Biomarker profiles in serum and saliva of experimental Sj?gren's syndrome: associations with specific autoimmune manifestations

Introduction  

Sj?gren's syndrome (SS) is a systemic autoimmune disease that mainly targets the exocrine glands. The aim of this study was to investigate the involvement of 87 proteins measured in serum and 75 proteins analyzed in saliva in spontaneous experimental SS. In addition, we intended to compute a model of the immunological situation representing the overt disease stage of SS.     

Allelic variation in HLA-B and HLA-C sequences and the evolution of the HLA-B alleles

Several new HLA-B (B8, B51, Bw62)- and HLA-C (Cw6, Cw7)-specific genes were isolated either as genomic cosmid or cDNA clones to study the diversity of HLA antigens. The allele specificities were identified by sequence analysis in comparison with published HLA-B and -C sequences, by transfection experiments, and Southern and northern blot analysis using oligonucleotide probes. Comparison of the classical HLA-A, -B, and -C sequences reveals that allele-specific substitutions seem to be rare events. HLA-B51 codes only for one allelespecific residue: arginine at position 81 located on the 1 helix, pointing toward the antigen binding site. HLA-B8 contains an acidic substitution in amino acid position 9 on the first central sheet which might affect antigen binding capacity, perhaps in combination with the rare replacement at position 67 (F) on the ul helix. HLA-B8 shows greatest homology to HLA-Bw42, -Bw41, -B7, and-Bw60 antigens, all of which lack the conserved restriction sites Pst I at position 180 and Sac I at position 131. Both sites associated with amino acid replacements seem to be genetic markers of an evolutionary split of the HLA-B alleles, which is also observed in the leader sequences. HLA-Cw7 shows 98% sequence identity to the JY328 gene. In general, the HLA-C alleles display lower levels of variability in the highly polymorphic regions of the 1 and 2 domains, and have more distinct patterns of locus-specific residues in the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains. Thus we propose a more recent origin for the HLA-C locus.     

Effects of Prechilling and Sequential Washing on Enumeration of Microorganisms from Refuse

Techniques were evaluated for formation of a liquid inoculum from shredded municipal refuse, including chilling the refuse at 4°C prior to blending and multiple washing and blending cycles. The average count of cellulolytic bacteria from six different detachment treatments was 5.1 × 10⁴ cells per g (dry weight) of refuse with a range of 0.7 × 10⁴ to 12.7 × 10⁴ cells per g (dry weight). The liquid obtained from blending the refuse in phosphate buffer followed by hand squeezing was the selected detachment procedure. The inoculum formation procedure was validated by the addition of ruminal cellulolytic bacteria to refuse and recovery of the cellulolytic bacteria by most-probable-number enumerations. The ratio of measured to expected cell counts among tests in which different volumes of ruminal fluid were added to refuse ranged from 2.7 to 14.4. There was no evidence of anaerobic cellulolytic fungi in a refuse sample.