Cooperativity between antibiotics and antiseptics: testing the bactericidal effect.

Objective: Treatment with antibiotics together with local application of antiseptics is common in wound care. We investigated the effectiveness of an antiseptic in two variations: octenidine (Oct) and octenidine+ (Oct+ with isotonic glucose addition).

Method: Using the agar diffusion test with cultures of pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus and the non-pathogenic Bordetella petrii, we compared the effectiveness of octenidine to the classical antiseptics beta-isodona (povidone-iodine; PI), chlorhexidine (Chl) and taurolin (Tau) alone, and in combination with various common antibiotics to uncover cooperativity between antiseptics and antibiotics.

Cell growth and migration under octenidine-antiseptic treatment.

Objective: The toxicity of octenidine antiseptics in cultured cells contrasts their good tolerability in tissue. This phenomenon prompted us to examine which cell culture conditions allow survival and proliferation and to investigate a possible modulation of toxicity by the extracellular matrix proteoglycan chondroitin sulfate.

Method: We tested fibroblasts and MCF7 cells for growth using the MTT test, and assessed wound healing potency with a laceration assay.

Differentiation- and polarization-dependent zinc tolerance in Caco-2 cells.

Purpose: Enterocytes are feasibly confronted with enormous zinc concentrations especially as a result of oral zinc supplementation. In the present study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying the exceptional ability to withstand this usually toxic load using the enterocytic cell line Caco-2.

Methods: By MTT test analysis, we compared zinc tolerance in undifferentiated Caco-2 cells (udCaco-2) and differentiated Caco-2 cells (dCaco-2).

Lactoferrin induces growth arrest and nuclear accumulation of Smad-2 in HeLa cells.

Lactoferrin (Lf) is a multifunctional glycoprotein. Due to its anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties and the resulting therapeutical potential, lactoferrin is at present focus of a variety of research areas. The regulation of cell growth represents one of the prominent performances of lactoferrin.

Signal transduction and metabolism in chondrocytes is modulated by lactoferrin.

Objective: Activation of granulocytes causes a considerable rise in the concentration of lactoferrin (Lf) in synovial fluid (SF). We here investigate consequences thereof on signal transduction and the balance between catabolic and anabolic metabolism in chondrocytes.

Methods: Signal transduction was analysed in cultured chondrocytes by immunodetection of mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPK) and analysis of Smad2 translocation to the nucleus.