Detection of flagella in 278 Legionella strains by latex reagent sensitized with antiflagellum immunoglobulins.

To determine whether all Legionella species show common flagellum antigen properties, we developed a reagent using latex beads sensitized with flagellin-specific immunoglobulins that could be used in a simple and rapid agglutination reaction to identify Legionella colonies. A total of 278 strains (68 Legionella reference strains and 210 patient and environmental isolates) were tested. The results were compared with those obtained by a direct immunofluorescence assay using an antiflagellum serum and by morphological observations by electron microscopy.

What do police officers really want from the mental health system?

A sample of 309 police officers in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio, were interviewed about their contacts with mentally ill individuals and about their need for various kinds of information and assistance from the mental health system. During a one-month period, almost 60 percent of the officers had responded to at least one call involving a presumably mentally ill person, and 42 percent had responded to more than one such call. Twenty-two percent had dealt with a presumably mentally ill person who was also mentally retarded.

[Use of cultured epidermis of human origin for demonstrating the acantholytic action of staphylococcal exfoliatin A].

Cultured human epithelia obtained from epidermal cells in vitro were used to assay the activity of staphylococcal epidermolytic toxin and develop an in vitro experimental model for the staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome. Human epidermal cells were grown from single epidermal cell suspensions obtained through trypsinization of adult normal skin into multilayered epithelia (with a basal cell layer, several intermediate and one or two upper layers) on mouse 3T3 feeder cells. First passage cultures were incubated with exfoliative toxin A from phage Group II staphylococci at various concentrations in DMEM.