Incidence of somatic and F+ coliphage in Great Lake Basin recreational waters.

There is a growing interest for the use of coliphage as an alternative indicator to assess fecal pollution in recreational waters. Coliphage are a group of viruses that infect Escherichia coli and are considered as potential surrogates to infer the likely presence of enteric viral pathogens. We report the use of a dead-end hollow fiber ultrafiltration single agar layer method to enumerate F+ and somatic coliphage from surface waters collected from three Great Lake areas.

Recombinant human thrombomodulin suppresses experimental abdominal aortic aneurysms induced by calcium chloride in mice.

Objective: To investigate whether recombinant thrombomodulin containing all the extracellular domains (rTMD123) has therapeutic potential against aneurysm development.

Summary Background Data: The pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is characterized by chronic inflammation and proteolytic degradation of extracellular matrix. Thrombomodulin, a transmembrane glycoprotein, exerts anti-inflammatory activities such as inhibition of cytokine production and sequestration of proinflammatory high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) to prevent it from engaging the receptor for advanced glycation end product (RAGE) that may sustain inflammation and tissue damage.

Functions of rhomboid family protease RHBDL2 and thrombomodulin in wound healing.

The expression of thrombomodulin (TM), a membrane glycoprotein, is upregulated in neoepidermis during cutaneous wound healing. Rhomboid-like-2 (RHBDL2), an intramembrane serine protease, specifically cleaves TM at the transmembrane domain and causes the release of soluble TM (sTM). However, the physiological functions of TM and RHBDL2 in wound healing remain unclear.

A comparison of rapid and conventional measures of indicator bacteria as predictors of waterborne protozoan pathogen presence and density.

E. coli and enterococci in recreational waters are monitored as indicators of fecal contamination, pathogen presence, and health risk. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) tests for fecal indicator bacteria can provide beach managers with same-day information about water quality, unlike culture methods which provide that information the following day.

Honokiol inhibits hypoxia-inducible factor-1 pathway.

Purpose: Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) plays a pivotal role in the reaction of a tumour to hypoxia. In this study, we examined the inhibitory effect of a natural compound, honokiol, on HIF-1α activity and tumour growth in combination with radiation.

Methods: The inhibitory effect of honokiol on hypoxia-responsive element (HRE) controlled luciferase activity and HIF-1α accumulations stimulated by CoCl(2), or hypoxia was examined.