IIZUKA YOKO¹, SAMIN HONG², CHAN YUN KIM², SEUNG KAB KIM², GONG JE SEONG²

BIOCELL, Vol.32, No.3, pp. 245-250, 2008, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2008.32.245

Abstract Agmatine, 2-(4-aminobutyl)guanidine, has been reported to have neuroprotective effects against various neuronal damages. In this study it was investigated whether agmatine pretreatment rescues the retinal ganglion cells from oxidative injury in vitro. After differentiation of transformed rat retinal ganglion cells (RGC-5 cell line) with staurosporine, agmatine (0.0 to 100.0 μM) pretreatment was performed for 2 hours. Subsequently, they were exposed to hydrogen peroxide (0.0 to 2.5 mM) as an oxidative stress. Cell viability was monitored for up to 48 hours with the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay and apoptosis was examined by the terminal deoxynucleotide transferase-mediated terminal More >

ELEONIDAS MOURA LIMA^1,2, MARIANA FERREIRA LEAL³, MARÍLIA DE ARRUDA CARDOSO SMITH³, ROMMEL RODRÍGUEZ BURBANO⁴, PAULO PIMENTEL DE ASSUMPÇÃO⁵, MARIA JOSE BELLO⁶, JUAN ANTONIO REY⁶, FRANCINALDO FERREIRA DE LIMA⁷, CACILDA CASARTELLI²

BIOCELL, Vol.32, No.3, pp. 237-243, 2008, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2008.32.237

Abstract Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignancies. DNA methylation is implicated in DNA mismatch repair genes deficiency. In the present study, we evaluated the methylation status of MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2 in 20 diffuse- and 26 intestinal-type gastric cancer samples and 20 normal gastric mucosal of gastric cancer patients from Northern Brazil. We found that none of the nonneoplastic samples showed methylation of any gene promoter and 50% of gastric cancer samples showed at least one methylated gene promoter. Methylation frequencies of MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2 promoter were 21.74%, 17.39%, 0% and 28.26% respectively… More >

JUAN LIN¹, WEN ZHANG¹, MINGZHU SHI¹, XINGLONG WANG¹, XIAOFEN SUN¹, KEXUAN TANG^1,2

BIOCELL, Vol.32, No.3, pp. 229-235, 2008, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2008.32.229

Abstract A new cation exchangers (CAXs) gene was cloned and characterized from Capsella bursapastoris by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). The full-length cDNA sequence of cax from C. bursa-pastoris (designated as Cbcax51) was 1754 bp containing a 1398 bp open reading frame encoding a polypeptide of 466 amino-acid residues with a calculated molecular mass of 50.5 kDa and an isoelectric point of 5.69. The predicted CbCAX51 contained an IMP dehydrogenase/GMP reductase domain, two Na⁺/Ca²⁺ exchanger protein domains. Comparative and bioinformatics analyses revealed that CbCAX51 showed extensive homology with CAX from other plant species. The expression analysis by different treatments More >

OSCAR MAC DONAL¹, JUAN G. CHEDIACK^1,2,3, ENRIQUE CAVIEDES-VIDAL^1,2,3

BIOCELL, Vol.32, No.3, pp. 219-227, 2008, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2008.32.219

Abstract The isolation of viable enterocytes, villi and crypts from the small intestine of a feral bird (Columba livia) is important for performing physiological experiments in ecologically relevant processes of membrane transport. The effectiveness of mechanical disruption, enzymatic digestion and chelating agents were compared. The objectives were to isolate enterocytes, villi and crypts from the small intestine of young pigeons; to evaluate the viability of the isolated intestinal epithelial cells isolated; and to verify the integrity of enterocytes by biochemical features. Enzymatic and mechanical methods yielded both elongated columnar and spherical cells. With the chelating method villi More >

MARTHA LAFARQUE, LILIANA OLIVEROS

BIOCELL, Vol.32, No.3, pp. 211-218, 2008, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2008.32.211

Abstract In this study, evidence for a factor secreted by bovine hypophyseal pars tuberalis that stimulates luteinizing hormone (LH) release from rat pars distalis cells is shown. The secretion products of bovine pars tuberalis cells into the culture medium were assayed on dispersed rat pars distalis cells in 30 min incubations and superfusion experiments. The culture medium from pars tuberalis total cell populations, added at a dose of 6 μg per tube, induced the greater LH release from pars distalis cells, without effect on follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) release. After pars tuberalis cells separation on a discontinuos Percoll gradient, only the culture medium… More >

