Thrombin Generation and other hemostatic parameters in patients with atrial fibrillation in use of warfarin or rivaroxaban.

Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) present hyperactivation of both platelets and coagulation leading to a hypercoagulable state which contributes to an increased risk of thromboembolism. Therefore, one of the main strategies for treatment of AF is prevention of these events through the use of oral anticoagulants (OAC). The aim of this study was to evaluate hemostasis as a whole in patients with non-valvular AF undergoing warfarin or rivaroxaban by thrombin generation test (TGT), in addition to monocyte-platelet aggregates (MPA), glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GPIIb/IIIa), and platelet (PMP) and endothelium (EMP) microparticles, compared to age and sex matched controls.

Laboratorial algorithm for serological diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis using rK39-ICT, DAT-LPC and FC-Simplex IgG1.

The performance of distinct serological tests (rK39-ICT, IFAT, DAT-LPC, FC-Simplex IgG1) was assessed and a laboratorial algorithm was proposed for accurate diagnosis of VL. DAT-LPC and FC-Simplex IgG1 showed outstanding accuracy (AUC = 0.93) to identify VL patients.

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Objective: This study has investigated whether high levels of Reticulocytes-C4d (R-C4d) and Platelets-C4d (P-C4d) reflecting recent activity in SLE patients are correlated with changes in natural anticoagulation components, coagulation activation and endothelial injury markers.

Methods: This study included three groups: 1) healthy women (control, n = 30); 2) women with low activity of the disease (SLEDAI 2 K ≤ 4, n = 30); 3) women with active disease (moderate or high activity) (SLEDAI 2 K > 4, n = 30). Median fluorescence intensity (MFI) of R-C4d and P-C4d were determined by flow cytometry using double labeling with specific monoclonal antibodies.

Usefulness of FC-TRIPLEX Chagas/Leish IgG1 as confirmatory assay for non-negative results in blood bank screening of Chagas disease.

A relevant issue in Chagas disease serological diagnosis regards the requirement of using several confirmatory methods to elucidate the status of non-negative results from blood bank screening. The development of a single reliable method may potentially contribute to distinguish true and false positive results. Our aim was to evaluate the performance of the multiplexed flow-cytometry anti-T.

Circulating microparticles levels are increased in patients with diabetic kidney disease: A case-control research.

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with chronic lowgrade inflammation. Microparticles (MPs) are extracellular microvesicles released during apoptosis and cellular activation. The MP's pro-coagulant and pro-inflammatory activities are involved in endothelial dysfunction observed in T2DM patients.

Haptoglobin levels, but not Hp1-Hp2 polymorphism, are associated with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Purpose: Proteomic studies suggest an association between haptoglobin (Hp) and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Hp is a classic inflammatory marker and binds to the intravascular hemoglobin, avoiding the oxidative damages that can be caused by free hemoglobin. Inflammation and oxidative stress are important in the pathogenesis of the PCOS, one of the most frequent metabolic diseases in women.

Heparin removal by ecteola-cellulose pre-treatment enables the use of plasma samples for accurate measurement of anti-Yellow fever virus neutralizing antibodies.

Technological innovations in vaccinology have recently contributed to bring about novel insights for the vaccine-induced immune response. While the current protocols that use peripheral blood samples may provide abundant data, a range of distinct components of whole blood samples are required and the different anticoagulant systems employed may impair some properties of the biological sample and interfere with functional assays. Although the interference of heparin in functional assays for viral neutralizing antibodies such as the functional plaque-reduction neutralization test (PRNT), considered the gold-standard method to assess and monitor the protective immunity induced by the Yellow fever virus (YFV) vaccine, has been well characterized, the development of pre-analytical treatments is still required for the establishment of optimized protocols.

IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-10 levels/polymorphisms and their association with type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity in Brazilian individuals.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the association of plasma TNF-α, IL-6, and lL-10 levels and cytokine gene polymorphisms [TNF-α (-308 G→A), IL-6 (-174 C→G) and IL-10 (-1082 A→G, -819 T→C and -592 A→C)] in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obese patients.

Subjects And Methods: One hundred and two T2DM patients and 62 controls were included in this study. Cytokine plasma levels were measured by the Cytometric Bead Array method.

Association of Haemostatic and Inflammatory Biomarkers with Nephropathy in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus.

This study aimed at investigating the association between haemostatic biomarkers, proinflammatory, and anti-inflammatory cytokines with chronic kidney disease in type 1 diabetic patients. Patients were divided into two groups: with nephropathy (albuminuria ≥ 30 mg/g and/or GFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2)), n = 65; and without nephropathy (albuminuria < 30 mg/g and GFR ≥ 60 mL/min/1.

