Living microtransporter by uni-directional gliding of Mycoplasma along microtracks

The gliding bacterium Mycoplasma mobile adheres to plastic surfaces, and moves around vigorously. However, it has not been possible to control the direction of movements on plain surfaces. Here we report that, on patterned lithographic substrates, M. mobile cells are unable to climb tall walls, and move along the bottom edge of the walls. This property to move persistently along walls enabled us to design patterns that control direction of movements, resulting in uni-directional circling or one-way gating between two areas. Furthermore, cells loaded with streptavidin beads following biotinylation of surface proteins moved at normal speeds. These bacteria could be useful as living microtransporters, carrying cargo around within micrometer-scale spaces

Maximum blink interval is associated with tear film breakup time: A new simple, screening test for dry eye disease

Abstract The prevalence of dry eye disease (DED) is increasing worldwide, and its diagnosis often needs dedicated reagents and machines. We investigated the usefulness of maximum blink interval (MBI) (the length of time that participants could keep their eyes open) in screening for DED. This cross-sectional study included 292 patients (194 with DED and 98 without DED) recruited between September 2016 and September 2017. We compared the MBI between patients with and without DED; examined correlations between MBI and other clinical features of DED, including subjective symptoms (Dry Eye-Related Quality-of-Life Score), tear film breakup time (TFBUT), cornea fluorescence score (CFS), and Schirmer test I value; and determined the optimal cutoff value of MBI to suspect DED using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The MBI was significantly shortened in DED group compared to the non-DED group (10.0 ± 9.1 vs. 24.3 ± 38.2 seconds, p < 0.001). TFBUT was strongly positively correlated with MBI (r = 0.464), whereas CFS was negatively correlated with MBI (r = −0.273). The area under the ROC curve was 0.677, and the optimal MBI cutoff value was 12.4 seconds, providing a sensitivity of 82.5% and specificity of 51.0% to suspect DED. In conclusion, MBI may be a simple, useful test for screening DED