Entecavir-resistant hepatitis B virus decreases surface antigenicity: A full genome and functional characterization.

Background And Aim: Since polymerase and surface genes overlap in hepatitis B virus (HBV), an antiviral-induced mutation in the polymerase gene may alter the surface antigenicity in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), but this possibility has not been clearly confirmed. This study aimed to determine the drug susceptibility and surface antigenicity of the patient-derived mutants.

Patients And Methods: Full-length HBV genomes isolated from four entecavir-resistant CHB patients were cloned and sequenced.

The Effects of Kangaroo Care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit on the Physiological Functions of Preterm Infants, Maternal-Infant Attachment, and Maternal Stress.

Unlabelled: This study was conducted to identify the effects of kangaroo care on the physiological functions of preterm infants, maternal-infant attachment, and maternal stress.

Design And Methods: For this study, a quasi-experiment design was used with a nonequivalent control group, and a pre- and post-test. Data were collected from preterm infants with corrected gestational ages of ≥33weeks who were hospitalized between May and October 2011.

Giant axon formation in mice lacking Kell, XK, or Kell and XK: animal models of McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome.

McLeod neuroacanthocytosis syndrome (MLS) is a rare X-linked multisystem disease caused by XK gene mutations and characterized by hematological and neurological abnormalities. XK, a putative membrane transporter, is expressed ubiquitously and is covalently linked to Kell, an endothelin-3-converting enzyme (ECE-3). Absence of XK results in reduction of Kell at sites where both proteins are coexpressed.

Vascular inflammation with eosinophils after the use of n-butyl cyanoacrylate liquid embolic system.

Objective And Importance: Currently, n-butyl cyanoacrylate (n-BCA) is one of the most widely used liquid embolic agents in the treatment of intracranial arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). The cases of three patients are reported who underwent endovascular embolization with n-BCA, followed by resection in two and post-embolization hemorrhage with emergent evacuation in one, with histologic demonstration of an eosinophilic vasculitis found in resected AVM specimens. This is probably the first report of this tissue reaction, which may have theoretically serious clinical implications.

Neurosarcoidosis presenting as an anterior horn syndrome.

We report a 43 year old man who developed progressive weakness of all extremities with fasciculation over four months. Neurological examination was consistent with an anterior horn syndrome. CSF examination showed elevated opening pressure and a lymphocytic pleocytosis.

Identification and characterization of clevudine-resistant mutants of hepatitis B virus isolated from chronic hepatitis B patients.

Clevudine (CLV) is a nucleoside analog with potent antiviral activity against chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Viral resistance to CLV in patients receiving CLV therapy has not been reported. The aim of this study was to characterize CLV-resistant HBV in patients with viral breakthrough (BT) during long-term CLV therapy.

Immunoglobulins and complement in postmortem multiple sclerosis tissue.

Objective: To identify evidence of a discrete, specific immune response in multiple sclerosis (MS) by analyzing the distribution of immunoglobulins and complement in tissue derived from cases of MS, and from control inflammatory white matter diseases known to express viral and autoantigens in the brain and spinal cord.

Methods: Autopsy tissue from 25 MS patients and 24 patients with other neurological diseases was examined immunohistochemically for immunoglobulins and activated complement (C3d and C9neo).

Results: In tissue remote from focal lesions in MS and other neurological diseases, IgG was detected in many normal structures but not in myelin or ramified microglia.

Idiopathic hypertrophic pachymeningitis mimicking lymphoplasmacyte-rich meningioma.

A 28-year-old woman with a 6-year history of optic neuropathy and 8 years of hearing loss had enhancing dural lesions around the brain stem and in both internal auditory canals on MRI. Histopathology from cranial procedures performed in 1990 and 1993 was originally interpreted as inflammatory meningioma, now known as lymphoplasmacyte-rich meningioma (LRM). Because the clinical course was more consistent with a relapsing process, the original surgical specimens were restudied with additional immunocytochemical stains.

Ionizing radiation-induced micronucleus formation is mediated by reactive oxygen species that are produced in a manner dependent on mitochondria, Nox1, and JNK.

Ionizing radiation (IR) is known to induce genotoxic damage to DNA, chromosomes, and the nucleus. However, the damage that IR causes to the nucleus has received much less attention. Given that reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in IR-induced DNA breaks and chromosomal aberrations, this study examined the role of ROS in IR-induced damage to the nucleus.

Ionizing radiation induces blockade of c-Jun N-terminal kinase-dependent cell death pathway in a manner correlated with p21(Cip/WAF1) induction in primary cultured normal human fibroblasts.

During radiotherapy of cancer, neighboring normal cells may receive sub-lethal doses of radiation. To investigate whether such low levels of radiation modulate normal cell responses to death stimuli, primary cultured human fibroblasts were exposed to various doses of gamma-rays. Analysis of cell viability using an exclusion dye propidium iodide revealed that the irradiation up to 10 Gy killed the fibroblasts only to a minimal extent.

Rolipram, a phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor, stimulates inducible cAMP early repressor expression in osteoblasts.

Phosphodiesterase (PDE) 4 inhibitors have been shown to induce the cAMP-mediated signaling pathway by inhibiting cAMP hydrolysis. This study investigated the effect of a PDE4 inhibitor on the expression of the inducible cAMP early repressor (ICER), which is an endogenous inhibitor of CRE- mediated transcription, in osteoblastic cells. RT-PCR analysis revealed that rolipram, a PDE4 inhibitor, stimulates the ICER mRNA in a dose dependent manner.

Phosphodiesterase inhibitors stimulate osteoclast formation via TRANCE/RANKL expression in osteoblasts: possible involvement of ERK and p38 MAPK pathways.

Phosphodiesterases (PDEs) are enzymes that degrade intracellular cAMP. In the present study, 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX) and pentoxifylline, PDE inhibitors, induced osteoclast formation in cocultures of mouse bone marrow cells and calvarial osteoblasts. These inhibitors induced the expression of the osteoclast differentiation factor, TNF-related activation induced cytokine (TRANCE, identical to RANKL, ODF, and OPGL), in calvarial osteoblasts.

Rolipram, a phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor, stimulates osteoclast formation by inducing TRANCE expression in mouse calvarial cells.

Phosphodiesterase (PDE) 4 is an enzyme that degrades intracellular cAMP. In the present study, the effect of rolipram, a specific phosphodiesterase (PDE) 4 inhibitor, on osteoclast formation was investigated. Rolipram induced osteoclast formation in cocultures of mouse bone marrow cells and calvarial osteoblasts.

Serum withdrawal kills U937 cells by inducing a positive mutual interaction between reactive oxygen species and phosphoinositide 3-kinase.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) can be generated following cell stimulation and function as intracellular signaling molecules. To determine signaling components involved in ROS induction, human U937 blood cells grown in 10% serum were exposed to serum-free media. It was previously reported that serum withdrawal (SW) killed cells by elevating cellular ROS levels.

Isolation and characterization of a strain of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. morrisoni PG-14 encoding delta-endotoxin Cry1Ac.

Bacillus thuringiensis 656-3, isolated from a soil sample collected at mushroom houses, showed high toxicity to mushroom flies, Lycoriella mali and Coboldia fuscipes. B. thuringiensis 656-3 produced bipyramidal inclusions and reacted with the H antiserum of B.