FC-TRIPLEX Chagas/Leish IgG1: a multiplexed flow cytometry method for differential serological diagnosis of chagas disease and leishmaniasis.

Differential serological diagnosis of Chagas disease and leishmaniasis is difficult owing to cross-reactivity resulting from the fact that the parasites that cause these pathologies share antigenic epitopes. Even with optimized serological assays that use parasite-specific recombinant antigens, inconclusive test results continue to be a problem. Therefore, new serological tests with high sensitivity and specificity are needed.

Kinetics of mesenchymal and hematopoietic stem cells mobilization by G-CSF and its impact on the cytokine microenvironment in primary cultures.

In this study, we demonstrate that G-CSF administration triggers distinct kinetics of stem cell-SC mobilization with early raise of hematopoietic-HSC and late increase of mesenchymal-MSC in bone marrow-BM and peripheral blood-PB. The cytokine microenvironment observed following primary cultures showed an overall G-CSF dose-dependent profile with a clear mixed pro-inflammatory/regulatory pattern. Moreover, primary cultures performed at the peak of MSC/HSC ratio, showed distinct cytokine patterns, with higher IL-10, TNF-α and IL-17A observed for BM and enhanced IL-10, IL-2 and IFN-γ for PB harvested cells.

Effect of acetylsalicylic acid on platelet activation and oxidative profile in a set of Brazilian patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) is a metabolic disorder associated with hyperactivation of platelets, increased formation of platelet microparticles (PMPs) and oxidative stress that are related to cardiovascular complications. Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) is an antiplatelet agent used in the prevention of atherothrombosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of ASA by means of platelet activation and oxidative profile.

Association of microparticles and preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia (PE) is a syndrome characterized by poor placentation and endothelial dysfunction. The diagnosis for this syndrome is based in hypertension and proteinuria presented after the 20th week of pregnancy. Despite intensive research, PE is still one of the leading causes of maternal mortality, although reliable screening tests or effective treatments of this disease have yet to be proposed.

Genetic variability in platelet integrin α2β1 density: possible contributor to Plasmodium vivax-induced severe thrombocytopenia.

Understanding the pathogenesis of Plasmodium vivax malaria is challenging. We hypothesized that susceptibility to P. vivax-induced thrombocytopenia could be associated with polymorphisms on relevant platelet membrane integrins: integrin α2 (C807T), and integrin β3 (T1565C).

Circulating microparticles in severe preeclampsia.

The present study aimed to evaluate microparticles (MPs) from different sources in women with severe preeclampsia (PE) compared with normotensive pregnant women and non-pregnant women. This case-control study evaluated 28 pregnant women with severe PE, 30 normotensive pregnant women, and 29 non-pregnant women. MPs from neutrophils, endothelial cells, monocytes, platelets, leukocytes, erythrocytes, and syncytiotrophoblast were evaluated using flow cytometry.

Plasma circulating nucleic acids levels increase according to the morbidity of Plasmodium vivax malaria.

Background: Given the increasing evidence of Plasmodium vivax infections associated with severe and fatal disease, the identification of sensitive and reliable markers for vivax severity is crucial to improve patient care. Circulating nucleic acids (CNAs) have been increasingly recognized as powerful diagnostic and prognostic tools for various inflammatory diseases and tumors as their plasma concentrations increase according to malignancy. Given the marked inflammatory status of P.

Augmented plasma microparticles during acute Plasmodium vivax infection.

Background: In the last few years, the study of microparticles (MPs)--submicron vesicles released from cells upon activation or apoptosis--has gained growing interest in the field of inflammation and in infectious diseases. Their role in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax remains unexplored. Because acute vivax malaria has been related to pro-inflammatory responses, the main hypothesis investigated in this study was that Plasmodium vivax infection is associated with elevated levels of circulating MPs, which may play a role during acute disease in non-immune patients.

Characterization of a gene encoding alcohol dehydrogenase in benznidazole-susceptible and -resistant populations of Trypanosoma cruzi.

Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) are a class of oxidoreductases that catalyse the reversible oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde. In the human parasite Trypanosoma cruzi the TcADH gene was identified through microarray analysis as having reduced transcription in an in vitro induced benznidazole (BZ)-resistant population. In the present study, we have extended these results by characterizing the TcADH gene from 11 strains of T.

Differential gene expression in Trypanosoma cruzi populations susceptible and resistant to benznidazole.

Differential gene expression in three pairs of Trypanosoma cruzi populations or clones susceptible or resistant to benznidazole (BZ) was investigated by differential display (DD) and representation of differential expression (RDE). GenBank searches of 14 genes selected by DD showed that four sequences corresponded to different hypothetical proteins and the others were very similar to T. cruzi genes encoding mucin (TcMUC), dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (TcLipDH), the hexose transporter (TcHT), or a ribosomal protein.