The divergence of Trichomonas vaginalis virus RNAs among various isolates of Trichomonas vaginalis.

Trichomonas vaginalis virus is a double-stranded (ds) RNA virus found in the parasitic protozoan T. vaginalis. To examine the possible existence of related viruses in various T.

Giardiavirus enters Giardia lamblia WB trophozoite via endocytosis.

As part of our continuing effort in the study of Giardiavirus life cycle, the early events of Giardia lamblia virus (GLV) infection in the trophozoites of G. lamblia WB strain were examined. Electron microscopy showed that GLV particles were initially localized on plasma membrane.

A method for testing the nonrandomness of chromosomal breakpoints.

Testing the nonrandomness of breakage at a chromosome band is an essential step fo identifying a fragile site. In this paper, we propose a method derived by using the relationship between the binomial and F distributions for testing nonrandomness. The method is simple in calculation.

A vaccine carrier derived from Neisseria meningitidis with mitogenic activity for lymphocytes.

Protein carriers vary in their ability to increase the immunogenicity of poorly immunogenic or T-lymphocyte-independent antigens. We examined one such carrier, the outer membrane protein complex derived from Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B strain B11, in an attempt to determine why this outer membrane protein complex was more immunogenic in young infants and in relevant animal models than two other carriers used in conjugates made with Haemophilus influenzae type b polysaccharide, a T-cell-independent antigen. A single protein of the outer membrane protein complex, the class 2 porin protein, was purified and shown to function as a T-helper lymphocyte carrier protein.

Transplantation of discordant pig islet xenografts in diabetic rats.

Xenotransplantation of pig islets under the kidney capsule (KC) of diabetic rats was performed. Natural preformed ACI rat anti-pig leukocytotoxicity, leukoagglutination and hemagglutination antibody titers ranged from Neat-1: 16, 1:8-1:32 and 1:128-1:256, respectively (n = 14). Normal ACI sera were non-toxic to pig islets during short term incubation.

The course of giardiavirus infection in the Giardia lamblia trophozoites.

The subcellular distribution of Giardia lamblia virus RNA in infected G. lamblia trophozoites was examined by in situ hybridization using biotinylated DNA probe and riboprobe. In G.

Linkage disequilibrium and linkage information from one-child families.

In linkage analysis a single-child family is usually considered to be completely uninformative. This article shows that such a family can provide information on linkage disequilibrium, even if it provides no information on linkage equilibrium. A transition matrix consisting of the recombination fraction and the phase proportion is proposed to study the genetic transmission from a pair of parents to their single child.

Successful banking of pancreatic endocrine cells for transplantation.

To determine optimal freezing and thawing conditions for rat pancreatic endocrine cells (PEC) and insulinoma cells, five different cryopreservation protocols were compared in this study. PEC and insulinoma cells were cooled at rates of between -0.3 degrees C/min and -5 degrees C/min to -70 degrees C in the presence of 10%, 15%, or 20% dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) with a programmable temperature controller and then transferred to liquid nitrogen for storage.

Human leukocyte antigens in inhabitants of Taiwan.

Human leukocyte antigens (HLA) were investigated in 200 healthy Taiwan inhabitants of Taiwanese (46 persons), Hakka (36), Tai-Ya Tribe (28) Pu-Long Tribe (30) Pai-Wan Tribe (30) and Lu-kai (30) descent. In those of Taiwanese and Hakka descent, HLA-A11 and A2 were the two most frequently seen human leukocyte antigens. HLA-A11 was seen in 69.

Evaluation of Micro-Bumintest reagent tablets for screening of microalbuminuria.

The presence of significant microalbuminuria is an important predictor of early diabetic nephropathy. Currently methods available to detect microalbuminuria are not suitable for routine screening. This study assessed the performance of Micro-Bumintest reagent tablets (Ames Laboratory) as a visual screening test for qualitative measurement of urinary albumin.

Pseudo-random mating systems for 3-allele loci.

A random mating population attains equilibrium by the Hardy-Weinberg law. By demonstrating some simple examples for 2-allele loci, Li (1988) showed that a nonrandom mating population of certain mating patterns may also attain equilibrium. He called such a type of population a pseudo-random mating population.

T-2 toxin impairment of murine response to Salmonella typhimurium: a histopathologic assessment.

T-2 toxin and other trichothecene mycotoxins experimentally impair normal immune function and may predispose humans and animals to infectious disease. In this study, the histopathologic effects of Salmonella typhimurium challenge concurrently with sublethal T-2 toxin exposure were examined in the Salmonella-resistant C3H/HeN mouse. Oral administration of T-2 toxin (1 mg/kg) every other day for 10 d had little effect on the tissues examined when compared to control animals.

Human islet xenograft survival in diabetic rats. A functional and immunohistochemical study.

Prolonged survival of human islet xenografts under the kidney capsule of diabetic rats was achieved. Human islet xenograft survival time for the nonimmunosuppressed and single-dose antithymocyte serum-treated rats were 3.7 +/- 0.

Substitution of lysine for arginine at position 42 of human transforming growth factor-alpha eliminates biological activity without changing internal disulfide bonds.

Transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha) is a growth-promoting protein that binds to the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor. To identify critical residues that govern TGF-alpha-EGF receptor binding, we prepared site-specific substitution mutants of TGF-alpha. Mutant proteins were tested in receptor-binding and mitogenesis assays.

Epidermal growth factor receptor binding is affected by structural determinants in the toxin domain of transforming growth factor-alpha-Pseudomonas exotoxin fusion proteins.

TGF-alpha-PE40 is a hybrid protein composed of transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha) fused to a 40,000-dalton segment of Pseudomonas exotoxin A (PE40). This hybrid protein possesses the receptor-binding activity of TGF-alpha and the cell-killing properties of PE40. These properties enable TGF-alpha-PE40 to bind to and kill tumor cells that possess epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptors.