Cytokines and chemokines production by mononuclear cells from parturient women after stimulation with live Toxoplasma gondii

AbstractToxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that can cause variable clinical symptoms or can even be asymptomatic in immunocompetent individuals. More severe symptoms are observed in immunocompromised patients and congenital transmission of the parasite has been reported. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in parturient and non-pregnant women exposed to live tachyzoites of T. gondii strain RH or ME49. PBMC were isolated from parturient and non-pregnant women with negative or positive serology for toxoplasmosis and cultured with live tachyzoites of the two T. gondii strains for 24 h. Next, the cell culture supernatants were collected and levels of CCL2, CCL5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, and TNF-α produced by PBMC after tachyzoite exposure were measured. Live tachyzoite forms of T. gondii significantly inhibited the synthesis of CCL2 in seropositive parturient women, whereas a stimulatory effect on CCL5 was observed in seronegative parturient women. Cells from T. gondii-seronegative non-pregnant women produced significantly higher levels of TNF-α and IL-12, demonstrating the proinflammatory profile induced by the presence of the parasite in culture. The results suggest that the immunomodulation seen during pregnancy contributes to the development of an environment that facilitates escape of the parasite from the immune response

Overall Picture Of Expressed Heat Shock Factors In Glycine Max, Lotus Japonicusand Medicago Truncatula

