COVID-19: Development and implementation of a video-conference-based educational concept to improve the hygiene skills of health and nursing professionals in the Republic of Kosovo.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic caught the health care systems of all countries unprepared. For the further education of healthcare personnel in the Republic of Kosovo, it became necessary to implement a concept for practical training in hygienic working. A video-conference-based educational concept to bridge the physical distance between Germany and Kosovo enabled the rapid, theoretical and practical transfer of knowledge.

[Reduction of Visitor- and Staff-Associated Risk of Infection by Complex Intervention in the Department of Feto-Maternal Medicine].

Aim: Clinical trial registration of this trial: is to demonstrate in a department of feto-maternal medicine: (a) that a complex intervention improves hand hygiene of visitors, siblings and staff; and (b) that automated voice prompts at disinfectant dispensers improve rate of hand disinfection.

Study Design: (a) Pre-/post-test follow-up design with control (1-12/2016), intervention (1-12/2017), follow-up-period (1/2018-12/2019); and (b) RCT in quasi crossover design. Primary endpoints: (a) disinfectant consumption (DC) per patient-day, and (b) DC at disinfectant dispenser per passer-by.

SFTA3, a novel protein of the lung: three-dimensional structure, characterisation and immune activation.

The lung constantly interacts with numerous pathogens. Thus, complex local immune defence mechanisms are essential to recognise and dispose of these intruders. This work describes the detection, characterisation and three-dimensional structure of a novel protein of the lung (surfactant-associated protein 3 (SFTA3/SP-H)) with putative immunological features.

Neutrophil elastase-mediated increase in airway temperature during inflammation.

Background: How elevated temperature is generated during airway infections represents a hitherto unresolved physiological question. We hypothesized that innate immune defence mechanisms would increase luminal airway temperature during pulmonary infection.

Methods: We determined the temperature in the exhaled air of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients.

Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa express and secrete human surfactant proteins.

Surfactant proteins (SP), originally known from human lung surfactant, are essential to proper respiratory function in that they lower the surface tension of the alveoli. They are also important components of the innate immune system. The functional significance of these proteins is currently reflected by a very large and growing number of publications.

Expression and regulation of antimicrobial peptide psoriasin (S100A7) at the ocular surface and in the lacrimal apparatus.

Purpose: Psoriasin, originally isolated from psoriasis as an overexpressed molecule of unknown function, has recently been identified as a principal Escherichia coli-killing antimicrobial peptide of healthy skin. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression and antimicrobial role of psoriasin at the ocular surface and in the lacrimal apparatus.

Methods: Different tissues of the lacrimal apparatus and ocular surface were systematically analyzed by means of RT-PCR, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry for their ability to express and produce psoriasin.

Lactate in cystic fibrosis sputum.

Background: Antibiotic therapy is thought to improve lung function in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) by decreasing neutrophil-derived inflammation. We investigated the origin and clinical significance of lactate in the chronically inflamed CF lung.

Methods: Lactate was measured in sputa of 18 exacerbated and 25 stable CF patients via spectrophotometry and gaschromatography.

Roles of human beta-defensins in innate immune defense at the ocular surface: arming and alarming corneal and conjunctival epithelial cells.

Human beta-defensins are cationic peptides produced by epithelial cells that have been proposed to be an important component of immune function at mucosal surfaces. In this study, the expression and inducibility of beta-defensins at the ocular surface were investigated in vitro and in vivo. Expression of human beta-defensins (hBD) was determined by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry in tissues of the ocular surface and lacrimal apparatus.

Alveolar inflammation in cystic fibrosis.

Background: In infected lungs of the cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, opportunistic pathogens and mutated cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein (CFTR) contribute to chronic airway inflammation that is characterized by neutrophil/macrophage infiltration, cytokine release and ceramide accumulation. We sought to investigate CF lung inflammation in the alveoli.

Methods: Lung tissue from 14 CF patients and four healthy individuals was analyzed for numbers of effector cells, elastin and collagen concentrations, inflammatory markers and density of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Detection and regulation of cationic amino acid transporters in healthy and diseased ocular surface.

