Pigs serve as a better research model for human beings than other species. The Chinese laboratory miniature pig is a new laboratory animal and is expected to be applicable in many medical research fields. This study was to establish effective technologies to isolate and culture ES cells in Chinese miniature pigs. For isolation of the inner cell mass from blastocysts, an enzyme-digestive method ...

In a healthy heart, the mechano-electric feedback (MEF) process acts as an intrinsic regulatory mechanism of the myocardium which allows the normal cardiac contraction by damping mechanical perturbations in order to generate a new healthy electromechanical situation. However, under certain conditions, the MEF can be a generator of dramatic arrhythmias by inducing local electrical depolarization...

Most Streptococcus pneumoniae strains are killed by very low concentrations of penicillin and other beta-lactam antibiotics, yet middle ear inflammation and effusion persist for days to weeks after treatment in most cases of pneumococcal otitis media. To study the effect of beta-lactam antibiotic treatment on pneumococci and the middle ear inflammatory response during pneumococcal otitis media,...

Rapid presymptomatic diagnosis of Bacillus anthracis at early stages of infection plays a crucial role in prompt medical intervention to prevent rapid disease progression and accumulation of lethal levels of toxin. To detect low levels of the anthrax protective antigen (PA) exotoxin in biological fluids, we have developed a metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF)-PA assay using a combination of the M...

The life span (Hayflick limit) of primary mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEF) in culture is variable but it is still unclear if the escape of the Hayflick limit is also variable. To address this point MEF were expanded every fifteen days (6T15) instead of every three days (6T3) until they became immortal. With this protocol MEF lifespan was extended and immortalization accordingly delayed. By testin...

The genetic elements carrying macrolide resistance genes in Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates belonging to CC271 were investigated. The international clone Taiwan(19F)-14 was found to carry Tn2009, a Tn916-like transposon containing tet(M) and mef(E). The dual erm(B) mef(E) isolates carried Tn2010, which is similar to Tn2009 with the addition of a putative new transposon, the erm(B) genetic ele...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS Acute otitis media (AOM) is a common bacterial infection in childhood that causes an inflammatory response in the middle ear. Leukocytes produce different inflammatory molecules in vitro when stimulated with Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The major causes of AOM are Streptococcus pneumoniae, nontypeable Haemophilus influenza, and Moraxella catarrhalis. We sought...

OBJECTIVES Studies were performed to assess resistance mechanisms, multidrug resistance (MDR), genetic relatedness, serotype distribution, heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) coverage and pili virulence factors among macrolide-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (MRSP) isolated from respiratory samples submitted to hospital laboratories across Canada from 1998 to 2008. METHODS Is...

Presenilin 1 (PS1) plays a pivotal role in Notch signaling and the intracellular metabolism of the amyloid beta-protein. To understand intracellular signaling events downstream of PS1, we investigated in this study the action of PS1 on mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways. Overexpressed PS1 suppressed the stress-induced stimulation of stress-activated protein kinase (SAPK)/c-Jun NH(2)-term...