Selection of young ewe lambs according to their antral follicular count: response to exogenous hormonal stimulation and fertility at first breeding season

Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH), Antral Follicular Count (AFC) and the response to exogenous hormonal stimulation have been used, in adults, as suitable markers to determine the ovarian reserve (1-4), to predict oocyte quality (5,6) and a wide variety of fertility indices (6-9). This investigation aims to evaluate if animals selected according to their High or Low AFC at an early prepubertal age show different responses, in the number of follicles and AMH plasma levels, to exogenous hormonal stimulation; to verify whether differences are maintained over time until puberty; and to observe possible variations on fertility at first breeding season

HIV-1 and recombinant gp120 affect the survival and differentiation of human vessel wall-derived mesenchymal stem cells

BAckground:HIV infection elicits the onset of a progressive immunodeficiency and also damages several other organs and tissues such as the CNS, kidney, heart, blood vessels, adipose tissue and bone. In particular, HIV infection has been related to an increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases and derangement in the structure of blood vessels in the absence of classical risk factors. The recent characterization of multipotent mesenchymal cells in the vascular wall, involved in regulating cellular homeostasis, suggests that these cells may be considered a target of HIV pathogenesis. This paper investigated the interaction between HIV-1 and vascular wall resident human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). RESULTS: MSCs were challenged with classical R5 and X4 HIV-1 laboratory strains demonstrating that these strains are able to enter and integrate their retro-transcribed proviral DNA in the host cell genome. Subsequent experiments indicated that HIV-1 strains and recombinant gp120 elicited a reliable increase in apoptosis in sub-confluent MSCs. Since vascular wall MSCs are multipotent cells that may be differentiated towards several cell lineages, we challenged HIV-1 strains and gp120 on MSCs differentiated to adipogenesis and endotheliogenesis. Our experiments showed that the adipogenesis is increased especially by upregulated PPAR\u3b3 activity whereas the endothelial differentiation induced by VEGF treatment was impaired with a downregulation of endothelial markers such as vWF, Flt-1 and KDR expression. These viral effects in MSC survival and adipogenic or endothelial differentiation were tackled by CD4 blockade suggesting an important role of CD4/gp120 interaction in this context. CONCLUSIONS: The HIV-related derangement of MSC survival and differentiation may suggest a direct role of HIV infection and gp120 in impaired vessel homeostasis and in genesis of vessel damage observed in HIV-infected patients

Presence of D. immitis in dogs of rural communities in south eastern Bolivia

INTRODUCTION Dirofilariosis is a worldwide-distributed disease caused by nematodes of the genus Dirofilaria superfamily Filaroidea. These nematodes may infest wild and domestic mammals. The principal agent of canine dirofilariosis in the Americas is Dirofilaria immitis, which may also occasionally infest humans. Human cases of dirofilariosis by D. immitis are relatively frequent in the Americas while only few cases have been recorded in Europe. In Bolivia dirofilariasis has been found in dogs and in wild canids (1). We refer on the results of a preliminary screening carried out in 2013 on the presence of D. immitis in dogs of two rural communities (Ivamirapinta and Bartolo) located in south eastern Bolivia MATERIALS AND METHODS Blood samples were collected from 50 dogs in the community of Bartolo (municipality of Monteagudo) and 50 in the community of Ivamirapinta (municipality of Gutierrez). Serum samples was subjected to an ELISA test for the detection of antigens of D. immitis (DiroCHEK®, Synbiotics). RESULTS All dogs in the community of Bartolo tested negative while 3 dogs in the community of Ivamirapinta resulted positive. This preliminary screening confirms the circulation of Dirofilaria immitis in the community of Ivamirapinta. CONCLUSIONS Further studies will be carried out by direct diagnostic methods to further characterize the filarioid parasites infesting dogs and to evaluate the risk of human infections. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bronson et al., 2008 Bolivia. J. Zool. Wildl. Med. 39:28-36 Fiorello et al., 2004 Bolivia. Anim. Conserv. 7:45-5