O destino dos rins transplantados tratados com OKT3 para rejeição córtico-resistente

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term effects of the monoclonal antibody anti-CD3 (OKT3), used to treat steroid-resistant acute renal allograft rejection, on allograft function and long-term allograft and patient survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied 231 kidney transplants from living and cadaver donors and with prednisone, azathioprine and cyclosporin used for baseline immunosuppression. Diagnosis of acute rejection was based on clinical and laboratory criteria. Sixty-three (27.2%) patients did not present acute rejection, 135 (58.4%) presented steroid-sensitive rejection, and 33 (14.2%) received OKT3 as a rescue therapy for steroid-resistant rejection. We evaluated demographic data, serum creatinine, and allograft and patient survival up to the 5th posttransplant year, as well as causes of graft loss and patient death. RESULTS: Vascular anastomosis time and prevalence of  acute tubular necrosis were significantly higher in OKT3- reated patients. Average serum creatinine was not different between steroid-sensitive and steroid-resistant patients. Graft survival in the first year was poorer in the OKT3 group as compared to the non-rejection (P = 0.001) and steroidsensitive rejection (P = 0.04) groups; there was no difference, however, in the survival up to the 5th posttransplant year. In transplants from cadaver donors, graft survival was statistically different only between OKT3 and non-rejection patients. Patient survival did not differ between the 3 groups up to the end of the follow-up. There were no differences in causes of graft loss, but the proportion of deaths associated with infection was greater in patients treated with OKT3. CONCLUSIONS: OKT3 used for rescue therapy in steroid--resistant acute rejection was not associated with poorer renal graft function or survival over the 5-year follow-up period. However, graft survival in the first year was significantly poorer in patients that needed OKT3. The use of a more potent immunosuppression did not result in higher mortality rates up to the 5th year of posttransplant, but OKT3-treated recipients presented a higher incidence of deaths related to infection. OBJETIVO: Avaliar o efeito do anticorpo monoclonal anti-CD3 (OKT3), utilizado para tratamento de rejeição aguda córtico-resistente em pacientes transplantados renais, em relação à função do rim transplantado e à sobrevida do enxerto e do paciente a longo prazo.PACIENTES E MÉTODOS: Foram estudados 231 pacientes transplantados renais de doador vivo e cadavérico, tendo como imunossupressão de base prednisona, azatioprina e ciclosporina. O diagnóstico de rejeição aguda baseou-se em critérios clínicos e laboratoriais. Sessenta e três (27,2%) pacientes não apresentaram rejeição aguda, 135 (58,4%) tiveram rejeição córtico-sensível e 33 (14,2%) receberam OKT3 para rejeição córtico-resistente. Foram avaliados dados demográficos, função do enxerto, sobrevida do enxerto e do paciente até o quinto ano de transplante, bem como as causas de perda do rim transplantado e de óbito.RESULTADOS: O tempo de anastomose vascular e a prevalência de necrose tubular aguda foram significativamente maiores nos pacientes que receberam OKT3. A média da creatinina sérica do grupo OKT3 não diferiu do grupo com rejeição córtico-sensível. A sobrevida do enxerto no primeiro ano foi significativamente pior no grupo tratado com OKT3 em relação ao pacientes sem rejeição (P = 0,001) e com rejeição córticoresponsiva (P = 0,04), mas a sobrevida ao final do seguimento não diferiu. Nos transplantes cadavéricos, a diferença ocorreu apenas entre o grupo OKT3 e os pacientes sem rejeição. A sobrevida do paciente em 5 anos foi semelhante entre os 3 grupos. Não houve diferença nas causas de perda do enxerto, mas a proporção de óbitos associados à infecção foi maior nos pacientes que utilizaram OKT3.CONCLUSÕES: O uso de OKT3 como terapia de resgate não esteve associado a uma pior função ou pior sobrevida do enxerto renal em 5 anos, mas no primeiro ano a sobrevida do enxerto foi significativamente menor nos pacientes tratados com OKT3. O emprego de uma imunossupressão mais potente não se refletiu em maior mortalidade até o 5º ano do transplante, mas o grupo que utilizou OKT3 apresentou uma maior incidência de óbitos associados à infecção