Heat shock (HS) leads to the activation of molecular mechanisms, known as HS-response, that prevent damage and enhance survival under stress. Plants have a flexible and specialized network of Heat Shock Factors (HSFs), which are transcription factors that induce the expression of heat shock proteins. The present work aimed to identify and characterize the Glycine maxHSF repertory in the Soybean Genome Project (GENOSOJA platform), comparing them with other legumes (Medicago truncatulaand Lotus japonicus) in view of current knowledge of Arabidopsis thaliana. The HSF characterization in leguminous plants led to the identification of 25, 19 and 21 candidate ESTs in soybean, Lotusand Medicago, respectively. A search in the SuperSAGE libraries revealed 68 tags distributed in seven HSF gene types. From the total number of obtained tags, more than 70% were related to root tissues (water deficit stress libraries vs.controls), indicating their role in abiotic stress responses, since the root is the first tissue to sense and respond to abiotic stress. Moreover, as heat stress is related to the pressure of dryness, a higher HSF expression was expected at the water deficit libraries. On the other hand, expressive HSF candidates were obtained from the library inoculated with Asian Soybean Rust, inferring crosstalk among genes associated with abiotic and biotic stresses. Evolutionary relationships among sequences were consistent with different HSF classes and subclasses. Expression profiling indicated that regulation of specific genes is associated with the stage of plant development and also with stimuli from other abiotic stresses pointing to the maintenance of HSF expression at a basal level in soybean, favoring its activation under heat-stress conditions. © 2012, Sociedade Brasileira de Genética.35SUPPL.1247259Altschul, S.F., Gish, W., Miller, W., Myers, E.W., Lipman, D.J., Basic local alignment search tool (1990) J Mol Biol, 215, pp. 403-410Baniwal, S.K., Chan, K.Y., Scharf, K.-D., Nover, L., Role of heat stress transcription factor HsfA5 as specific repressor of HsfA4* (2007) J Biol Chem, 282, pp. 3605-3613Bharti, K., Schimidt, E., Lyck, R., Bublak, D., Scharf, K.-D., Isolation and characterization of HsfA3, a new heat stress transcription factor of Lycopersicon peruvianum (2000) Plant J, 22, pp. 355-365Bharti, K., von Koskull-Döring, P., Bharti, S., Kumar, P., Tintschl-Körbitzer, A., Treuter, E., Nover, L., Tomato heat stress transcription factor HsfB1 represents a novel type of general transcription coactivator with a histone-like motif interacting with HAC1/CBP (2004) Plant Cell, 16, pp. 1521-1535Efeoglu, B., Heat shock proteins and heat shock response in plants (2009) G U J Sci, 22, pp. 67-75Eisen, M.B., Spellman, P.T., Brown, P.O., Botstein, D., Cluster analysis and display of genome-wide expression patterns (1998) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 95, pp. 14863-14868Fehr, W.R., Caviness, C.E., Burmood, D.T., Pennington, I.S., Stage of development descriptions for soybeans, Glycine max (L.) Merrill (1971) Crop Sci, 11, pp. 929-931Fehr, W.R., Caviness, C.E., (1977) Stage of Soybean Development, p. 12. , Special Report n. 80. Ames, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, IowaGlombitza, S., Dubuis, P.-H., Thulke, O., Welzl, G., Bovet, L., Götz, M., Affenzeller, M., Asnaghi, C., Crosstalk and differential response to abiotic and biotic stressors reflected at the transcriptional level of effector genes from secondary metabolism (2004) Plant Mol Biol, 54, pp. 817-835Heerklotz, D., Doring, P., Bonzelius, F., Winkelhaus, S., Nover, L., The balance of nuclear import and export determines the intracellular distribution and function of tomato heat stress transcription factor HsfA2 (2001) Mol Cell Biol, 21, pp. 1759-1768Hoagland, D., Arnon, D.I., The water culture method for growing plants without soil (1950) Calif Agric Exp Stn Circ, 347, pp. 1-32Hsu, S.-F., Lai, H.-C., Jinn, T.-L., Cytosol-localized heat shock factor-binding protein, AtHSBP, functions as a negative regulator of heat shock response by translocation to the nucleus and is required for seed development in Arabidopsis (2010) Plant Physiol, 153, pp. 773-784Hu, W., Hu, G., Han, B., Genome-wide survey and expression profiling of heat shock proteins and heat shock factors revealed overlapped and stress specific response under abiotic stresses in rice (2009) Plant Sci, 176, pp. 583-590Kido, E.A., Barbosa, P.K., Ferreira Neto, J.C.R., Pandolfi, V., Houllou-Kido, L.M., Crovella, S., Benko-Iseppon, A.M., Identification of plant protein kinases in response to abiotic and biotic stresses using SuperSAGE (2011) Curr Prot Pept Sci, 12, pp. 643-656Kotak, S., Port, M., Ganguli, A., Bicker, F., von Koskull-Doring, P., Characterization of C-terminal domains of Arabidopsis heat stress transcription factors (Hsfs) and identification of a new signature combination of plant class a Hsfs with AHA and NES motifs essential for activator function and intracellular localization (2004) Plant J, 39, pp. 98-112Kotak, S., Larkindale, J., Lee, U., von Koskull-Doring, P., Vierling, E., Scharf, K.D., Complexity of the heat stress response in plants (2007) Curr Opin Plant Biol, 10, pp. 310-316Li, H.