Clinical Consequences of Immune Response to CT Upper Genital Tract Infection in Women

C. TRACHOMATIS (CT) infections of the upper genital tract in women are either acute, sub acute or chronic. CT infection has a tendency to be chronic, latent and persistent as a consequence of the host immune reaction to CT major outer membrane protein, 57 Kd heat shock protein and lipopolysaccharide. Chlamydial persistence can be induced as a result of inflammatory and/or immune regulated cytokines, Interferon γ depletion of tryptophan causes a stress response involving development of abnormal forms with increased levels of stress response proteins which maintain host immune responses with continuous fibrin exudate

The incidence of urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis infections among patients in Kumasi, Ghana

The incidence of urogenital chlamydia infections among selected patients in Kumasi, Ghana was evaluated using an immunofluorescent monoclonal antibody technique. Chlamydia trachomatis was identified in 4 of 110 patients presenting for prenatal care, 2 of 55 female patients with infertility and 6 of 15 males with acute urethritis. The findings demonstrate that C. trachomatis is a frequently identified pathogen among male patients presenting with symptoms of acute urethritis; however, the incidence of chlamydia infections among asymptomatic patients is relatively low.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27043/1/0000032.pd

Nitric oxide synthases and tubal ectopic pregnancies induced by Chlamydia infection: basic and clinical insights

Human ectopic pregnancy (EP) remains a common cause of pregnancy-related first trimester death. Nitric oxide (NO) is synthesized from L-arginine by three NO synthases (NOS) in different tissues, including the Fallopian tube. Studies of knockout mouse models have improved our understanding of the function of NOS isoforms in reproduction, but their roles and specific mechanisms in infection-induced tubal dysfunction have not been fully elucidated. Here, we provide an overview of the expression, regulation and possible function of NOS isoforms in the Fallopian tube, highlighting the effects of infection-induced changes in the tubal cellular microenvironment (imbalance of NO production) on tubal dysfunction and the potential involvement of NOS isoforms in tubal EP after Chlamydia trachomatis genital infection. The non-equivalent regulation of tubal NOS isoforms during the menstrual cycle suggests that endogenous ovarian steroid hormones regulate NOS in an isoform-specific manner. The current literature suggests that infection with C. trachomatis induces an inflammatory response that eventually leads to tubal epithelial destruction and functional impairment, caused by a high NO output mediated by inducible NOS (iNOS). Therefore, tissue-specific therapeutic approaches to suppress iNOS expression may help to prevent ectopic implantation in patients with prior C. trachomatis infection of the Fallopian tube

Continental bedrock and riverine fluxes of strontium and neodymium isotopes to the oceans

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 11 (2010): Q03016, doi:10.1029/2009GC002869.Realistic models of past climate and ocean chemistry depend on reconstructions of the Earth's surface environments in the geologic past. Among the critical parameters is the geologic makeup of continental drainage. Here we show, for the present, that the isotope composition of dissolved strontium in rivers increases linearly with the age of bedrock in drainage basins, with the notable exception of the drainage area of Arabia, India, and Southeast Asia that is affected by unusually radiogenic dissolved Sr from the Himalaya. We also demonstrate that the neodymium isotope compositions of suspended matter in rivers as well as clastic sediments deposited along the ocean margins decrease linearly with the bedrock ages of river drainage basins and large-scale continental drainage regions, as determined from digital geologic maps. These correlations are used to calculate the present-day input of dissolved Sr (4.7 × 1010 mol yr−1, 87Sr/86Sr of ∼0.7111) and particulate Nd isotopes (ɛNd of approximately −7.3 ± 2.2) to the oceans. The fact that the regionally averaged ɛNd of the global detrital input to the global coastal ocean is identical to globally averaged seawater (ɛNd of −7.2 ± 0.5) lends credence to the importance of “boundary exchange” for the Nd isotope composition of water masses. Regional biases in source areas of detrital matter and runoff are reflected by the observation that the average age of global bedrock, weighted according to the riverine suspended sediment flux, is significantly younger (∼336 Myr) than the age of global bedrock weighted according to water discharge (394 Myr), which is younger than the average bedrock age of the nonglaciated, exorheic portions of the continents (453 Myr). The observation that the bedrock age weighted according to Sr flux is younger (339 Myr) than that weighted according to water flux reflects the disproportionate contribution from young sedimentary and volcanic rocks to the dissolved Sr load. Neither the isotope composition of the dissolved nor the particulate continental inputs to the ocean provide unbiased perspectives of the lithologic makeup of the Earth's surface. Temporal changes in bedrock geology as well as the shifting focal points of physical erosion and water discharge will undoubtedly have exerted strong controls on temporal and spatial changes in the isotope chemistry of past global runoff and thus seawater.NSF grants EAR‐ 0125873, EAR‐0519387, and OCE‐0851015 to B.P.‐E. and a CNRS‐funded “poste rouge” position for B.P.‐E. at the Observatoire Midi‐Pyrénées in Toulouse supported this work

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