Isolation of Trypanosoma cruzi DNA in 4,000-year-old mummified human tissue from northern Chile

A segment of DNA unique to the kinetoplast of Trypanosoma cruzi was isolated from spontaneously mummified human remains from the coastal area of northern Chile at sites dated from 2000 BC to about AD 1400. Following rehydration of the desiccated human tissue samples of heart, esophagus, or colon, the samples were extracted and primers employed to bind to a 330 bp kinetoplast minicircle DNA sequence present in T. cruzi. This segment was then amplified using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the target segment was visualized by gel electrophoresis. This method enables the identification of Chagas' disease in an ancient body in the absence of recognizable anatomic pathological changes.     

The human mixed lymphocyte-tumor cell interaction test

Summary Co-culture of cancer patients' nonadherent peripheral blood lymphocytes with irradiated autologous fresh tumor cells, termed the mixed lymphocyte-tumor interaction (MLTI) test, resulted in significant stimulation of ³H-Tdr in corporation on day 6 in 19 of 37 autologous combinations. The MLTI test was performed in a microtiter wells (0.2 ml) and a variety of solid tumor cells (sarcomas and carcinomas) were used. Tumor cells were dissociated from the fresh biopsy tissue by nontrypsin enzymatic digestion (deoxyribonuclease, hyaluronidase, and collagenase) and the tumor cells enriched by depletion of macrophages using adherence procedures. Occasionally, further tumor cell purification was achieved by separation of cells on the basis of size on dis-continuous gradients. Positive MLTI resulted in stimulation as high as 20-fold over the backgrounds of PBL and tumor cells cultured alone. Mean positive MLTI was SI of 7.7. The negative MTLI were not a reflection of generalized immunosuppression, because tumor cell preparations that did not stimulate autologous PBL did stimulate allogeneic PBL. In an additional patient, PBL not responding in the autologous MLTI did respond to allogeneic tumors. MLTI using cryopreserved cells reproduced the MLTI results using fresh cells in 11 of 16 tests; the other five tests were all positive in the fresh MLTI and negative when using cryopreserved cells. Despite reports from many other groups it appears that positive MLTI were not tumor-specific. In 14 experiments we were able to simultaneously test the proliferative response to autologous tumor as well as to an autologous normal tissue (lung, liver, colon, and bowel). In eight of these experiments positive responses were obtained with tumor stimulators and in seven of these, positive proliferation was also obtained with normal tissue.Abbreviations used: MLTI, mixed lymphocyte-tumor cell interaction; SF-RPMI, serum-free RPMI medium; PBL, peripheral blood lymphocytes; HBSS, Hank's balanced salt solution; ³H-Tdr, tritiated thymidine; SI, stimulator index     

A kinetic model for cell agglutination

A model of concanavalin A (ConA) mediated cell agglutination kinetics is proposed, in which the binding of the lectin, the agglutination of cells and the disintegration of cell clumps are discussed. This resulted in a differential equation, which is solved in terms of the average number of cells per cell clump as a function of time.     

沙门氏菌的分子分型方法

沙门氏菌是一类危害人和动物健康的重要致病菌,是引起食物中毒的最常见病原菌之一.本文对目前常用的3种分子分型方法脉冲场凝胶电泳(Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis,PFGE),多位点序列分析(Multi-locus sequence analysis,MLST)及多位点可变数串联重复分析(Multiple-locus variable number tandem repeats analysis,MLVA)在沙门氏菌分子分型的应用做了阐述和比较,为沙门氏菌分型研究提供一定的参考.     

Simple method of recording the kinetics of cell agglutination and aggregation

The light scattering measure method for studying the kinetics of cell agglutination and aggregation under conditions of continuous and uniform stirring of suspension has been suggested.