昭和20年代, 教室の日常と研究余話(第922回千葉医学会例会・第13回千葉精神科集談会)

<p>Unique MAA Arcs and Mechanistic Genes in Tight Junction Pathway.</p

Detection of <i>vapN</i> in <i>Rhodococcus equi</i> isolates cultured from humans

<div><p><i>Rhodococcus equi</i> can cause severe infections in people, particularly in immunocompromised individuals. The <i>R</i>. <i>equi</i> virulence plasmids (<i>vap</i>) encoding <i>vapA</i> and <i>vapB</i> are linked to development of infections in domestic animals. Recently, a novel virulence plasmid, <i>vapN</i>, was identified in isolates cultured from cattle, but its prevalence or significance in human <i>R</i>. <i>equi</i> infections has not been extensively studied. To determine the prevalence of <i>vapN</i> in a diverse collection of human-derived isolates from different countries, 65 <i>R</i>. <i>equi</i> isolates collected by various institutions from 1984 to 2002 were screened for the presence of <i>vapN</i> and other virulence plasmids through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using redesigned primer sets. Of the isolates that carried plasmids, 43% (16/37) were <i>vapN</i>-positive and fewer were <i>vapB</i> or <i>vapA</i>-positive (30 and 16%, respectively). This is the first report of <i>vapN</i> carriage in <i>R</i>. <i>equi</i> isolated from human infections. One isolate (H-30) carried <i>vapN</i> but did not amplify the conjugal plasmid transfer gene <i>traA</i> associated with carriage of <i>vap</i>, which could be explained by sequence variation within the <i>traA</i> gene. Another isolate (H-55) amplified <i>traA</i>, but did not amplify <i>vapA</i>, <i>B</i>, or <i>N</i> (<i>traA</i>⁺ <i>vapABN</i>^-) with previously described primer sets or those developed for this study. The H-55 <i>traA</i> sequence had 98% identity to <i>traA</i> sequences in <i>vapA</i> plasmids, which suggests that it may carry a variant of previously characterized virulence plasmids or a novel virulence plasmid. Carriage of <i>vapN</i> in <i>R</i>. <i>equi</i> isolates derived from people is not uncommon and more research is needed to determine its significance in the epidemiology and pathogenesis of human <i>R</i>. <i>equi</i> infections.</p></div

Detection of <i>vapN</i> in <i>Rhodococcus equi</i> isolates cultured from humans - Fig 1

<p><b>Agarose gel electrophoresis comparison of previously published primer sets (A) and those designed for this study (B) for the <i>vapA</i>, <i>vapB</i>, <i>and vapN</i> genes.</b> The expected amplicon sizes for the A sets are <i>vapA</i> (286 bp), <i>vapB</i> (477 bp), and <i>vapN</i> (625 bp). Reactions for <i>vapA</i> and <i>vapB</i> were performed individually and not in multiplex as originally described [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0190829#pone.0190829.ref012" target="_blank">12</a>]. The human isolates depicted are H-5 (<i>traA+ vapN+ vapAB-</i>), H-30 (<i>traA- vapN+ vapAB-</i>), H-32 (<i>traA+ vapB+ vapAN-</i>), H-55 (<i>traA+ vapABN-</i>), and H-56 (<i>traA+ vapA+ vapBN-</i>). The control strains used were ATCC^® 33701^™ (<i>vapA</i>-positive), clinical porcine isolate EIDL 99–213 (<i>vapB</i>-positive), clinical canine isolate TAMU 49–33 (<i>vapN</i>-positive), and ATCC^® 6939^™ (avirulent genotype). The corresponding <i>choE</i> DNA amplification control band for each reaction is below the panels. The DNA ladder used was Ready-to-use 100 bp ladder (Biotium; Fremont, CA) with fragments from 100 to 1500 bp. Both <i>vapA</i> primer sets were specific for <i>vapA</i>. There is non-specific amplification in the non-<i>vapB-</i>positive and non-<i>vapN</i>-positive isolates with the previous primer sets. The primer sets developed for this study (B) amplified a single product.</p

Oligonucleotide primer sequences.

<p>Oligonucleotide primer sequences.</p

Comparison of current undergraduate training future biology teachers in selected countries

In most of the countries all over the world, one can find governmental resorts (ministries) focused on education in the given country. The agenda of these ministries is, among other things, the education of those who are supposed to educate others, in other words, pedagogical workers or teachers. Teachers are the fundamental functional unit in education which is why there ought to be a special emphasis placed upon their education and preparation. Unless the society has sufficiently qualified teachers, it cannot expect any excellent results in education, even though there are some other factors involved as well. The main concern of this bachelor thesis lies on teachers' education, mainly biology teachers: what is the lowest possible education needed and how many years must a future teacher study; what is the required structure of teachers' education in the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland, Ireland and in the USA and what part of the future teachers' study is dedicated to gaining knowledge in biology and what part to obtain pedagogical-psychological knowledge which is considered necessary for working itself in the pedagogy sphere

Relative OD of IgGa against <i>R</i>. <i>equi</i> in control foals (left panel labeled C) and vaccinated foals (right panel labeled V).

<p>Both groups tended to decrease between days 2 and 21, but this difference was not significant; however, both groups increased significantly between days 21 and 84.</p

Duration of clinical signs and ultrasonographic lesions of vaccinated and control foals.

<p>There were no significant differences between the 2 groups.</p

Production of IFN-γ by PBMCs exposed to <i>R</i>. <i>equi</i> antigen at ages 2, 21, and 84 days in 12 foals: 4 control foals that were unvaccinated and 8 foals vaccinated intragastrically with an eBeam vaccine.

<p>No significant effect of vaccine was observed, but concentrations of IFN-γ increased significantly (P < 0.0001; LME) at ages 21 and 84 days relative to controls, and values were significantly higher on day 84 than 21. A value for 1 control foal on day 21 was considered to be an outlier (arrow). When this value was excluded, significant effects of vaccination that varied by age were observed: excluding this value, the vaccinated group had significantly (P < 0.05; LME) higher IFN-γ expression than control foals on day 21 (but not at the other ages; see text for details).</p

Production of IFN-γ by PBMCs exposed to stimuli at ages 2, 21, and 84 days in 12 foals.

<p>Circles represent unvaccinated foals (N = 4) and triangles represent vaccinated foals (N = 8). The mitogen (concavalin A) induced significantly (P < 0.0001; LME) greater expression of IFN-γ relative to the unstimulated PBMCs (Control) at each age; moreover, expression induced at days 21 and 84 was significantly (P = 0.0060 and 0.0160, respectively; LME) greater than that induced on day 2. There was no significant difference among ages for the unstimulated control samples. Stimulation with <i>R</i>. <i>equi</i> did not induce expression of IFN-γ relative to unstimulated control cells on day 2, but did induce significant expression on days 21 and 84 (P < 0.0001; LME) relative to baseline, and expression was significantly greater (0.0196; LME) on day 84 (following infection) than 21 (prior to infection).</p

Secondary structural changes of the four synthetic bovine <i>NK-lysin</i> peptides upon liposome binding.

<p>CD spectra of <i>NK-lysin</i> peptides in lipid-free (A) and lipid-bound states (B) are compared. Estimated secondary structural contents, including alpha-helices, beta-sheet, beta-turn and the total secondary structure in lipid-free and lipid-bound states are shown in (C) and (D), respectively.</p