Remission following an elemental diet or prednisolone in Crohn's disease

The short- and long-term effects of an elemental diet in children with acute Crohn's disease were compared with those of prednisolone in historical controls. Clinical remission was induced in 25 of 30 and in 18 of 28 episodes treated for six weeks with an elemental diet and prednisolone. Patients with proximal disease had longer remission after treatment with an elemental diet (p < 0.05) than did patients with colonic disease after treatment with prednisolone (p < 0.01). Disease activity index score improved in both groups compared with the pretreatment scores (p < 0.05). However, the improvement in the elemental diet group was significantly better than in the prednisolone group (p < 0.001). Changes in linear growth were better after treatment with an elemental diet compared with steroids (p < 0.001). Serum albumin and haematocrit concentrations all improved significantly in the children treated with an elemental diet (p < 0.001) but not in those treated with steroids. Thus an elemental diet was better than prednisolone in proximal disease and confirmed improved growth and nutritional status.     

Effects of intravenous ritodrine on lactate and pyruvate levels: role of glycemia and anaerobiosis

The role of glycemia in ritodrine-induced hyperlactatemia was assessed by measuring lactate and pyruvate levels and studying glycemia in patients treated with intravenous ritodrine for premature labor. Lactate levels were increased moderately by ritodrine and paralleled the levels of glucose; a similar parallelism also was observed in the glucose-administration group. Pyruvate levels also changed in proportion to lactate levels in this latter group, whereas in patients given ritodrine, pyruvate changed little and the lactate/pyruvate ratio was increased. These findings are discussed in terms of possible metabolic and vasopressor consequences of beta-adrenergic stimulation, with emphasis on the potential roles of increased glycemia and anaerobiosis.     

Polymerase chain reaction diagnosis in fungal keratitis caused by Alternaria alternata

PURPOSE: To contribute toward assessing the effectiveness of polymerase chain reaction as a rapid method in diagnosis of torpid keratitis caused by opportunistic fungi. METHODS: Interventional case report. A 50-year-old man with a corneal abscess in the right eye treated for a period of 6 months with different combinations of broad-spectrum antibiotics and steroids was referred to our center. Corneal scraping was taken for microbiological study, including classic cultures and polymerase chain reaction. Amplified DNA was sequenced to identify the pathogen. RESULTS: Polymerase chain reaction amplification was negative for Acanthamoeba species and positive for fungi. The sequence analysis showed Alternaria alternata as the causal agent in 24 hours. Cultures confirmed the identification in 10 days. CONCLUSION: Polymerase chain reaction amplification with subsequent DNA-typing was revealed to be a useful method for detection of ocular pathogens such as A. alternata involved in cases of torpid keratitis, even in the presence of broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy.     

Cellular mechanism underlying LPS-induced inhibition of in vitro L-leucine transport across rabbit jejunum

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a known causative agent of sepsis. In previous studies, we have shown that it reduces L-leucine mediated transport across the rabbit jejunum by about 30%. In this study, the mechanism(s) of LPS inhibition on amino acid transport were analysed in detail. LPS did not inhibit L-leucine transport across brush border membrane vesicles, suggesting the need for an intracellular step. The inhibitory effect of LPS was not altered by the addition of protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor (IP(20), 10(-7) M) or an analog of cAMP (DB-cAMP, 3 x 10(-4) M), indicating that the PKA signal transduction pathway was not involved in the LPS effect. However, the inhibitory effect of LPS was suppressed by trifluoroperazine (10(-7) M), a Ca(2+)/calmodulin inhibitor and staurosporine (10(-7) M), an protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor. Likewise, LPS inhibition disappeared in media without calcium. These results suggest that LPS could inhibit the intestinal uptake of L-leucine across the small intestine in vitro by intracellular processes related to calcium, involving PKC and calmodulin protein.     

层流洁净技术在烧伤治疗中的应用

目的 探索层流洁净技术治疗大面积烧伤的价值。方法 对室内空气及创面进行细菌培养；监测病房使用时间的细菌微粒数比较，各洁净级别杀菌率。不同级别地点细菌培养结果比较。结果 千级以上层流病房细菌培养为“0”，与普通病房对照有较大差别，患者死亡率明显降低，疗程缩短，医疗费用下降，手术植皮及其他伤口均达Ⅰ期愈合，无交叉感染。结论 层流洁净病房应用于烧伤治疗，疗效非常满意。     

Ajoene inhibits both primary tumor growth and metastasis of B16/BL6 melanoma cells in C57BL/6 mice

Ajoene is an organosulphur compound derived from garlic with important effects on several membrane-associated processes such as platelet aggregation, as well as being cytotoxic for tumor cell lines in vitro. In the present study, we investigated the effect of ajoene on different cell types in vitro, as well as its inhibitory effects on both primary tumors and metastasis in a mouse model. We found ajoene to inhibit tumor cell growth in vitro, but also to inhibit strongly metastasis to lung in the B16/BL6 melanoma tumor model in C57BL/6 mice. As far as we are aware, this is the first report of the anti-metastatic effect of ajoene. Ajoene also inhibited tumor-endothelial cell adhesion, as well as the in vivo TNF-α response to lipopolysaccharide. Possible mechanisms of its antitumoral activity are discussed in the light of these results.