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application/pdf, Dietary vitamin A is an essential precursor of tissue retinol, which participates in a variety of biological processes including innate immunity. Functions of vitamin A mainly depend on retinoic acid（ RA）, principally all-trans- RA （atRA） and 9-cis-RA. We assessed whether atRA is benefi cial in host resistance against bacterial infections or not. Vitamin A-defi cient（ VAD） mice were highly susceptible to infection with Listeria monocytogenes. Pre-treatment with atRA enhanced host resistance against L. monocytogenes infection in both VAD and VAS mice. Interferon（ IFN） -γ production in atRA pre-treated VAS mice was not higher compared with the control VAD mice. The eff ect of atRA was independent of T cells and B cells. The bactericidal activity in macrophages obtained from atRA pre-treated VAS mice was almost the same level compared with the control VAS mice. Our results demonstrated that the treatment with atRA is benefi cial for host resistance against L. monocytogenes infection in the early phase and suggested a new therapeutic possibility of atRA in bacterial infections., 弘前医学. 59(Suppl.), 2007, p.S244-S252

To ascertain the causation of a pregnant woman with undefined pneumonia reported from the People's Hospital of Tongling city in Anhui province on November 2005.Epidemiological and clinical information of the case was collected from the keypersons close to the case and referring to the medical record. A medical observation was carried out on the close contacts of the case and sick or dead poultry. Tracheal aspirates being collected were tested by both RT-PCR and real-time PCR to detect viral nucleic acids of A/H5N1, and were inoculated into special pathogen free (SPF) embryonated hens' eggs.The pregnant woman was found to have been contacted with the sick/dead poultry directly on the 4th day before onset of illness. All the 122 close contacts were healthy after a 10-day medical observation. The major clinical features of the case were viral pneumonia with rapidly developed leukopenia and lymphopenia. The progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ dysfunction syndromes was found at clinical presentation. HA and NA gene of A/H5N1 virus were positive. The 8 gene fragments of A/Anhui/1/2005 (H5N1) isolated from the tracheal aspirates had not carried genes from a human virus through reassortment, and the receptor-binding site of the hemagglutinin was polybasic cleavage site.This was the first documented case of H5N1 infection in pregnant woman. The immunotolerant state of pregnancy might have predisposed to the fatal outcome of the patient.