The insulin receptor substrate-4 (IRS-4) gene and schizophrenia: no evidence for a main genetic factor, however one report of a single schizophrenia patient with a mutation.

Objectives: Since there are clear indications that schizophrenia is a systemic disorder, we sought for a common molecular basis for schizophrenia abnormalities in brain and body. Our hypothesis was that an impaired insulin/ insulin-like growth factor signalling in cells might underlie both structural and functional brain changes and peripheral abnormalities in schizophrenia. No associations between polymorphisms in the genes for insulin-like growth factor 1 or its receptor and schizophrenia have been reported.

Bacterial kidney disease as a model for studies of cell mediated immunity in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

A cell mediated immune (CMI) response was measured in vitro to heat-killed and to paraformaldehyde fixed Renibacterium salmoninarum (Rs) in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) experimentally challenged with live Rs. The mitogenic response to the T lymphocyte mitogen Concanavalin A (Con A) was reduced during samplings 4 to 6 weeks after immersion, but no effect of the response to the B lymphocyte mitogen lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was detected. The subpopulation of lymphocytes, detected by the monoclonal antibody 1C2, was decreased from the 4th week to the 5th week of infection, and remained at the decreased level up to 10 weeks post immersion.

Rapid identification of Renibacterium salmoninarum using an oligonucleotide probe complementary to 16S rRNA.

Bacterial kidney disease in salmonid fish is caused by the slow-growing Gram-positive rod, Renibacterium salmoninarum. The partial sequence of 16S rRNA from R. salmoninarum was determined and compared with published bacterial 16S rRNA sequences.