Environmental enrichment restores cognitive deficits induced by experimental childhood meningitis.

Objective: To evaluate the influence of environmental enrichment (EE) on memory, cytokines, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the brain of adult rats subjected to experimental pneumococcal meningitis during infancy.

Methods: On postnatal day 11, the animals received either artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or Streptococcus pneumoniae suspension intracisternally at 1 × 10(6) CFU/mL and remained with their mothers until age 21 days. Animals were divided into the following groups: control, control + EE, meningitis, and meningitis + EE.

Pathophysiology of neonatal acute bacterial meningitis.

Neonatal meningitis is a severe acute infectious disease of the central nervous system and an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The inflammatory reaction involves the meninges, the subarachnoid space and the brain parenchymal vessels and contributes to neuronal injury. Neonatal meningitis leads to deafness, blindness, cerebral palsy, seizures, hydrocephalus or cognitive impairment in approximately 25-50 % of survivors.

Brain-blood barrier breakdown and pro-inflammatory mediators in neonate rats submitted meningitis by Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Neonatal meningitis is an illness characterized by inflammation of the meninges and occurring within the birth and the first 28 days of life. Invasive infection by Streptococcus pneumoniae, meningitis and sepsis, in neonate is associated with prolonged rupture of membranes; maternal colonization/illness, prematurity, high mortality and 50% of cases have some form of disability. For this purpose, we measured brain levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, CINC-1, oxidative damage, enzymatic defense activity and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity in neonatal Wistar rats submitted to pneumococcal meningitis.

Antibody levels in children after 10 years of vaccination against hepatitis B: a Brazilian community-based study.

Introduction: It is known that the hepatitis B (HB) vaccine is effective, but it is alarming that sudden drops of antibody levels may coincide with the onset of adolescence.

Methods: Antibody levels against HB vaccine surface antigen (anti-HBs) and HB vaccine core antigen (anti-HBc) were measured on the blood samples of children with a mean age of 11.4 years.

Detection of the Hepatitis C virus in a population of adults.

Unlabelled: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in adults from Criciuma-SC and to search factors associated with the viral transmission.

Methods: During a health campaign, a questionnaire about factors associated to HCV transmission and tests to detect HCV were applied. A representative sample of the population was considered with 300 voluntaries.