expostos à ingestão das amostras da água, indicando que o rio dos Sinos está contaminado com substâncias hepatotóxicas. As análises das amostras de água confirmaram a redução da qualidade da água em direção à foz do rio.

A multibiomarker approach in rats to assess the impact of pollution on Sinos River, Southern Brazil.

The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of combining water quality analysis with different biomarkers to characterise the relationship between anthropogenic contamination and biotic response in the Sinos River, southern Brazil. Wistar rats were studied using three biomarkers combined with physical, chemical and microbiological analysis to assess the effects of pollution at four sampling sites. The induction of oxidative stress was quantified by MDA levels in peripheral blood, lymphocyte DNA damage was determined using the comet assay, and histopathological changes were analysed in the liver. After sampling, animals were allowed to drink the river water during a 48 hours period. No increase in oxidative stress and DNA damage was observed. However, liver damage was observed in the animals exposed to water samples, indicating that the Sinos River is contaminated with hepatotoxic substances. Water analyses confirmed that water quality decreased downriver.

The ultrastructure of the intestinal epithelium in Oreochromis niloticus on a diet with different concentrations of zinc.

The effects of diets with variable zinc levels on the midgut epithelial cells were studied in Oreochromis niloticus L. One hundred and twenty fry of tilapia were apportioned into 4 experimental groups (I, II, III and IV groups), with 30 fish in each treatment, 5 replicate aquaria per treatment containing 6 fish each. The animals of the 4 groups were fed with isonitrogenous (30% crude protein) and isoenergetic (3000 Kcal/Kg of digestible energy) diets with increasing quantities of zinc (44.59; 149.17; 309.93; 599.67 mg Zn/kg of diet), twice a day, for 93 days. Three fish from each group were sacrificed at 36, 66 and 93 days and samples of midgut were removed for ultrastructural analysis. After 93 days of treatment, 3 animals of each experimental group were used for the analysis of zinc concentration by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The comparative relative index (CRI) revealed that the animals in groups II, III and IV contained, respectively, 1.99%, 34.67% and 22.78% more zinc than the mean concentration in animals from group I. The ultrastructural analysis showed enterocytes with swelling of smooth surfaced endoplasmic reticulum and dilated mitochondria with variable matrix rarefaction and cristae number reduction in the fish exposed to 599.67 mg Zn/Kg of diet at 66 and 93 days of treatment.

Effects of Annona squamosa extract on early pregnancy in rats.

Annona squamosa Linn., family Annonaceae, is said to show varied medicinal effects, including insecticide, antiovulatory and abortifacient. The purpose of present study was to investigate if A. squamosa seed aqueous extract, in doses higher than that popularly used to provoke abortion, interferes with reproductive performance, and to correlate the ingestion of this extract with possible alterations in rat embryonic implantation. Doses of 300 mg/kg (Treated Group I, n = 17) and 600 mg/kg (Treated Group II, n = 12) body wt. were administered by gavage, during days 1 to 5 of pregnancy (preimplantation period). The control group (n = 13) received water in the same manner, during the same period for comparison with experimental groups. The animals were euthanized on day 10 of pregnancy. Treatment of dams during the preimplantation period showed no signs of toxicity, and no alteration in the corpora lutea, implantations and embryo in terms of development numbers. The percentage of preimplantation and postimplantation losses in treated groups I and II did not differ from those of control. Treatment with aqueous extract of A. squamosa seeds caused no morphological change in the endometrium. The absence of morphological alterations in uterine epithelial cells in treated groups I and II permitted a viable embryonic implantation, as verified by the number of embryos in development at day 10 of pregnancy. Thus, A. squamosa seed aqueous extract did not interfere with the reproductive performance of pregnant rats.

Relation between long-term steroid treatment after heart transplantation, hypofibrinolysis and myocardial microthrombi generation.

