Nuclear alterations associated to programmed cell death in larval salivary glands of Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

The silk glands of bees are a good model for the study of cell death in insects. With the objective to detect the nuclear features during glandular regression stage, larvae at the last instar and pre-pupae were collected and their silk glands were dissected and processed for ultrastructural analysis and histologically for cytochemical and imunocytochemical analysis. The results showed that the cellular nuclei exhibited characteristics of death by atypical apoptosis as well as autophagic cell death. Among the apoptosis characteristic were: nuclear strangulation with bleb formation in some nuclei, DNA fragmentation in most of the nuclei and nucleolar fragmentation. Centripetal chromatin compaction was observed in many nuclei, forming a perichromatin halo differing from typical apoptotic nuclei. With regards to the characteristics of autophagic-programmed cell death, most relevant was the delay in the collapse of many nuclei.     

Effects of atrazine on female Wistar rats: morphological alterations in ovarian follicles and immunocytochemical labeling of 90 kDa heat shock protein

Fertility in female mammals may be affected by a variety of endocrine disrupters present in the environment. Herbicide atrazine is an example of endocrine disrupter employed in agriculture, which disrupts estrous cyclicity in rats. Aiming to characterize morphologically the effect of low and sublethal doses of atrazine on the ovaries of Wistar rats, in an effort to determine the possible intrafollicular target site through which this herbicide acts adult females were submitted to both subacute and subchronic treatments. Additionally, immunocytochemical labeling of 90 kDa heat shock protein (HSP90) was performed in order to evaluate the role played by this protein in the ovary, under stressed conditions induced by herbicide exposure. The results indicated that atrazine induced impaired folliculogenesis, increased follicular atresia and HSP90 depletion in female rats submitted to subacute treatment, while the subchronic treatment with low dose of atrazine could compromise the reproductive capacity reflected by the presence of multioocytic follicle and stress-inducible HSP90.     

Competitive reactions among three monomers over a catalytic surface

We studied in this work a three-monomer reaction model on one- and two-dimensional lattices. We have taken different reactivity rates among pairs of monomers and the reaction between two selected monomers was forbidden. We have employed the mean field and the pair approximation to decouple the equations of motion for the densities of single and pairs of monomers. We found the stationary states and the phase diagram of the model. We have shown that, in two dimensions and within the pair approximation, there is a first-order transition line between active and poisoned steady states.     

4-Cyanopyridine and amide-N and amide-O linkage isomers of 4-pyridinecarboxamide on trans-chloro(1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane)ruthenium(II/III)

The synthesis, UV-vis spectra, and electrochemical behavior of the nitrile-bonded trans-[Ru(II)Cl(cyclam)(4-NCpyH(+))](BF(4))(2) (4-Ncpy = 4-cyanopyridine; cyclam = 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane) and of trans-[Ru(III)Cl(cyclam)(NHC(O)-4-pyH(+))](2+) are described. The UV-vis spectrum of the Ru(II) nitrile complex shows a MLCT band at 548 nm at pH 1, which is shifted to 440 nm at pH approximately 6, for the unprotonated species. trans-[Ru(II)Cl(cyclam)(4-NCpyH(+))](2+) was electrolytically oxidized (+600 mV vs Ag/AgCl) at pH 1 to Ru(III), followed by hydrolysis (k = 0.25 s(-1)) of the coordinated nitrile to give trans-[Ru(III)Cl(cyclam)(NHC(O)-4-pyH(+))](2+), in which the amide is deprotonated and coordinated through nitrogen. The identity of the species is pH dependent, the nitrogen-bonded amide prevailing at low pH (< 7), but the oxygen-bonded amide is formed through linkage isomerization at higher pH (>8). Reduction of trans-[Ru(III)Cl(cyclam)(NHC(O)-4-pyH)](2+) in acidic media does not result in fast aquation (k = approximately 2.4 x 10(-5) s(-1)) as for other amides on ruthenium(II) pentaammine, but instead linkage isomerization occurs, resulting in the oxygen-bonded species, with an estimated rate constant of approximately 2 x 10(-2) s(-1), smaller than in the pentaammine analogues.