Abnormal Segregation of Alleles and Haplotypes at the Polymorphic Site of the PRNP Gene Within Promoter and Intron 1 Regions in Polish Holstein–Friesian Cattle

Allele and haplotype segregation at the polymorphic sites within the promoter (23indel) and intron 1 (12indel) regions of the PRNP gene was analyzed in Polish Holstein–Friesian cattle. More 23del/del homozygotes and fewer 23ins/ins homozygotes than expected were observed in the offspring of ♂ 23ins/del × ♀ 23ins/del parents. In the offspring of ♂ 23ins/del × ♀ 23del/del parents and ♂ 23del/del × ♀ 23ins/del parents, a trend toward more 23del/del animals and fewer 23ins/del animals than expected was noted. At the 12indel polymorphic site, the only trend found was one toward fewer 12ins/ins genotypes and more 12ins/del and 12del/del genotypes than expected in the offspring of ♂ 12ins/del × ♀ 12ins/del parents. An analysis of haplotype segregation revealed more 23del-12del/23del-12del diplotypes and fewer 23ins-12ins/23ins-12ins diplotypes at the significance threshold than expected in the offspring of ♂ 23ins-12ins/23del-12del × ♀ 23ins-12ins/23del-12del parents

Failure to establish chronic infection of the reproductive tract of the male horse with a South African asinine strain of equine arteritis virus (EAV)

Eight sexually mature horse stallions were inoculated intranasally with a South African asinine strain of EAV, a strain that was isolated from the semen of a donkey carrier. All horses developed fever, with maximum rectal temperatures of 38,9-39,9°C recorded 3-6 d post challenge. Six horses showed very mild clinical signs of equine viral arteritis and two were asymptomatic. The virus was recovered from the nasopharynxes of six horses 2-7 d after inoculation, and from buffy-coat samples of all horses, 2- 11 d after inoculation. Seroconversion to EAV was detected on days 8 and 10 and peak serum-virusneutralizing antibody titres ranging from log₁₀ 1,2 - 1,8, on days 14-20 after challege. The titres varied from log₁₀ 0,9 - 1,2 after about 10 weeks, when the experiment was terminated. In three stallions euthanased on days 5, 7 and 9 after challenge, virus was detected inconsistently in different parts of the reproductive tract and urine. No virus was isolated from the tissues of the reproductive tract collected from stallions on days 16, 23 and 68 after challenge. Five stallions were bred to six seronegative mares between 13 and 34 d post challenge. No clinical signs of EAV were observed, and neither was seroconversion detected in any of the mares after mating. No virus was recovered from semen samples collected at the time of breeding. The results of this study demonstrated that the tissues of the reproductive tracts of the stallions did not become persistently infected with a South African asinine strain of EAV.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat X Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format

Effect of the South African asinine-94 strain of equine arteritis virus (EAV) in pregnant donkey mares and duration of maternal immunity in foals

Clinical, virological and serological responses were investigated in five pregnant donkey mares after experimental exposure to the South African asinine-94 strain of equine arteritis virus (EAV), and the duration of maternal immunity to EAV was studied in their foals. In four intranasally inoculated mares, fever with maximum rectal temperatures of 39,1-40,7°C was recorded 2-11 d after challenge. All the inoculated mares developed mild depression, and a serous ocular and nasal discharge; in three mares mild conjunctivitis was observed. The virus was recovered from the nasopharynx and from buffy-coat samples of all the mares 3-10 d, and 2-16 d post inoculation (p.i.), respectively. Seroconversion to EAV was detected on days 8- 10 p.i. Peak serum-virus- neutralizing antibody titres of log₁₀1,8-2,4, and lgG ELISA OD values of 0,85-2,15 were recorded 2-3 weeks p.i. The in-contact (p.c.) control mare developed fever on days 15-19 post exposure, and showed mild clinical signs of equine viral arteritis similar to those observed in the inoculated mares. Seroconversion to EAV was detected in the p.c. mare on day 20 post exposure, and virus was isolated from nasal swabs and blood samples collected at the time of the febrile response and 1-3 d afterwards. None of the mares aborted. After they had given normal birth 45-128 d p.i. or after p.c. exposure, no virus could be isolated from their placentas. The concentration of EAV-neutralizing antibody in colostrum was two to eight times higher than in serum samples collected at the time of parturition. All the foals born to infected mares were clinically normal at the time of birth and throughout the subsequent 1-2 months of observation. No EAV was recovered from the bully-coat fraction of blood samples collected at birth nor from those collected on days 1, 2 and 7 after birth. Also, no virus-serum- neutralizing or lgG ELISA antibody to EAV was detected in sera collected immediately after birth before the foals started nursing. The colostrum-derived maternal antibodies against EAV gradually declined and could not be detected by either the VN test or ELISA for 2-3 months after birth. This study demonstrates that the asinine-94 strain of EAV does not cause abortion in pregnant donkey mares. Furthermore, no carrier state could be demonstrated in foals born to mares infected at the time of pregnancy.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat X Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format

Nanowłókna celulozowe wytwarzane z biomasy roślinnej

W artykule opisano metodę otrzymywania mikro- i nanowłókien celulozowych z biomasy roślinnej (głównie słoma rzepaku, pszenicy konopi, lnu) oraz odpadów włókienniczych – niedoprzędu lnianego. Technologia ta opracowana została w Instytucie Biopolimerów i Włókien Chemicznych w ramach realizacji projektu POIG pt. „Zastosowanie biomasy do wytwarzania polimerowych materiałów przyjaznych środowisku” akronim BIOMASA. Opracowana technologia stanowi kombinację metod obróbki mechanicznej, chemicznej, termicznej i enzymatycznej wspomnianych surowców

The -463G/A and -129G/A myeloperoxidase-encoding gene polymorphism in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Introduction: Neutrophils are involved in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Myeloperoxidase is an important bactericidal granulocytic enzyme. It is of interest to question whether or not the polymorphic variants of the myeloperoxidase-encoding gene are associated with the risk of developing COPD. Material and methods: The study determined the risk of COPD development in 186 COPD patients and 220 healthy subjects in the context of two selected polymorphic sites of the promoter region of the myeloperoxidase-encoding gene. Results: It has been demonstrated that the AA genotype of locus -463 in the myeloperoxidase-encoding gene increases the risk of developing COPD (OR: 2.87; CI: 1.651–4.997). This genotype also correlates with a higher gene expression in patients (0.56  ± 0.12 vs 0.31 ± 0.18 in patients with AG genotype and 0.29 ± 0.17, p < 0.01 in those with GG genotype). In healthy indivi-duals, the AA genotype was also characterized by increased expression of the myeloperoxidase-encoding gene (0.41 ± 0.16 vs 0.29 ± 0.15 for AG genotype, p < 0.01 and 0.25 ± 0.16 for GG genotype p < 0.01). Patients with the AA genotype had  a significantly higher gene expression than healthy subjects with this genotype. Conclusions: The polymorphic site -129 of the myeloperoxidase-encoding gene was unrelated to the development of COPD. The gene expression did not differ for the individual genotypes. Our studies indicate that the polymorphism of the myeloperoxidase--encoding gene may be related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease