Evaluation of the anti-inflammatory, anti-catabolic and pro-anabolic effects of E-caryophyllene, myrcene and limonene in a cell model of osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a progressive joint disease and a major cause of disability for which no curative therapies are yet available. To identify compounds with potential anti-osteoarthritic properties, in this study, we screened one sesquiterpene, E-caryophyllene, and two monoterpenes, myrcene and limonene, hydrocarbon compounds for anti-inflammatory, anti-catabolic and pro-anabolic activities in human chondrocytes. At non-cytotoxic concentrations, myrcene and limonene inhibited IL-1β-induced nitric oxide production (IC50=37.3μg/ml and 85.3µg/ml, respectively), but E-caryophyllene was inactive. Myrcene, and limonene to a lesser extent, also decreased IL-1β-induced NF-κB, JNK and p38 activation and the expression of inflammatory (iNOS) and catabolic (MMP-1 and MMP-13) genes, while increasing the expression of anti-catabolic genes (TIMP-1 and -3 by myrcene and TIMP-1 by limonene). Limonene increased ERK1/2 activation by 30%, while myrcene decreased it by 26%, relative to IL-1β-treated cells. None of the compounds tested was able to increase the expression of cartilage matrix-specific genes (collagen II and aggrecan), but both compounds prevented the increased expression of the non-cartilage specific, collagen I, induced by IL-1β. These data show that myrcene has significant anti-inflammatory and anti-catabolic effects in human chondrocytes and, thus, its ability to halt or, at least, slow down cartilage destruction and osteoarthritis progression warrants further investigation

Developing a methodology for XPS profiling of biofilms and biological materials

Films of cells on solid substrates are encountered in a variety of biological and biomedical environments, including cells in biofilms that spontaneously colonize medical devices and multilayers of cells filtered from suspensions for analysis. Understanding the chemical properties of cells in such films is important for providing clues about the behavior of the cells or about the effects of treatments that had been applied to the cells. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), with its combination of chemical selectivity and surface specificity, is an ideal technique for analysing these biofilms and multilayers, but it needs to be combined with profiling to more fully characterise the samples. It is well known that profiling with traditionally used argon monomers results in a high degree of chemical modification for most organic materials. Recent studies have shown, however, that argon cluster beams may be used for depth profiling of organic materials while preserving the chemical information. This poster will present data from cluster profiling studies of biofilms and biomaterials. The methodology required for optimum profiling of these samples will be discussed, including an evaluation of XPS data acquisition protocols, as well as sputtering conditions

Diversidade genética da soja entre períodos e entre programas de melhoramento no Brasil.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi detectar os efeitos do melhoramento sobre a diversidade do germoplasma da soja cultivada nas três ultimas décadas, por meio da comparação de seis programas de melhoramento e períodos de lançamento de cultivares, utilizando locos microssatélites. Em relação aos programas de melhoramento, todos os locos apresentaram diferenças significativas em suas distribuições alélicas. Alguns locos eram compostos de alelos exclusivos em alguns programas de melhoramento, enquanto outros foram compostos sempre dos mesmos alelos em maior freqüência para todos os programas. A AMOVA indicou maior porção da variância devido a cultivares dentro de programas e somente 5,3% (p0,05). Os resultados sugerem que o germoplasma de soja utilizado em programas de melhoramento no Brasil manteve nível constante de diversidade genética nos últimos 30 anos, além de relativa heterogeneidade de determinados programas.Nome correto do quarto autor ARANTES, N. E

Tailoring the Ti surface via electropolishing nanopatterning as a route to obtain highly ordered TiO2 nanotubes

Highly ordered TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) were synthesized by the electrochemical anodization of Tifoils subjected to electropolishing (EP) pre-treatment. We found that the Ti surface roughnessplays an important role in the onset of pore nucleation in enhancing the local focusing effect ofthe electrical field. Additionally, EP induces the formation of dimple structures on the metalsurface, which can work as a pre-pattern prior to anodization. These shallow ripples lead to apreferentially ordered pore nucleation, offering an organizational improvement of the anodicoxide NTs. We found that, depending on the EP applied potential, the roughness and the spatialperiod of the ripple-like structures varies from 82 nm and from 12230 nm, respectively. Suchtuning allowed us to focus on the influence of the initial Ti pre-surface topography features onthe NTs length, organization, and hexagonal arrangement quality, as well as diameter anddensity. Our results show that an EP under 10 V is the most suitable to obtain a small Ti surfaceroughness, the largest NT length (40% enhancement), and the effective improvement of theordered hexagonal NTs arrays over larger areas. Furthermore, the NTs dimensions (porediameters and density) were also found to depend on the initial Ti surface topography. The use ofoptimized EP allows us to obtain highly hexagonal self-ordered samples at a reduced timeand cost