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Purpose: In the present study we evaluated, by light microscopy, and throughout morphometry, whether hypertrophy of cardiac striated muscular fibers of left ventricular occur in albino rat, during pregnancy., Methods: After maiting, 12 nuliparous rats were divided into four groups with three animals for each group. The female rats corresponding to each group were killed at 1st, 7th, 14th and 21st days of pregnancy., Results: Observation, on light microscopy (H.E) had at one view, did not display any alterations during pregnancy. However, the morphometry revealed that nuclei of cardiomyocytes are augmented in volume at 14th day of pregnancy and statistically significant data show the hypertrophy., Conclusion: The obtained data show the existence of a dinamic and reversible process of ventricular remodelling in consequence of adaptation physiological alterations of the cardiovascular normal pregnancy.

This study aimed to verify whether estrogen replacement alone or associated with progesterone promotes the recurrence of experimental endometriosis in oophorectomized rats. The procedure utilized for endometriosis induction was adapted from the one described by Jones (1984). The rats were castrated three weeks after the induction. Hormonal replacement was started 14 days after the castration and was given for 24 days. One group received estrogen alone, another received estrogen associated with medroxiprogesterone acetate, and a last one received placebo. At the end of this study, the animals who received hormonal medication showed recurrence of the disease. This fact was more evident in the group that received estrogen alone. We concluded that estrogen alone leads to recurrence of endometriosis in oophorectomized rats with surgically induced endometriosis. The association of medroxiprogesterone promotes involutional changes in the implants, and should be added upon the existence of a past history of endometriosis.

Objectives: The effect of tamoxifen on cyclic mastalgia and on chemoprophylaxis against breast cancer is little known, mainly due to the difficulties in studying the normal human gland. We proposed to evaluate the mitotic index and the nuclear volume of the lobule of women medicated with tamoxifen only during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle in order to observe the effect of tamoxifen on the normal human mammary gland., Methods: Twenty-four premenopausal women with fibroadenoma diagnosed via biopsy were studied. The phase of the cycle was determined by the date of menstruation and serum progesterone level in the luteal phase (> or = 3 ng/ml). The patients admitted to the study and were given written informed consent to participate in the investigation, which was previously approved of by the hospital Ethics Committee. Patients were divided at random into two groups: Group I consisted of 12 untreated women (control) and Group II consisted of 12 patients treated with 20 mg/day tamoxifen for 10 consecutive days beginning on the 13th day of the menstrual cycle. In both groups, the patients were submitted to biopsies of the nodule and of a 1-cm3 fragment of adjacent mammary parenchyma between the 23rd and 26th day of the cycle. The mitotic index (number of mitoses/1000 nuclei counted) and mean nuclear volume (mean of 10 nuclear volumes for each case) were measured., Results: No mitosis was observed in Group II. There was a reduction in the mean nuclear volume in Group II (Mann-Whitney test)., Conclusions: Tamoxifen, when administered only during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, significantly reduces the nuclear volume and mitotic activity of the epithelium. This data demonstrates an antagonistic action of tamoxifen on estrogen even when administered for short periods of time.

Objective: The aim of the study is to observe the morphology and morphometry of the endometrium of postmenopausal women treated with cyclic conjugated oestrogens., Study Design: Three groups of nine postmenopausal women received cyclic conjugated oestrogens for 21 days (with a seven-day pause) during six months. The endometrial specimens were obtained using a modified Novak suction curet, in the second or third day of the period of drug washout. The slides were stained with haematoxylin and eosin (H.E.) in order to measure epithelial height and determine the gland/stroma ratio., Results: Morphologic examination showed that single daily doses of 0.3 mg of conjugated oestrogens caused discrete endometrial proliferation after three and six months of treatment. However, a more intense effect was observed in women receiving doses of 0.625 and 1.25 mg/day of the hormone, in the same period. Morphometric study revealed significant increases both in epithelial thickness and in the gland-stroma ratio, specially in women receiving higher doses of the conjugated oestrogen (0.625 and 1.25 mg/day)., Conclusions: We concluded that there were marked proliferative alterations without atypias in the endometrium of women that received 0.625 and 1.25 mg of conjugated oestrogens during six months.

