Isolation of enteric pathogens from patients with travelers' diarrhea using fecal transport media

Abstract We investigated the effectiveness of a two-vial fecal transport system: glycerol-buffered saline (GBS) and modified Cary-Blair with antibiotics (CBA) to transport stool samples to an enteric disease reference laboratory. In a blind study we compared the results of culturing 41 specimens promptly in the field laboratory to subculturing GBS and CBA in the reference laboratory. A pathogen was isolated from 72% of the cases in each laboratory. In addition, a pathogen was isolated from 32 of 45 samples inoculated into GBS and CBA and transported to the reference laboratory for subculture. These results demonstrate that GBS and CBA are effective means of transporting specimens to a reference laboratory when studying the etiology of diarrhea in remote parts of the world.     

Muscarinic cholinergic stimulation increases cyclic GMP levels in rat hippocampus.

Abstract— Muscarinic cholinergic agonists increase cyclic GMP levels in a number of neural tissues. Since the rat hippocampus receives a cholinergic innervation from the septum, we decided to test whether cyclic GMP levels of the rat hippocampus are increased by bethanechol, a muscarinic cholinergic agonist. Incubation of rat hippocampi with varying concentrations of bethanechol showed that the increase in cyclic GMP levels is concentration-dependent, 500 pwbethanechol producing a maximum increase of 490% over control values. The bethanechol-evoked increases were blocked by the muscarinic antagonist atropine, and were calcium-dependent. It is concluded that at least some of the cells projecting to the rat hippocampus form muscarinic cholinergic synapses which act via a cyclic GMP-dependent mechanism.