Effects of double ligation of Stensen's duct on the rabbit parotid gland

Salivary gland duct ligation is an alternative to gland excision for treating sialorrhea or reducing salivary gland size prior to tumor excision. Duct ligation also is used as an approach to study salivary gland aging, regeneration, radiotherapy, sialolithiasis and sialadenitis. Reports conflict about the contribution of each salivary cell population to gland size reduction after ductal ligation. Certain cell populations, especially acini, reportedly undergo atrophy, apoptosis and proliferation during reduction of gland size. Acini also have been reported to de-differentiate into ducts. These contradictory results have been attributed to different animal or salivary gland models, or to methods of ligation. We report here a bilateral double ligature technique for rabbit parotid glands with histologic observations at 1, 7, 14, 30, 60 days after ligation. A large battery of special stains and immunohistochemical procedures was employed to define the cell populations. Four stages with overlapping features were observed that led to progressive shutdown of gland activities: 1) marked atrophy of the acinar cells occurred by 14 days, 2) response to and removal of the secretory material trapped in the acinar and ductal lumens mainly between 30 and 60 days, 3) reduction in the number of parenchymal (mostly acinar) cells by apoptosis that occurred mainly between 14–30 days, and 4) maintenance of steady-state at 60 days with a low rate of fluid, protein, and glycoprotein secretion, which greatly decreased the number of leukocytes engaged in the removal of the luminal contents. The main post- ligation characteristics were dilation of ductal and acinar lumens, massive transient infiltration of mostly heterophils (rabbit polymorphonuclear leukocytes), acinar atrophy, and apoptosis of both acinar and ductal cells. Proliferation was uncommon except in the larger ducts. By 30 days, the distribution of myoepithelial cells had spread from exclusively investing the intercalated ducts pre-ligation to surrounding a majority of the residual duct-like structures, many of which clearly were atrophic acini. Thus, both atrophy and apoptosis made major contributions to the post-ligation reduction in gland size. Structures also occurred with both ductal and acinar markers that suggested acini differentiating into ducts. Overall, the reaction to duct ligation proceeded at a considerably slower pace in the rabbit parotid glands than has been reported for the salivary glands of the rat.     

Occurrence and chirality of oscillaxanthin

The quantitative carotenoid composition of natural blooms of Oscillatoria rubescens and O. agardhii is reported and compared with previous isolations. Chemical or enzymatic conversion of oscillaxanthin to the chiral aglycone failed. CD-correlation of oscillaxanthin hexaacetate with (2S,2′S)-bacterioruberin, (2′R)-plectaniaxanthin and (2′R)-plectaniaxanthin-2′-β-D-glucoside tetraacetate support the 2R,2′R-configuration for oscillaxanthin.     

AN INDIRECT ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY FOR THE DETECTION OF LEPTOSPIRA INTERROGANS SEROVAR POMONA ANTIBODIES IN BOVINE SERA

An indirect ELISA was developed and initially evaluated for the detection of bovine antibodies to Leptospira interrogans serovar pomona. The antigen used in this ELISA was extracted from a serovar pomona culture supernatant by a combination of centrifugation, digestion with proteinase K and ultra-centrifugation. The antigen showed little cross-reaction with immune rabbit sera to L. interrogans serovars copenhageni, grippotyphosa, hardjo and sejroe and, Leptospira biflexa serovar patoc. Some cross-reaction was observed with immune rabbit serum to L. interrogans serovar canicola. The relative sensitivity of the ELISA was 94.76% confidence interval =± 3.32%) when estimated with bovine sera (n=172) with serovar pomona microscopic agglutination test (MAT) titers of 100. The relative specificity of the ELISA was 99.28% (95% confidence interval = 1.40%) when estimated with bovine sera (n=139) with MAT titers of <100 to L. interrogans serovars canicola, copenhageni, grippotyphosa, hardjo, pomona and sejroe. Thirty six of 258 field sera (13.95%) with serovar pomona MAT titers of <100, gave positive reactions in the ELISA.     

DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A RAPID ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOFILTRATION ASSAY (ELIFA) AND AN ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY (ELISA) FOR THE DETECTION OF STAPHYLOCOCCAL ENTEROTOXIN B

An enzyme-linked immunofiltration assay (ELIFA) and a microtitre plate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were developed and compared for their ability to detect staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB). The double antibody capture format was used for both assays. Factors which improved the sensitivity of the ELIFA system were (1) addition of casein and thimerosal to the antigen dilution buffer; (2) addition of polyethylene glycol (MW 6000) to the detection and conjugate antibody dilution buffers; and (3) washing with diethanolamine buffer prior to addition of the substrate/chromogen. The ELIFA system had a turnaround time of approximately 1 h and a detection limit of 1 ng/mL of purified SEB. The ELISA had a total turnaround time of 21 h, or 3 h using plates pre-coated overnight with the capture antibody. The detection limit of the ELISA for purified SEB was 0.05 ng/mL. The detection limit of SEB in cheese samples spiked with purified enterotoxin and subjected to a simple extraction procedure was 1 ng/mL and 0.1 ng/mL of extract, with the ELIFA and the ELISA, respectively.     

