Effect of flow perfusion conditions in the chondrogenic differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells cultured onto starch based biodegradable scaffolds

Cartilage tissue engineering (TE) typically involves the combination of a 3-D biodegradable polymeric support material, with primary chondrocytes or other cell types able to differentiate into chondrocytes. The culture environment in which cell–material constructs are created and stored is an important factor. Various bioreactors have been introduced in TE approaches to provide specific culturing environments that might promote and accelerate cells’ potential for chondrogenic differentiation and enhance the production of cartilage extracellular matrix. The aim of the present study was to investigate the chondrogenic differentiation of goat bone marrow cells (GBMCs) under flow perfusion culture conditions. For that purpose, GBMCs were seeded into starch–polycaprolactone fiber mesh scaffolds and cultured in a flow perfusion bioreactor for up to 28 days using culture medium supplemented with transforming growth factor-b1. The tissue-engineered constructs were characterized after several end points (7, 14, 21 and 28 days) by histological staining and immunocytochemistry analysis, as well as by glycosaminoglycan and alkaline phosphatase quantification assays. In addition, the expression of typical chondrogenic markers was assessed by real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis. In general, the results obtained suggest that a flow perfusion microenvironment favors the chondrogenic potential of GBMCs.EXPERTISSUES NMP3-CT-2004-500283Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Vivo Tissue (PTDC/CVT/67677/2006

Perfil de utilização de antibacterianos na comunidade

Após a introdução dos antibacterianos na prática clínica verificou-se uma perda de eficácia a um ritmo totalmente inesperado através do desenvolvimento de resistência das bactérias aos antibacterianos clinicamente disponíveis. A evidência do uso excessivo justifica a necessidade de conhecer os seus padrões de utilização, sendo que o uso racional deste tipo de fármacos passa pela compreensão dos seus mecanismos de ação e características farmacológicas, mecanismos de resistência bacteriana e das estratégias que podem ser usadas para combater as infeções (WHO, 2018). Objetivo: O objetivo principal foi caracterizar o uso de antibacterianos nos concelhos de Celorico de Basto e Cabeceiras de Basto e fatores associados. Metodologia: Aplicou-se um estudo observacional, descritivo-correlacional e transversal. Os dados foram recolhidos, no período de janeiro e abril de 2018, através de um questionário adaptado de Ramalhinho et al. (2016) e da aplicação da escala de MAT (Delgado & Lima, 2001) para avaliação do nível de adesão à terapêutica antibacteriana. Para a edição e tratamento dos dados utilizou-se o programa informático SPSS v. 24. Recorreu-se ao teste do Qui-quadrado e ao teste exato de Fisher, com um nível de significância de 5% (Pestana & Gageiro (2014). O estudo seguiu os princípios éticos previstos pela Declaração de Helsínquia. Resultados: Aproximadamente 30% dos 627 indivíduos que participaram neste estudo indicou ter consumido antibacterianos nos últimos 6 meses, dos quais a maioria era do sexo feminino (69%, n=133), residente em Cabeceiras de Basto (66%), tomou amoxicilina+ácido clavulânico ou amoxicilina (23% e 19%, respetivamente) e as causas da toma foram amigdalite (20%) seguida de infeção urinária (16%). Encontrou-se relação significativa entre o uso de antibacterianos e o género e concelho de residência (p=0,031 e p=0,032, respetivamente). A maioria dos inquiridos comprou sempre antibacteriano com receita médica (83%) sendo que 74% aderiu à terapêutica antibacteriana. Quanto aos cuidados a ter durante a toma, horas de intervalo entre tomas e ao número dias de toma, 78%, 96% e 97%, respetivamente, recebeu indicações do médico; 85%, 80% e 85% respetivamente, cumpriu essas indicações totalmente. O conhecimento relativo à terapêutica antibacteriana foi maior no género feminino, em que 40% apresentou um conhecimento pelo menos suficiente, e nos utilizadores de Cabeceiras de Basto. Mais de 80% consideraram a terapêutica eficaz ou muito eficaz, sendo que se verificou relação estatística entre a eficácia do antibacteriano e o cumprimento dos cuidados a ter durante a toma, p=0,035. Conclusões: O uso de antibacterianos ocorreu em aproximadamente um terço da amostra, nomeadamente no género feminino, residente em Cabeceiras de Basto, com uma adesão à terapêutica antibacteriana de 74%. Destaca-se a elevada percentagem de inquiridos cuja terapêutica foi prescrita pelo médico e o cumprimento total das indicações prestadas pelo médico.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Myofibroma of the oral cavity. A rare spindle cell neoplasm

