Alginate and Nanocellulose Dressings With Extract From Salmon Roe Reduce Inflammation and Accelerate Healing of Porcine Burn Wounds.

Partial-thickness thermal burn wounds are characterized by a prolonged inflammatory response, oxidative stress, tissue damage, and secondary necrosis. An optimal dressing for burn wounds would reduce inflammation and oxidative stress while providing a moist, absorbent, and protective cover. We have developed an extract from unfertilized salmon roe containing components with potential anti-inflammatory and antioxidative properties, called HTX.

The concept of "tailor-made", protein-based, outer membrane vesicle vaccines against meningococcal disease.

Protein-based, outer membrane vesicle (OMV) vaccines have previously proven to be efficacious against serogroup B meningococcal disease in Norway and Cuba. Currently, a public health intervention is going on in order to control a serogroup B epidemic in New Zealand. The scale-up and standardization of vaccine production required for controlling the New Zealand epidemic has allowed the establishment of large-scale GMP manufacturing for OMV vaccines.

Human antibody responses to meningococcal outer membrane antigens after three doses of the Norwegian group B meningococcal vaccine.

The antibody kinetics in sera from 27 adults after three doses of the Norwegian group B meningococcal outer membrane vesicle (OMV) vaccine was studied. The vaccinees received the third dose 4 to 5 years after the first two. Antibody responses against outer membrane proteins (OMPs) and lipopolysaccharides were studied by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunoblotting and with serum bactericidal assays (SBA) with three variants of the vaccine strain, 44/76.

Short-chain lipopolysaccharide mutants of serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis of potential value for production of outer membrane vesicle vaccines.

Four lipopolysaccharide (LPS) mutants (Mu-1 to Mu-4) were isolated after exposing Neisseria meningitidis strain 44/76 to pyocins from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Parent strain LPS contained one major SDS-PAGE band expressing the immunotype determinants of L3, L3,7 and L3,7,9 and a minor band of higher mobility expressing the immunotype determinants of L8, L8a, L1,8,10 and L11. Each mutant LPS appeared as one SDS-PAGE band of higher mobility than the bands of the parent strain.

Lipids of heliobacteria are characterised by a high proportion of monoenoic fatty acids with variable double bond positions.

The fatty acid composition and lipid pattern of six strains of heliobacteria have been analysed. The results were fairly uniform for all strains. Phosphatidyl ethanolamine and phosphatidyl glycerol were the dominating lipids found, with the former as the major one.

Composition of 2,3-dihydroxy fatty acid-containing lipopolysaccharides from Legionella israelensis, Legionella maceachernii and Legionella micdadei.

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from Legionella israelensis, L. maceachernii and L. micdadei were analysed for chemical composition.

A polysaccharide produced by a mucoid strain of Moraxella nonliquefaciens with a 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-5-O-(3-deoxy-beta-D-manno-octulopyranosyl)-beta-D- galactopyranosyl repeating unit.

A capsular polysaccharide, isolated from the mucoid Moraxella nonliquefaciens strain 3828/60, has been investigated by component analyses, periodate oxidation, methylation analyses, mass spectrometry, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, and hydrolysis to give a disaccharide that was isolated and characterised. The results showed that the polysaccharide has the repeating unit-->3)-beta-D- GalpNAc-(1-->5)-beta-Kdo p-(2-->, with approximately 40% of O-8 of Kdo being acetylated.

Meningococcal endotoxin in lethal septic shock plasma studied by gas chromatography, mass-spectrometry, ultracentrifugation, and electron microscopy.

We have compared gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis with the Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay to quantify native meningococcal lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in five patient plasmas containing greater than 5 micrograms/liter by LAL. 3-Hydroxy lauric acid (3-OH-12:0) was used as a specific lipid A marker of neisserial LPS. The quantitative LAL results were confirmed by GC-MS (r = 0.

Production, characterization and control of MenB-vaccine "Folkehelsa": an outer membrane vesicle vaccine against group B meningococcal disease.