Objectives: Tamoxifen, an anti-estrogenic drug used in the adjuvant treatment of breast cancer, deserves more investigation for the determination of its efficacy as a prophylactic agent against breast cancer in high risk women. Thus, the action of tamoxifen on the human mammary gland was studied by measuring the number of lysosomes in normal mammary epithelium during the administration of tamoxifen., Methods: Tamoxifen was administered only during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle to avoid interference with corpus luteum formation. A fragment of breast tissue adjacent to a fibroadenoma was obtained during surgery from 35 premenopausal women aged 15 to 37 years who had been eumenorrheic for at least 6 months; 18 of these patients were treated with tamoxifen and 17 were used as controls. Lysosome counts were performed under the light microscope on slides submitted to the acid phosphatase cytochemical technique and the data were analyzed statistically by the Mann-Whitney test., Results: The fragments from the group treated with tamoxifen showed a significant decrease in lysosome numbers., Conclusions: Tamoxifen administered after ovulation significantly decreases the number of lysosomes in the cells of normal mammary epithelium, demonstrating the antiestrogenic effect of the drug on this target tissue.

Purpose: To evaluate whether the enalaprilat, an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, was able to prevent the myocardial damage induced by doxorubicin (DOX)., Methods: Four groups composed of 10 Wistar rats each were followed for seven weeks: control (CONT); treated with enalaprilat (ENA, 1mg/kg/d/sc) treated with doxorubicin (DOX, 25 mg/kg/d/sc), and treated with doxorubicin plus enalaprilat (DOX+ENA). In eight animals of each group, the left ventricle (LV) was prepared for morphometric study and stained with HE and picro-sírius for identifying muscle fibers and collagen. In each group three fragments of the LV were examined with electronic microscopy (EM). For statistical analysis: the one-way analysis of variance was performed and was followed by multiple comparisons test when the difference between groups were detected p values < or = 0.05 were considered significant., Results: Light microscopy-it was not found any significant difference among the groups for muscle fibers patterns and proportion of collagen fibers of left ventricle. Electronic microscopy-the cristolysis index (proportion between normal and damage mitochondria) demonstrated significant difference between DOX and DOX+ENA groups (30.1 vs 11.6, p < or = 0.01)., Conclusion: ENA prevented cardiotoxic alterations induced by DOX minimizing the aggression to the mitochondria and these findings, if confirmed in anima nobilis, may open a new clinical use for this type of drug.

The authors investigate the differences between the angiogenesis that occurs in malignant and benign breast tumours (10 specimens of invasive ductal carcinoma and 10 specimens of fibroadenoma) as well as in the adjacent breast stroma of these women highlighting the microvessels by staining their endothelial cells for factor VIII immunohistochemically. The number of vessels counted in invasive ductal carcinoma was significantly higher than the number of vessels counted in fibroadenoma and in the adjacent breast stroma. There was no difference between the number of vessels counted in the fibroadenoma and its adjacent stroma. Even though the patients with invasive ductal carcinoma showed a adjacent stroma with a higher number of vessels, the difference was not significant when compared with the adjacent stroma obtained from patients with fibroadenoma.

We evaluated the mitotic index and nuclear volume of the epithelium of the human mammary lobule during the menstrual cycle. Thirty patients were selected and divided at random into two groups, i.e., 15 women in the proliferative phase and 15 in the secretory phase. Normal mammary tissue was obtained on the occasion of fibroadenoma enucleation. Mitotic indices (/1000) and nuclear volume (micron 3) were 0.0 and 53.8, respectively, during the proliferative phase, and 11.6 and 130.0, respectively, during the luteal phase, the difference being statistically significant (p < 0.05). These data indicate that the proliferative stimulus of the mammary lobule is more intense during the luteal phase of the normal cycle and may probably be due to a synergistic action between progesterone and estradiol.

Studying the morphological and morphometrical aspects of corpora albicantia at different phases of the postmenopausal period, the authors observed that, until five years after menopause, the fibroblasts were developed, and later in this period of life, the number and activity of these cells are diminished. It is suggested that the description of corpora albicantia in atrophic ovaries of postmenopausal women occurs owing to a decrease of remodelling fibroblastic and macrophagic activity, or connective tissue substitution, made by these cells under physiological conditions.

