Student: Andra Cristina Monteiro dos Santos

Education:Biomedical Science, Universidade Federal do Par UFPA, Belm, Par, Brasil, 2005.
Master in Neurosciences, UFPA,2008.Ph.D student in Neuroscience, UFPA, 2009.
Work experience: Temporary Professor of Biochemistry at the Science Biology Institute, UFPA,
2008-2010.
My researchs line involves two major subjects: neuroendocrinology and neurotoxicology. I
have been studying the protective effects of prolactin(PRL) in the disturbances provoked by
methylmercury (MeHg) on viability, morphology, GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein)
expression, mitogenesis and release of interleukin-1 in glial cells culture of cerebral cortex of
newborn rats, with focus in astrocytes. Our results demonstrated that PRL attenuated
disturbances caused by MeHg, increasing viability, GFAP expression, cellular proliferation and
attenuated morphological changes like nuclear pycnosis and lysis. Additionally, PRL induced
amplification of the release of IL-1 in association with MeHg. These findings proved that PRL
can act like cytoprotect agent in primary culture of glial cells; this action is additional to its
mitogenic effects.
Currently, I am working on my thesiss project in the neuroendocrinology field. The objective
of this study is to investigate protective effects of prolactin on disturbances caused by
administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in glial cell cultures. LPS was selected as a classic
experimental model that causes oxidative stress and inflammatory response to evaluate likely
signalization pathway mechanisms how PRL evoked in glial cell culture. Our results showed
that PRL alone induced light increase of nitrite, but in co-treatment with PRL and LPS, this
hormone cytoprotected the glial cells because cellular viability was recovered and nitrite level
was decreased. More studies must be done to investigate the role of PRLs mechanism on glial
cells; hence AG-490, a JAK/STAT pathway inhibitor, will be used, and although, we have
noticed the cytoprotective effect of PRL in different experimental models, the role of glial
cellsare not clear in these processes.