Clustering of South African Helicobacter pylori isolates from peptic ulcer disease patients is demonstrated by repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR fingerprinting.

The present report assesses the association between clonal groupings, disease, and the virulence fingerprint of 76 South African Helicobacter pylori cagA(+) strains isolated from 57 Cape-colored subjects. Two methods, repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP)-PCR and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR, were used to generate DNA fingerprints, and computer-assisted analysis was used to derive clusters. The two PCR techniques were only partially complementary (48%).

Plasma levels of arginine, ornithine, and urea and growth performance of broilers fed supplemental L-arginine during cool temperature exposure.

Two experiments (Experiment 1 and 2) were conducted to evaluate growth performance, ascites mortality, and concentrations of plasma Arg, urea, and ornithine in male broilers raised in floor pens (2 x 4 factorial experiment, six pens for treatment) and exposed to cool temperatures averaging 16 C after 21 d of age. Broilers were fed low- or high-CP diets in both Experiments. In Experiment 1, Arg treatments consisted of control (no supplemental Arg); 0.

Ernest Starling and the discovery of secretin.

The demonstration by Bayliss and Starling that acid liberates a chemical messenger from the cells of the duodenal and jejunal mucosa and that this, by traveling through the blood, excites the pancreas to secrete revolutionized physiology. It subsequently provided the impetus to establish endocrinology as a specialist field in medicine. Together, their contributions to physiology covered a vast sphere of knowledge, ranging from hormones to the heart and from enzymes to osmotic forces.

Experimental annotation of the human genome using microarray technology.

The most important product of the sequencing of a genome is a complete, accurate catalogue of genes and their products, primarily messenger RNA transcripts and their cognate proteins. Such a catalogue cannot be constructed by computational annotation alone; it requires experimental validation on a genome scale. Using 'exon' and 'tiling' arrays fabricated by ink-jet oligonucleotide synthesis, we devised an experimental approach to validate and refine computational gene predictions and define full-length transcripts on the basis of co-regulated expression of their exons.

Measles antibody responses after early two dose trials in Guinea-Bissau with Edmonston-Zagreb and Schwarz standard-titre measles vaccine: better antibody increase from booster dose of the Edmonston-Zagreb vaccine.

In Guinea-Bissau, children were randomised at 6 months of age to receive either two doses of standard-titre measles vaccine at 6 and 9 months of age or an inactivated polio vaccine at 6 months and standard-titre measles vaccine at 9 months of age. During the first 5 months, children received Edmonston-Zagreb (EZ) vaccine and during the following 11 months, the Schwarz (SW) vaccine. Five percent of the mothers, 74% of children at 6 months of age, and 92% of unvaccinated children at 9 months of age had unprotective levels (<125 mIU/ml) of measles antibodies.

Disability and the labour market: an analysis of British males.

This paper attempts, using data from the British Labour Force Survey 1996, to examine to what extent differences in labour market outcomes between able-bodied and disabled men may be attributed to differences in endowments of human capital and associated productivity differences. Both labour force participation and selectivity corrected human capital equations are estimated and decomposition techniques applied to them. Using the methodology of Baldwin and Johnson [Baldwin, M.

Helicobacter pylori lipopolysaccharide alters ECL cell DNA synthesis via a CD14 receptor and polyamine pathway in mastomys.

Chronic Helicobacter pylori infection is associated with alterations in gastric mucosal cell proliferation. Despite the recognition that bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is present in biologically active quantities in the gastric mucosa, the mechanisms by which it stimulates cells are largely unknown. We have previously established a gastric enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cell neoplasia model in the African rodent species Mastomys and identified that tumor ECL cell proliferation is associated with polyamine biosynthesis and ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity.

Clinical practice guidelines and the computer on your desk.

The majority of Australia's general practitioners are now believed to be using a computer to support clinical practice. This technology has the potential to deliver evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to the GP during consultations. If clinical practice guidelines are to be incorporated into electronic medical record systems, to assist clinical decision making at the point of care, guideline development will need to be significantly revised.

Gastrin-mediated alterations in gastric epithelial apoptosis and proliferation in a mastomys rodent model of gastric neoplasia.

Background/aims: Hypergastrinemia secondary to low acid secretion is associated with gastric carcinoid formation in Mastomys. We investigated the effect of gastrin on oxyntic epithelial apoptosis and proliferation in this model.

Methods: Hypergastrinemia and mucosal hyperplasia were induced by irreversible H(2) receptor blockade with loxtidine.

Evidence for changing of cosmic ray composition between 10(17) and 10(18) eV from multicomponent measurements.

