Using the 8 strains of Vibrio vulnificus isolated from the patients with primary sepsis, the viability of Vibrio vulnificus were studied in the various range of hydrogen ion concentration. The opitimal pH range of growth was 7-9, and survived between pH 3. 6 and 12. 5 when incubated at 37C for one hour.
Humans ; Hydrogen* ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration* ; Protons* ; Sepsis ; Vibrio vulnificus* ; Vibrio*

No abstract available.
Cardiomyopathy, Dilated* ; Doxorubicin

Angiogenesis is an essential requirement for development, progression, and metastasis of malignant tumors. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the important angiogenic factors. Recently the role of angiogenesis has been known in premalignant lesions. This study was performed to determine whether the angiogenesis and VEGF expression were increased in association with histological grade of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and to see the relationship between the angiogenesis and VEGF. Immunostainings for factor VIII and VEGF were performed on 52 cases of cervical neoplasia (12 cases of CIN I, 11 cases of CIN II, 15 cases of CIN III, 7 cases of microinvasive squamous cell carcinoma, and 7 cases of invasive carcinoma) and 5 cases of normal cervix. The results showed a significant increase of microvessel count from normal cervix through CIN grades to invasive squamous cell cacinoma. VEGF expression was increased in proportion to the CIN grades. There was no significant correlation between microvessel count and VEGF expression. In conclusion, the tumor angiogenesis is an early event in tumorigenesis of uterine cervix. In addition, no significant relationship between the microvessel count and VEGF expression in CIN suggests the possibility of other growth factors affecting mainly angiogenesis of premalignant lesion of uterine cervix.
Angiogenesis Inducing Agents ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia* ; Cervix Uteri ; Factor VIII ; Female ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Microvessels ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A*

No abstract available.
Cough* ; Humans ; Sarcoidosis* ; Skin*

No abstract available.
Heel* ; Melanoma, Amelanotic* ; Ulcer*

PURPOSE: The characterization of all recognizable chromosomal rearrangements was dis- turbed by technical limitation of conventional cytogenetic methods. Recently, the strong usefullness of generation of chromosome specific painting probes in identification of marker chromosomes has proven. This study was intended to analyze the chromosomal aberrations in human ovarian cancer cell line, SNU-8, by G-banding and multiple paintings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Human ovarian cancer cell line, SNU-8 was cultured and harvested for cytogenetic analysis. Routine karyotyping was performed. For complete analysis of chromosomal aberrations, human chromosome-specific painting probes were constructed from somatic hybrid cells. The origins of the unidentified marker chromosomes were analyzed by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) with these painting probes. RESULTS: All chromosome alterations were confirmed by the use of multiple chromosome paintings, which also demonstrated a number of additional alterations. SNU-8 had the karyotype 62-69,XXX, + der(1;10)(q10;p10),der(3;18) (q10;p10)X2,-4,+ 5,+ 7,del(9)(q21)X2,-11,-13,-15,-16,der(17;19)(q10;q10) X2, + 20,-22[cp51]. CONCLUSION: The chromosomal aberrations of SNU-8 cell line was effectively analyzed by FISH with these painting probes, and the approach methods of this study can be applied to cytogenetic analysis of chromosomal aberrations in the other cancers.
Cell Line* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Chromosome Aberrations* ; Chromosome Painting* ; Cytogenetic Analysis ; Cytogenetics ; Humans ; Hybrid Cells ; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence ; Karyotype ; Karyotyping ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Paint ; Paintings

BACKGROUND: Disialoganglioside GD2 is a tumor-associated antigen that is overexpressed on tumor cells of neuroectodermal origin, such as melanoma, small cell lung carcinoma and neuroblastoma. Immunity against GD2 has anti-tumor activities, but GD2 is poorly immunogenic. Anti-idiotypic antibodies that mimic GD2 may induce more effective immune responses than GD2 antigen itself, because they are protein antigens and are known to be able to break immune tolerance. In our previous study, we produced anti-idiotypic antibodies mimicking GD2 (3A4 and 3H9), which induced humoral immunity. However, cellular immunity is essential to eradicate tumor cells in vivo as well as humoral immunity. In the present study, we investigated whether these anti-idiotypic antibodies 3A4 and 3H9 could induce cellular immunes responses. METHODS: BALB/C mice were immunized with anti-idiotypic antibody 3A4 or 3H9, or normal mouse IgG as a negative control. Lymphoproliferative responses, cytokine production responses, and delayed-type hypersensitivity reactions were measured in mice immunized with the anti-idiotypic antibodies. RESULTS: Both the anti-idiotypic antibody 3A4 and 3H9 induced GD2-specific lymphoproliferative responses and IFN-gamma production of lymph node lymphocytes in BALB/C mice. Only anti-idiotypic antibody 3H9 induced significant GD2-specific delayed-type hypersensitivity in the mice. CONCLUSION: These results show that anti-idiotypic antibodies 3A4 and 3H9 have the potentiality of inducing GD2-specific cellular immune responses that cannot be induced by the native antigen GD2 itself.
Animals ; Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic* ; Hypersensitivity ; Immune Tolerance ; Immunity, Cellular* ; Immunity, Humoral ; Immunoglobulin G ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphocytes ; Melanoma ; Mice ; Neural Plate ; Neuroblastoma ; Small Cell Lung Carcinoma

No abstract available.
Reference Values*

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study is to compare the differences of fetal heart rate (FHR) variables between preterm and term pregnancies after acoustic stimulation using computerized analysis of fetal heart rate. METHODS: Eighty-two normal pre-term and term pregnancies entered to this study after conventional 20-minutes nonstress test(NST) and 10-minutes acoustic stimulation test (AST). Acoustic stimulations were performed using Fetal Acoustic Stimulator (Model 146, Corometrics, US). We analyzed the FHR response after acoustic stimulation using our on-line computerized FHR analysis system, HYFM-I & II software. The changes of loss of signal, baseline FHR, variability, number of fetal movements, and number of FHR accelerations were analyzed numerically. RESULT: The mean baseline FHR was increased in term pregnancies from 141+/-7.0bpm to 152.7+/-9.7bpm, and in preterm pregnancies from 144.6+/-6.8bpm to 156.8+/-10.2bpm, respectively. The mean baseline FHR was significantly increased in both term and preterm pregnancies (p<0.01. paired t-test). The variability of FHR was increased in term pregnancies from 18.2+/-6.4bpm to 22.6+/-5.0bpm and in preterm pregnancies from 17.8+/-5.5bpm to 22.7+/-5.9bpm, respectively. The variability of FHR was also significantly increased in both term and preterm pregnancies. (p<0.01. paired t-test) CONCLUSION: The mean baseline FHR and the variability of FHR was significantly increased both preterm and term pregnancies. But the difference of each FHR variables between preterm pregnancies and term pregnancies was not statistically significant in this study.
Acceleration ; Acoustic Stimulation* ; Acoustics* ; Female ; Fetal Heart* ; Fetal Movement ; Heart Rate, Fetal* ; Pregnancy

No abstract available.
Scrub Typhus*