Background: Interleukin-10 is a pivotal immunoregulatory cytokine with pleiotropic effects on the immune system. IL-10 promoter polymorphisms have been associated with disease susceptibility and the ...ability to secrete IL-10 in vitro. We suspected that the association of the widely studied -819C/T and -592C/A polymorphisms with the IL-10 production might vary between ethnic groups. Therefore, we examined the association of -819 C/T and -592 C/A promoter polymorphisms with in vitro LPS stimulated secretion of IL-10 in normal healthy Indian volunteers. Methods: Peripheral blood was collected from 103 healthy volunteers and diluted whole blood cultures were set up with 100 ng/ml of LPS as stimulant: supernatant was collected at 24 h and IL-10 levels were assayed by ELISA. Genotyping was done for -819C/T polymorphism in 101 individuals and -592C/A polymorphism in 68 individuals by polymerase chain reaction followed by RFLP. The differences in IL-10 production between the genotypes were analysed by ANOVA. Results: There were 30, 47 and 24 individuals with the CC, CT and TT genotypes with a minor allele (T) frequency of 47% for the -819C/T polymorphism. The CC and TT genotypes at position -819 were strongly associated with CC and AA genotypes at -592 position suggestive of strong linkage disequilibrium. There was no association between the -819 genotype and the in vitro LPS stimulated IL-10 levels. Conclusions: The -819C/T and the -592 C/A polymorphisms of the IL-10 promoter region are not significantly associated with LPS stimulated IL-10 production healthy Indian subjects. Disclosure statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
Objective: To examine the effectiveness of respiratory syncytial virus immune globulin administered intravenously (RSV-IGIV) in reducing hospitalization for treatment of RSV in children with ...congenital heart disease (CHD).
Methods: Children younger than 4 years of age were randomly assigned to a treatment group receiving RSV-IGIV, 750 mg/kg, monthly or to a control group not receiving infusions. Surveillance for respiratory tract infections was carried out and management decisions were made by physicians blinded to treatment group.
Results: Hospitalization for treatment of an RSV infection occurred in 32 of 214 (15%) of control children and 21 of 202 (10%) of the children receiving RSV-IGIV, a 31% reduction (
P = .16). However, in infants younger than 6 months of age at study entry, 20 of 82 (24%) in the control group and 10 of 96 (10%) in the RSV-IGIV group had RSV hospitalizations (58% reduction,
P = .01). The incidence of hospitalization for any respiratory tract symptomatology was lower in the RSV-IGIV group (34 of 202, 17%) than in the control group (57 of 214, 27%;
P = .02). There was a significantly higher frequency of unanticipated cyanotic episodes and of poor outcomes after surgery among children with cyanotic CHD in the RSV-IGIV group (22 of 78, 28%) than in the control group (4 of 47, 8.5%;
P = .009).
Conclusion: RSV-IGIV should not be used for prophylaxis of RSV disease in children with cyanotic CHD. RSV-IGIV did not reduce RSV hospitalization in all children with CHD, but it was effective in preventing RSV hospitalization in infants younger than 6 months of age. Further studies in these children are indicated. (J Pediatr 1998;133:492-9)
Maggot debridement therapy is rapidly increasing in popularity at major diabetic foot and wound care centers worldwide. However, we are unaware of specific guidelines on the short-term storage of ...larvae. We sought to evaluate differences in maggot motility over time in larvae refrigerated versus those stored at room temperature. We also introduce a simple surrogate method for evaluating maggot vitality that may be useful for in vivo studies if validated in future works. We randomly selected ten larvae from the same shipment at ten different times in 9 days. Larvae were placed on a translucent acetate grid, and their total excursion in 30 sec was measured. This was converted into a Maggot Motility Index. In the refrigerated group, the index remained at or above 40 mm/min for approximately 60 hours from baseline, when there was a significant decrease. This same phenomenon occurred during the first 12 hours in the nonrefrigerated group. There were significant differences in motility between refrigerated and nonrefrigerated larvae immediately after baseline until day 8. Larvae are more practical for repeated clinical use if kept refrigerated between applications.
Wound debridement, when systematically performed, may be as important as off-loading in reducing the prevalence of chronic inflammatory by-products in a wound and thus in converting a chronic wound ...into an acute one. Although it has been suggested that aggressive surgical debridement of wounds may be beneficial, there have been few, if any, technical descriptions of this aspect of therapy. It is therefore the purpose of this article to describe the general principles, process, and technique of outpatient surgical debridement of noninfected, nonischemic neuropathic diabetic foot wounds performed at the authors' institutions. The authors hope to foster further discussion leading to improvement in the process and the prevalence of such debridement.
