Comparou-se a quantidade relativa de transcritos de origem materna entre oócitos bovinos maturados in vivo e maturados em diferentes condições in vitro. Avaliou-se também o efeito dos sistemas de maturação in vitro sobre a viabilidade das células do cumulus. Para a maturação in vivo, os oócitos foram coletados 19-20h após aplicação de gonadorelina em doadoras superestimuladas com FSH e sincronizadas com implante de progesterona. Para a maturação in vitro, oócitos imaturos, obtidos de ovários coletados em matadouro, foram maturados sob diferentes tensões de oxigênio e suplementação proteica. Avaliou-se a abundância dos transcritos de Zar1, MATER e GDF9 por PCR em tempo real. A viabilidade das células do cumulus de oócitos maturados in vitro foi analisada pela coloração de Azul de Tripan. Observou-se sub-regulação (P<0,05) dos transcritos em oócitos submetidos às diferentes condições de maturação in vitro em relação aos maturados in vivo. Não houve diferença (P>0,05) na viabilidade das células do cumulus. Conclui-se que o sistema de maturação influencia a quantidade de transcritos de origem materna armazenados no citoplasma de oócitos bovinos

The relative abundance of maternal transcripts among bovine oocytes in vivo matured or under different in vitro conditions was compared. Viability of cumulus cells of in vitro matured oocytes was also evaluated. For in vivo maturation, oocytes were recovered from 19 to 20h after gonadorelin injection in donor cows, which were previously superestimulated with FSH and synchronized with progesterone implant. For in vitro maturation, immature cumulus-oocyte complexes, obtained from ovaries collected at slaughterhouse, were matured under different oxygen tensions and protein supplementation. Relative amount of Zar1, MATER, and GDF9 transcrispts were analyzed by real time PCR. Cumulus cell viability was analyzed by trypan blue. The expression of maternal effect genes were down-regulated (P<0.05) in oocytes matured under different in vitro conditions when compared to those in vivo matured. There was no difference (P>0.05) on cumulus cell viability among different in vitro maturation conditions. In conclusion, different maturation conditions affect the relative abundance of maternal transcripts stored into oocyte cytoplasm

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been identified as the major cause of chronic liver disease among patients on chronic hemodialysis (HD), despite the important reduction in risks obtained by testing candidate blood donors for anti-HCV antibodies and the use of recombinant erythropoietin to treat anemia. A cross-sectional study was performed to estimate the prevalence of HCV infection and genotypes among HD patients in Salvador, Northeastern Brazil. Anti-HCV seroprevalence was determined by ELISA in 1243 HD patients from all ten different dialysis centers of the city. HCV infection was confirmed by RT-PCR and genotyping was performed by restriction fragment length polymorphism. Anti-HCV seroprevalence among HD patients was 10.5% (95% CI: 8.8-12.3) (Murex anti-HCV, Abbott Murex, Chicago, IL, USA). Blood samples for qualitative HCV detection and genotyping were collected from 125/130 seropositive HD patients (96.2%). HCV-RNA was detected in 92/125 (73.6%) of the anti-HCV-positive patients. HCV genotype 1 (77.9%) was the most prevalent, followed by genotype 3 (10.5%) and genotype 2 (4.6%). Mixed infections of genotypes 1 and 3 were found in 7.0% of the total number of patients. The present results indicate a significant decrease in anti-HCV prevalence from 23.8% detected in a study carried out in 1994 to 10.5% in the present study. The HCV genotype distribution was closely similar to that observed in other hemodialysis populations in Brazil, in local candidate blood donors and in other groups at risk of transfusion-transmitted infection.