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Semicarbazide is a toxic compound detected several times in the food, that has been linked to the use of plastic seals. The aim of this study is to evaluate morphologic changes of endocrine pancreas in the presence of semicarbazide hydrochloride in the food. In this study thirty animals were used randomly distributed by three groups. Group 1 (control) was submitted to no manipulation. Group 11 was submitted to the administration of semicarbazide hydrochloride incorporated in the diet, in the dose of 3 g/Kg. Group III was submitted to the administration of semicarbazide hydrochloride. Incorporated in the diet, in the dose of 6 g/Kg. All the animals were sacrificed on the 30th day and the necropsy was performed. The pancreas was collected for histology and morphometric evaluation. The volume density of endocrine pancreas (VVEP) tissue was calculated in all groups. According to the median VVEP and the SD, in the group control, were considered the following groups: median VVEP, high VVEP, low VVEP, very high VVEP very low VVEP. By histology there was no morphologic changes of endocrine pancreas. The distribution of the groups according to the VVEP have differences. There was an increase of the smallest groups (VVEP) in the animals submitted to the administration of semicarbazide hydrochloride. These results indicate that endocrine pancreas is a target of semicarbazide hydrochloride. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leguminous plants such as dry seeds of grain legumes, rich in vegetal protein had been associated with reduced risk of cancer. In this study we intended to establish the relationship between consumption of a diet with olive oil and another one with phaseolus vulgaris beans in the number and volume of breast cancer tumours. A total of 72 female rats with 50 days were used and divided in three groups. All animals were submitted to the administration of 20 mg of 7,12 dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA) in olive oil, by gavages. The same defined standard food was provided for all animals, but supplemented with beans in group II (40 g of lyophilized beans/Kg) and with olive oil in the group III (50 ml /Kg). Female rats were sacrificed in the end of 150 days. Neoplastic lesions were evaluated according to morphologic features described in rat mammary carcinomas. It was evaluated the pattern and nuclear grade, the number of mitosis, tumoral necrosis, inflammatory infiltration, general score and volume. A non-significant variation was observed in tumour score between animals, however tumours volume was significantly different between the groups two and three (p<,05). Our results show that high olive oil diet provokes a superior number of carcinomas but with inferior volume than the other groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presently lathyrism, still represent an important public health subject in some countries, particulary in Africa and Asia. The objectives of this study is to evaluate morphogenic changes in seminiferous tubules related to this disease. Thirty animals were used randomly distributed by three groups of ten animals each. Group I was submitted to no manipulation. Group II and III were submitted to the administration of semicarbazide hydrochloride for 4 weeks. The toxic was incorporated in the diet, in the dose of 3g/Kg, for group II and in the dose of 6g/Kg for group III. All the animals were sacrificed on the 30th day, by an overdose of anaesthetics and the necropsy was performed. Each tissue sample was embedded separately in paraffin block. After embedding, cross-sections were taken from each block and stained with hematoxylin-eosin. The slides were then examined by light microscope and photographed. From each animal of all groups were chosen systematically and randomly 15 seminiferous tubules for determination of the area occupied by seminiferous tubules, using the software Sigma Scan Pro 5.0. Statistical comparisons were made using the 95% confidence intervals. For a 95% confidence interval the area occupied by seminiferous tubules varies between 56686.64 and 64796.66 in the control group, between 35954.44 and 48444.28 in the group II and between 32529.72 and 47864.02 in the group III. The results suggest that emicarbazide hydrochloride semicarbazide have a marked influence on the testis, that is expressed by a reduced area occupied by the seminiferous tubules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lathyrism is characterized by defective collagen synthesis due to the inhibition of lysil oxidase. Thirty animals were used randomly distributed by two groups of ten animals each. Group 1 was submitted to no manipulation. Group 11 were submitted to the administration of semicarbazide hydrochloride for 4 weeks. The toxic was incorporated in the diet in the dose of 6g/Kg. All the animals were sacrificed on the 30th day, by an overdose of anaesthetics and the necropsy was performed. The first molar was observed at the infra-coronal pulp level and the area occupied by periodontal ligament (PL) and hard tissue (HT)s was determined, using specific software. The areas of periodontal ligament (PL) and hard tissue (HT) was calculated, at the infra-coronal level, and presented as a ratio (R): HT/PL. For a 95% confidence interval this relation varies between 0,7359 and 1,0434 in the control group (1), and between 0,6015 and 0,7851 in the group II. According to the results in these samples there wasn't statistically difference between the group control and group test despite a slightly diminish of this relation in last group. We also see a high frequency of hyaline areas in the Periodontal Ligament. The results suggest that Lathyrism have an important role on the periodontal structures. It is important to evaluate the impact of the Lathyrism in metabolism of these structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal models are an important resource in life sciences research; however, many of the procedures involving vivo models are complex and time consuming. A common problem while conducting experiments is observing the behavior of the models throughout their stay in the bioterium. Ideally, behavioral assessment should be frequent and rigorous, as a way of more accurately characterizing the animal model. However, to date, few suitable automated solutions can be found within the state-of-the-art. In this paper, we propose an autonomous platform for distributed behavioral data acquisition from individual animal habitats in bioteriums, with remote and online access to the data. This approach allows real-time observation of the status of the habitats, and retrieval of the logged data for post-processing. The work focuses on the use case of motion, temperature and water intake monitoring in small rodents, although the platform was designed to be general-purpose and extensible to other types of habitats and sensing configurations.

