Preventive and Curative Biological Treatments for Control of Botrytis cinerea Stem Canker of Greenhouse Tomatoes

The effects of biological treatments with PlantShield^®, Prestop^®, Quadra 136, RootShield^®, and S33 (Rhodosporidium diobovatum) and chemical treatment with Decree^® applied as a preventive or curative sprays on stem canker caused by Botrytis cinerea on tomato plants grown in sawdust were studied under near-commercial greenhouse conditions. Prestop^® and Decree^®, applied as preventive or curative sprays, PlantShield^® applied as curative spray, and S33 and Q-136 applied as preventive or preventive plus one spray to wounded surface provided season-long protection from B. cinerea stem canker. These treatments also increased fruit yield and decreased the number of dead plants compared with the inoculated control.     

Time-of-day dependent performance efficiency in student nurses

A psychological test battery comprising reasoning ability, name and number checking, letter cancellation and associative recall was administered to a group of 70 student nurses at 2-hr intervals from 0800 to 2000 to determine if their performance varied at different times of day. Simultaneously, their oral temperature was recorded. A 7 x 7 latin square design was utilized, and latin square repeated measure analysis of variance was employed. The results indicated variations in oral temperature as the day advanced. While accuracy of performance in cognitive tasks was found to be superior during the early morning, noon or early evening hours, the speed of performance was highest during the period from late-morning to late-evening.     

Burn Injury Reduces Neutrophil Directional Migration Speed in Microfluidic Devices

Thermal injury triggers a fulminant inflammatory cascade that heralds shock, end-organ failure, and ultimately sepsis and death. Emerging evidence points to a critical role for the innate immune system, and several studies had documented concurrent impairment in neutrophil chemotaxis with these post-burn inflammatory changes. While a few studies suggest that a link between neutrophil motility and patient mortality might exist, so far, cumbersome assays have prohibited exploration of the prognostic and diagnostic significance of chemotaxis after burn injury. To address this need, we developed a microfluidic device that is simple to operate and allows for precise and robust measurements of chemotaxis speed and persistence characteristics at single-cell resolution. Using this assay, we established a reference set of migration speed values for neutrophils from healthy subjects. Comparisons with samples from burn patients revealed impaired directional migration speed starting as early as 24 hours after burn injury, reaching a minimum at 72–120 hours, correlated to the size of the burn injury and potentially serving as an early indicator for concurrent infections. Further characterization of neutrophil chemotaxis using this new assay may have important diagnostic implications not only for burn patients but also for patients afflicted by other diseases that compromise neutrophil functions.     

Thorium induced testicular changes in rats.

Daily intraperitoneal administration of thorium nitrate produced progressive morphological and biochemical alterations with the increase in thorium concentration in rat testis. The degenerative changes in the seminiferous tubules increased with the duration of treatment and after 90 days calcification occurred in about 25% of the tubules and in the connective tissue of the tunica albuginea. The activity of adenosine triphosphatase and alkaline phosphatase increased markedly as a result of thorium administration. An attempt has been made to interrelate histopathological and enzymatic changes and the metal concentration in the testicular tissue.     

Blue guaran (a chromophore-labeled galactomannan) as a reagent for lectins

A new reagent (blue guaran) for quantitative estimation of lectins, has been derived from a galactomannan (guaran). When the lectin solution is added to an aqueous solution of blue guaran, dye-bound guaran is precipitated from the solution. The difference in absorbance of the blue guaran solution before and after the addition of lectin solution is proportional to the amount of lectin present in the sample. The method of preparation of blue guaran, its spectral characteristics and effect of pH on precipitation have also been described. It gives a simple colorimetric method for the estimation of galactose-specific lectins.     

Alpha,beta-dehydrophenylalanine containing cecropin-melittin hybrid peptides: conformation and activity.

Synthesis and conformational studies of a cecropin-melittin hybrid pentadecapeptide CA(1-7)MEL(2-9), and its three alpha, beta-dehydrophenylalanine (DeltaPhe) containing analogs in water-TFE mixtures are described. DeltaPhe is placed at strategic positions in order to preserve the amphipathicity of the molecule. The wild type CAMEL0 and its three analogs, containing one, two and three DeltaPhe residues namely CAMELDeltaPhe1, CAMELDeltaPhe2 and CAMELDeltaPhe3 respectively were synthesized in solid phase and their conformation determined by CD and NMR. CAMELDeltaPhe2 and CAMELDeltaPhe3 peptides exhibit the presence of 3(10)-helix and beta-turns in the former and only turns in the latter. CAMELDeltaPhe1 peptide was found to have a largely extended conformation. Antibacterial and hemolytic activities of the peptides were also evaluated. CAMELDeltaPhe2 peptide is maximally potent against both Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 259230 and Escherichia coli ATCC 11303. CAMELDeltaPhe1 with a single DeltaPhe at the center shows minimal hemolysis.     