-Y., Chang, C.-S., Lu, L.-S., Liu, C.-A., Chan, M.-T., Charng, Y.-Y., Over-expression of Arabidopsis thaliana heat shock factor gene (AtHsfA1b) enhances chilling tolerance in transgenic tomato (2004) Bot Bull Acad Sin, 44, pp. 129-140Li, M., Berendzen, K.W., Schoffl, F., Promoter specificity and interactions between early and late Arabidopsis heat shock factors (2010) Plant Mol Biol, 73, pp. 559-567McClean, P.E., Mamidi, S., McConnell, M., Chikara, S., Lee, R., Synteny mapping between common bean and soybean reveals extensive blocks of shared loci (2010) BMC Genomics, 11, pp. e184Miller, G., Mittler, R., Could heat shock transcription factors function as hydrogen peroxide sensors in plant? (2006) Ann Bot, 98, pp. 279-288Mittal, D., Chakrabarti, S., Sarkar, A., Singh, A., Grover, A., Heat shock factor gene family in rice: Genomic organization and transcript expression profiling in response to high temperature, low temperature and oxidative stresses (2009) Plant Physiol Biochem, 47, pp. 785-795Mochida, K., Yoshida, T., Sakurai, T., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K., Shinozaki, K., Tran, L.-S.P., In silico analysis of transcription factor repertoire and prediction of stress responsive transcription factors in soybean (2009) DNA Res, 16, pp. 353-369Mochida, K., Yoshida, T., Sakurai, T., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K., Shinozaki, K., Tran, L.-S.P., LegumeTFDB: An in-tegrative database of Glycine max, Lotus japonicus and Medicago truncatula transcription factors (2009) Bioinformatics, 26, pp. 290-291Nascimento, L.C., Costa, G.G.L., Binneck, E., Pereira, G.A.G., Caraz-Zolle, M.F., A web-based bioinformatics interface applied to Genosoja Project: Databases and pipelines (2012) Genet Mol Biol, 35 (SUPPL. 1), pp. 203-211Nover, L., Bharti, K., Doring, P., Mishra, S.K., Ganguli, A., Scharf, K.-D., Arabidopsis and the heat stress transcription factor world: How many heat stress transcription factors do we need? (2001) Cell Stress Chap, 6, pp. 177-189Pirkkala, L., Nykanen, I., Sistonen, L., Roles of the heat shock transcription factors in regulation of the heat shock response and beyond (2001) FASEB J, 15, pp. 1118-1131Ruelland, E., Zachowski, A., How plants sense temperature (2010) Environ Exp Bot, 69, pp. 225-232Sato, Y., Yokoya, S., Enhanced tolerance to drought stress in transgenic rice plants overexpressing a small heat-shock protein, sHSP17.7 (2008) Plant Cell Rep, 27, pp. 329-334Scharf, K.-D., Rose, S., Thierfelder, J., Nover, L., Two cDNAs for tomato heat stress transcription factors (1993) Plant Physiol, 102, pp. 1355-1356Scharf, K.-D., Rose, S., Zott, W., Schoffl, F., Nover, L., Three tomato genes code for heat stress transcription factors with a regionofremarkable homology to the DNA-binding domain of the yeast HSF (1990) EMBO J, 9, pp. 4495-4501Schöff, F., Prändl, R., Reindl, A., Regulation of the heat-shock response (1998) Plant Physiol, 117, pp. 1135-1141Sung, D.-Y., Kaplan, F., Lee, K.-J., Guy, C.L., Acquired tolerance to temperature extremes (2003) Trends Plant Sci, 8, pp. 179-187Swindell, W.R., Huebner, M., Weber, A.P., Transcriptional profiling of Arabidopsis heat shock proteins and transcription factors reveals extensive overlap between heat and non-heat stress response pathways (2007) BMC Genomics, 8, pp. e125Tamura, K., Peterson, D., Peterson, N., Stecher, G., Nei, M., Kumar, S., MEGA5: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis using maximum likelihood, evolutionary distance, and maximum parsimony methods (2011) Mol Biol Evol, 28, pp. 2731-2739Treshow, M., (1970) Environment and Plant Response, p. 421. , McGraw-Hill Company, New YorkTreuter, E., Nover, L., Ohme, K., Scharf, K.-D., Promoter specificity and deletion analysis of three tomato heat stress transcription factors (1993) Mol Gen Genet, 240, pp. 113-125Yamada, K., Fukao, Y., Hayashi, M., Fukazawa, M., Suzuki, I., Nishimura, M., Cytosolic HSP90 regulated the heat shock response that is responsible for heat acclimation in Arabidopsis thaliana (2007) J Biol Chem, 282, pp. 37794-3780

