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Abstract Producers of fish have been looking for viable alternatives for the management of Colossoma macropomum (tambaqui) in confinement systems in order to avoid the harm and subsequent losses caused by parasitic diseases. One alternative used by farmers is pesticides, such as trichlorfon, which has a genotoxic effect. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the changes in gene expression due to the side effects of trichlorfon in tambaqui. Two treatments were used based on LC50-96h of 0.870 mg/L using 30% and 50% trichlorfon with exposure periods of 48, 72 and 96 h. For differential expression of the genes in the liver, real-time PCR was performed for the AChE, GST, CYP2J6, CYP2C8, 18S and GAPDH genes. After 96 h of exposure to trichlorfon, an alteration in the gene expression profile of the antioxidant defense system (GST) of the tambaqui was observed. It was also observed that this organophosphate did not affect the expression of genes related to the isoenzymes that are responsible for the biotransformation of xenobiotics in phase I (2J6 and 2C8) and cholinesterase AChE. It was concluded that the reduction in gene expression of GST suggests a decrease in metabolization capacity in phase II.

A method utilizing aminopropyl bonded phase (Bond Elut) columns has been developed to separate lipid mixtures into individual classes in high yield and purity. Up to ten lipid mixtures can be processed in 1 hr and the columns are reusable after suitable washing. Although the method was developed with standard lipid mixtures, it was shown that it is also applicable to biological extracts. Due to the rapidity and high yields (greater than 95%) of this procedure, it is superior to preparative HPLC or TLC, or other chromatographic methods for the separation of lipid mixtures for subsequent analysis.

A new rapid and sensitive method, the single vertical spin autoprofiler (VAP), has been developed for quantitative profiling of the major plasma lipoproteins. The method involves a combination of single vertical spin separation of plasma and continuous on-line analysis of cholesterol. Plasma lipoproteins are first separated by a 45-min spin in a vertical rotor, after which the amount of cholesterol in the effluent of each tube is monitored continuously by a modification of the BMC automated enzymatic cholesterol method; simultaneously, 80% of the sample is diverted by stream-splitting to a fraction collector for further analysis, if desired. VAP not only resolves very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and high density lipoprotein (HDL) peaks quantitatively but also detects the presence of intermediate density lipoprotein (IDL) and other lipoprotein variants. VAP was highly reproducible; the inter-run coefficient of variation for cholesterol concentration in VLDL, LDL, and HDL was 4.8%, 2.9%, and 2.4%, respectively. Cholesterol recovery using VAP was 98.5 +/- 3.5%. Lipoprotein-cholesterol profiles of plasma from three major hyperlipoproteinemia phenotypes examined by VAP were qualitatively and quantitatively different from each other and from profiles of normolipidemic individuals. One significant finding was that IDL could be detected in the plasma of all type IV hyperlipoproteinemic subjects examined thus far. Several variant lipoprotein profiles which did not correspond to known phenotypes have also been detected by VAP using plasma from hyperlipidemic as well as from normolipidemic subjects. We submit that VAP is an accurate and rapid method for lipoprotein analysis, either for routine clinical screening or for detailed experimental studies. In addition, VAP provides a visual display of partially to completely resolved lipoprotein classes that is suitable for computer-assisted analysis.