A new approach to facilitate diagnosis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease through a galactose single point method in rats with fatty liver.

Background: Liver biopsy reliably diagnoses nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, but its invasiveness and inter- and intra-observer errors limit its usefulness in monitoring.

Aims: Use a galactose single point method or combined biochemical parameters to improve assessments of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in a rat model.

Methods: Three nonalcoholic fatty liver disease severities were generated in 50 rats: a control group (n=18) on a standard diet, and 2 study groups on a choline-deficient diet (n=18), with and without treatment with silymarin (n=14).

Revisiting the importance of virulence determinant magA and its surrounding genes in Klebsiella pneumoniae causing pyogenic liver abscesses: exact role in serotype K1 capsule formation.

Background: Mucoviscosity-associated gene A (magA) is proposed to play a decisive role in the pathogenesis of liver abscesses due to Klebsiella pneumoniae. Although some investigators consider MagA to be a putative O-antigen ligase, it is also reportedly associated with the K1 antigen.

Methods: Using magA-positive serotype K1 K.

Kinetic refolding barrier of guanidinium chloride denatured goose delta-crystallin leads to regular aggregate formation.

Delta-crystallin is the major soluble protein in avian eye lenses with a structural role in light scattering. Dissociation and unfolding of the tetrameric protein in guanidinium chloride (GdmCl) can be sensitively monitored by the intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence. In this study refolding of GdmCl-denatured delta-crystallin was investigated.