Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-G, which is mainly expressed at the maternal-fetal interface, may play a role in the immune tolerance of the semi-allogenic fetus by the mother. Functional studies have shown that HLA-G is indeed a potential modulator of different immune responses. Therefore, it is of interest to study the level of expression of soluble HLA-G in several biological fluids derived fr...

The antibody response to various combined polyvalent Pasteurella haemolytica vaccines was studied in sheep and cattle. In sheep, certain oil adjuvant vaccines gave rise to a better antibody response to P. haemolytica than an A1(OH)3-adsorbed vaccine. This finding, however, was not consistent for all serotypes, and with respect to P. multocida, oil adjuvants had no advantage. Furthermore, it was...

The decline in colony-forming ability observed during tryptophan starvation of Bacillus subtilis auxotrophs is a concentration-dependent phenomenon. It does not manifest itself when the initial cell concentration is 10(6) cells/ml or lower. This property has been used to test the killing activity of different fractions of the dying cells. Most of the activity recovered is found in the supernata...

We evaluated the ability of a monoclonal antibody directed against the common H.8 antigen of pathogenic Neisseria sp. to confer passive protection against meningococcal disease in mice. The apparent protection conferred by antibody purified from tissue culture supernatant was actually the result of endotoxin contamination of buffers and tissue culture media. Endotoxin-free anti-H.8 antibody was...

Yield of streptolysin S (SLS) in streptococcal culture was considerably reduced by procaine, dibucaine, atropine or chlorpromazine at concentrations which scarcely affected production of an extracellular nuclease as well as the bacterial growth. Cerulenin was also inhibitory to SLS formation, but its effect was more pronounced on the nuclease production. By aerobiosis, amount of SLS produced in...