Identification of World War II bone remains found in Ukraine using classical anthropological and mitochondrial DNA results

International Journal of Legal Medicine - Gyula Ágner was a Royal Hungarian First Lieutenant (1st Lt.) during the World War II and died at 30 years old due to a mine shrapnel injury...     

Diagnosis of serous neuroretinal detachments of the macula in severe preeclamptic patients with optical coherence tomography.

OBJECTIVE: Visual symptoms are common in patients with preeclampsia, and are caused by various underlying pathological changes in the retina. Blurred vision may be one of these symptoms. We describe three cases in which the underlying retinal pathology of blurred vision was clarified using optical coherence tomography (OCT), a novel, non-invasive ophthalmic imaging technique that provides micrometer-scale resolution images of the human retina. METHODS: Three patients with preeclampsia complained of blurred vision postpartum. In all cases, ophthalmoscopy was performed at the bedside, followed by the assessment of best corrected visual acuity, slit-lamp biomicroscopy, fluorescein angiography (FLA), and OCT. In all cases, the presence of central visual defects was examined by an Amsler-grid. RESULTS: In one case, the symptoms were bilateral. In all affected eyes, the patients complained of a relative central scotoma. Ophthalmoscopy showed edema in the affected maculae, while OCT examination clarified a serous neurosensory detachment of the macula. In one case, a neurosensory detachment was also detected in the papillomacular region of a fellow eye with no symptoms. In two cases, FLA was performed, but only in one case could we detect late leakage and subretinal exudates. The serous detachments observed showed total resolution in all cases within 5 to 10 weeks, with restoration of visual acuity. CONCLUSION: In patients with preeclampsia, OCT may provide a useful method for the precise assessment of retinal changes, distinguishing retinal edema from serous neurosensory detachments. This finding may help to clarify the pathophysiological circulatory changes seen in preeclampsia.     

Post-ischemic administration of diazoxide attenuates long-term microglial activation in the rat brain after permanent carotid artery occlusion

Diazoxide is a putative mitochondrial, ATP-sensitive potassium channel opener that has been implicated in neuroprotection in cerebral ischemia. Administered as pretreatment, diazoxide can attenuate ischemia-related neuronal injury, but little is known about the potential neuroprotective properties of the drug when it is given after the onset of an ischemic insult. In a previous study, we applied diazoxide after imposing chronic cerebral hypoperfusion by means of permanent, bilateral occlusion of the common carotid arteries (2VO) in rats. We observed that ischemia-induced learning impairment assessed in the Morris water maze, and microglial activation visualized by immunocytochemistry, were prevented by diazoxide as determined at 13 weeks after 2VO. However, dimethyl sulfoxide, the organic solvent of diazoxide also prevented memory deficits, without any effect on microglial activity. Therefore, we have repeated our experiments with the use of an inorganic solvent, aqueous NaOH solution in order to clarify the effect of diazoxide independent of dimethyl sulfoxide. The present results demonstrated that diazoxide alone did not improve learning performance, but it prevented microglial activation in the hippocampus 13 weeks after the onset of 2VO. These data provide evidence that post-treatment with diazoxide is not effective in impeding a long-term memory deficiency, but it can attenuate ischemia-induced microglial activation, independently of the solvent used.     

Human herpesvirus 6 variant a infects human term syncytiotrophoblasts in vitro and induces replication of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in dually infected cells

Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) may interact during transplacental transmission of HIV-1. The placental syncytiotrophoblast layer serves as the first line of defense of the fetus against viruses. Patterns of replication of HHV-6 variant A (HHV-6A) and HIV-1 were analyzed in singly and dually infected human term syncytiotrophoblast cells cultured in vitro. For this purpose, the GS strain of HHV-6A and the Ba-L and IIIB strains of HIV-1 were used. HHV-6A replication was restricted at the level of early gene products in singly infected syncytiotrophoblasts, whereas no viral protein expression was found in cells infected with HIV-1 alone. Coinfection of syncytiotrophoblast cells with HHV-6A and HIV-1 resulted in production of infectious HIV-1. In contrast, no enhancement of HHV-6A expression was observed in cell cultures infected with both viruses. Uninfected syncytiotrophoblast cells were found to express CXCR4 and CCR3 but not CD4 or CCR5 receptors. Infection of syncytiotrophoblasts with HHV-6A did not induce CD4 expression and had no influence on chemokine receptor expression. Activation of HIV-1 from latency in coinfected cells was mediated by the immediate-early (IE)-A and IE-B gene products of HHV-6A. Open reading frames U86 and U89 of the IE-A region were able to activate HIV-1 replication in a synergistic manner. The data suggest that in vivo double infection of syncytiotrophoblast cells with HHV-6A and HIV-1 could contribute to the transplacental transmission of HIV-1 but not HHV-6A.     

