Avian tuberculosis accompanied with many tubercular lesions in the liver and spleen was found in a painted quail at a zoological garden in Japan. Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) serovar 9 without insertion sequence of IS901 was isolated from the liver (1.3 x 10(8) CFU/g), oviduct (9.4 x 10(7) CFU/g), and intestine (1.5 x 10(5) CFU/g). The isolates were inoculated intravenously to chickens. Th...

The unique terminal arabinan motifs of mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan (LAM), which are mannose-capped to different extents, probably constitute the single most important structural entity engaged in receptor binding and subsequent immunopathogenesis. We have developed a concerted approach of endoarabinanase digestion coupled with chromatography and mass spectrometry analysis to rapidly identif...

In the US eradication program for bovine tuberculosis, a definitive diagnosis depends on the isolation of Mycobacterium bovis. However, in some cases bacterial culture is unsuccessful, even though the tissue is considered suspicious by histopathology because granulomatous lesions and acid-fast organisms are present. The purpose of this study was to determine if polymerase chain reaction (PCR) t...

BACKGROUND The establishment of therapeutic regimens for mycobacteriosis depends on the accurate identification of Mycobacterium species, and misdiagnosis can result in inappropriate treatment and increased mortality of patients. Differential diagnosis among Mycobacterium species has been made by conventional phenotypic and biochemical tests after a long culture period. Specialized molecular di...

In response to the need for rapid, inexpensive, high-throughput assays for antimycobacterial drug screening, a microplate-based assay which uses Alamar blue reagent for determination of growth was evaluated. MICs of 30 antimicrobial agents against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, M. tuberculosis H37Ra, and Mycobacterium avium were determined in the microplate Alamar blue assay (MABA) with both...

Identification of tuberculous and nontuberculous mycobacteria by biochemical methods is a long-term process that takes up to 8 weeks for completion and requires expertise to interpret the results. In order to detect and differentiate the major pathogenic mycobacterial species, we developed genus-specific primers that amplify the dnaJ gene from the broad spectrum of mycobacterial species and det...

A 20-year-old female without immune-compromise was referred to our clinic complaining of cough with hemoptysis. Chest radiology showed multiple small lung nodules at the upper lobe of bilateral lung. After received regular anti-tuberculosis therapy and experiential anti-fungal therapy, the lesions in lung get worse. The biopsy was pursued and the diagnosis was made through lung tissue-based myc...

The extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factors constitute a diverse group of alternative sigma factors that have been demonstrated to regulate gene expression in response to environmental conditions in several bacterial species. Genes encoding an ECF sigma factor of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium, and Mycobacterium smegmatis, designated sigE, were cloned and analyzed. Southe...

The computed tomography (CT) scans of 27 patients with abdominal tuberculosis were reviewed retrospectively to determine the range of abdominal involvement. Most patientshad been at increased risk because of intravenous drug abuse, alcoholism, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), cirrhosis, or steroid therapy. The etiologic agent was Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 23 patients and M. avium-...

A novel PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of the hsp65 gene was developed. The restriction patterns for Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) species were designed to be highly distinct, and the overall number of restriction patterns was designed to be limited. Four hundred specimens (17 reference strains and 383 clinical isolates) were tested, of ...