Objective: Anesthetic and operative interventions in neonates remain hazardous procedures, given the vulnerability of the patients in this pediatric population. The aim was to determine the preoperative and intraoperative factors associated with 30-day post-operative mortality and describe mortality outcomes following neonatal surgery under general anesthesia in our center., Methods: Infants less than 28 days of age who underwent general anesthesia for surgery during an 11-year period (2000 - 2010) in our tertiary care pediatric center were retrospectively identified using the pediatric intensive care unit database. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify independent preoperative and intraoperative factors associated with 30-day post-operative mortality., Results: Of the 437 infants in the study (median gestational age at birth 37 weeks, median birth weight 2,760 grams), 28 (6.4%) patients died before hospital discharge. Of these, 22 patients died within the first post-operative month. Logistic regression analysis showed increased odds of 30-day post-operative mortality among patients who presented American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status (ASA) score 3 or above (odds ratio 19.268; 95%CI 2.523 - 147.132) and surgery for necrotizing enterocolitis/gastrointestinal perforation (OR 5.291; 95%CI 1.962 - 14.266), compared to those who did not., Conclusion: The overall in-hospital mortality of 6.4% is within the prevalence reported for developed countries. Establishing ASA score 3 or above and necrotizing enterocolitis/gastrointestinal perforation as independent risk factors for early mortality in neonatal surgery may help clinicians to more adequately manage this high risk population.

Peritoneal hyperpermeability has been associated with increased levels of effluent vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). Mesothelial cells can produce various vasoactive substances besides VEGF. A large mesothelial mass may possibly lead to high dialysate VEGF concentrations and may partly explain some cases of peritoneal hyperpermeability during a patient's early months on peritoneal dialysis (PD). Early peritoneal fast transport may therefore not necessarily be associated with systemic inflammation. To investigate the relationship of effluent markers and peritoneal transport, we measured the appearance rates of cancer antigen 125 (CA125), VEGF, and IL-6 in 4-hour effluents from 69 peritoneal equilibration tests (PETs) using 3.86% glucose solution. At the same time, we measured serum VEGF and IL-6. Our analyses included an early group (EG), whose members had been on PD for 4.6 +/- 3.3 months, and a later group (LG), whose members had been on PD for 30 +/- 17 months. In EG, dialysate-to-plasma creatinine at 4 hours (D/P(Cr240)) correlated significantly with effluent CA125/min (r = 0.51, p = 0.006) and VEGF/min (r = 0.57, p = 0.001), but not with serum VEGF or IL-6. The values of CA125/min and VEGF/min also correlated (r = 0.40, p = 0.034). Fast transporters in EG had higher effluent CA125 (p = 0.057) and VEGF (p = 0.0001), but not serum or effluent IL-6. In LG, D/P(Cr240) again correlated significantly with dialysate VEGF (r = 0.51, p = 0.009), but not with CA125. Fast transporters in LG tended to have higher levels of serum and effluent IL-6 and effluent VEGF. We conclude that fast solute transport rates at the beginning of PD are associated with signs of a large mesothelial cell mass and not consistently associated with higher systemic IL-6. The VEGF produced by mesothelial cells can mediate early peritoneal hyperpermeability in some populations. Later, mesothelial mass is lost and is no longer related to increased intraperitoneal VEGF or IL-6.

The search for good conduits for bridging nerve defects is a major challenge of today's tissue engineering research. In this paper we report on a laser confocal microscope study on early nerve regeneration inside a tissue engineered graft made by a poly(DLLA-epsilon-CL) conduit enriched with fresh skeletal muscle. The same biodegradable tubes filled with PBS solution were used as controls. The conduits were placed to bridge unilateral 1-cm-long rat sciatic nerve defects and analysed 10 days after surgery. Results showed that inside the muscle-enriched tubes axon regeneration, labelled by means of anti-neurofilament antibody, was already begun, whilst no axon regeneration was detectable along control tubes. In addition, a-GFAP (glial fibrillar acid protein) immuno-labelling of Schwann cells showed that progression inside muscle-enriched tubes, especially from the distal nerve stump, was much more evident than in control conduits. These results suggest that enrichment of synthetic tubes with fresh skeletal muscle promotes axon regeneration and Schwann cell migration in early nerve repair stages.

Temporary transfer to hemodialysis, as a peritoneal rest, may be a rescue therapy to recover ultrafiltration (UF) in patients who develop peritoneal hyperpermeability as a complication of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). However, peritoneal sclerosis has been reported after peritoneal pause. Since the beginning of our CAPD program in 1985, 12 elective peritoneal pauses have been performed in 11 patients who developed type I ultrafiltration failure (D/P240 creatinine: 0.88 +/- 0.09) after 42 +/- 14 months on CAPD. Eight patients recovered UF and remained on CAPD with standard solutions for 10 +/- 9 months more (minimum: 5 months; maximum: 29 months). Only 3 of those patients were later switched to hemodialysis because of recurring UF failure. One patient remains on CAPD (62 months of follow-up). Four patients failed to respond and were permanently transferred to hemodialysis, without signs of developing encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis. The failed pauses were performed later after the detection of UF failure than were the successful ones (483 +/- 574 days vs. 54 +/- 52 days). In our study, 8 of 12 peritoneal pauses (66.6%) successfully treated type I UF failure and prolonged CAPD retention. If a pause is initiated soon after diagnosis of UF failure, results may improve further. We urge prospective studies to better determine the best and timely therapeutic approach in patients with loss of ultrafiltration.