Serum-derived granulations and purported nanobacteria (NB) are pleomorphic apatite structures shown to resemble calcium granules widely distributed in nature. They appear to be assembled through a dual inhibitory-seeding mechanism involving proteinaceous factors, as determined by protease (trypsin and chymotrypsin) and heat inactivation studies. When inoculated into cell culture medium, the pur...

Mineralo-organic nanoparticles form spontaneously in human body fluids when the concentrations of calcium and phosphate ions exceed saturation. We have shown previously that these mineralo-organic nanoparticles possess biomimetic properties and can reproduce the whole phenomenology of the so-called nanobacteria-mineralized entities initially described as the smallest microorganisms on earth. He...

A small number of prokaryotic species have a unique physiology or ecology related to their development of unusually large size. The biomass of bacteria varies over more than 10 orders of magnitude, from the 0.2 microm wide nanobacteria to the largest cells of the colorless sulfur bacteria, Thiomargarita namibiensis, with a diameter of 750 microm. All bacteria, including those that swim around i...

The culture and demonstration of putative nanobacteria (NB) and calcifying nanoparticles (CNP) from human and animal tissues has relied primarily on the use of a culture supplement consisting of FBS that had been gamma-irradiated at a dose of 30 kGy (gamma-FBS). The use of gamma-FBS is based on the assumption that this sterilized fluid has been rid entirely of any residual NB/CNP, while it cont...

Background & Aims: Calcifying nanoparticles are different forms of calcium and phosphate in sediments. Recent evidence suggests that calcifying nanoparticles (CNPs) are probably selfreplicating. Several diseases are linked to nano-bacteria including kidney stones, gallbladder stone, cardiovascular plaques, oral–dental plaque, many cancers, and autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to a...

Atherosclerosis, and the Vascular Endothelium To the Editors: The recent editorial by Drs Vita and Loscalzo1 was most informative and presents an overview of the relationships among infection, atherosclerosis, and consequent endothelial dysfunction. Their conclusion that “chronic infection may be added to the list of factors that induce endothelial dysfunction” is certainly warranted. Similarly...

Cytotoxicity of Calcium Phosphate Crystals and Human-Derived Nanoparticles: An Overlooked Link To the Editor: In a recent communication, Ewence et al reported that calcium phosphate crystals induced cell death in human aortic vascular smooth muscle cells. Explicitly, crystals of approximately 1 m in diameter caused rapid rises in intracellular calcium concentration, their potency depending on t...

Biostimulatory effects achieved in various biosystems irradiated with light lead us to recommend photobiostimulation for the compensation of external stress stimuli in tissue engineering, as well as in cellular imaging. Bioengineered cell assemblies and tissues are exposed to extreme environmental stress states during their transfer from artificial milieus into the body and in the first phase o...

Hodgkin‟s disease (HD) is widely considered a neoplastic disease. However, for more than a century some investigators have considered HD an infectious disease, caused by pleomorphic bacteria closely related to the mycobacteria that cause tuberculosis. A recent report showing “intracellular bacteria” in HD, as well as a previous electron microscopic study showing intraand extracellular “microorg...