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Here, we report a rare case of a 48-year-old female immunocompetent patient who presented with a subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis caused by Cladosporium cladosporioides.Diagnostic confirmation was established by molecular analysis of the biopsy sample, and the patient was successfully treated with itraconazole monotherapy. This case should raise the clinician's awareness of such condition and point to molecular analysis as an important diagnostic tool.

In PC Cl3 cells, a continuous, fully differentiated rat thyroid cell line, P2Y2purinoceptor activation provoked a transient increase of [Ca2+]i, followed by a decreasing sustained phase. The α and β1 protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor Gö6976 decreased the rate of decrement to the basal [Ca2+]ilevel and increased the peak of Ca2+entry of the P2Y2-provoked Ca2+transients. These effects of Gö 6976 were not caused by an increased permeability of the plasma membrane, since the Mn2+and Ba2+uptake were not changed by Gö 6976. Similarly, the Na+/Ca2+exchanger was not implicated, since the rate of decrement to the basal [Ca2+]ilevel was equally decreased in physiological and Na+-free buffers, in the presence of Gö 6976. On the contrary, the activity of the sarcoplasmic–endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ATPase (SERCA) 2b was profoundly affected by Gö 6976 since the drug was able to completely inhibit the stimulation of the SERCA 2b activity elicited by P2-purinergic agonists. Finally, the PKC activator phorbol myristate acetate had effects opposite to Gö 6976, in that it markedly increased the rate of decrement to the basal [Ca2+]ilevel after P2Y2stimulation and also increased the activity of SERCA 2b. These results suggest that SERCA 2b plays a role in regulating the sustained phase of Ca2+transients caused by P2Y2stimulation.

The uptake of mercury by the marine alga Acetabularia sp. was studied using mercury chloride (HgCl2). The algae were exposed to water contaminated with HgCl2 for various periods of time: 5 min. - 6 h. and 1 day - 7 days. Hg was measured by cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometry and the results obtained indicate that Acetabularia is a good absorbent of aquatic mercury. Moreover, the uptake of Hg appeared not to be highly affected either by the presence of a protein synthesis inhibitor (Cycloheximide), or by the absence of the nucleus in long term contamination.