Comparison of antibody repertoires against Staphylococcus aureus in healthy individuals and in acutely infected patients

The management of staphylococcal diseases is increasingly difficult with present medical approaches. Preventive and therapeutic vaccination is considered to be a promising alternative; however, little is known about immune correlates of protection and disease susceptibility. To better understand the immune recognition of Staphylococcus aureus by the human host, we studied the antistaphylococcal humoral responses in healthy people in comparison to those of patients with invasive diseases. In a series of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay analyses performed using 19 recombinant staphylococcal cell surface and secreted proteins, we measured a wide range of antibody levels, finding a pronounced heterogeneity among individuals in both donor groups. The analysis revealed marked differences in the antibody repertoires of healthy individuals with or without S. aureus carriage, as well as in those of patients in the acute phase of infection. Most importantly, we identified antigenic proteins for which specific antibodies were missing or underrepresented in infected patients. In contrast to the well-described transient nature of disease-induced antistaphylococcal immune response, it was demonstrated that high-titer antistaphylococcal antibodies are stable for years in healthy individuals. In addition, we provide evidence obtained on the basis of opsonophagocytic and neutralizing activity in vitro assays that circulating antistaphylococcal serum antibodies in healthy donors are functional. In light of these data we suggest that proper serological analysis comparing the preexisting antibody repertoires of hospitalized patients with different outcomes for nosocomial staphylococcal infections could be extremely useful for the evaluation of candidate vaccine antigens in addition to protection data generated with animal models.     

Investigation of the role of the serotonergic activity of certain subtype-selective alpha1A antagonists in the relaxant effect on the pregnant rat uterus in vitro

Results from recent studies have shown that alpha(1A)-adrenergic receptor (alpha(1A)-AR) antagonists could offer a new alternative in the treatment of preterm delivery. However, members of this group [2-(2,6-dimethoxyphenoxyethyl)aminomethyl-1,4-benzodioxane hydrochloride (WB4101), 5-methylurapidil (5-MU)] are known to influence serotonin (5-hydroxy-tryptamine) (5-HT(1A)) receptors, too. Our objective was to clarify the role of their 5-HT(1A) activities in the uterus relaxant effect. RT-PCR was used to determine mRNA expression of the receptor subtypes in 22 day pregnant rat uteri. Isolated uteri were stimulated by 5-HT or electrical field to investigate the contraction-inhibiting effect and the 5-HT(1A) activity of the alpha(1A) antagonists. Both receptor subtypes are present in rat myometrium. 5-HT induced contractions were inhibited by the alpha(1A) antagonists. Besides shifting the dose-response curve of 5-HT to the right, 5-MU decreased its maximal effect. The alpha(1A) antagonists inhibited electrical field stimulation-induced contractions. 5-HT(1A) blockade increased the maximal effect of 5-MU but did not change that of WB4101. These results suggest that the contraction increase caused by 5-HT is mediated by alpha(1A) receptors. Serotonergic activity of alpha(1) antagonists and especially alpha(1A) antagonists should be investigated as it may alter their efficacy and could interfere with their side-effects. It is proposed that novel alpha(1A) antagonists should be designed with no 5-HT(1A) activity to achieve maximal relaxant effect.     

The occurrence of Chlamydia trachomatis in the semen of men participating in an IVF programme

Chlamydia trachomatis is one of the most common causative agentsof sexually transmitted diseases. The authors studied the occurrenceof C.trachomatis in the semen of 184 asymptomatic men participatingin the IVF programme. Twenty-six (14.1%) of the 184 tested werepositive for C.trachomatis, these patients and their wives receivingdoxycycline capsules twice, 100 mg on the first day and 100mg/day for the following 13 days. This treatment was effectivein 88.5% of the cases and in the rest, treatment continued witherithromycin 250 mg four times/day for 2 weeks. The authorscompared the semen parameters (cell count, motility, morphology,bovine mucus penetration and hypo-osmotic swelling test) inthe infected and non-infected groups and observed no significantdifference between these two groups     

The presence of CD209 expressing dendritic cells correlates with biofilm positivity in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis

Biofilm-positive cases of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis (CRSwNP) may form a separate clinical entity, which is characterized by high recurrence rates and resistance against different therapeutic strategies. This can be explained by a special immunologic phenotype. Biofilm existence has been supposed to correlate with increased amount of dendritic cells that are responsible for antigen presentation in CRSwNP. A total of 20 patients with CRSwNP undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) were analyzed. The negative control group consisted of ten patients undergoing septoplasty without CRSwNP. Three series of individual nasal polyps and control specimens were processed to hematoxylin–eosin (HE) and Gram staining and to CD209-specific immunofluorescent assay, respectively. Biofilm was detected in 13 of 20 patients (65 %) with CRSwNP and in none of the ten negative controls. The subepithelial layer of biofilm-positive nasal polyps displayed a statistically significant (p < 0.001) increase in the numbers of CD209-expressing dendritic cells compared to biofilm-negative specimens. It was found that biofilm detectability showed strong correlation to the architecture of respiratory mucosa and to the dominant inflammatory cell type of the subepithelial layer. Persisting bacterial biofilms may affect the type of antigen presentation and consecutive immune reactions in the subepithelial layer of nasal mucosa. This phenomenon may result in different inflammatory pathways with specific cytokine profile compared to biofilm-negative cases. Co-existence of bacterial biofilms and dominant pattern of dendritic cells suggest a biofilm-associated immunologic phenotype in CRSwNP. This can explain the mucosal changes, functional disorders and therapy resistance featuring CRSwNP.