The Giardia genome project database McArthur, Andrew G.; Morrison, Hilary G.; Nixon, Julie E.J. ...
FEMS microbiology letters,
August 2000, Letnik:
189, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Abstract
The Giardia genome project database provides an online resource for Giardia lamblia (WB strain, clone C6) genome sequence information. The database includes edited single-pass reads, the ...results of BLASTX searches, and details of progress towards sequencing the entire 12 million-bp Giardia genome. Pre-sorted BLASTX results can be retrieved based on keyword searches and BLAST searches of the high throughput Giardia data can be initiated from the web site or through NCBI. Descriptions of the genomic DNA libraries, project protocols and summary statistics are also available. Although the Giardia genome project is ongoing, new sequences are made available on a bi-monthly basis to ensure that researchers have access to information that may assist them in the search for genes and their biological function. The current URL of the Giardia genome project database is http://www.mbl.edu/Giardia.
To describe an outbreak of hepatitis C in a clinical research study.
Observational study.
Tertiary-care hospital.
Healthcare workers who volunteered to be subjects in a study of the metabolic effects ...of inhaled and oral corticosteroids who were unwittingly exposed to hepatitis C virus (HCV).
Epidemiological investigation and serological analyses.
One chronic carrier of HCV was identified. Four fellow workers volunteering in the studies became infected with HCV, with 96% homology among strains. There was no evidence of spread from infected healthcare workers to patients on whom they had performed arterial punctures (2 of 214 positive, unrelated to each other and to the outbreak strain).
Infection control standards in clinical research must be maintained vigorously to prevent transmission of blood-borne pathogens such as HCV.
Cardiovascular deconditioning after prolonged bedrest has been attributed to inactivity. To examine the role of the altered distribution of body fluids, 5 healthy men, aged 41 to 48 years, were ...studied before, during and after a 20-hour period of bedrest with head-down tilt (-5 degrees). This intervention produces a marked central shift of intravascular and interstitial fluid, but the short duration minimizes the effects of inactivity. Central venous pressure, cardiac output and stroke volume all increased significantly (p less than 0.05) from supine baseline mean values; central venous pressure from 8.6 to 12.6 cm H2O, cardiac output from 6.9 to 7.9 liters/min, and stroke volume from 104 to 113 ml after 15 minutes of tilt, but all values returned to baseline within 20 hours. Supine central venous pressure after tilt was 7.4 cm H2O, cardiac output 5.7 liters/min and stroke volume 84 ml. Blood volume decreased 0.51 liters. After tilt, orthostatic stress produced a higher heart rate (90 +/- 18 vs 68 +/- 12 beats/min). Maximal oxygen consumption decreased (2.36 +/- 0.41 vs 2.62 +/- 0.48 liters/min), mainly owing to reduced stroke volume (87 +/- 22 vs 107 +/- 18 ml, p less than 0.05). Thus, tilt produced a transient increase in central venous pressure, stroke volume and cardiac output, but supine mean values were below baseline levels after 20 hours. The post-tilt state was qualitatively and quantitatively similar to that seen after 2 to 3 weeks of bedrest or several days of spaceflight. These results are also similar to those from a previously studied group of ten 20- to 30-year-old normal men.
Recently we described an HLA B27-restricted peptide derived from HIV gag p24 protein. In this study we have isolated an HLA B27-restricted peptide from the nucleoprotein (NP) of influenza A virus. ...The shortest fragment recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) is eight amino acids long, residues 384-391. Comparison of the sequence of these two HLA B27 restricted peptides reveals homologies which can be aligned from one peptide to the other. Of the eight residues, two are identical: tryptophan and isoleucine. Both peptides have a positively charged residue at the N terminus, lysine at position 265 of gag and arginine at position 384 of NP. Using modified peptides we have shown that lysine or arginine is crucial for the interaction with HLA B27. The wild-type gag peptide blocked CTL recognition of NP peptide by influenza-specific CTL, but removal of the lysine prevented inhibition of NP peptide recognition. The importance of these charged residues was confirmed by the observation that truncated NP and gag peptides where the lysine or arginine was removed were not recognized by specific CTL. Further studies showed that the tryptophan residue influenced the association of the gag peptide with HLA B27, because the affinity of the gag peptide for B27 was strongly increased after replacing this residue with a leucine or a tyrosine. However, these peptides were not recognized by gag-specific CTL, suggesting that the tryptophan may interact with both HLA B27 and T cell receptor. These observations should help in the identification of HLA B27-restricted peptides from other viruses or organisms.
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