Multi-locus sequence typing of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis strains in Japan between 1973 and 2004

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) was responsible for a worldwide pandemic during the 1980s and 1990s; however, changes in the dominant lineage before and after this event remain unknown. This study determined S. Enteritidis lineages before and after this pandemic event in Japan using multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Thirty S. Enteritidis strains were collected in Japan between 1973 and 2004, consisting of 27 human strains from individual episodes, a bovine strain, a liquid egg strain and an eggshell strain. Strains showed nine phage types and 17 pulsed-field profiles with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. All strains had homologous type 11 sequences without any nucleotide differences in seven housekeeping genes. These MLST results suggest that S. Enteritidis with the diversities revealed by phage typing and pulsed-field profiling has a highly clonal population. Although type 11 S. Enteritidis may exhibit both pleiotropic surface structure and pulsed-field type variation, it is likely to be a stable lineage derived from an ancestor before the 1980s and/or 1990s pandemic in Japan

Rat hepatocyte spheroids formed on temperature-responsive PIPAAm polymer-grafted surface maintain long-term differentiated hepatocyte function

Background.Although the development of a practicable culture method to maintain long-term hepatocyte function is highly desirable, hepatocytes lose their liver-specific functions rapidly on regular collagen-coated dishes. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of a special cell culture dish coated with the temperature-responsive polymer poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PIPAAm), and observed the morphological and functional changes of hepatocytes on changing the amount of polymer.Methods.Culture plates with varying amounts of PIPAAm polymer (1.5～3.5 times that in the commercially available temperatureresponsive polymer-containing dish (UpCellR, CellSeed, Tokyo, Japan)) were prepared. All dishes were enhanced by adding a layer of rat tail collagen I at a dose of 600 μg/dish for 3 hours. Hepatocytes isolated from Sprague-Dawley rats were cultured in these static culture systems. Morphologic changes and liver-specific functions were evaluated.Results.On day 7 of culture, spheroid formation of hepatocytes was observed in the high-polymer group, with the presence of glycogen and albumin in the spheroid. In the high-polymer group, the rate of albumin production was significantly higher than in the low-polymer group until day 14 of culture (P<0.001).Conclusion.The spheroid formation of hepatocytes cultured in the presence of a high level of PIPAAm showed the long-term maintenance of liver-specific functions in vitro

Association of liver enzyme levels and alveolar bone loss : a cross-sectional clinical study in Sado Island

The interaction of periodontopathic bacteria with host immune system induces the production of inflammatory mediators which leads to alveolar bone loss (ABL), the essential feature of periodontitis. Concurrently, periodontal diseases cause the elevation of blood cytokine levels, the alteration of gut microbiota and the dissemination of enterobacteria to the liver. Owing to these mechanisms, periodontal disease might be a risk for liver dysfunction. Several epidemiological studies have reported associations between periodontal diseases and liver dysfunction, although the association between ABL and liver dysfunction has not been investigated. This cross-sectional study determined if elevated serum liver enzyme levels were associated with ABL in Japanese adults. Japanese adults living on Sado Island who visited Sado General Hospital were invited to participate in the study. Participants over 40 years of age who underwent dental panoramic radiography and blood tests were included. Drinking and smoking habits were self-administered. After excluding patients with edentulous jaw, diagnosed liver diseases, and those on dialysis, data from 44 men and 66 women with a mean age of 73 years were analyzed. The average percentage of ABL for each participant was calculated for mesial and distal sites of all remaining teeth. The levels of serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) were determined. Univariate analyses were performed to select covariates to be put in multivariate analyses. The association between elevated serum liver enzyme levels and the highest quartile of ABL were assessed by multiple logistic regression analysis. After adjusting for covariates, no significant association was found between elevated serum AST, ALT, or GGT levels as dependent variables and the highest quartile of ABL as an explanatory variable. There was no significant association between the elevation of serum liver enzyme levels and ABL in Japanese adults

Analysis of Expressed Sequence Tags from the Fungus Aspergillus oryzae Cultured Under Different Conditions

We performed random sequencing of cDNAs from nine biologically or industrially important cultures of the industrially valuable fungus Aspergillus oryzae to obtain expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Consequently, 21 446 raw ESTs were accumulated and subsequently assembled to 7589 non-redundant consensus sequences (contigs). Among all contigs, 5491 (72.4%) were derived from only a particular culture. These included 4735 (62.4%) singletons, i.e. lone ESTs overlapping with no others. These data showed that consideration of culture grown under various conditions as cDNA sources enabled efficient collection of ESTs. BLAST searches against the public databases showed that 2953 (38.9%) of the EST contigs showed significant similarities to deposited sequences with known functions, 793 (10.5%) were similar to hypothetical proteins, and the remaining 3843 (50.6%) showed no significant similarity to sequences in the databases. Culture-specific contigs were extracted on the basis of the EST frequency normalized by the total number for each culture condition. In addition, contig sequences were compared with sequence sets in eukaryotic orthologous groups (KOGs), and classified into the KOG functional categories

尿路感染症と血液型p1抗原--予報--

血液型P1抗原と尿路感染症(UTI)との関係を調べた.対象は正常人11例, UTI 26例で, 後者の内訳は上部尿路感染症4例, 下部尿路感染症22例であった.P1抗原の検出方法はLombergの方法に従った.(1)正常人のP1抗原検出率は3/11例であるが, UTI群では14/26例と高値を示し有意であった.(2)過去1年間にUTIを来たした回数では, 2回以上UTIを来たした例にP抗原検出率が高かった.(3)臨床分離菌は, E, coliを認めた7例中2例にP抗原を検出したが, Proteus, Klebsiella, Serratia, Preudomonasを認めた例はいずれも検出しえなかったA clinical study was made on the relationship between the blood type P1 antigen and urinary tract infection (UTI). The blood type P1 antigen could be detected in 3 out of 11 healthy Japanese volunteers (27.2%), and in 54% of the UTI patients as a whole. Classified by the type of infection, it could be detected in 3 out of 4 patients with upper UTI (75%) and in 11 out of 22 patients with lower UTI (50%). These incidences were higher than that of healthy volunteers, the difference being statistically significant. The relationship between the annual frequency of UTI and the positive detection of P1 antigen was examined. The patients who had been exposed to UTI twice or more a year proved to have a higher detection rate (61%), than the other group of patients, the difference being statistically significant. Two of the patients with E. coli detected as a clinical isolate proved to have the P1 antigen

Pre-rectal portal scintigraphy: Comparison between technetium-99m, thallium-201, and iodine-123-HIPDM

SCOPUS: NotDefined.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe