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Considerable efforts are currently focused on the biology of DC in view of their possible clinical use as adjuvant for the generation of antigen-specific immunity and lifelong immunologic memory or for the treatment of tumors. We assessed the role of Nattectin a C-type lectin identified in the Thalassophryne nattereri fish venom in DC maturation. Nattectin induced a significant neutrophilic recruitment into peritoneal cavity of mice, followed by macrophages, with lipidic mediators and IL-12 p70 synthesis. Macrophages derived from 7 day-Nattectin mice were CD11c + CD11blowLy6 highF4/80Rhigh and express high levels of MHC class II and CD80 molecules. Culture of peritoneal exudates derived macrophages from 7 day Nattectin-mice and immature BMDCs with Nattectin markedly increased the surface expression of CD40, CD80, CD86, and MHC class II in a dose-dependent manner, and the production of MMP-2 and MMP-9 distributed in nucleus and cytoplasm of cells, that was associated with strong activity in the culture supernatant. Nattectin treated DCs secreted IL-12 p70 and IL-10. The Nattectin-treated BMDC or macrophage-derived DCs were highly efficient at Ag capture. The specific immune response elicited by Nattectin was characterized by the production of specific antibodies IgG1 and mainly IgG2a with IL-10 and IFN-ã synthesis by splenic cells. These results enable us to address that Nattectin induces the recruitment of Ly6Chigh monocytes into the peritoneum, which exhibit a pro-inflammatory profile, where they differentiate into proliferating F4/80Rhigh macrophages. Macrophage-derived DCs mature in the presence of the cytokine milieu generated against Nattectin, exhibiting T cell co-stimulatory molecule expression and induced a Th1 polarized response.

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By means of Monte Carlo simulations performed in the C programming language, an example of scientific programming for the generation of pseudorandom numbers relevant to both teaching and research in the field of biomedicine is presented. The relatively simple algorithm proposed makes possible the statistical analysis of sequences of random numbers. The following three generators of pseudorandom numbers were used: the rand function contained in the stdlib.h library of the C programming language, Marsaglia's generator, and a chaotic function. The statistical properties of the sequences generated were compared, identical parameter values being adopted for this purpose. The properties of two estimators in finite samples of the pseudorandom numbers were also evaluated and, under suitable conditions, both the maximum-likelihood and method of moments proved to be good estimators. The findings demonstrated that the proposed algorithm appears to be suitable for the analysis of data from random experiments, indicating that it has a large variety of possible applications in the clinical practice.

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To determine the long-term pulmonary sequelae and effect on exercise tolerance of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), we studied 10 children at a mean age of 10.4 years, who had been born prematurely, survived respiratory distress syndrome, and subsequently developed BPD, and compared them with eight age-matched normal children born at term. Pulmonary function tests and graded exercise stress tests were performed. Residual volume, the ratio between residual volume and total lung capacity, vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in 1 second, forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of vital capacity, and maximal expiratory flows at 80%, 70%, and 60% of total lung capacity were all abnormal (P less than 0.02) in the children with BPD, compared with control values. Pre-exercise transcutaneous CO2 tension was higher (P less than 0.05) in the BPD group than in the control group. At maximal workload, tcPCO2 remained high in patients with BPD compared with control values (P less than 0.05). Arterial oxygen saturation at maximal workload fell below pre-exercise levels in the BPD group (P less than 0.05) but not in control children. There were no differences in maximal oxygen consumption between the BPD group and control children. Exercise-induced bronchospasm occurred in 50% of the BPD group, but not in the control group. We conclude that long-term survivors of BPD have evidence of airway obstruction, hyperinflation, and airway hyperreactivity, compared with a control group. Aerobic fitness was not significantly different in the BPD and control groups, but was achieved in the BPD group at the expense of a fall in SaO2 and a rise in tcPCO2.

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