Thymus-dependent in vivo suppression of IgE synthesis in a murine IgE-secreting hybridoma

In previous studies we demonstrated that BALB/c mice bearing ascitic tumors of the IgE-secreting hybridoma B53 (epsilon, kappa, anti-dinitrophenyl) developed large numbers of Lyt-1-2+ Fc epsilon R(+) T lymphocytes (T cells with membrane Fc receptors) in response to the elevated serum IgE concentration. The development of Fc epsilon R(+) T lymphocytes was followed by a progressive decrease in the levels of serum IgE in spite of continued proliferation of the hybridoma cells. This sequence of events suggested that the IgE-secreting hybridoma triggered a suppressive immunoregulatory circuit of the host that inhibited IgE expression by the hybridoma cells. The present studies were undertaken to investigate the basis for the subsequent decline in serum IgE levels in mice with B53 tumors and to identify host factors that might be involved in this process. We observed that ascitic B53 cells recovered at increasing time points from BALB/c mice exhibited a selective decline in steady state levels and rates of synthesis of epsilon-heavy chain protein and mRNA. The expression of kappa-light chain protein and mRNA appeared relatively unchanged. The decrease in epsilon-heavy chain gene expression did not occur when B53 tumors were passaged in nu+/nu+ mice or in BALB/c mice depleted of Lyt-2+ cells (suppressor/cytotoxic cell lineage), but did occur in nu+/nu+ mice reconstituted with neonatal BALB/c thymus and in BALB/c mice depleted of L3T4+ cells (helper/inducer cell lineage). That Fc epsilon R(+) T lymphocytes were directly involved in the inhibition of IgE expression was supported by the earlier and more pronounced inhibition of B53 IgE in mice infused with Fc epsilon R(+) T lymphocytes. We conclude from these findings that: 1) the decline in serum IgE levels that occurs toward the end of each generation of in vivo passage of the B53 hybridoma is due to decreased production of IgE by the hybridoma cells, 2) the decreased production of IgE is due to a selective loss of epsilon mRNA expression, 3) the decrease production of IgE by B53 cells is dependent on the presence of Lyt-2+ cells, and 4) Fc epsilon R(+) T lymphocytes participate in the mechanism by which IgE production is suppressed.     

Effect of cholesterol enrichment on 12-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid metabolism by mouse peritoneal macrophages

The metabolism of 12-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (12-HETE) was investigated in mouse peritoneal macrophages enriched in cholesterol by incubation with acetylated low density lipoproteins. After incubating with labeled arachidonic acid, cholesterol-rich cells released more 12-HETE into the medium than unmodified macrophages. With time, however, 12-HETE decreased in the medium of both cell preparations suggesting re-uptake of this monohydroxyfatty acid and perhaps further metabolism. When control macrophages were incubated with radiolabeled 12-HETE for 2 hr, almost 70% of the cell-associated 12-HETE label was incorporated into phospholipids. In contrast, in cholesterol-rich cells, only 31% of the 12-HETE label was incorporated into phospholipids. Bee venom phospholipase completely hydrolyzed the label, suggesting that the monohydroxyfatty acid was esterified at the sn-2 position of the phospholipid. In cholesterol-rich cells, 69% of the 12-HETE was diverted into neutral lipids. Two major neutral lipids were identified in cholesterol-rich macrophages. One neutral lipid band which migrated with an Rf value of 0.34 contained the hydroxylated fatty acid esterified to a glyceride. The other neutral lipid band having an Rf value of 0.49 contained cholesterol and by further analysis was found to contain predominantly cholesteryl-12-HETE. The labeled fatty acids in these two neutral lipids were mostly oxidized products of 12-HETE in contrast to the native 12-HETE observed in the phospholipids. Cholesterol-rich macrophages released 25% more products of 12-HETE metabolism than control macrophages. Two major products were observed in the medium which eluted in the area of a standard di-HETE, LTB4, on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. We propose that the reincorporation of 12-HETE into these neutral lipids and the increased capacity for further metabolism of this biologically potent hydroxyfatty acid could be a mechanism by which the cholesterol-rich macrophage maintains its membrane function, and regulates the amount of 12-HETE in the pericellular space.