Epidemiology of autism spectrum disorder in Portugal: prevalence, clinical characterization, and medical conditions

The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and identify its clinical characterization, and medical conditions in a paediatric population in Portugal. A school survey was conducted in elementary schools, targeting 332,808 school-aged children in the mainland and 10,910 in the Azores islands. Referred children were directly assessed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn), the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised, and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale. Clinical history and a laboratory investigation was performed. In parallel, a systematic multi-source search of children known to have autism was carried out in a restricted region. The global prevalence of ASD per 10,000 was 9.2 in mainland, and 15.6 in the Azores, with intriguing regional differences. A diversity of associated medical conditions was documented in 20%, with an unexpectedly high rate of mitochondrial respiratory chain disorders

Tropical grass and legume pastures may alter lamb meat physical and chemical characteristics

The present study assessed the influence of the type of the tropical pastures on lamb body weight (BW) gain and meat quality. Fifty-four lambs were allocated to three grazing pastures: (1) AG — Aruana grass (Panicum maximum cv. IZ-5); (2) PP — pigeon pea legume (Cajanus cajan cv. Anão); and (3) CS — contiguous swards, half of the paddock with AG and half with PP. After 92 days of grazing, the lambs were slaughtered. Carcasses were evaluated and the longissimus muscle was collected to determine color, lipid profile, tocopherol concentrations, and lipid oxidation. Although the pastures present differences in the characteristics of nutritional quality, the animals did not show difference in BW gain. The results show that all forage presented similar concentration of alpha-tocopherol (137 ± 14.37 mg kg-1 of fresh matter), whereas total and condensed tannin contents were greater in PP, intermediate in CS, and the lowest in AG treatment (P = 0.0001). Meat a-tocopherol content was similar among treatments (P = 0.1392), with an average concentration close to the optimal level to reduce the meat oxidation. Meat from AG treatment had 45 and 25% lower n-6/n-3 ratio than meat from PP and CS treatments, respectively. The legume increases the unsaturated fatty acids and the grass can reduce the n6/n3 ratio. The level of condensed tannin concentration did show to have important effect on meat characteristics. Both tropical pastures studied can provide a high amount of alpha-tocopherol, generating a great potential to increase the concentration of this antioxidant in lamb’s meat. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V

FONTES DE APOIO FINANCEIRO E GERENCIAL ÀS ATIVIDADES DE INOVAÇÃO EM PEQUENAS INDÚSTRIAS DO SETOR METAL-MECÂNICO

Este estudo tem como objetivo o levantamento e análise das fontes de apoio financeiro e gerencial que foram buscadas por pequenas indústrias do setor metal-mecânico vinculadas ao Projeto PEPI para as atividades de inovação, procurando também identificar as principais motivações que levaram seus gestores a buscar o apoio de agentes externos. A pesquisa buscou analisar ainda se estas empresas inovam em produto e processo. Para tanto, utilizou-se como referência o Manual de Oslo, que traz as diretrizes para a coleta e interpretação de dados sobre inovação. Com base neste manual foi possível a elaboração de um questionário para coleta dos dados. Os resultados demonstraram que as indústrias do setor metal-mecânico inovaram no período em análise, sendo que a maioria das inovações se refere a categoria “produtos novos para a empresa”. Quanto à inovação de processo destacou-se a introdução de algum “novo método na fabricação dos produtos”. Em relação às fontes de apoio financeiro a grande maioria utilizou os fundos próprios; as instituições financeiras foram buscadas por menos da metade das empresas. Nas fontes de apoio gerencial se destacaram o SEBRAE e o Projeto PEPI, sendo a Universidade a terceira opção mais procurada. As motivações pela busca de fontes de apoio externo se destacaram a necessidade de recursos financeiros e a possibilidade de obter o apoio na gestão

PROFIT: a new alternative for emission-line PROfile FITting

I briefly describe a simple routine for emission-line profiles fitting by Gaussian curves or Gauss-Hermite series. The PROFIT (line-PROfile FITting) routine represent a new alternative for use in fits data cubes, as those from Integral Field Spectroscopy or Fabry-Perot Interferometry, and may be useful to better study the emission-line flux distributions and gas kinematics in distinct astrophysical objects, such as the central regions of galaxies and star forming regions. The PROFIT routine is written in IDL language and is available at http://www.ufsm.br/rogemar/software.html. The PROFIT routine was used to fit the [Fe II]1.257um emission-line profiles for about 1800 spectra of the inner 350 pc of the Seyfert galaxy Mrk1066 obtained with Gemini NIFS and shows that the line profiles are better reproduced by Gauss-Hermite series than by the commonly used Gaussian curves. The two-dimensional map of the h_3 Gauss-Hermite moment shows its highest absolute values in regions close to the edge of the radio structure. These high values may be originated in an biconical outflowing gas associated with the radio jet - previously observed in the optical [O III] emission. The analysis of this kinematic component indicates that the radio jet leaves the center of the galaxy with the north-west side slightly oriented towards us and the south-east side away from us, being partially hidden by the disc of the galaxy.Comment: Accepted for publication Astrophysics & Space Science - 7 pges; 4 Fig