The average mass composition of cosmic rays with primary energies between 10(17) and 10(18) eV has been studied using a hybrid detector consisting of the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) prototype and the MIA muon array. Measurements have been made of the change in the depth of shower maximum and the muon density as a function of energy. The results show that the composition is changing from a heavy to lighter mix as the energy increases.

Functional discovery via a compendium of expression profiles.

Ascertaining the impact of uncharacterized perturbations on the cell is a fundamental problem in biology. Here, we describe how a single assay can be used to monitor hundreds of different cellular functions simultaneously. We constructed a reference database or "compendium" of expression profiles corresponding to 300 diverse mutations and chemical treatments in S.

Widespread aneuploidy revealed by DNA microarray expression profiling.

Expression profiling using DNA microarrays holds great promise for a variety of research applications, including the systematic characterization of genes discovered by sequencing projects. To demonstrate the general usefulness of this approach, we recently obtained expression profiles for nearly 300 Saccharomyces cerevisiae deletion mutants. Approximately 8% of the mutants profiled exhibited chromosome-wide expression biases, leading to spurious correlations among profiles.

Synaptic deficit in the temporal cortex of partial trisomy 16 (Ts65Dn) mice.

Down syndrome results from triplication of human chromosome 21. The distal end of mouse chromosome 16 shares a large region of genetic homology with the Down syndrome 'critical region' of human chromosome 21. Therefore, a partially trisomic mouse (Ts65Dn) that possesses a triplication of the distal region of chromosome 16 has been developed as a putative model for Down syndrome.

Plasma taurine levels in broilers with pulmonary hypertension syndrome induced by unilateral pulmonary artery occlusion.

Low plasma levels of taurine are associated with losses of cardiac sarcomeric proteins, leading to heart failure in mammals. Recently, it was proposed that cardiac taurine depletion serves to defend the heart against injury caused by regional ischemia in mammals. The role of taurine has not been well documented in broilers, particularly in relation to pulmonary hypertension syndrome (PHS; ascites).

Effect of amino acid injection in broiler breeder eggs on embryonic growth and hatchability of chicks.

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of amino acid (AA) injections in ovo in Cobb broiler breeder eggs on hatchability and subsequent chick BW. In Experiment 1, moisture, crude fat (CF), and CP were analyzed over time during incubation (Day 0, 7, 14, and 19 of incubation). Moisture, CP, and CF of the embryo increased, and moisture, CP, and CF of eggs decreased, as incubation time increased (P < 0.

The luminati of Leiden: from Bontius to Boerhaave.

In the glittering canopy of the history of great medical centers of Europe, none was more viviscent than Leiden. Although wealthy nations nurtured great medical establishments in Padua, Salerno, Montpellier, and Paris, it was from a diminutive market town in The Netherlands that a group of medical cognoscenti arose whose intellectual prowess blazed across the intellectual firmament of seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe. The tradition of medical excellence established by Bontius was amplified by the surgeon Peter Paaw, whose stewardship of the Anatomical Theater guided it to heights comparable to those achieved at Padua.

Helicobacter pylori in Africa: observations on an 'enigma within an enigma'.

Background: We conducted a retrospective literature review of all the data published on Helicobacter pylori in Africa in order to test whether the prevalence of diseases associated with this organism differs from that in developed nations.

Methods: Both sero-epidemiological (n = 8) as well as prospective endoscopic studies in subjects with either dyspepsia or epigastric pain (n = 23) and one retrospective study were available for analysis.

Results: Sero-epidemiology confirmed both the early age of acquisition in children (50% by 10 years) as well as the high prevalence of the organism (61%) in adult asymptomatic individuals.

Prolonged expression of IFNgamma induced by protective blood-stage immunization against Plasmodium yoelii malaria.

Mice vaccinated with whole blood-stage antigens of Plasmodium yoelii develop protective, antibody-mediated immune responses to homologous challenge infection. In this model the level of protection induced by whole parasite antigen vaccination is dependent on antibody isotype, which can be influenced by adjuvant formulations. In this study the ability adjuvant formulations to affect cytokine production and protection against P.

Heterogeneity in the Helicobacter pylori vacA and cagA genes: association with gastroduodenal disease in South Africa?

Background: Helicobacter pylori infection is universally associated with gastritis, but only sometimes with clinically significant disease. Candidate virulence markers seem to be useful in identifying the pathogenic infections in some populations.

Aims: To investigate the association between putative virulence markers and disease in an African population.

beta-Amyloid immunoreactivity in astrocytes in Alzheimer's disease brain biopsies: an electron microscope study.

The deposition of amyloid beta (A beta) protein plays a central role in the neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and it constitutes the core of classical senile plaques. However, little is known about its intracellular distribution. An immunogold electron microscope study was therefore carried out on biopsies of brain tissue from patients with AD using a monoclonal antibody raised against residues 8 to 17 of the A beta protein.