Effects of liposomes of different lipid composition on in vitro growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv.

The growth of M. tuberculosis H37RV in culture medium was studied after addition of liposomes from different lipids (phosphatidylcholine, cardiolipin, and glycosphyngolipids). Addition of phosphatidylcholine into culture medium did not modify the growth and multiplication of mycobacteria.

Alteration of the phospho- or neutral lipid content and fatty acid composition in Listeria monocytogenes due to acid adaptation mechanisms for hydrochloric, acetic and lactic acids at pH 5.5 or benzoic acid at neutral pH.

This study provides a first approach to observe the effects on Listeria monocytogenes of cellular exposure to acid stress at low or neutral pH, notably how phospho- or neutral lipids are involved in this mechanism, besides the fatty acid profile alteration. A thorough investigation of the composition of polar and neutral lipids from L. monocytogenes grown at pH 5.

[Glial reaction in the forebrain subventricular zone in the rat model of Alzheimer's disease].

The purpose of this study was to investigate the long-term reactive changes in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the rat brain lateral ventricles after the intraventricular injection of beta-amyloid peptide (BAP). It was found that 3 months after BAP injection ependymal cells and SVZ cells reacted to the intraventricular BAP injection by the formation of glial structures, similar to amyloid plaques in their composition, cell structure and possible developmental mechanism. Using immunohistochemical methods, it was shown that they consisted mainly of reactive astrocytes and microgliocytes.

GMDP augments antitumor action of the CP/TNFalpha combination in vivo.

We have shown that glucosaminyl muramyl dipeptide (GMDP) has been augmented the antitumor action of chemotherapy drug cisplatin and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) on the Ehrlich ascites carcinoma and melanoma B-16 mouse tumor models. The doses of cisplatin, TNFalpha and GMDP and also the conditions of the drugs combination injection provided 100% survival of mice with Ehrlich ascites carcinoma were found. Furthermore, it was shown first that GMDP has been decreased toxicity of the cisplatin/TNFalpha combination and normalized the changes in the experimental mice hematological parameters which were produced by the CP/TNFalpha combination.

Maintaining high anaerobic succinic acid productivity by product removal.

During dual-phase fermentations using Escherichia coli engineered for succinic acid production, the productivity and viable cell concentration decrease as the concentration of succinic acid increases. The effects of succinic acid on the fermentation kinetics, yield, and cell viability were investigated by resuspending cells in fresh media after selected fermentation times. The cellular succinic acid productivity could be restored, but cell viability continuously decreased throughout the fermentations by up to 80% and subsequently the volumetric productivity was reduced.

Neurosyphilis presenting with dementia, chronic chorioretinitis and adverse reactions to treatment: a case report.

Neurosyphilis results from infection of the brain, meninges or spinal cord by Treponema pallidum and develops in about 25%-40% of persons who are not treated for syphilis. This article reports a rare case of active neurosyphilis with mild dementia, chronic chorioretinitis, and hearing loss. During the treatment with Penicillin, a rare combination of complications such as Jarisch-Herxheimer and Hoigné reactions were observed.

[A multicenter program on assessment of efficacy and safety of a new therapeutic scheme for patients with chronic cerebrovascular insufficiency].

An assessment of the complex multicenter prospective non-comparative program aimed at studying of efficacy and safety of a new scheme of therapy with cavinton in patients with chronic cerebrovascular insufficiency has been conducted. One hundred and forty-nine patients (46 male, 113 female), aged from 35 to 65 years, have been examined. The treatment started from intravenous infusions of the drug during 7 days as follows: 20, 30, 40, 50, 50, 50 and 50 mg of cavinton solution diluted in 500 ml of physiologic solution with the following peroral taking of cavinton forte in dose 10 mg 3 times daily during 11 weeks.

[Preparation and characterization of monoclonal antibodies to the cholera toxin].

Monoclonal antibodies to cholera toxin were obtained. They do not cross-react with the termolabile toxin (LT) of Escherichia coli, ricin, diphtherial toxin, staphylococcus enterotoxins of SEA, SEB, SEI, SEG, or the lethal factor and protective antigen of the anthrax toxin. Pairs of antibodies for the quantitative measurement of the cholera toxin in sandwich enzyme immunoassay (EIA) were selected.

[Heart innervation in rats (an immunohistochemical study)].

The aims of the present study were to investigate the structure of the nervous apparatus in different heart regions using the immunohistochemical methods. The study was performed in Wistar rats (n - 5). For selective staining of synaptic structures, synaptophysin (Syn) demonstration was used, while neurofilament proteins (NF-M) were used to detect axonal neurofilaments.

Assessment of neuron differentiation during embryogenesis in rats using immunocytochemical detection of doublecortin.

In vitro and in vivo studies addressing the differentiation of neural stem and progenitor cells in the CNS require the use of highly specific markers for neurons and gliocytes. The aim of the present work was to study the distribution of a marker for differentiating neurons, i.e.

[Decline of antibodies to hepatitis C virus during antiviral therapy].

The goal of this study was to investigate interrelationship between changes in anti-hepatitis C virus antibody and response to antiviral therapy. The comparative quantitative analysis of antibodies to individual structural and nonstructural viral proteins was done during two years in three patient groups: initial responders, non-responders and a reference group (without therapy). All patients in the treated groups exhibited decrease in the analyzed antibodies to HCV proteins, but with different patterns.

[Depressive disorders in patients with cerebral stroke].

Different types of depression in patients who survived cerebral stroke and their influence on the rehabilitation process were studied. One hundred and fifteen patients were examined. The clinical heterogeneity of post-stroke depression was shown.

[Disturbances in the function of cardiomyocyte ryanodine receptors of spontaneously hypertensive rats revealed by 4-chloro-m-cresol].