Purpose: To evaluate the presence and role of human cationic amino acid transporters (hCATs) at the ocular surface in healthy and pathologic states and under experimental inflammatory conditions.

Methods: Expression of mRNA for hCATs 1, 2, and 3 (SLC7A1, SLC7A2, and SLC7A3) was analyzed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in healthy lacrimal gland, conjunctiva, cornea, and nasolacrimal ducts and in an SV40 immortalized human corneal epithelial (HCE) cell line. Localization of hCAT1 and hCAT2 was determined by immunohistochemistry in healthy tissues and in sections of different corneal abnormalities, including keratoconus, Fuchs dystrophy, and herpetic keratitis.

Regulation of MUC16 by inflammatory mediators in ocular surface epithelial cell lines.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the regulation of membrane-anchored mucin MUC16 by proinflammatory cytokines and bacterial components at the ocular surface. Expression and distribution of MUC16 in conjunctival (HCjE) and corneal (HCE) epithelial cell lines was monitored by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. To determine the regulation of MUC16, cultured HCjEs and HCEs were stimulated with different cytokines, bacterial components and bacterial supernatants, and analyzed by real-time PCR, immunodot blot and immunohistochemistry.

Virulence of Burkholderia cepacia complex strains in gp91phox-/- mice.

In cystic fibrosis (CF), infection with Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) strains may cause long-term asymptomatic airway colonization, or severe lung infection leading to rapid pulmonary decline. To assess the virulence of Bcc strains, we established a lung infection model in mice with a null allele of the gene involved in X-linked chronic granulomatous disease (CGD). CGD mice, challenged intratracheally with 10(3) cells of the epidemic Burkholderia cenocepacia strain J2315, died within 3 days from sepsis after bacteria had multiplied to 3.

Sequence diversity of the mucABD locus in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from patients with cystic fibrosis.

The mucA gene of the muc operon, which is instrumental in the control of the biosynthesis of the exopolysaccharide alginate, is a hotspot of mutation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a micro-organism that chronically colonizes the airways of individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). The mucA, mucB and mucD genes were sequenced in nine environmental isolates from aquatic habitats, and in 37 P. aeruginosa strains isolated from 10 patients with CF, at onset or at a late stage of chronic airway colonization, in order to elucidate whether there was any association between mutation and background genotype.

Nonmucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa expresses alginate in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis and in a mouse model.

Background: In patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), lung infection with mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains overexpressing the exopolysaccaride alginate is preceded by colonization with nonmucoid strains. We investigated the kinetics, impact of environmental signals, and genetics of P. aeruginosa alginate expression in a mouse model and in patients with CF.

Effect of treatment with dornase alpha on airway inflammation in patients with cystic fibrosis.

Recombinant human deoxyribonuclease (rhDNase) has been shown to improve lung function and reduce the number of pulmonary exacerbations in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), but its long-term effect on airway inflammation remains unknown. In this study, we used bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) to investigate the long-term effect of rhDNase on inflammation in patients with CF having mild lung disease. A total of 105 patients with CF (> or =5 years of age) having normal lung function were randomized to receive rhDNase (2.

Effects of reduced mucus oxygen concentration in airway Pseudomonas infections of cystic fibrosis patients.

Current theories of CF pathogenesis predict different predisposing "local environmental" conditions and sites of bacterial infection within CF airways. Here we show that, in CF patients with established lung disease, Pseudomonas aeruginosa was located within hypoxic mucopurulent masses in airway lumens. In vitro studies revealed that CF-specific increases in epithelial O(2) consumption, linked to increased airway surface liquid (ASL) volume absorption and mucus stasis, generated steep hypoxic gradients within thickened mucus on CF epithelial surfaces prior to infection.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa mutations in lasI and rhlI quorum sensing systems result in milder chronic lung infection.

To understand the importance of quorum sensing in chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection, the in vivo pathogenic effects of the wild-type P. aeruginosa PAO1 and its double mutant, PAO1 lasI rhlI, in which the signal-generating parts of the quorum sensing systems are defective were compared. The rat model of P.