The effect of fermented milk on interferon production in malnourished children and in anorexia nervosa patients undergoing nutritional care.

For several years cytokine production has been associated with infections but it was not suspected that some types of food could also induce cytokines, even in a state of non-infection. Lactic bacteria can induce interferon (IFN) production in human healthy subjects, thus, a better protection against infections would be expected. Therefore, we planned to evaluate the effect of two diets including yoghurt or milk on IFN-gamma production during nutritional recovery in two different situations of malnutrition: (1) children with diarrhoea; and (2) patients with anorexia nervosa (AN).

Transcriptional expression of Epstein-Barr virus genes and proto-oncogenes in north African nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) from North Africa show an unusual bimodal age distribution. As elsewhere, the tumor is closely associated with the presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). The expression of EBV genes and c-onc genes was studied in biopsy specimens from tumors at different clinical stages from 11 young (10 to 30-year-old) and 11 adult (30 to 65-year-old) patients.