In vitro dry matter and cell wall fractions of three genotypes of sunflower ensiled with additives

Ensilaram-se três genótipos de girassol (M734, Rumbosol 91 e variedade V2000), enriquecidos no material original com: 0,5% de uréia (U); 0,5% de carbonato de cálcio (CC); 0,5% de uréia mais 0,5% de carbonato de cálcio (U+CC); inoculante bacteriano comercial (IB) comercial e sem aditivo que serviu como silagem testemunha (T). Foram utilizados silos de laboratório de PVC, abertos com 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, 28 e 56 dias de ensilados, sendo determinados fibra em detergente neutro (FDN), fibra em detergente ácido (FDA), lignina e digestibilidade in vitro da matéria seca (DIVMS). As silagens de Rumbosol 91 apresentaram valores superiores aos dos genótipos V2000 e M734 nos dias de abertura para FDN, FDA e lignina. Os aditivos não promoveram alterações nos constituintes da parede celular. A silagem T não apresentou diferenças entre os genótipos quanto à DIVMS no decorrer do processo fermentativo, sendo os valores do último dia de abertura (56) de 51,0%, 49,1% e 48,9% de DIVMS para os genótipos M734, V2000 e Rumbosol 91, respectivamente. Não houve diferença entre as silagens com aditivos e a silagem testemunha com a evolução do processo fermentativo quanto à DIVMS. Os aditivos utilizados não melhoraram as silagens de girassol quanto às características avaliadas e, apesar de os genótipos apresentarem digestibilidade in vitro semelhantes, o Rumbosol 91 apresentou maiores teores de constituintes da parede celular.Three sunflower genotypes (M 734, Rumbosol 91 and V2000 variety) enriched with 0.5% of urea (U); 0.5% of calcium carbonate (CC); 0.5% of urea plus 0.5% of calcium carbonate (U + CC); commercial bacterial inoculate (BI); and without any additive, used as control silage (T) were ensiled in PVC silos and opened after 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days to determine the neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (FDA), lignin and dry matter in vitro digestibility (DMIVD). The Rumbosol 91 genotype silage showed higher NDF, ADF and lignin than V2000 and M734 genotypes. The additives did not promote changes in the cell wall constituents. No statistical differences among silages of the genotypes for DMIVD were observed during the fermentative process. The DMIVD at 56 days were 51.0, 49.1 and 48.9% for silage of M734, V2000 and Rumbosol 91 genotypes, respectively. No difference between silages with additives and control (T), during the fermentative process for DMIVD was observed. The additives did not improve sunflower silages. The genotypes showed similar in vitro digestibility, and the Rumbosol 91 genotype showed high compound of cell wall constituent

Vascular Flora Of The Legado Das Águas, Reserva Votorantim, Municipalities Of Tapiraí, Miracatú And Juquiá, São Paulo, Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)We present a list of vascular plants found in Legado das Águas, Reserva Votorantim, a private reserve having an area of approximately 35,000 ha that spans the municipalities of Tapiraí, Miracatú, and Juquiá, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The reserve is part of a complex of state-protected areas including Alto Ribeira Touristic State Park, Intervales State Park, Carlos Botelho State Park, Jurupará State Park, and Serra do Mar State Park. Together, these form an important and large area of continuous and well-preserved forest. Our study, which involved two main floristic surveys in March/April 2013 and April 2014, recorded 768 species, representing 131 families and 432 genera. The majority of species were angiosperms (619) representing 106 families and 370 genera. There were also two species of gymnosperms belonging to two genera in separate families; 147 species of ferns and lycophytes belonging to 23 families and 60 genera. In demonstrating the presence of almost 800 species of plants, of which 16 are threatened, our study highlights the importance of floristic surveys and the critical role of private protected areas in managing and preserving native flora. © 2016 Check List and Authors.1262011/22923-8, FAPESP, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo2015/9444-4, FAPESP, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São PauloFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP