Evaluation of performance of the GENECUBE assay for rapid molecular identification of Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin resistance in positive blood culture medium.

Rapid identification of causative agents from positive blood culture media is a prerequisite for the timely targeted treatment of patients with sepsis. The GENECUBE (TOYOBO Co., Ltd.

Implication of anti-inflammatory macrophages in regenerative moto-neuritogenesis: promotion of myoblast migration and neural chemorepellent semaphorin 3A expression in injured muscle.

Regenerative mechanisms that regulate intramuscular motor innervation are thought to reside in the spatiotemporal expression of axon-guidance molecules. Our previous studies proposed a heretofore unexplored role of resident myogenic stem cell (satellite cell)-derived myoblasts as a key presenter of a secreted neural chemorepellent semaphorin 3A (Sema3A); hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) triggered its expression exclusively at the early-differentiation phase. In order to verify this concept, the present study was designed to clarify a paracrine source of HGF release.

Preliminary time-course study of antiinflammatory macrophage infiltration in crush-injured skeletal muscle.

Muscle damage induces massive macrophage infiltration of the injury site, in which activated pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory phenotypes (currently classified as M1 and M2, respectively) have been documented as distinct functional populations predominant at different times after the conventional acute injury by intramuscular injection of snake venoms (cardiotoxin, notexin) or chemicals (bupivacaine hydrochloride, barium chloride). The present study employed a muscle-crush injury model that may better reflect the physiologic damage and repair processes initiated by contusing a gastrocnemius muscle in the lower hind-limb of adult mice with hemostat forceps, and examined the time-course invasion of M1 and M2 macrophages during muscle regeneration by immunocytochemistry of CD197 and CD206 marker proteins. CD197-positive M1 macrophages were observed exclusively at 1-4 days after crush followed by the alternative prevalence of CD206-positive M2 at 7 days of myogenic differentiation, characterized by increasing levels of myogenin messenger RNA expression.