Prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (HKR), significant associations were noted between soil lead (SL) and blood lead (BL) in New Orleans. Engineering failure of New Orleans levees and canal walls after HKR set the stage for a quasi-experiment to evaluate BL responses by 13 306 children to reductions in SL. High density soil surveying conducted in 46 census tracts before HKR was repeated after ...

Adding either macrolide or fluoroquinolone (FQ) to β-lactam has been recommended for patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, due to the limited evidence available, there is a question as to the superiority of the two combination therapies. The MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched for systematic review and meta-a...

BACKGROUND Modulating early immune response by application of bacteria and their by-products has been suggested as a preventive strategy against the development of allergic diseases. In light of this, the aim of the study was to test the effects of oral administration of bacterial lysates (BL) in a rat model of food allergy. METHODS BL or PBS were administered orally to neonatal Brown Norway ...

Brassinolide (BL), considered to be the most important brassinosteroid (BR) and playing pivotal roles in the hormonal regulation of plant growth and development, was found to induce disease resistance in plants. To study the potentialities of BL activity on stress responding systems, we analyzed its ability to induce disease resistance in tobacco and rice plants. Wild-type tobacco treated with ...

BALB/c mice immunized with bacterial levan (BL), a /3(2---*6) fructosan with fl(2--*l) branched points, produce antibodies of two general types (1). One group of molecules is specific for inulin, which is a fl(2---* 1) fructosan, as well as for levan; such antibodies, which can first be detected in BALB/c mice at 28 d of age (2), express idiotypes (Id) that cross-react with those found on inuli...

Previous authors showed that, at low doses, both basolateral and luminal ANG II increase the proximal tubule's HCO(3)(-) reabsorption rate (J(HCO(3))). Using out-of-equilibrium CO(2)/HCO(3)(-) solutions, we demonstrated that basolateral CO(2) increases J(HCO(3)). Here, we examine interactions between ANG II and CO(2) in isolated, perfused rabbit S2 segments. We first used equilibrated 5% CO(2)/...

In pancreatic beta-cells, increased expression of the MODY5 gene product, HNF1 beta, leads to enhanced rates of apoptosis and altered regulation of the cell cycle, suggesting that control of HNF1 beta expression may be important for the control of beta-cell proliferation and viability. It is unclear how these effects of HNF1 beta are mediated, but previously we have identified a protein tyrosin...

The insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) signaling pathway is a major regulator of adipose tissue growth and differentiation. We recently demonstrated that human protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) L1, a large cytoplasmic phosphatase also known as PTP-BAS/PTPN13/PTP-1E, is a negative regulator of IGF-1R/IRS-1/Akt pathway in breast cancer cells. This triggered us to investigate the potent...

The cytokine stem cell factor (SCF) synergizes with interleukin-7 (IL-7) to enhance the proliferation of pre-B cells. To examine the role of SCF and its receptor, c-kit, in the pathogenesis of pediatric Burkitt's lymphomas (BL), we investigated the expression of SCF and c-kit in BL cells and the mitogenic activity of SCF on BL cells. A panel of 13 BL cell lines and 7 fresh biopsy tumors was inv...

Two experiments were performed to screen bacilli isolated from quails for their aflatoxin removal potential and to assess the efficiency of their amelioration of experimental aflatoxicosis. Nonhemolytic bacilli were selected for in vitro aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) removal and conventional probiotic tests. The isolate with the highest scores was selected for assessment in field experiments and was iden...