100 research outputs found
PARTIAL PURIFICATION AND IMMUNO-BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISATION OF FERTILITY ASSOCIATED PROTEIN OF KARAN FRIES BULL SEMINAL PLASMA
The objective of the present study was detection, isolation, partial purification and
immunobiochemical characterization of fertility associated protein in the seminal plasma of high
prolific Karan fries bull. Seminal plasma of Karan Fries bull was partially purified by gel filtration
chromatography and analyzed by 10% SDS-PAGE for their polypeptide profile. PAGE analysis
revealed major band of 55 kDa, and 26 kDa. Hyperimmune serum was raised in rabbit against crude
seminal plasma protein. Single precipitin line was observed in DID test when each of the partially
purified 26 kDa and 55 kDa proteins were reacted with hyperimmune serum. These proteins were
also found to be immunoreactive against hyperimmune serum in Western blot technique
BOVINE PLASMA FIBRINOGEN AS MARKER IN CLINICAL AND SUB-CLINICAL MASTITIS
Plasma samples were collected from healthy as well as clinical and sub-clinical mastitis affected cows from
Barasat, West Bengal, India. Plasma samples, after ammonium sulphate precipitation, were dialyzed against several
changes of PBS (pH 7.2) to remove the excess ammonium sulphate. Then plasma fibrinogens were purified by gel filtration
chromatography on Sephacryl S-200 HR. SDS-PAGE (10%) of purified fibrinogen from plasma of healthy cow revealed
polypeptide bands of 74, 67 and 57 kDa which represent the α (alpha), β (beta) and γ (gamma)- chains respectively. On the
other hand, purified fibrinogen from plasma of sub-clinical and clinical mastitis affected cow revealed polypeptide bands
of 73 (α-chain), 68 kDa (β-chain) and 72 (γ-chain), 68 kDa (β-chain) respectively. The SDS-PAGE analysis showed the
absence of gamma (γ)- chain of fibrinogen in both the samples of sub-clinical and clinical mastitis positive cow. Single
precipitin line was observed in double immunodiffusion test when purified fibrinogen from healthy, clinical and subclinical
mastitis positive cows reacted with hyper immune sera raised in rabbit. No precipitin line was found against the normal
control serum. These purified fibrinogens also showed cross reactivity against antibody raised in rabbit when analyzed by
western blot technique
Secure Mobile Support of Independent Sales Agencies
Sales agents depend on mobile support systems for their daily work. Independent sales agencies, however, are not able to facilitate this kind of mobile support on their own due to their small size and lack of the necessary funds. Since their processes correlate with confidential information and include the initiation and alteration of legally binding transactions they have a high need for security. In this contribution we first propose an IT-artifact consisting of a service platform that supports multi-vendor sales processes based on previous work. We then analyze use cases of sales representatives of independent sales agencies using this system and derive their security requirements. We then propose a security extension to the IT-artifact and evaluate this extension by comparing it to existing solutions. Our results show that the proposed artifact extension provides a more convenient and secure solution than already existing approaches
Attenuation of Helicobacter pylori-induced gastric inflammation by prior cag− strain (AM1) infection in C57BL/6 mice
Helicobacter pylori, colonize in stomach of ~50% of the world population. cag pathogenicity Island of H.
pylori is one of the important virulent factors that attributed to gastric inflammation. Coinfection with H. pylori strain with different genetic makeup alters the degree of pathogenicity and susceptibility towards antibiotics. The present study investigates host immunomodulatory effects of H. pylori infection by both cag+ strain (SS1) and cag− strain (AM1). C57BL/6 mice were infected with AM1 or SS1 strain as well as AM1 followed by SS1 (AM1/SS1) and vice versa.