Preliminary inventory of the anuran fauna of the Mata Estrela Private Natural Heritage Reserve, in the Atlantic Forest of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Tropical regions harbor the highest amphibian biodiversity, nevertheless, information on species composition is lacking in most areas yet these baseline data are essential to guide conservation strategies. The goal of the present study was to survey the anurans of a Private Natural Heritage Reserve named Mata Estrela, a fragment of about 26 km2 in the Northern Atlantic Forest, Brazil. The study was carried out as an active census in June 2015. We found 27 anuran species assigned to five families: Bufonidae (2 spp.), Craugastoridae (1 sp.), Hylidae (11 spp.), Leptodactylidae (12 spp.) and Phyllomedusidae (1 sp.). All species are widespread in the Atlantic forest as well as in other South American ecoregions. Descriptions of local diversity such as this one are a fundamental baseline for conservation work and are especially needed in the northern limits of the Atlantic forest, for which there is still a huge lack of biological knowledge.Asociación Herpetológica Argentin

Preliminary inventory of the anuran fauna of the Mata Estrela Private Natural Heritage Reserve, in the Atlantic Forest of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Tropical regions harbor the highest amphibian biodiversity, nevertheless, information on species composition is lacking in most areas yet these baseline data are essential to guide conservation strategies. The goal of the present study was to survey the anurans of a Private Natural Heritage Reserve named Mata Estrela, a fragment of about 26 km2 in the Northern Atlantic Forest, Brazil. The study was carried out as an active census in June 2015. We found 27 anuran species assigned to five families: Bufonidae (2 spp.), Craugastoridae (1 sp.), Hylidae (11 spp.), Leptodactylidae (12 spp.) and Phyllomedusidae (1 sp.). All species are widespread in the Atlantic forest as well as in other South American ecoregions. Descriptions of local diversity such as this one are a fundamental baseline for conservation work and are especially needed in the northern limits of the Atlantic forest, for which there is still a huge lack of biological knowledge.Asociación Herpetológica Argentin

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

ATLANTIC EPIPHYTES: a data set of vascular and non-vascular epiphyte plants and lichens from the Atlantic Forest

Epiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance; (2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order to indicate future sampling efforts. Our work presents the first epiphyte data set with information on abundance and occurrence of epiphyte phorophyte species. All data compiled here come from three main sources provided by the authors: published sources (comprising peer-reviewed articles, books, and theses), unpublished data, and herbarium data. We compiled a data set composed of 2,095 species, from 89,270 holo/hemiepiphyte records, in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, recorded from 1824 to early 2018. Most of the records were from qualitative data (occurrence only, 88%), well distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest. For quantitative records, the most common sampling method was individual trees (71%), followed by plot sampling (19%), and transect sampling (10%). Angiosperms (81%) were the most frequently registered group, and Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae were the families with the greatest number of records (27,272 and 21,945, respectively). Ferns and Lycophytes presented fewer records than Angiosperms, and Polypodiaceae were the most recorded family, and more concentrated in the Southern and Southeastern regions. Data on non-vascular plants and lichens were scarce, with a few disjunct records concentrated in the Northeastern region of the Atlantic Forest. For all non-vascular plant records, Lejeuneaceae, a family of liverworts, was the most recorded family. We hope that our effort to organize scattered epiphyte data help advance the knowledge of epiphyte ecology, as well as our understanding of macroecological and biogeographical patterns in the Atlantic Forest. No copyright restrictions are associated with the data set. Please cite this Ecology Data Paper if the data are used in publication and teaching events. © 2019 The Authors. Ecology © 2019 The Ecological Society of Americ

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost