Narrative ARTifice and women's agency

The choice to pursue fertility treatments is a complex one. In this paper I explore the issues of choice, agency, and gender as they relate to assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). I argue that narrative approaches to bioethics such as those by Arthur Frank and Hilde Lindemann Nelson clarify judgments about autonomy and fertility medicine. More specifically, I propose two broad narrative categories that help capture the experience of encounters with fertility medicine: narratives of hope and narratives of resistance. This narrative typology captures the inevitable conflict that women feel when they become subjects of fertility medicine. On the one hand, they must remain hopeful; on the other, they must not surrender themselves completely. Nelson's account of counterstories as narratives of resistance helps us see how women can reconcile the experience of a strong desire to have children with the desire to remain authentic and whole.     

Antifungal activity from Ocimum gratissimum L. towards Cryptococcus neoformans

Cryptococcal infection had an increased incidence in last years due to the explosion of acquired immune deficiency syndrome epidemic and by using new and effective immunosuppressive agents. The currently antifungal therapies used such as amphotericin B, fluconazole, and itraconazole have certain limitations due to side effects and emergence of resistant strains. So, a permanent search to find new drugs for cryptococcosis treatment is essential. Ocimum gratissimum, plant known as alfavaca (Labiatae family), has been reported earlier with in vitro activity against some bacteria and dermatophytes. In our work, we study the in vitro activity of the ethanolic crude extract, ethyl acetate, hexane, and chloroformic fractions, essential oil, and eugenol of O. gratissimum using an agar dilution susceptibility method towards 25 isolates of Cryptococcus neoformans. All the extracts of O. gratissimum studied showed activity in vitro towards C. neoformans. Based on the minimal inhibitory concentration values the most significant results were obtained with chloroformic fraction and eugenol. It was observed that chloroformic fraction inhibited 23 isolates (92%) of C. neoformans at a concentration of 62.5 microg/ml and eugenol inhibited 4 isolates (16%) at a concentration of 0.9 microg/ml. This screening may be the basis for the study of O. gratissimum as a possible antifungal agent.     

Protective effects of N-acetylserotonin against 6-hydroxydopamine-induced neurotoxicity

The present work studied in vivo neuroprotective effects of n-acetylserotonin (NAS), the immediate precursor of melatonin, on the dopaminergic system, in rats lesioned with the unilateral intrastriatal injection of the neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). Two weeks after the lesion, the dopamine receptor agonist, apomorphine, produced rotational asymmetry, and the NAS treatment significantly reduced the motor deficit following the apomorphine challenge. The apomorphine-induced rotational behavior was blocked by 84, 86 and 53% after NAS, at doses of 2, 5 and 10 mg/kg, i.p., respectively. The injection of 6-OHDA significantly decreased DA, DOPAC and HVA levels in the rat striatum. In contrast, the NAS (2, 5 and 10 mg/kg, i.p., daily for 7 days) treatment partially reversed the decreases caused by 6-OHDA, and the neurotransmitter levels were brought to approximately 50% of that observed in the contralateral sides. NAS was more efficient at the smaller doses. NAS (5 mg/kg) produced an up-regulation of D1 (37%) and D2 (37%) receptors associated with a decrease in Kd values.     

Pharmacological concentration of angiotensin-(1-7) activates NADPH oxidase after ischemia-reperfusion in rat heart through AT1 receptor stimulation

The cardiovascular role of angiotensin-(1-7), especially in the functional and metabolic alterations associated with ischemia-reperfusion (IR), is still not clearly defined. Our objective was to evaluate the cardiac effects of angiotensin-(1-7), the receptors involved, and their relationships with NADPH oxidase activation under non-ischemic conditions and, during an ischemia-reperfusion sequence. Isolated perfused rat hearts underwent 45 min of non-ischemic perfusion, or 30 min of global ischemia followed by 30 min of reperfusion. Angiotensin-(1-7) and/or AT1 receptor blocker losartan or angiotensin-(1-7) receptor antagonist (D-Ala7)-angiotensin-(1-7) were perfused. Our results showed that angiotensin-(1-7) was without effect at low concentrations (10(-10) to 10(-7) M). At a pharmacological concentration, 0.5 microM angiotensin-(1-7) induced vasoconstriction, which was antagonised by losartan. After ischemia, we noted a partial recovery of functional parameters, which was not modified by any of the treatments. The expression of AT1 receptor mRNA was increased by ischemia-reperfusion, except in (D-Ala7)-angiotensin-(1-7) treated hearts. Angiotensin-(1-7) further increased the AT1 expression. NADPH oxidase activity was enhanced in 0.5 microM angiotensin-(1-7)-treated hearts subjected to ischemia-reperfusion, this effect was totally reversed by losartan. This is the first time that it has been shown that, in the heart, angiotensin-(1-7) at pharmacological concentration activates NADPH oxidase, an enzyme thought to be involved in several angiotensin II effects.     

MamMiBase: a mitochondrial genome database for mammalian phylogenetic studies

MamMiBase, the mammalian mitochondrial genome database, is a relational database of complete mitochondrial genome sequences of mammalian species. The database is useful for phylogenetic analysis, since it allows a ready retrieval of nucleotide and aminoacid individual alignments, in three different formats (NEXUS for PAUP program, for MEGA program and for PHYLIP program) of the 13 protein coding mitochondrial genes. The user may download the sequences that are useful for him/her based on their parameters values, such as sequence length, p-distances, base content, transition transversion ratio, gamma, which are also given by MamMiBase. A simple phylogenetic tree (neighbor-joining tree with Jukes Cantor distance) is also available for download, useful for parameter calculations and other simple tasks. AVAILABILITY: MamMiBase is available at http://www.mammibase.lncc.br     

Modification of photosynthetic regulation in tomato overexpressing glutathione peroxidase

To investigate the function of glutathione peroxidase (GPX) in plants, we produced transgenic tomato plants overexpressing an eukaryotic selenium-independent GPX (GPX5). We show here that total GPX activity was increased by 50% in transgenic plants, when compared to control plants transformed with the binary vector without the insert (PZP111). A preliminary two-dimensional electrophoretic protein analysis of the GPX overexpressing plants showed notably a decrease in the accumulation of proteins identified as rubisco small subunit 1 and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase, two proteins involved in photosynthesis. These observations, together with the fact that in standard culture conditions, GPX-overexpressing plants were not phenotypically distinct from control plants prompted us to challenge the plants with a chilling treatment that is known to affect photosynthesis activity. We found that upon chilling treatment with low light level, photosynthesis was not affected in GPX-overexpressing plants while it was in control plants, as revealed by chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and fructose-1,6-biphosphatase activity. These results suggest that overexpression of a selenium-independent GPX in tomato plants modifies specifically gene expression and leads to modifications of photosynthetic regulation processes.     

Formation of ceramide-enriched domains in lipid particles enhances the binding of apolipoprotein E

We investigated the interaction between apolipoprotein E (apoE) and ceramide (CER)-enriched domains on the particles, by using lipid emulsions containing sphingomyelin (SM) or CER as model particles of lipoproteins. The sphingomyelinase (SMase)-induced aggregation of emulsion particles was prevented by apoE. CER increased the amount of apoE bound to emulsion particles. The confocal images of CER-containing large emulsions with two fluorescent probes showed three-dimensional microdomains enriched in CER. SMase also induced the formation of CER-enriched domains. We propose apoE prefers to bind on CER-enriched domains exposed on particle surface, and thus inhibits the aggregation or fusion of the particles.