Results: Mice infected with AM1/SS1 strain exhibited less gastric inflammation and reduced proMMP9 and proMMP3
activities in gastric tissues as compared to SS1/SS1 and SS1/AM1 infected groups. The expression of both MMP9 and
MMP3 followed similar trend like activity in infected tissues. Both Th1 and Th17 responses were induced by SS1 strain more profoundly than AM1 strain infection which induced solely Th1 response in spleen and gastric tissues. Moreover, IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-12 were significantly downregulated in mice spleen and gastric tissues infected by AM1/SS1 compared to SS1/SS1 but not with SS1/AM1 coinfection. Surprisingly, IL-17 level was dampened significantly in AM1/ SS1 compared to SS1/AM1 coinfected groups. Furthermore, number of Foxp3+ T-regulatory (Treg) cells and immunosuppressive
cytokines like IL-10 and TGF-β were reduced in AM1/SS1 compared to SS1/SS1 and SS1/AM1 coinfected
mice gastric tissues.
Conclusions: These data suggested that prior H. pylori cag− strain infection attenuated the severity of gastric pathology induced by subsequent cag+ strain in C57BL/6 mice. Prior AM1 infection induced Th1 cytokine IFN-γ, which reduced the Th17 response induced by subsequent SS1 infection. The reduced gastritis in AM1/SS1-infected mice
might also be due to enrichment of AM1- primed Treg cells in the gastric compartment which inhibit Th1 and Th17
responses to subsequent SS1 infection. In summary, prior infection by non-virulent H. pylori strain (AM1) causes reduction of subsequent virulent strain (SS1) infection by regulation of inflammatory cytokines and MMPs expressio
A collaborative approach to forecasting product–service systems (PSS)
Copyright @ Springer-Verlag London Limited 2010. The final version of this article may be viewed at the link below.This paper examines the forecasting implications for product–service systems (PSS) applications in manufacturing firms. The approach taken is to identify the scope of operations for PSS applications by identifying all the activities associated with the service deployment in the telecom sector. The paper then develops a revenue model for manufacturing firms providing PSS applications. The revenue model identifies three generic revenue streams that provide the basis for discussion on the differences in forecasting approaches, including collaborative approaches based on PSS staff being geographically co-located
Genetic susceptibility to aspergillosis in allogeneic stem-cell transplantation
Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a major threat to positive outcomes for allogeneic stem-cell transplantation (allo-SCT) patients. Despite presenting similar degrees of immunosuppression, not all individuals at-risk ultimately develop infection. Therefore, the traditional view of neutropenia as a key risk factor for aspergillosis needs to be accommodated within new conceptual advances on host immunity and its relationship to infection. Polymorphisms in innate immune genes, such as those encoding TLRs, cytokines and cytokine receptors, have recently been associated with susceptibility to IA in allo-SCT recipients. This suggests that understanding host-pathogen interactions at the level of host genetic susceptibility will allow the formulation of new targeted and patient-tailored antifungal therapeutics, including improved donor screening.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - SFRH/BD/65962/2009, SFRH/BPD/46292/2008Specific Targeted Research Projects MANASP (LSHE-CT-2006), contract number 037899 (FP6), Italian Project PRIN2007KLCKP8_004
Plasminogen Alleles Influence Susceptibility to Invasive Aspergillosis
Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a common and life-threatening infection in immunocompromised individuals. A number of environmental and epidemiologic risk factors for developing IA have been identified. However, genetic factors that affect risk for developing IA have not been clearly identified. We report that host genetic differences influence outcome following establishment of pulmonary aspergillosis in an exogenously immune suppressed mouse model. Computational haplotype-based genetic analysis indicated that genetic variation within the biologically plausible positional candidate gene plasminogen (Plg; Gene ID 18855) correlated with murine outcome. There was a single nonsynonymous coding change (Gly110Ser) where the minor allele was found in all of the susceptible strains, but not in the resistant strains. A nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (Asp472Asn) was also identified in the human homolog (PLG; Gene ID 5340). An association study within a cohort of 236 allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients revealed that alleles at this SNP significantly affected the risk of developing IA after HSCT. Furthermore, we demonstrated that plasminogen directly binds to Aspergillus fumigatus. We propose that genetic variation within the plasminogen pathway influences the pathogenesis of this invasive fungal infection
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