Myofibroma is an uncommon spindle cell neoplasm rarely found in oral cavity. Typically, this lesion is seen in neonates and infants with few cases reported in adults patients. In the oral cavity, myofibroma occurs within the submucosal or intramuscular tissue and has a predilection by the tongue, buccal mucosa and lips. Microscopically, a typical biphasic pattern can be observed. Misdiagnosis included benign and malignant spindle cell lesions of nerve tissue or smooth muscle origin, such as neurofibroma, leiomyoma and sarcomas. Thus, immunohistochemical staining is a useful tool to identify the nature of neoplastic cells and to reach an accurate diagnosis. An immunohistochemical panel consisting of antibodies to vimentin, SMA, HHF-35, S-100p and desmin must be achieved. In most cases, positivity for vimentin, SMA and HHF-25 can be observed. Our report describes a solitary myofibroma of the tongue of a 23-year-old man with emphasis in clinical, histopathological and immunohistochemical features of this lesion

Isolation of phytopathogenic fungi in seeds Caatinga tree

A qualidade sanitária é um parâmetro que avalia a incidência de patógenos em sementes, principalmente em espécies de produção agrícola, havendo poucos estudos sobre espécies florestais arbóreas. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo avaliar a qualidade sanitária em sementes de espécies arbóreas da Caatinga. O experimento foi conduzido no Laboratório de Fitopatologia do Centro de Ciências e Tecnologia Agroalimentar da UFCG, campus de Pombal-PB. Foram estudadas sementes de quatro espécies arbóreas: Myracrodruon urundeuva (Allemão): aroeira, Poincianella pyramidalis (Tul.): catingueira, Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.)Poiret: jurema-preta e Libidibia ferrea (Mart) ex Tul.: pau-ferro, as mesmas foram divididas em duas subamostras, sendo uma submetida à desinfestação superficial por imersão em hipoclorito de sódio (NaClO) a 2% por 5 minutos . A sanidade das sementes foi avaliada pelo “blotter test”. Os gêneros fúngicos comumente detectados nas sementes das espécies estudadas foram: Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp., Fusarium spp., Penicillium spp. e Trichoderma spp.. A desinfestação com hipoclorito de sódio a 2% reduziu a incidência de fungos nas sementes das espécies estudadas. O gênero Aspergillus apresentou o maior número de colônias e diversidade de espécies fúngicas nas sementes tratadas e não tratadas, estando presente em todas as espécies arbóreas. A menor incidência de colônias fúngicas ocorreu na espécie Mimosa tenuiflora.The sanitary quality is a parameter that evaluates the incidence of pathogens in seeds, especially in species of agricultural production, so that there are few studies on forest tree species. This study aims to evaluate the sanitary quality and the effect on seeds of four species from the Caatinga region. The experiment was conducted at the Laboratory of Phytopathology from the Centre for Agri-Food Science and Technology at UFCG, Pombal - PB. Seeds from four species were studied: Myracrodruon urundeuva (Allemão): aroeira, Poincianella pyramidalis (Tul.) L.P. Queiroz: catingueira, Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.) Poiret: jurema-preta and Libidibia ferrea (Mart ex Tul.) L.P. Queiroz: pau-ferro. The seed health was assessed using the “blotter test”. The genera of fungi commonly found in the seeds of the studied species were Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp., Fusarium spp., Penicillium spp. and Trichoderma spp. The disinfection with 2% sodium hypochlorite reduced the incidence of fungi on seeds of the studied species. The genus Aspergillus presented the highest number of colonies and diversity of fungal species in treated and untreated seeds, being present in all four species. The lowest incidence of fungal colonies occurred in the species Mimosa tenuiflora.Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestale

Análise do desenvolvimento do discurso cientifico durante uma feira de ciências

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Development of Inhalable Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPIONs) in microparticulate system for antituberculosis drug delivery

