Oral delivery of L-arginine stimulates prostaglandin-dependent secretory diarrhea in Cryptosporidium parvum-infected neonatal piglets.

Objectives: To determine if oral supplementation with L-arginine could augment nitric oxide (NO) synthesis and promote epithelial defense in neonatal piglets infected with Cryptosporidium parvum.

Materials And Methods: Neonatal piglets were fed a liquid milk replacer and on day 3 of age infected or not with 10(8) C. parvum oocysts and the milk replacer supplemented with L-arginine or L-alanine.

The density of small tight junction pores varies among cell types and is increased by expression of claudin-2.

Epithelial tight junctions contain size- and charge-selective pores that control the paracellular movement of charged and noncharged solutes. Claudins influence the charge selectivity and electrical resistance of junctions, but there is no direct evidence describing pore composition or whether pore size or density differs among cell types. To characterize paracellular pores independent of influences from charge selectivity, we profiled the ;apparent permeabilities' (P(app)) of a continuous series of noncharged polyethylene glycols (PEGs) across monolayers of five different epithelial cell lines and porcine ileum.

Efficacy of tinidazole for treatment of cats experimentally infected with Tritrichomonas foetus.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of tinidazole for treatment of cats with experimentally induced Tritrichomonas foetus infection.

Animals: 8 specific-pathogen-free kittens.

Procedures: Tinidazole was tested for activity against a feline isolate of T foetus in vitro.

Optimization of a species-specific polymerase chain reaction assay for identification of Pentatrichomonas hominis in canine fecal specimens.

Objective: To determine the optimum reaction conditions and detection limits of PCR assay for identification of Pentatrichomonas hominis in DNA extracted from canine feces.

Sample Population: DNA extracted from feces of 4 dogs with diarrhea from which trichomonads were observed, 81 dogs that had feces submitted to a diagnostic laboratory, and 19 dogs residing in a laboratory animal facility.

Procedures: Optimum reaction conditions and absolute and practical detection limits of 2 P hominis 18S species-specific primer pairs were determined by use of an in vitro cultivated canine isolate of P hominis in the presence and absence of canine feces.