Investigation of a toxic water-bloom of Microcystis aeruginosa (Cyanophyceae) in Lake Akersvatn,Norway

During the summer and fall of 1984 and 1985, the eutrophic Lake Akersvatn in south-eastern Norway, used as reserve drinking water reservoir, was found to produce heavy water-blooms of the colonial blue-green alga Microcystis aeruginosa. Samples of the water-bloom were found to be toxic using the mouse bioassay. No toxin was found free in the water as detected by HPLC and mouse bioassay. The toxic cells (minimum lethal dose 8–15 mg/kg body weight in mice) and purified toxin (minimum lethal dose 50 μg/kg body weight in mice) showed signs of poisoning in laboratory rats and mice identical to that of other hepatotoxin-producing M. aeruginosa blooms and strains reported from other parts of the world. The toxin has chemical properties similar to the cyclic heptapeptide reported for a South African M. aeruginosa toxin. The toxin from Lake Akersvatn bloom material has a molecular weight of 994. The toxic bloom of M. aeruginosa persisted from August to November in 1984 and reappeared in July of 1985. While water from Lake Akersvatn was not used for municipal water supply during this period, the presence of toxic blue-green algae in a drinking water reservoir indicates the need to develop monitoring and detection methods for toxic cells and toxin(s).     

DISTRIBUTION OF OLIGOPEPTIDE CHEMOTYPES OF THE CYANOBACTERIUM PLANKTOTHRIX AND THEIR PERSISTENCE IN SELECTED LAKES IN FENNOSCANDIA1

Eighty‐seven Planktothrix (Anagnostidis and Komàrek 1988) strains isolated from 13 lakes in Scandinavia and Finland between 1964 and 2007 were screened for oligopeptides. Forty‐six individual compounds were detected in total, belonging to the structural classes anabaenopeptins (six variants), aeruginosins (six variants), cyanopeptolins (21 variants), microcystins (five variants), microginins (two variants), and microviridins (two variants). Oscillatorin was also found. Three additional compounds could not be assigned to known oligopeptide classes. Thirty oligopeptides have not been described in previous studies. Of these new compounds, five were aeruginosins and 20 cyanopeptolins. The number of oligopeptides per strain ranged from one to 13. No oligopeptide‐free strains were found, suggesting that oligopeptide production is vital for Planktothrix. On the basis of their oligopeptide patterns, the Planktothrix strains of the present study were assigned to 17 chemotypes. Three major chemotypes occurred in up to six lakes. One chemotype occurred in lakes around the city of Oslo (Norway), on the Finnish island Fasta Åland, which is situated in the Baltic Sea, and on the Finnish mainland. This wide distribution suggests that chemotypes can be subjects of recurrent dispersal and/or strong directional selection. Lake size, maximum depth, and nutrient availability appeared to be of minor importance for the ability of some chemotypes to colonize a water body successfully as long as the general requirements of Planktothrix were met. Four chemotypes were reisolated from the Oslo lake district over a period of 33–40 years, suggesting that they have been members of local Planktothrix populations for decades.     

Evolution of Cyanobacteria by Exchange of Genetic Material among Phyletically Related Strains

