Mouse gut intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL), whether thymodependent (CD4+ or CD8 alpha/beta +; TCR-alpha/beta +) or thymoindependent (CD8 alpha/alpha +; TCR-alpha/beta + or -gamma/delta +), all display cytotoxic activity in a "redirected lysis assay" using anti-CD3 or anti-TCR beta or delta chains secreting hybridomas as targets; this is also observed with IEL of germ-free mice, indicating that...

Biomimetic micro-swimmers can be used for various medical applications, such as targeted drug delivery and micro-object (e.g. biological cells) manipulation, in lab-on-a-chip devices. Bacteria swim using a bundle of flagella (flexible hair-like structures) that form a rotating cork-screw of chiral shape. To mimic bacterial swimming, we employ a computational approach to design a bacterial (chir...

In this communication, we describe a novel methodology for single bacterial detection based on micro-channel gating and involving the use of microelectrodes in a micro-channel for detection of target cell capture. The sensors designed have been shown to be capable of electrical detection of the target cells at the single cell level.

We characterised the human hSuv3p protein belonging to the family of NTPases/helicases. In yeast mitochondria the hSUV3 orthologue is a component of the degradosome complex and participates in mtRNA turnover and processing, while in Caenorhabditis elegans the hSUV3 orthologue is necessary for viability of early embryos. Using immunofluorescence analysis, an in vitro mitochondrial uptake assay a...

Heated scallop-shell (HSS) nano-particles, prepared using a wet grinding mill, and microparticles were examined for their antibacterial activity against vegetative bacterial cells and spores. The median diameters of the nano-particles and micro-particles were approximately 20 nm and 30 µm, respectively. The antibacterial activity of HSS against Escherichia coli increased with an increase in con...

Actinomycosis, a bacterial infection characterized by chronic inflammatory induration and sinus formation, presents clinical challenges. First, the infection eludes diagnosis because etiologic agents are bacteria and not fungi, a fact not yet well known. Second, clinicians must employ special anaerobic techniques to culture the causative micro-organisms. Actinomyces are indigenous to the oral a...

A turbidimetric assay was developed and validated against Escherichia coli for the quantitation of viable bacterial densities. The Abbott MS-2 research system was employed for continuous 5-min measurements of optical density. A linear standard curve was obtained by regressing the initial bacterial density (log CFU per milliliter) against the time required for bacterial growth causing a 5% decre...

Bacterial detection plays an important role in protecting public health and safety, and thus, substantial research efforts have been directed at developing bacterial sensing methods that are sensitive, specific, inexpensive, and easy to use. We have recently reported a novel "mix-and-read" assay where a fluorogenic DNAzyme probe was used to detect model bacterium E. coli. In this work, we carri...

A LightCycler and two TaqMan real-time PCR assays were evaluated against an older PCR with liquid-phase hybridization method for the detection of enterovirus RNA in 74 patient samples. The two-step LightCycler and the two-step TaqMan formats correlated well with each other (r(2) = 0.90) and were equally sensitive compared to the liquid-phase hybridization method, whereas the one-step recombinan...