Vibrio vulnificus was isolated from United States West Coast estuaries at a low frequency (5.9%) from 529 samples of water, shellfish, and sediment. Four strains tested with iron-treated mice had 50% lethal dose values ranging from 7.6 to 360 CFU, compared with a 50% lethal dose of 4.9 CFU for a clinical isolate that caused the death of a septicemic patient. The presence of this pathogen may be...

T he reasons why diabetic patients with microalbuminuria have marked endothelial damage (1,2) and an increased risk of atherosclerosis (3,4) are unclear. Infection with Helicobacter pylori, especially with strains carrying the cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA), might represent a causal factor, since anti-CagA antibodies elicited by infection may cross-react with endothelial antigens (5), incre...

A PCR assay detecting Clostridium difficile toxin B gene in stool specimens was compared to the cytotoxicity assay as the reference standard for the diagnosis of C. difficile antibiotic-associated diarrhea (CDAD). Overall, 118 stool samples were tested. All of the specimens that were negative by the cytotoxicity assay (59 out of 118) were also negative by the PCR method (specificity of 100%). O...

BACKGROUND The cytotoxin associated gene A (cagA), and the vacuolating cytotoxin gene A (vacA) of Helicobacter pylori have been associated to phenotypic characteristics of virulence. The objectives of this study were to detect the presence of cagA and to characterize the allelic variants of vacA in 63 strains of H. pylori isolated from colonized individuals with different clinical outcomes. M...

Tumour-derived CXCL8 facilitates the movement of myeloid-derived suppressor cells, which are able to restrain antitumour immune responses tumour microenvironment. Kruppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) is a potential in gastric cancer (GC). However, knowledge regarding correlations between KLF4 and GC limited. We use cellular molecular biological methods assess whether these two factors interact GC. Expr...