Macaronesia, which includes five mid-Atlantic archipelagos (Azores, Madeira, Selvagems, Canaries, and Cape Verdes), has been traditionally recognized as a distinct biogeographic unit whose circumscription has been intimately associated with the hypothesis that the flora is a relict of a formerly broadly distributed subtropical Tertiary flora. The concept of Macaronesia is revisited here using p...

There are a number of relationships the host can establish with the microbes we ingest. For the vast majority of microbes, they have a short-lived liaison with the human host. Either they are destroyed by the stomach acid or bile, or can not establish even a temporary residency in the gastrointestinal tract. Early in life the mucosal surfaces of the body establishes a resident, and generally st...

Gilbert G.G. Donders Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Katao/ieke Universteit Leuven, Belgium aginal bacterial flora can be studied by microscopy of fresh vaginal fluid or of a fixed, stained smear. Classifying the flora by microscopy of fresh smears of vaginal fluid allows the pathplogy to be approached in a way other than by application of Nugent et al.’s criteria for Gram-stained spec...

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to evaluate the normal flora of conjunctiva and lid margin, as well as its antibiotic sensitivity. DESIGN This was a prospective cross-sectional study. PATIENTS AND METHODS A prospective study was conducted on 120 patients who underwent cataract surgery at the Phramongkutklao Hospital from September 2014 to October 2014. Conjunctival and lid margin swabs were obta...

BACKGROUND Pili in Streptococcus pneumoniae have been shown to be one of the adherence factors for epithelial cells in the human upper respiratory tract. Two types of pilus-like structures (pilus islet-1 and pilus islet-2) have been distinguished in S. pneumoniae. OBJECTIVES To investigate the presence of pilus islet-1 (PI-1) in S. pneumoniae and the correlation between our isolates. MATERI...

One of the new strategies for the prevention of HIV acquisition is the use of microbicides such as topical microbicides including antimicrobial and antiviral peptides. Ideally, new drug candidates should kill pathogens without determent to the normal bacterial flora considered important in health; such as hydrogen peroxide producing Lactobacillus species. The antimicrobial peptides LL-37 and LS...

The human skin is a complex ecosystem that hosts a heterogeneous flora. Until recently, the diversity of the cutaneous microbiota was mainly investigated for bacteria through culture based assays subsequently confirmed by molecular techniques. There are now many evidences that viruses represent a significant part of the cutaneous flora as demonstrated by the asymptomatic carriage of beta and ga...

OBJECTIVES To assess whether bacterial vaginosis affects the rates of conception and miscarriage in the first trimester. DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING Assisted conception unit of a teaching hospital in Leeds. PARTICIPANTS 867 consecutive women undergoing in vitro fertilisation. INTERVENTIONS Screening for bacterial vaginosis with a Gram stained vaginal smear before egg collection. MAIN...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was investigate the impact of vaginal flora and vaginal inflammation on conception and early pregnancy loss following in-vitro fertilization (IVF). METHODS We enrolled 91 women who were undergoing IVF. At embryo transfer (ET), all of the women had quantitative vaginal culture, ET catheter-tip culture, and vaginal Gram stain scored for bacterial vaginosis and qu...