PATRÍCIA CARVALHO DE SOUZA, ANDRÉ SALIM KHAYAT, IGOR CHAMON SELIGMANN, ROMMEL MARIO RODRÍGUEZ BURBANO

BIOCELL, Vol.32, No.2, pp. 207-210, 2008, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2008.32.207

Abstract The collared peccary (Tayassu tajacu) is widely distributed over the American continent, being found from the south of the USA to the north of Argentina. In Brazil, it is spread all over the country, being one of the potential species to be raised in captivity. Therefore, the cytogenetic techniques could be a potential tool for reproductive monitoring of animals raised in captivity, mainly when destined for commercial purposes. This study had the objective of determining the chromosome number of two populations raised in captivity and characterizing them by GTG banding. For this purpose, an analysis was… More >

SAMIN HONG, KYOUNGSOO PARK, CHAN YUN KIM, GONG JE SEONG

BIOCELL, Vol.32, No.2, pp. 201-205, 2008, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2008.32.201

Abstract The effect of hypoxia on the release of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in transformed rat retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and the effect of agmatine on the hypoxia-induced production of TNF-α in RGCs were evaluated. RGCs were cultured under hypoxic conditions with 5% oxygen, with or without 100 μM agmatine. The expression levels of TNF-α and its receptor-1 (TNF-R1) were investigated by Western blot analysis. After 6 hours of hypoxia, we noted an increase in TNF-α production in RGCs. Agmatine significantly reduced TNF-α level after 12 hours of hypoxic treatment. The expression of TNF-R1 was not More >

RAQUEL ALVES DOS SANTOS¹, TERESINHA ROSA CABRAL², ISABEL ROSA CABRAL², LUSÂNIA MARIA GREGGI ANTUNES^3,4, CRISTIANE PONTES ANDRADE³, PLÍNIO CERQUEIRA DOS SANTOS CARDOSO¹, MARCELO DE OLIVEIRA BAHIA², CLAUDIA PESSOA⁵, JOSÉ LUIS MARTINS DO NASCIMENTO², ROMMEL RODRÍGUEZ BURBANO², CATARINA SATIE TAKAHASHI^1,6

BIOCELL, Vol.32, No.2, pp. 195-200, 2008, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2008.32.195

Abstract Physalis angulata L (Solanaceae) is a medicinal plant from North of Brazil, whose different extracts and infusions are commonly used in the popular medicine for the treatment of malaria, asthma, hepatitis, dermatitis and rheumatism. However, the genotoxic effects of P. angulata on human cells is not well known. The main purpose of the present study was to evaluate the in vitro genotoxic effects of aqueous extract of P. angulata using the comet assay and the micronucleus assay in human lymphocytes provided from 6 healthy donors. Treatments with P. angulata extracts were performed in vitro in order to access the extent of More >

ADELINA FERREIRA¹, MAHMOUD MEHANNA^1,2, CYNTHIA P. A. PRADO³

BIOCELL, Vol.32, No.2, pp. 185-194, 2008, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2008.32.185

Abstract The spermatogenesis of Pseudis limellum, from the Southern Pantanal, Brazil, was studied from July 1995 to May 1996, through histological sections of the testis. The cells could be differentiated as: primary spermatogonia, large cells, generally with bilobed nucleus; secondary spermatogonia, smaller cells, with darker cytoplasm, chromatin of radial form; primary and secondary spermatocytes, differentiated according to the different stages of the nucleus during the successive cells divisions. Furthermore, we observed cells in process of morphologic differentiation: rounded spermatids much smaller, with nucleus containing chromatin in compacting process and cytoplasm reduction; elongated spermatids, generally parallel organized in… More >

N.M. OCARINO*, A. BOZZI**, R.D.O. PEREIRA*, N.M. BREYNER**, V.L. SILVA*, P. CASTANHEIRA**, A.M. GOES**, R. SERAKIDES*

BIOCELL, Vol.32, No.2, pp. 175-183, 2008, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2008.32.175

Abstract 4’, 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride (DAPI) is a DNA dye widely used to mark and trace stem cells in therapy. We here studied the effect of DAPI staining on the behavior of mesenchymal stem cells cultured in either a control, non-osteogenic medium or in an osteogenic differentiation medium. In the control medium, the number of stem cells/field, as well as the number of fluorescent cells/field increased up to the sixth day in both control and DAPI-treated cultures. Afterwards, both the number of fluorescent cells and their fluorescence intensity decreased. Control cells were fusiform and with some long… More >