BACKGROUND: Thrombotic complications and transplant coronary artery disease are among the main causes of morbidity and mortality after heart transplantation. A thrombophilic state has been described in transplant recipients, and correlated to immunosuppressive therapy with cyclosporine A or azathioprine, whereas the prothrombotic effects of steroids, even though always given, have never been duly considered. A reduced fibrinolytic capacity due to high levels of PAI-1, the most important inhibitor of plasminogen activators, was suggested to play a role in the development of cardiovascular diseases and transplant coronary artery disease. A severe hypofibrinolytic state secondary to PAI-1 increase has been found in patients with Cushing's disease, and in hypercorticism secondary to long-term steroid treatment after renal transplantation. METHODS: We evaluated plasma clotting and fibrinolytic behaviors in 2 groups of heart transplant patients treated with (26 cases) or without (23 cases) steroids together with cyclosporine A and azathioprine. Twenty-five healthy subjects were studied as normal controls. The following tests were assayed at least 1 year after transplantation: fibrinogen, factor VIII coagulant activity, von Willebrand factor antigen, euglobulin lysis time, tissue plasminogen activator antigen and activity, PAI-1 antigen and activity. In addition, the presence of cardiac microthrombi was evaluated on 2 endomyocardial biopsy specimens obtained in each patient both on day 7 after heart transplantation (first control) and usually 1 year or more later (last control). RESULTS: Plasma levels of fibrinogen, factor VIII and von Willebrand factor were significantly higher in both groups of patients than in normal controls. Fibrinolytic activity was significantly reduced in transplant patients treated with steroids, compared with steroid-free patients and normal controls. In steroid-treated heart transplant recipients, the hypofibrinolytic state was due to a significant and pathological increase in PAI-1 antigen and activity levels. The fibrinolytic impairment was more evident in patients transplanted for ischemic heart disease and treated with steroids than in patients with previous dilated cardiomyopathy and treated either with or without steroids. Myocardial microthrombi were found in 2/49 cases at the first biopsy control, and in 12/49 cases at the last biopsy control after transplantation. This different prevalence was statistically significant (chi2 = 8.33, p = .003). Plasma PAI-1 activity was significantly higher and, as a consequence, euglobulin lysis time was more prolonged in microthrombi-positive patients than in microthrombi-negative ones. Among the 12 transplant recipients who developed cardiac microthrombi, 7 patients were treated with steroids and showed higher PAI-1 levels and more reduced fibrinolytic activity than the 5 steroid-free patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our data confirm the prothrombotic state induced by long-term steroid treatment, characterized by an increase in PAI-1 levels and secondary impairment of fibrinolytic capacity. In heart transplant patients, steroid-related hypofibrinolysis might constitute a further risk factor for transplant coronary artery disease.

[Juvenile suicide in the provinces of Parma, Piacenza and Brescia]. / Il suicidio giovanile nelle province di Parma, Piacenza, Brescia.

This research has considered the phenomenon of juvenile suicide which took place for over twenty years in the provinces of Parma, Piacenza and Brescia (1971-1994). In this period, in the considered provinces, have occurred 138 cases of suicide, among youngs not older than 25 years. Sources of this research have been the Courts of Brescia and Piacenza as well as the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the Hospital of Parma. An apposite schedule of survey for the data has been used; this schedule has permitted to fix the useful indexes, following the parameters of the personal information, of the happening of events during the years, the months and the hours, of the employed means, of the motive and the possible previous attempts. The results of the research seems to show an explicative approach which underlines among the youngs' suicide, and beyond the Ego weakness, a desperate attempt to communicate. The possible preventive strategies should stimulate above all sensibility and competences of adults to understand the trouble signals for fronting them: in this way, these signals would be prevention occasions, not only for the involved youngs, but also for the context.

Histochemical fibre types of the adductor mandibulae muscle in carp: cyprinus carpio, L. 1758

En este trabajo analizamos las características histoquímicas de los segmentos mandibular y maxilar del músculo aductor de la mandíbula en la carga. Las fibras musculares fueron clasificadas en tres tipos, de acuerdo con las distintas reacciones de las enzimas mATPasa (con pre-incubación ácida y alcalina) y NADH-TR. En la zona profunda fueron observadas solamente fibres rojas con metabolismo oxidativo. La zona superficial presentó fibras blancas con metabolismo glicólico. En las zonas de transición y profunda, fueron observadas fibras rojas, pequeñas, con metabolismo intermediario, dispuestas alredededor de fibras más grandes. Las fibras rojas fueron predominantes en el músculo A1 y las blancas en el A1a, ambos pertenecientes al segmento maxilar. En el segmento mandibular, el músculo A2 presentó numerosas fibras blancas dispuestas alrededor de muy pocas fibras rojas, las cuales predominaron en el músculo A3

[Mental disease and the judgement of social danger]. / Malattia mentale e giudizio di pericolosità sociale.

