Autoimmunity to urothelial antigen causes bladder inflammation, pelvic pain, and voiding dysfunction: a novel animal model for Hunner-type interstitial cystitis.

Recent evidence revealed that Hunner-type interstitial cystitis (HIC) is a robust inflammatory disease potentially associated with enhanced immune responses and histologically characterized by epithelial denudation and lymphoplasmacytic infiltration with frequent clonal expansion of infiltrating B cells. To date, few animal models that reproduce the histological and clinical correlates of HIC have yet been established. In the present study, we aimed to develop a novel animal model for HIC via autoimmunity to the bladder urothelium using the transgenic mouse model (URO-OVA) that expresses the membrane form of the model antigen ovalbumin (OVA) as a self-antigen on the bladder urothelium.

[A preliminary study of the difference in composition of intestinal bifidobacteria between healthy infants and infants with allergic diseases].

Objective: To investigate the association between intestinal bifidobacteria and allergic diseases in infants by comparing the composition of intestinal bifidobacteria between healthy infants and infants with allergic diseases.

Methods: A total of 48 infants were enrolled, and fecal samples were collected on days 0, 2, 7, and 15 and at months 1, 6, and 12 after birth. Among these infants, 22 who experienced allergic diseases before the age of 1 year were enrolled as allergic group and 26 healthy infants were enrolled as healthy group.

Polyunsaturated fatty acid composition and childhood adversity: Independent correlates of depressive symptom persistence.

Childhood experiences, personality, and polyunsaturated essential fatty acid (PUFA) composition have all been shown to affect the likelihood of depressive symptoms. Few studies have addressed relationships between these factors in their influence on the occurrence or course of depressive symptoms. The following analysis was designed to do so.

[Analyzing Colonization of in Infants with Real-time Fluorescent Quantitative PCR].

Objectives: In order to know how intestinal community could be built in the infants and whether the environmental factors could affect them, the present study was conducted to characterizethe species composition and trace the quantitative changes of intestinal of the infants in their early stages with non-culture dependent molecular method. The possible association of community of the infants with their health was also discussed.

Methods: Total 16 of full-term newborn infants born between March and April 2013 were recruited for the present study.

[A preliminary analysis of changes in composition of intestinal microbiota during infancy using polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis].

Objective: To investigate the composition of bacteria in the stools of infants and the colonization of intestinal microbiota during infancy.

Methods: Fresh stools were collected from 15 healthy infants at 0, 2, 4, 7, 10, 14, and 28 days and 3, 6, and 12 months after birth. Polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) was used to analyze the composition of intestinal microbiota, perform sequencing of dominant bacteria, and to analyze the changes in the composition of intestinal microbiota during infancy.

[Colonization and development of intestinal bifidobacteria in early infancy].

Objective: To study the characteristics of the colonization of 8 species of bifidobacteria by systematically profiling fecal bifidobacterial community in the early life of infants.

Methods: Fresh fecal samples including meconium samples were collected for culture and isolation of fecal bifidobacteria from 16 cases of full-term newborn infants born between March and April 2013 at their life of 2, 4, 7, 10, 14, 28, and 90 days. The isolated fecal bifidobacteria were taxonomically identified to genus and 8 species with PCR analysis.

Programming of growth, insulin resistance and vascular dysfunction in offspring of late gestation diabetic rats.

ODM (offspring of diabetic mothers) have an increased risk of developing metabolic and cardiovascular dysfunction; however, few studies have focused on the susceptibility to disease in offspring of mothers developing diabetes during pregnancy. We developed an animal model of late gestation diabetic pregnancy and characterized metabolic and vascular function in the offspring. Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin (50 mg/kg of body weight, intraperitoneally) in pregnant rats on gestational day 13 and was partially controlled by twice-daily injections of insulin.