A vaccine against serogroup B meningococcal disease has been prepared from a B:15:P1.7,16 meningococcal strain (44/76) by fermentor growth and extraction of the bacteria with the detergent deoxycholate. Outer membrane vesicles (OMV) were purified by ultracentrifugation and adsorbed to aluminium hydroxide adjuvant.

Human antibody responses after vaccination with the Norwegian group B meningococcal outer membrane vesicle vaccine: results from ELISA studies.

Antibody responses after vaccination with three different formulations of a new meningococcal group B outer membrane vesicle (OMV) vaccine have been studied with the ELISA technique using four different antigens. Sera from about 1200 vaccinees participating in steps 1, 2, 3 and 6 of the phase II clinical trials in Norway were analysed. The effects of non-covalently complexing the OMV antigen to group C polysaccharide (C-PS) and of adsorbing OMV (with and without C-PS) to aluminium hydroxide (AH) were studied.

Neisseria meningitidis group B capsular polysaccharide. Bacterial content and release in relation to categories of infection and filtrability of released endotoxin.

A total of 41 Neissera meningitidis isolates were analyzed for capsular polysaccharide (CP) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) release and filtrability. Twenty-two of these isolates were serogroup B from blood or cerebrospinal fluid of patients, five were group B isolates from healthy throat carriers, and 14 were nongroupable (acapsular) meningococcal isolates from healthy carriers. Filtration of liquid whole-cell cultures through cellulose acetate-nitrate filters resulted in distinctly lower LPS filtrate activity for acapsular than for capsular meningococci (p less than 0.

Endotoxin liberation studied by biological and chemical methods. Chemical characterization of six meningococcal lipopolysaccharides.

Release of endotoxin (or lipopolysaccharides, LPS) from four meningococcal strains was studied with a chemical and a biological technique. Two strains were endotoxin-liberating (E+; 270E+ and 840E+) and two had no or low endotoxin release E-; 270E- and 840E-). LPS was quantitated by gas chromatography (GC) of LPS-specific hydroxy fatty acid, in parallel with assay of endotoxin by Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL), in cell suspensions of equal O.

Gas chromatographic determination of (phosphorylated) 2-keto-3-deoxyoctonic acid, heptoses and glucosamine in bacterial lipopolysaccharides after treatment with hydrofluoric acid, methanolysis and trifluoroacetylation.

Quantification of phosphorylated sugar constituents of lipopolysaccharides has been performed by the following sequence: dephosphorylation by treatment with hydrofluoric acid, cleavage to monomeric constituents by methanolysis and analysis of the released sugars by capillary gas chromatography. Lipopolysaccharides of Salmonella minnesota Rd1P+, Bordetella pertussis NIH 114 and Vibrio cholerae, NAG and 95R strains, were used as model substances. Comparison of the chromatographic data obtained from hydrofluoric acid-treated and untreated lipopolysaccharide preparations indicated that all lipopolysaccharides examined contained one moiety of glucosamine bound to phosphate in a stable linkage.

Chemical composition of a lipopolysaccharide from Legionella pneumophila.

Lipopolysaccharide isolated from Legionella pneumophila (Phil. 1) was examined for chemical composition. The polysaccharide split off by mild acid hydrolysis contained rhamnose, mannose, glucose, quinovosamine, glucosamine and 2-keto-3-deoxyoctonate, in molar proportions 1.

Restoration of antibody binding to blotted meningococcal outer membrane proteins using various detergents.

Restoration of IgG antibody binding to heat-denatured meningococcal outer membrane proteins has been studied on immunoblots with a series of 14 detergents. Nitrocellulose strips with the blotted proteins were incubated with the detergents and sera from human volunteers vaccinated with meningococcal membrane proteins. Zwitterionic and ionic detergents, containing substituted quarternary ammonium or amino groups with a minimum of 10 C atoms in the alkyl chain, restored the antigenicity of the serotype-specific class 2 porin protein.