The present research studies the evaluation in the Judicial Psychiatric Hospital of Castiglione delle Stiviere, as the treatment of the criminal mental illness (Psychopathology) has been evolving after the normative change that has abolished every form of legal presumption of social danger. Eighty-three files were analysed during the period January 1991 to March 1993 relative to the interns of the J.P. Hospital; particularly examined were the evaluation methods high-lighted by the observation group and the treatment called into use to supply an opinion on the dismissal of the (same) interns and on the consequences (or not) of admitting them into a form of outpatient treatment.

[Propagation of Pixuna virus in rat embryo cultures]. / Propagación del virus Pixuna en cultivos de embrión de ratón.

The behaviour of cell cultures from 11 to 18 days-old Swiss albino mouse embryo infected with Pixuna virus was studied. Eleven day-old embryo cultures showed to be a permissive system supporting a productive and cytocidal infection. In contrast, the 13 to 18 day-old embryo cultures were also permissive and productive but no evidence of cytopathic effect was observed. D-glucosamine did not affect the infectivity titer of the Pixuna virus when 11 day-old embryo cultures were used. In these cultures the eclipse phase was observed between 15 and 90 min post-absorption (Figure 1).

Propagación del virus Pixuna en cultivos de embrión de ratón. / [Propagation of Pixuna virus in rat embryo cultures]

The behaviour of cell cultures from 11 to 18 days-old Swiss albino mouse embryo infected with Pixuna virus was studied. Eleven day-old embryo cultures showed to be a permissive system supporting a productive and cytocidal infection. In contrast, the 13 to 18 day-old embryo cultures were also permissive and productive but no evidence of cytopathic effect was observed. D-glucosamine did not affect the infectivity titer of the Pixuna virus when 11 day-old embryo cultures were used. In these cultures the eclipse phase was observed between 15 and 90 min post-absorption (Figure 1).

Propagacion del virus Pixuna en cultivos de embrion de raton. / Replication of Pixuna virus in mice embryo cells culture

Se estudio el comportamiento de cultivos de embrion de raton albino suizo, entre 11 y 18 dias de gestacion. infectados con el virus Pixuna. El cultivo de embrion de 11 dias resulto permisivo, dando una infeccion productiva y citocidica; el de 12 dias no mostro un efecto citopatico claro, y entre los 13 y los 18 dias, los cultivos resultaron ser permisivos, con una infeccion produtiva pero no citocidica. Se encontro que la fase de eclipse para el virus Pixuna en cultivo de embriones de 11 dias, estuvo entre los 15 y 90 min posteriores a la hora de adsorcion. La D-glucosamina no afecto el titulo infectivo del virus, usando embriones de 11 dias de edad como cultivo

Propagacion del virus Pixuna en cultivos de embrion de raton. / Replication of Pixuna virus in mice embryo cells culture

Se estudio el comportamiento de cultivos de embrion de raton albino suizo, entre 11 y 18 dias de gestacion. infectados con el virus Pixuna. El cultivo de embrion de 11 dias resulto permisivo, dando una infeccion productiva y citocidica; el de 12 dias no mostro un efecto citopatico claro, y entre los 13 y los 18 dias, los cultivos resultaron ser permisivos, con una infeccion produtiva pero no citocidica. Se encontro que la fase de eclipse para el virus Pixuna en cultivo de embriones de 11 dias, estuvo entre los 15 y 90 min posteriores a la hora de adsorcion. La D-glucosamina no afecto el titulo infectivo del virus, usando embriones de 11 dias de edad como cultivo