The occurrence of distinct genetic defects affecting the generation of T cell-derived suppressor factor (TsF) or the suppressive activity of such TsF was investigated. For the synthetic polypeptide L-glutamic acid50-L-tyrosine50 (GT), it could be shown that the nonsuppressor strain A/J fails to produce suppressor T cells (Ts1) capable of GT-TsF generation upon challenge with GT. Conversely, B6,...

Properties of muscle fibers, i.e., their type, number and size, are important determinants of functional characteristics of skeletal muscle, and of the quality of meat in livestock. Genetic factors play an important role in determining variation in fiber properties, however, specific genes remain largely elusive. We examined histological properties of soleus muscle fibers in two strains of mice...

Seventeen isolates of Bartonella henselae from the region of Freiburg, Germany, obtained from blood cultures of domestic cats, were examined for their genetic heterogeneity. On the basis of different DNA fingerprinting methods, including pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR, repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP) PCR, and arbitrari...

A yellow-coloured, aerobic, Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated B-I(T), was isolated from the water of a shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) mariculture pond in Taiwan. No species with a validly published name showed 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of more than 96.5 % to this novel isolate. The highest sequence similarities displayed by strain B-I(T) (93.2-96.1 %) were to members...

Background: To date, impact of varicocelectomy on semen parameters is controversial mainly because clear preoperative selection criteria of patients to be submitted to varicocele surgery are still lacking. A comprehensive review on varicocele pathophysiology, and indications to varicocelectomy according to controlled studies and methanalises from literature and the Guidelines of the Scientific ...

Background Fifty percent of infertility involves a male factor. The evaluation begins with a history, physical exam and semen analysis x 2. The history should include questions about exposure to gonad toxins. The differential diagnosis of no ejaculate includes; retrograde ejaculation, failure of ejaculation (rare), failure of emission and psychogenic. Evaluation of absence of the vas deferens w...

Guinea pig T lymphocyte responses to the octapeptide antigen angiotensin II (NH(2)-Asp(1)-Arg(2)-Val(3)-Tyr(4)-Ile(5)-His(6)-Pro(7)-Phe(8)-OH; AII) were examined using various synthetic peptide analogues and homologues. Each peptide antigen was assessed for immunogenicity and antigenicity in strain 2 and strain 13 guinea pigs as determined by in vitro T cell proliferative responses. The genetic...