OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Lactobacillus casei cell wall extract-induced Kawasaki disease (KD) accelerates atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic mice. Method and Results- Apolipoprotein E knockout or low-density lipoprotein receptor knockout mice were injected with Lactobacillus casei cell wall extract (KD mice) or PBS, fed high-fat diet for 8 weeks, and a...

To study what determines the arthritogenicity of bacterial cell walls, cell wall-induced arthritis in the rat was applied, using four strains of Lactobacillus. Three of the strains used proved to induce chronic arthritis in the rat; all were Lactobacillus casei. The cell wall of Lactobacillus fermentum did not induce chronic arthritis. All arthritogenic bacterial cell walls had the same peptido...

is strictly non-competitive with 3-phospho-~-glycerate at the catalytic centre and strictly competitive with the corresponding MgATP2-. Analogous product-inhibition patterns were previously obtained with ADP, being non-competitive with MgATPZand competitive with 3-phospho-~-glycerate (Larsson-Rainikiewicz & Arvidsson, 1971). ADP and 1,3-diphospho-~-glycerate appear preferentially to bind to sit...

To eliminate the occurrence of virulent phage in industrial fermentation, attempts were made to obtain prophage-cured derivatives from Lactobacillus casei lysogenic strain S-1. A thermoinducible mutant lysogen was isolated from mutagenized strain S-1, since S-1 cannot be induced under laboratory conditions. The mutation responsible for thermoinducibility was located on the prophage. Prophage-cu...

The Lactobacillus casei response to folate is normally estimated by measuring the culture turbidity after 16 to 20 hours' incubation. Streeter and O'Neill (1969) found that cultures containing serum grew more rapidly than similar cultures containing folic acid (PteGlu) unless grown into the stationary phase (44 hours). Others, however, have reported comparable results from 20and 44-hour assays ...

Candidiasis is a common fungal infection that is prevalent in immunocompromised individuals. In this study, an oral vaccine against Candida albicans was developed by using the molecular display approach. Enolase 1 protein (Eno1p) of C. albicans was expressed on the Lactobacillus casei cell surface by using poly-gamma-glutamic acid synthetase complex A from Bacillus subtilis as an anchoring prot...

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a multisystem vasculitis and the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children of the developed world. Lactobacillus casei cell wall extract-induced coronary arteritis in mice mirrors KD in children. Here, we report that responses to L. casei cell wall extract possess all the hallmarks of a superantigen-mediated response: marked proliferation of naive T cells, non...

By Biuu’ ui n A. COOPER AND Louis LOWENSTEIN T HE DETERMINATION of folate activity in serum with Lactobacillus casei allows recognition of patients with folate deficien y.13 It has been observed that much of the L. casei-active folate in human serum consists of N5-methyl tetrahydropteroyl monoglutamate,4 and that the concentration of folate activity in serum is increased in some patients with p...