The cyanobacterial radiation consists of several lineages of phyletically (morphologically and genetically) related organisms. Several of these organisms show a striking resemblance to fossil counterparts. To investigate the molecular mechanisms responsible for stabilizing or homogenizing cyanobacterial characters, we compared the evolutionary rates and phylogenetic origins of the small-subunit rRNA-encoding DNA (16S rDNA), the conserved gene rbcL (encoding d-ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase large subunit), and the less conserved gene rbcX. This survey includes four categories of phyletically related organisms: 16 strains of Microcystis, 6 strains of Tychonema, 10 strains of Planktothrix, and 12 strains of Nostoc. Both rbcL and rbcX can be regarded as neutrally evolving genes, with 95 to 100% and 50 to 80% synonymous nucleotide substitutions, respectively. There is generally low sequence divergence within the Microcystis, Tychonema, and Planktothrix categories both for rbcLX and 16S rDNA. The Nostoc category, on the other hand, consists of three genetically clustered lineages for these loci. The 16S rDNA and rbcLX phylogenies are not congruent for strains within the clustered groups. Furthermore, analysis of the phyletic structure for rbcLX indicates recombinational events between the informative sites within this locus. Thus, our results are best explained by a model involving both intergenic and intragenic recombinations. This evolutionary model explains the DNA sequence clustering for the modern species as a result of sequence homogenization (concerted evolution) caused by exchange of genetic material for neutrally evolving genes. The morphological clustering, on the other hand, is explained by structural and functional stability of these characters. We also suggest that exchange of genetic material for neutrally evolving genes may explain the apparent stability of cyanobacterial morphological characters, perhaps over billions of years.The current species diversity of the cyanobacterial radiation comprises several lineages of phyletically (morphologically and genetically) related organisms (26). An intriguing question is whether this reflects stability of cyanobacterial characters or whether the phyletic similarities originate from relatively recent common ancestors. Analyses of precambrian microfossils (superficially, hardly distinguishable from recent cyanobacteria) support the view of retention of cyanobacterial properties (1, 11, 28). However, on the basis of molecular data, a 2-billion-year-old mutual ancestor for prokaryotes has been suggested (5), implying that the similarities between the earliest records of cyanobacteria and present-day species do not reflect homologies but rather indicate analogies. In this context, the phyletically clustered groups may reflect a relatively recent divergence of the modern species.In this work we have addressed, by molecular evolutionary studies, the mechanisms responsible for conserving or homogenizing phyletical characters within groups of cyanobacteria. We investigated the evolutionary rates and origins for two genomic regions, by analyzing strains both within and among groups of phyletically related organisms. This was done by comparative analysis of the small-subunit rRNA-encoding DNA (16S rDNA), which is conserved by the RNA function (37), and the rbcLX region with both conserved and less conserved elements. The rbcLX region contains an intergenic spacer (with no identified functional units), the gene rbcX with a possible chaperonin-like function (18), and the 3′ end of rbcL (encoding the highly conserved d-ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase large subunit [LSU]) (23). We analyzed a data set consisting of four phyletically clustered cyanobacterial strain categories, as inferred from microscopic observations and 16S rDNA analysis (26, 31). The data set includes the Microcystis category (16 strains), consisting of unicellular organisms, the Tychonema (6 strains) and Planktothrix (10 strains) categories, which contain multicellular, filamentous organisms, and the Nostoc category (12 strains), which includes both morphologically and genetically slightly divergent organisms (26, 34). The strains in this last category share among other features the ability of cellular differentiation to produce heterocysts with nitrogenase activity.Our sequence data suggest an evolutionary model involving several events of gene transfer between phyletically closely related organisms but not between less related organisms. We propose that this gene transfer has led to the observed sequence homogeneity for the groups of related organisms and that exchange of genetic material stabilizes the function and structure of proteins encoded by neutrally evolving genes. Our gene transfer model may explain the similarity between the fossil and the recent species.     

Application of Sequence-Specific Labeled 16S rRNA Gene Oligonucleotide Probes for Genetic Profiling of Cyanobacterial Abundance and Diversity by Array Hybridization

DNA sequence information for the small-subunit rRNA gene (16S rDNA) obtained from cyanobacterial cultures was used to investigate the presence of cyanobacteria and their abundance in natural habitats. Eight planktonic communities developing in lakes characterized by relatively low algal biomass (mesotrophic) and in lakes with correspondingly high biomass (eutrophic) were selected for the study. The organismal compositions of the water samples were analyzed genetically, using multiplex sequence-specific labeling of oligonucleotide probes targeted to 16S rDNA and subsequent hybridization of the labeled probes to their respective complements spotted onto a solid support (DNA array). Ten probes were established to determine the relative abundances of the discernible cyanobacteria encountered in the selected lakes. The probes were generally specific for their targets, as determined through analyses of clone cultures. Reproducible abundance profiles were established for the lakes investigated in the subsequent analyses of natural cyanobacterial communities. The results from the genetic analyses were then compared with information obtained from standard hydrobiological and hydrochemical analyses. Qualitatively, there were relatively good correlations among the groups of organisms (Nostoc, Microcystis, and Planktothrix species) found in the different lakes. The levels of correlation were lower for the quantitative data. This may, however, be due to differences in sample processing technique. The conclusions from these comparisons are that the genetic abundance profiles may provide a foundation for separating and quantifying genetically distinct groups of cyanobacteria in their natural habitats.     

Effect of Photon Fluence Rate and Specific Growth Rate on Geosmin Production of the Cyanobacterium Oscillatoria brevis (Kütz.) Gom

The production of geosmin from the cyanobacterium Oscillatoria brevis was studied as a function of the photon fluence rate and appears to be related to the chlorophyll content.