Secreted factors of Staphylococcus aureus can activate host signaling from the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). The superantigen toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) contributes to mucosal cytokine production through a disintegrin and metalloproteinase (ADAM)-mediated shedding of EGFR ligands and subsequent EGFR activation. The secreted hemolysin, α-toxin, can also induce EGFR signalin...

OBJECTIVES The clinical importance of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is attributed to notable virulence factors, surface proteins, toxins, and enzymes as well as the rapid development of drug resistance. The aim of this study was to compare the occurrence of virulence factors produced by S. aureus strains isolated from children in an Iranian referral children's hospital. METHODS The presen...

Little is known about effects of commonly used anxiolytic drugs on psychologically evoked responses of two major stress systems, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) axis. The purpose of the present study was to assess effects of the anxiolytic alprazolam on responses of the HPA and the SAM axes to a standardized psychosocial stress protocol, the ...

In older adults, high-normal circulating cortisol levels are associated with lower bone mass, but relationships between hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function and peak bone mass in young adults have not been examined. We studied 411 male and 390 female participants in the Western Australia Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study. At 18years of age, participants underwent a Trier Social Stress Test...

Previous studies have demonstrated that a proportion of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from bovine mastitis coproduce toxic shock syndrome toxin (TSST) and staphylococcal enterotoxin C (SEC). In this study, molecular genetic analysis of one such strain, RF122, revealed the presence of a 15,891-bp putative pathogenicity island (SaPIbov) encoding the genes for TSST (tst), the SEC bovine variant (...

BACKGROUND Good physical fitness seems to help the individual to buffer the potential harmful impact of psychosocial stress on somatic and mental health. The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of physical fitness levels on the autonomic nervous system (ANS; i.e. heart rate and salivary alpha amylase) responses to acute psychosocial stress, while controlling for established fact...

BACKGROUND Lactation is thought to buffer stress reactivity via oxytocin (OT). Dysregulation of the HPA axis has been reported in women with postpartum depression (PPD). The co-occurrence of PPD and lactation failure suggests that abnormalities in OT signaling may play a role in PPD. We hypothesized that abnormal OT signaling is implicated in dysregulated HPA axis reactivity among postpartum wo...

The genetic background and the presence of several virulence factors of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from intensive care unit (ICU) patients from 14 hospitals in The Netherlands isolated from 1996 until 2006 were investigated. In total, 936 methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) and 7 methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates were collected. The genetic background was determined by sp...

The production of toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1) by Staphylococcus aureus MN8 exposed to a range of oxygen concentrations (0 to 21% [vol/vol]) was examined in batch and thin-film cultures. The response of S. aureus to this range of oxygen concentrations was studied in the absence and in the presence of 7% (vol/vol) carbon dioxide. In the absence of carbon dioxide, TSST-1 production in ba...

Protein tyrosine phosphatase-22 (PTPN22) gene encodes lymphoid-specific tyrosine phosphatase (Lyp), an inhibitor of T cell activation. A polymorphism of the PTPN22 gene has been found to be associated with chronic urticaria (CU). We investigated the associations between PTPN22 gene polymorphisms and CU characteristics, including serum specific IgE antibodies response to toxic shock syndrome tox...