BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains are divided into Community Associated (CA-) and Hospital Associated (HA-) MRSA. These strains vary in antimicrobial resistance and pathogenicity. S. aureus is one of the most common microorganisms in ocular infections. This study was aimed to determine antimicrobial resistance patterns and genetic characteristi...

Staphylococcal protein A (Spa) is an important virulence factor of Staphylococcus aureus. Transcription of the spa determinant occurs during the exponential growth phase and is repressed when the cells enter the postexponential growth phase. Regulation of spa expression has been found to be complicated, with regulation involving multiple factors, including Agr, SarA, SarS, SarT, Rot, and MgrA. ...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a pervasive healthcare-acquired (HA) pathogen with recent emergence as a community-acquired (CA) pathogen. To elucidate whether meat mediates MRSA transmission between animals and humans in Japan, this study examined MRSA isolates from retail meat (n = 8), cows with mastitis (n = 7), and humans (HA-MRSA = 46 and CA-MRSA = 54) by molecular ty...

Factors affecting contribution of spontaneous physical activity (SPA; activity associated with everyday tasks) to energy balance of humans are not well understood, as it is not clear whether low activity is related to dietary habits, precedes obesity or is a result of thereof. In particular, human studies on SPA and basal metabolic rates (BMR, accounting for >50% of human energy budget) and the...

Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen of many species, including sheep, and impacts on both human and animal health, animal welfare, and farm productivity. Here we present the widest global diversity study of ovine-associated S. aureus to date. We analysed 97 S. aureus isolates from sheep and sheep products from the UK, Turkey, France, Norway, Australia, Canada and the USA using multil...

OBJECTIVES We aimed to evaluate a wide spectrum of clinical features of adult patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA) whose initial manifestation was fever, using the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society (ASAS) classification criteria. METHODS We retrospectively collected the electronic medical records of hospitalized SpA patients who initially presented to the Severance Hospit...

Background: The aim of this study is to measure the level of radon gas in the thermal springs of the four seasons in the Black Sea Region and to determine the gamma activity levels in the soils around them. Materials and Methods: Indoor radon activity concentrations of four spa facilities, namely Ladik, Havza, Ilıcaköy, and Ayder, were measured using CR-39 passive radon dosimeters and active ra...

In genetic analysis of bovine Staphylococcus aureus isolates that are recognized as an important pathogenic bacterium in bovine mastitis, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) showed strong correlation to the results of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, coa PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), spa typing, and the coagulase serotyping method. According to MLST results, strains derive...

Staphyococcus aureus and especially the epidemic methicillin-resistant S. aureus strains cause severe necrotizing pneumonia. The mechanisms whereby these organisms invade across the mucosal epithelial barrier to initiate invasive infection are not well understood. Protein A (SpA), a highly conserved and abundant surface protein of S. aureus, activates TNF receptor 1 and EGF receptor (EGFR) sign...

The Clp ATPases (Hsp100) constitute a family of closely related proteins that have protein reactivating and remodelling activities typical of molecular chaperones. In Staphylococcus aureus the ClpX chaperone is essential for virulence and for transcription of spa encoding Protein A. The present study was undertaken to elucidate the mechanism by which ClpX stimulates expression of Protein A. For...