The cyclic lysosome number variation in fibroadenoma and normal breast epithelial cells in 13 women, using light microscopy and Gomory acid phosphatase method, was studied. The menstrual cycle phase was determined by the last menstrual period, plasmatic progesterone level and endometrium biopsy. Seven lumps were extirpated in the proliferative phase and other 7 in the secretory period. The lysosomes were counted in the fibroadenoma and the normal breast epithelia. The statistical analysis of the findings showed that both fibroadenoma and normal breast epithelia present a number of lysosomes statistically higher in proliferative than in the secretory phase. It was also noted that the number of lysosomes in fibroadenomas is always greater than in the normal breast, independently of the phase of the menstrual cycle.

The authors documented by means of light and transmission electron microscopy that the ovaries of women with premature ovarian failure (POF) displayed dense connective tissue and rare corpora albicantia. Eight of the ten studied cases did not present ovarian follicles; in two cases, it was verified the presence of ovarian follicles, atypical primordial follicles and in one case, a corpus luteum was identified (after stimulation with exogenous gonadotrophin). Regarding the ultrastructural analysis, it was noted that the fibroblasts were united one to each other by cellular prolongations that formed a woof, constituting a cellular syncicius.

Analyzing the morphological and ultrastructural features of the mammary gland during the menstrual cycle, the authors observed that in the proliferative phase, the mammary gland consisted of few developed lobules and presented a relative absence of mitotic figures. In this phase, the great majority of the epithelial cells contained small, dark, irregular, rich heterochromatinic nuclei. The mammary stroma showed similar findings, presenting dense connective tissue with few enhanced fibroblasts. During the secretory phase, the lobules were well developed and mitotic figures were usually observed. In this phase, the great majority of the epithelial cells presented clear voluminous, rich euchromatinic nuclei; the stroma consisted of fibroblasts with voluminous nuclei full of euchromatin. There are evident modifications of the mammary tissue according to the phase of the menstrual cycle. The morphological and ultrastructural modifications indicate higher metabolical and mitotic activities during the secretory phase.

The microbiological flora of 108 water samples was explored to evaluate the role of recreational waters as a possible source of human diseases in Araraquara, S.P., Brazil. These waters included six swimming pools and three lakes with beaches. The number of total and fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, fecal streptococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, and heterotrophic organisms was determined. As was the occurrence of Salmonella, Shigella, yersinia, enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC), Mycobacteria, yeasts in general and dermatophytes. Shigella, Yersinia, EIEC and dermatophytes were not isolated. Other organisms or groups of microorganisms were found in variable proportions. From this study it is concluded that recreational waters used by the population of Araraquara, may be contaminated with potentially pathogenic microorganism and this may serve as a source of human diseases.

The authors performed an optical microscope study of the histological features of mammary glands of albino rats during lactation and after early weaning, whether or not treated with metoclopramide. They observed that in the lactation group, the alveoli and ducts of both treated and untreated rats were quite developed and contained eosinophilic secretion. In the early weaning group, they saw that stroma predominated over the parenchyma, mammary glands being little developed. In the treated group that was submitted to early weaning, there was a balance between stroma and parenchyma, the latter containing secretion in the lumen. Mammary glands were less atrophied in the treated early weaning group than in the untreated group.

A survey was made of the birthweight of live births and delivery care at hospitals in the city of Araraquara, S. Paulo State, Brazil, in 4,776 newborn infants during 1986. The incidence of cesarean delivery was 76.0%. It was discovered that the proportion of cesarean delivery was higher for deliveries with private medical care (92.4%) than for deliveries with free assistance (44.0%). The incidence of low birthweight was of 9.2%. The highest proportion was found in patients with free medical assistance and was of 10.8%, that of social security patients being at an intermediate level (9.8%) and of private patients at 5.6%.

In this work we attempted to detect, with histochemical methods, the possible modifications in the mucus of the respiratory mucosa of albino female rats during estral cycle, pregnancy and puerperium. Based on its results, it was possible to conclude that: a--There were no modifications in the nature of the epithelial and supraepithelial mucus during the studied periods: b--The Alcian Blue staining from lamina propria is absent during pregnancy and present during puerperium.