Serum concentrations and renal expressions of IL-1 and TNF-a early after hemorrhage in rats under the effect of glibenclamide.

Purpose: To investigate changes in the serum concentration and renal expression of IL-1 and TNF-α cytokines in rats that received sevoflurane and glibenclamide prior to hemorrhage.

Methods: Two groups of sevoflurane-anesthetized Wistar rats (n=10): G1 (control) and G2 (glibenclamide, 1 µg/g i.v.

[Hepatitis B virus: serum response to vaccine in teaching hospital cleaners].

Viral hepatitis B is one of the major public health problems in all continents. The hepatitis-B virus is transmitted parenterally and mainly sexually. The objective of this study was to evaluate the population composing the active cleaning staff of the Botucatu School of Medicine Hospital - UNESP who had received a complete vaccination scheme against hepatitis B, to measure their levels of antibodies against AgHBs (anti-HBs) and to evaluate their relationship with general epidemiological conditions, personal and professional life conditions and risk of infection by the hepatitis-B virus.

Cytokines and acute phase serum proteins as markers of inflammatory regression during the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Objective: To evaluate the pattern of pro-inflammatory cytokines, anti-inflammatory cytokines and the acute phase response (APR) as markers of the response to treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Methods: Twenty-eight patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were evaluated at three time points: pretreatment (T0), treatment month 3 (T3) and treatment month 6 (T6). Levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukine-10 (IL-10) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) were determined using ELISA in the supernatant of peripheral blood mononuclear cell and monocyte culture.

Clinical and nutritional profile of individuals with Chagas disease.

Chagas disease (CD), caused by the protozoan Trypanossoma cruzi, affects approximately 18 million individuals in the Americas, 5 million of which live in Brazil. Most chronic sufferers have either the indeterminate form of the disease, without organic compromise, or the cardiac or digestive forms. Despite the importance of this disease, there is no information on the effect of nutrition on CD evolution.

Definition of a diagnostic routine in individuals with inconclusive serology for Chagas disease.

Despite the existence of highly sensitive tests, inconclusive serological results are frequent in chronic chagasic infection. This study aimed to define a diagnostic conduct for 30 individuals with inconclusive serology (G3) for chagasic infection assisted at the Outpatient Unit for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases of the Botucatu School of Medicine. Twenty-one individuals with negative serology (G1) and 33 with positive serology (G2) were also studied.

Tuberculin testing of individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus: relationship with peripheral T-cell counts and active tuberculosis.

Objective: To evaluate tuberculin test results and relate them to the presence or absence of active tuberculosis, as well as to CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocyte counts.

Method: The charts of 802 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome treated between August of 1985 and March of 2003 were reviewed. Of the 185 patients submitted to tuberculin tests (23.

[Contraceptive measures and HIV transmission protection among women with HIV/AIDS].

Objective: Sexual intercourse is currently the route of transmission among women that has most contributed to the feminization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As an ongoing effort to establish more appropriate standards for health counseling, the study's purpose was to investigate the use of contraceptive methods that would also prevent HIV/AIDS women against disease transmission.

Methods: An exploratory study was developed in an outpatient clinic of a public university hospital, a reference center of HIV/AIDS patients in the mid-south region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, during a 5-month-period (2000 and 2001).

[Evaluation of quality of life among women with HIV/AIDS using HAT-QoL].

In order to evaluate quality of life among women with HIV/AIDS, the HIV-AIDS Quality of Life test (HAT-QoL) was administered as a specific tool for individuals infected with HIV. It consists of 42 questions and is divided into nine modules with questions on different aspects of the lives of persons with HIV/AIDS. The scale was subjected to reverse and pre-test translation.

Study of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in paracoccidioidomycosis: cytopathology and alveolar macrophage function in response to gamma interferon; comparison with blood monocytes.

Patients with paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) present marked involvement of the lungs during the course of the mycosis. The purpose of this work was to obtain bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from these patients to study the cytopathology, TNF levels and the oxidative and fungicidal response of alveolar macrophages (AMs) to in vitro incubation with recombinant IFN-gamma. To compare the lung and blood compartments, these determinations were also made in plasma and blood monocytes (BMs) obtained from the same patients.

Effect of cytokines on the in vitro fungicidal activity of monocytes from paracoccidioidomycosis patients.

Peripheral blood monocytes obtained from paracoccidioidomycosis patients and healthy individuals were preactivated with recombinant gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) in different concentrations (250, 500 and 1000 U/ml) and evaluated for fungicidal activity against Paracoccidiodes brasiliensis strain 18 (Pb 18, high-virulence strain) and strain 265 (Pb 265, low-virulence strain) by plating of cocultures and counting of colony-forming units, after 10 d. Monocytes from healthy individuals failed to present fungicidal activity against P. brasiliensis even after IFN-gamma activation at the three concentrations.