Meningococcal phenotypic and genotypic characteristics and human antibody levels.

During a 2-month period in 1984, throat and blood samples were collected from 1,102 healthy persons of different ages living in the city of Tromsø, Norway. One hundred and eight persons (9.8%) were meningococcal carriers, but the carrier rate varied with sex and age.

Endotoxin liberation from Neisseria meningitidis isolated from carriers and clinical cases.

Endotoxin liberation was studied in a blinded material of 121 Neisseria meningitidis isolates; from nasopharynx of 58 carriers and from cerebrospinal fluid or blood of 63 cases with meningococcal disease. Endotoxin activity in culture filtrates was determined by a Limulus lysate test. Meningococci isolated from clinical cases were significantly more frequently endotoxin-liberating (E+) (84.

Quantification of 2-keto-3-deoxyoctonate in (lipo)polysaccharides by methanolytic release, trifluoroacetylation and capillary gas chromatography.

Several conditions of acidic anhydrous methanolysis were examined to optimize the release and minimize the degradation of unphosphorylated 2-keto-3-deoxy-D-manno-octonic acid (KDO) from bacterial lipopolysaccharides and polysaccharides. The reaction was monitored by capillary gas chromatography after derivatization by trifluoroacetic anhydride. The best results were obtained by use of 2 M hydrochloric acid at 60 degrees C for 2 h.

Chemical composition and biological properties of a lipopolysaccharide from Bacteroides intermedius.

Endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) from an oral strain of Bacteroides intermedius was isolated by phenol extraction and purified by ultracentrifugation and gel filtration. The preparation was essentially free from contaminating nucleic acid and protein. The LPS contained rhamnose, fucose, mannose, glucose, galactose, glucosamine, and an unidentified sugar (approximate molar ratios 9:1:6:3:1:7:2).

Purification of human milk gangliosides by silica gel chromatography and analysis of trifluoroacetate derivatives by gas chromatography.

Two of the main gangliosides in human milk were purified by silica gel (230-400 mesh) column chromatography. The gangliosides were identified as GD3 and GM3 by methanolysis (2 M hydrochloric acid; 60 or 85 degrees C) and gas chromatography of trifluoroacetate derivatives on a fused-silica capillary column. The molar ratios of galactose, glucose and sialic acid were 1:1:2 and 1:1:1, respectively, and the sequence in both gangliosides comprised sialic acid--galactose--glucose--ceramide, as indicated by the time course of cleavage of individual components during methanolysis at 60 degrees C.

An outbreak of group B meningococcal disease: tracing the causative strain of Neisseria meningitidis by DNA fingerprinting.

Following an outbreak of meningococcal disease in three schoolchildren in a small community in northern Norway, DNA fingerprinting, serotyping with monoclonal antibodies, serogrouping, and sulfonamide sensitivity testing were applied for characterization and tracing of the causative agent. The three case isolates were genomically indistinguishable, sulfonamide-resistant, serogroup B, serotype 15 meningococci. Throat specimens were collected from 552 healthy contacts, including all children below age 17 and their parents.

Multilocus genotypes determined by enzyme electrophoresis of Neisseria meningitidis isolated from patients with systemic disease and from healthy carriers.

Variation in nine enzymes in 152 isolates of Neisseria meningitidis from Norway (118 from blood or cerebrospinal fluid of patients with systemic disease and 34 from the pharynx of healthy carriers) was analysed by starch-gel electrophoresis. All nine enzymes were polymorphic and the number of allozymes (electromorphs) identified per locus ranged from 3 to 12, with a mean of 6.1.

Gas-chromatographic screening of capsular polysaccharides of Neisseria meningitidis.

Thirteen systemic strains, i e strains isolated from systemic infections, and 77 carrier isolates of Neisseria meningitidis were serogrouped by agglutination and analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) of phenol extracts. For systemic strains the sugar patterns were in accordance with their group-specific capsular polysaccharides (CPS). Some carrier isolates revealed unexpected GC profiles.