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease which affects millions of people worldwide. Inhalable polymeric dry powders are promising alternatives as anti-TB drug carriers to the alveoli milieu and infected macrophages, with potential to significantly improve the therapeutics efficiency. Here, the development of a magnetically responsive microparticulate system for pulmonary delivery of an anti-TB drug candidate (P3) is reported. Microparticles (MPs) are developed based on a cast method using calcium carbonate sacrificial templates and incorporate superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles to concentrate MPs in alveoli and enable drug on demand release upon actuation of an external alternate magnetic field (AMF). The MPs are shown to be suitable for P3 delivery to the lower airways and for alveolar macrophage phagocytosis. The developed MPs reveal unique and promising features to be used as an inhalable dry powder allowing the AMF control over dosage and frequency of drug delivery anticipating improved TB treatments.The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the postdoctoral grant of M.S.M. (SFRH/BPD/110868/2015) and R.M.A.D (SFRH/BPD/112459/2015), FCT grant of E.T. (IF/01390/2014) and Recognize project (UTAP-ICDT/CTM-BIO/0023/2014). This article is also a result of the project “Accelerating tissue engineering and personalized medicine discoveries by the integration of key enabling nanotechnologies, marine-derived biomaterials and stem cells,” supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The authors acknowledge the financial support from the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation HORIZON 2020, under the TEAMING Grant Agreement No. 739572 – The Discoveries CTR.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Isolation of phytopathogenic fungi in seeds Caatinga tree

A qualidade sanitária é um parâmetro que avalia a incidência de patógenos em sementes, principalmente em espécies de produção agrícola, havendo poucos estudos sobre espécies florestais arbóreas. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo avaliar a qualidade sanitária em sementes de espécies arbóreas da Caatinga. O experimento foi conduzido no Laboratório de Fitopatologia do Centro de Ciências e Tecnologia Agroalimentar da UFCG, campus de Pombal-PB. Foram estudadas sementes de quatro espécies arbóreas: Myracrodruon urundeuva (Allemão): aroeira, Poincianella pyramidalis (Tul.): catingueira, Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.)Poiret: jurema-preta e Libidibia ferrea (Mart) ex Tul.: pau-ferro, as mesmas foram divididas em duas subamostras, sendo uma submetida à desinfestação superficial por imersão em hipoclorito de sódio (NaClO) a 2% por 5 minutos . A sanidade das sementes foi avaliada pelo “blotter test”. Os gêneros fúngicos comumente detectados nas sementes das espécies estudadas foram: Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp., Fusarium spp., Penicillium spp. e Trichoderma spp.. A desinfestação com hipoclorito de sódio a 2% reduziu a incidência de fungos nas sementes das espécies estudadas. O gênero Aspergillus apresentou o maior número de colônias e diversidade de espécies fúngicas nas sementes tratadas e não tratadas, estando presente em todas as espécies arbóreas. A menor incidência de colônias fúngicas ocorreu na espécie Mimosa tenuiflora.The sanitary quality is a parameter that evaluates the incidence of pathogens in seeds, especially in species of agricultural production, so that there are few studies on forest tree species. This study aims to evaluate the sanitary quality and the effect on seeds of four species from the Caatinga region. The experiment was conducted at the Laboratory of Phytopathology from the Centre for Agri-Food Science and Technology at UFCG, Pombal - PB. Seeds from four species were studied: Myracrodruon urundeuva (Allemão): aroeira, Poincianella pyramidalis (Tul.) L.P. Queiroz: catingueira, Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.) Poiret: jurema-preta and Libidibia ferrea (Mart ex Tul.) L.P. Queiroz: pau-ferro. The seed health was assessed using the “blotter test”. The genera of fungi commonly found in the seeds of the studied species were Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp., Fusarium spp., Penicillium spp. and Trichoderma spp. The disinfection with 2% sodium hypochlorite reduced the incidence of fungi on seeds of the studied species. The genus Aspergillus presented the highest number of colonies and diversity of fungal species in treated and untreated seeds, being present in all four species. The lowest incidence of fungal colonies occurred in the species Mimosa tenuiflora.Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestale

CTLA4CT60 gene polymorphism is not associated with differential susceptibility to pemphigus foliaceus

Pemphigus foliaceus is an organ-specific autoimmune disease characterized by autoantibodies against the extracellular region of desmoglein 1, a protein that mediates intercellular adhesion in desmosomes. Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) is a key negative regulator of the T cell immune response, playing an important role in T cell homeostasis and maintenance of peripheral tolerance. Polymorphisms in the CTLA4 gene have been associated with autoimmune diseases and the functional CT60 single nucleotide polymorphism (rs3087243, also named 6230G > A) has been proposed to be a casual variant in several of these diseases. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether this polymorphism is associated with inter-individual variation in susceptibility to pemphigus foliaceus. The population sample in this case-control association study comprised 248 patient and 367 controls. We did not found a significant association of pemphigus foliaceus with the CT60 variants. We conclude that the CTLA4CT60 polymorphism is not an important factor for pemphigus foliaceus pathogenesis in the population analyzed

Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests.

Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such "monodominant" forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors