G Tabares | PubMed Health

PubMed2001

Comparison of weight increase in users of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate and copper IUD up to 5 years.

The objective of this study was to evaluate retrospectively the weight variation in long-term users of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) compared to users of the TCu380A intrauterine device (IUD). A cohort of 206 healthy women allocated in two groups of 103 women according to the contraceptive method used was evaluated through 5 years. Each user of DMPA was paired with an IUD user by age (+/- 1 year) and weight (+/- 1 kg) at the beginning of the study. Weight was evaluated yearly during 5 years. The mean age at the beginning of the study was 33.1 years in both groups, and the mean weight was 59.4 kg in the IUD users and 60.4 kg in the DMPA group. Both cohorts of women presented significant weight increase at the end of the 5 years of observation (p < 0.001). However, DMPA users presented higher weight increase when compared to IUD users from the second through the fifth year of observation. The DMPA users increased weight by 4.3 kg during the 5 years, and IUD users increased 1.8 kg. In conclusion, DMPA users had a significantly higher weight increase when compared to IUD users. In addition, this cohort of women increased weight throughout the 5 years with the use of DMPA or IUD.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Modelling a 3D structure for EgDf1 from Echinococcus granulosus: putative epitopes, phosphorylation motifs and ligand.

EgDf1 is a developmentally regulated protein from the parasite Echinococcus granulosus related to a family of hydrophobic ligand binding proteins. This protein could play a crucial role during the parasite life cycle development since this organism is unable to synthetize most of their own lipids de novo. Furthermore, it has been shown that two related protein from other parasitic platyhelminths (Fh15 from Fasciola hepatica and Sm14 from Schistosoma mansoni) are able to confer protective inmunity against experimental infection in animal models. A three-dimensional structure would help establishing structure/function relationships on a knowledge based manner. 3D structures for EgDf1 protein were modelled by using myelin P2 (mP2) and intestine fatty acid binding protein (I-FABP) as templates. Molecular dynamics techniques were used to validate the models. Template mP2 yielded the best 3D structure for EgDf1. Palmitic and oleic acids were docked inside EgDf1. The present theoretical results suggest definite location in the secondary structure of the epitopic regions, consensus phosphorylation motifs and oleic acid as a good ligand candidate to EgDf1. This protein might well be involved in the process of supplying hydrophobic metabolites for membrane biosynthesis and for signaling pathways.

Amino Acid Sequence↗