Study of the relationship between regional cerebral saturation and pCO2 changes during mechanical ventilation to evaluate modifications in cerebral perfusion in a newborn piglet model

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) could be a useful continuous, non-invasive technique for monitoring the effect of partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2) fluctuations in the cerebral circulation during ventilation. The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of NIRS to detect acute changes in cerebral blood flow following PaCO2 fluctuations after confirming the autoregulation physiology in piglets. Fourteen piglets (<72 h of life) were studied. Mean arterial blood pressure, oxygen saturation, pH, glycemia, hemoglobin, electrolytes, and temperature were monitored. Eight animals were used to evaluate brain autoregulation, assessing superior cava vein Doppler as a proxy of cerebral blood flow changing mean arterial blood pressure. Another 6 animals were used to assess hypercapnia generated by decreasing ventilatory settings and complementary CO2 through the ventilator circuit and hypocapnia due to increasing ventilatory settings. Cerebral blood flow was determined by jugular vein blood flow by Doppler and continuously monitored with NIRS. A decrease in PaCO2 was observed after hyperventilation (47.6±2.4 to 29.0±4.9 mmHg). An increase in PaCO2 was observed after hypoventilation (48.5±5.5 to 90.4±25.1 mmHg). A decrease in cerebral blood flow after hyperventilation (21.8±10.4 to 15.1±11.0 mL/min) and an increase after hypoventilation (23.4±8.4 to 38.3±10.5 mL/min) were detected by Doppler ultrasound. A significant correlation was found between cerebral oxygenation and Doppler-derived parameters of blood flow and PaCO2. Although cerebral NIRS monitoring is mainly used to detect changes in regional brain oxygenation, modifications in cerebral blood flow following experimental PaCO2 changes were detected in newborn piglets when no other important variables were modified.

Genotoxic effect of Physalis angulata L. (Solanaceae) extract on human lymphocytes treated in vitro

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 DNA damage. The comet assay has shown that treatments with P. angulata at 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 6.0 microg/mL in culture medium were genotoxic. Lymphocytes treated with P. angulata at the concentrations of 3.0 and 6.0 microg/mL in culture medium showed a statistically significant increase in the frequency of micronucleus (p<0.05), however, the cytokinesis blocked proliferation index (CBPI) was not decreased after P. angulata treatment. In conclusion, the present work demonstrated the genotoxic effects of P. angulata extract on human lymphocytes in vitro.