The rates of Ca2+ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum in response to the activation of ryanodine receptors by 4-chloro-m-cresol in cardiomyocytes of three rat lines: spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and normotensive WKY, and Wistar rats during five weeks of their growth and development have been studied to reveal differences in the function of ryanodine receptors at different stages of hypertension. Whereas the efflux of Ca2+ from sarcoplasmic reticulum in Wistar and WKY rat cardiomyocytes decreased in response to 4-chloro-m-cresol, an abrupt rise in the rate of [Ca2+]i increase was observed in myocytes of spontaneously hypertensive rats after 17 days of development. A correlation between this phenomenon and the occurrence of genetic defect of ryanodine receptors in SHR seems improbable because we did not register any differences in the rates of Ca2+ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum by the action of 4-chloro-m-cresol in concentrations 0.

[Histogenetic and neurodegenerative processes in the nervous system using heterotopic neurotransplantation].

The aim of this article was to summarize the author's own experimental data and the data available from literature on the neurotransplantation in the ectopic sites such as peripheral nerve (mainly) and rat anterior eye chamber. The review examines issues relating to the following problems: histogenesis and survival of neural tissues after transplantation, host/transplant tissue interactions, the fate of long-term transplants, co-transplants of different embryonic anlages, dorsal root ganglion grafting, the effects of various trophic factors on graft development. The review discusses the new data on stem cell transplantation into a peripheral nerve.

Effect of exogenous calcium deficit on blood pressure and modification of brain proteins GAP-43 and BASP1 in SHR and WKY rats.

We studied the effect of drinking of low mineralized water containing 8 mg/liter Ca2+ on blood pressure and content of brain proteins in synaptosomes of SHR and WKY rats. Blood pressure increased in WKY rats, but not in SHR rats. In SHR rats, Ca2+ deficit reduced the content of GAP-43 protein and induced the appearance of its fragment GAP-43-3 in brain synaptosomes.

[Evaluation of the neuronal differentiation in the rat embryogenesis using immunocytochemical detection of doublecortin].

The studies of CNS neural stem and progenitor cell differentiation both in vitro and in vivo, require the application of highly specific markers of neural and glial cells. The aim of the present investigation was to study the distribution of differentiating neuron marker doublecortin (DCX) expression in different structures of embryonic rat brain and spinal cord before cortical plate formation, using immunocytochemical methods, light and confocal microscopy. The presence of DCX was demonstrated in three types of cells of the developing central nervous system at days 13-14 of embryonic development: neurons which demonstrate positive reaction for nuclear marker of differentiated neural cells NeuN; migrating and maturing neuroblasts; some cells belonging to radial glial cell population.

Immunocytochemical detection of neuronal NO synthase in rat brain cells.

The aims of the present work were to identify the neuronal form of nitric oxide synthase (nNOS type I) in brain structures in rats by immunocytochemistry, to compare the results with data from histochemical reactions for NADPH-diaphorase, and to develop the optimal conditions for fixation for detecting nNOS. The product of the histochemical reaction was found to be located strictly in the cytoplasm. Immunocytochemical detection of nNOS showed that along with the cytoplasmic reaction for nNOS, the nuclei of some neurons and gliocytes were immunopositive, though the cytoplasm of these cells gave negative reactions for nNOS.

[Humoral response to hepatitis C virus antigens in coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus type 1].

A humoral immune response to individual hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigens was studied in 49 patients at the subclinical stage of HIV-1 infection. These patients, as compared with a group comprising 50 patients with chronic hepatitis C, showed statistically significant higher levels of HCV-specific immunoglobulins G to nucleocapsid protein and the antigens NS3, NS4ab, NS5a. The group of patients with coinfection did not differ from those with chronic HCV monoinfection in detection rates and anti-HCV IgM.

[Role of carbon substrates of culture media on Mycobacterium smegmatis susceptibility to antitubercular agents].

Influence of medium composition on Mycobacterium smegmatis growth and susceptibility to antituberculosis drugs (ATD)--isoniazid and rifabutin--was studied. It was shown that addition of phospholipids (PL) in form of liposomes to meat peptone broth resulted in activation of M. smegmatis growth and decrease of its susceptibility to ATD.

[Study of effect of serotonin on histogenesis of rat embryonal neocortex at model of ectopic neurotransplantation].

A comparative study has been performed of dynamics of development of ectopic transplants of embryonal (E14) neocortex anlages obtained from intact rats and from the rats administered with serotonin inhibitor para-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA) at the 11th day of pregnancy as well as after incubation of such anlages in the serotonin-containing medium. The goal of this work was to elucidate effect of serotonin on division and differentiation of embryonal neocortex cells. Study of degeneration, mitotic activity, and differentiation (by using immunohistochemical detection of nerve cell nuclear protein--NeuN) of transplanted cells has allowed establishing that serotonin promotes survival and differentiation of transplant neuroepithelial cells as well as participates in regulation of their proliferation.

Serotonin is involved in the regulation of histogenetic processes in rat embryonic neocortex.

We compared the dynamics of the development of ectopic transplants of embryonic (day 14) primordial neocortex from rats injected with serotonin inhibitor (para-chlorophenylalanine; 400 mg/kg) on day 11 of pregnancy and transplants of similar primordial neocortex incubated before transplantation in a medium with serotonin (3 microg/ml). The study of mitotic activity and differentiation of transplanted cells showed that serotonin promoted survival of the transplanted neuroepithelial cells and their differentiation into nerve cells, and is involved in the regulation of their proliferation. We hypothesized that serotonin accelerated the cell cycle of transplanted cells, thus accelerating the neuron differentiation.