assessment of cytotoxic, genotoxic and mutagenic effects of antimalarial drugs artemisinin and artemether in human lymphocytes.

Artemisinin is a substance extracted from the Chinese plant . widely used in natural medicine for the treatment of various diseases. Artemether is a substance synthesized from artemisinin, and both drugs are commonly administered in the treatment of malaria.

Chromosome X aneuploidy in Brazilian schizophrenic patients.

The identification of cytogenetic abnormalities in schizophrenic patients may provide clues to the genes involved in this disease. For this reason, a chromosomal analysis of samples from 62 schizophrenics and 70 controls was performed with trypsin-Giemsa banding and fluorescence in situ hybridization of the X chromosome. A clonal pericentric inversion on chromosome 9 was detected in one male patient, and we also discovered mosaicism associated with X chromosome aneuploidy in female patients, primarily detected in schizophrenic and normal female controls over 40 years old.

Cytogenetic characteristics of patients with signs and symptoms of myelodysplastic syndromes in the State of Pará, Brazil.

The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are clonal hematopoietic diseases characterized by medullary dysplasia, cytopenias, and frequent evolution to acute myeloid leukemia. In 1982, the French-American-British (FAB) group proposed a classification for the MDS, based on morphological characteristics of peripheral blood and of the bone marrow. Later, cytogenetics proved to be a useful tool for the refinement of prognosis, through the use of the International Prognosis Score System (IPSS), as well as through evidence of clonality.