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Focuses on the secreted proteins and features of Escherichia coli strains that may contribute to the pathogenesis of uropathogenic urinary tract infections. Percentage of adult women who suffer symptoms of cystitis during their lifetime; Virulence factors synthesized by uropathogens; Mechanisms by which uropathogens promote infection.

Presents information on a study which analyzed the instability of pathogenicity islands (PAI) of the uropathogenic strain Escherichia coli 536 using island probing method. Isolation and characterization of PAI II 536; Methodology; Commentary.

During a study of the nutritional requirements of clinical isolates of Escherichia coli, we found that 21 (7.0%) of 301 strains required nicotinamide to grow in minimal medium. The nicotinamide-requiring strains were present in 16 (15.8%) of 101 cultures of urine from young women with acute cystitis, in 5 (5.0%) of 100 stool specimens from healthy adults, and in none of 100 blood samples from adult patients with bacteremia. Most of the strains belonged to serogroup 018:K1:H7, were hemolytic, possessed type 1 fimbriae, and exhibited similar patterns of antibiotic susceptibility. Two of the urinary isolates expressed S fimbriae, and all 16 urinary isolates contained the sfaS homologue gene on their chromosomes. One of the stool isolates contained the sfaS gene. The urinary isolates closely resembled a large clone of E. coli that is reportedly associated with neonatal meningitis and sepsis. It may be possible to detect this and related clones by their requirement for nicotinamide and to screen strains for S fimbriae by relatively inexpensive hemagglutination methods, including the use of avian P1 antigens to detect mannose-resistant, non-P-fimbriated E. coli; the agglutination of bovine erythrocytes; and the use of bovine mucin to detect sialyl galactosides in S fimbriae. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Epidemiologic evidence and several case reports suggest that Escherichia coli causing urinary tract infection (UTI) may be transmitted between sex partners. In order to test this hypothesis, urinary, vaginal, and fecal E. coli isolates from 19 women with UTI were compared with E. coli found in random initial voids from their most recent male sex partner. E. coli was isolated from 4 of 19 male sex partners. In each case, the E. coli isolated from the man was identical by pulsedfield gel electrophoresis and bacterial virulence profile to the urinary E. coli from his sex partner. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Escherichia coli causes most urinary tract infections (UTls) in ambulatory populations. Several bacterial virulence factors occur more frequently among urinary E. coli isolates than among fecal isolates, but none have been reported to predict risk of second UTls. DNA hybridization was used to characterize the bacterial virulence profiles of urinary E. coli isolates from 174 women with first UTI and compared for risk of second UTI. Of the women, 28 (16%) had a culture-confirmed second UTI within 6 months of a negative test-of-cure. Three virulence factors were associated with a significantly lower risk of second UTI: cytotoxic necrotizing factor (relative risk [RR] = 0.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.0, 0.42); hemolysin (RR, 0.10; 95% CI, 0.01, 0.69), and S fimbrial adhesin (RR, 0.25; 95% CI, 0.06, 1.00). Dr binding was associated with a 2-fold increased risk of second UTI (RR, 2.30; 95% CI, 1.23,4.29). Half of all paired first and second UTI isolates from the same subject were apparently the same. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The frequency of nine potential Escherichia coli urinary tract infection (UTI) virulence factors was investigated among 216 isolates from 208 women 18–40 years old with first-time UTI. Factors were afimbrial adhesins I–IV and F1845 pili (drb), aerobactin (aer), group II capsules (kpsMT), cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 (cnf1), α-hemolysin (hly), outer membrane protease T (ompT), Pap and Prs pili (prf), S fimbriae (sfa), and type 1 pili (fim). Women were enrolled at two sites. Pairwise comparisons found 14 statistically significant associations between virulence genes after correcting for multiple comparisons. This is the first report of five associations: aer and drb, kpsMT and ompT, ompT and cnfl, ompT and sfa, and prf and ompT. As ompT is not closely linked genetically to kpsMT, cnfl, prJ, or sfa, ompT may be functionally linked with one or more of these other virulence factors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Adenylate cyclase (AC) activity was demonstrated histochemically using adenylate-(β, γ-methylene)diphosphate as substrate in cryostat sections of livers from 45 rats treated for 7–10 weeks with -nitrosomorpholine (NNM) (120 mg/1 drinking water) and from nine untreated control rats. The enzyme patterns of normal tissue, preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions were characterized and correlated with the morphologically defined stages of tumour development in the liver. Light microscopically, the enzyme activity of normal tissue was restricted to the plasma membrane, and was most pronounced along the bile canaliculi of the hepatocytes. In glycogen storage foci and mixed cell foci induced by NNM no, or only very weak, AC activity was visible. In the cells of neoplastic nodules and hepatocellular carcinomas AC activity was also clearly reduced. However, in small parts of the plasma membrane which lined lumina resembling normal bile canaliculi and in cytoplasmic vesicles closely associated with these structures, some AC activity was occasionally detected by light and electron microscopy. Whereas the tissue of normal appearance surrounding the lesions showed a marked increase in AC activity in the presence of glucagon, forskolin and cholera toxin. AC activity in the preneoplastic and neoplastic liver lesions could not, or could only weakly, be stimulated by this treatment. As demonstrated in serial sections of the foci, the reduction in AC activity corresponded to changes in the activity of other enzymes studied earlier in the same model. Thus the reduction in AC activity was accompanied by a decrease in the activity of glucose-6-phosphatase and glycogen phosphorylase, and by an increase in the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. The results support the concept that the focal changes in the activity of many enzymes (including those of carbohydratemetabolism) during hepatocarcinogenesis are the consequence of aberrations in superordinate regulatory mechanisms of cell metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The livers from a total of 51 Sprague-Dawley rats treated with different doses of N-nitrosomorpholine (80–120 mg/l in the drinking water) for up to 14 weeks together with the livers of 28 control animals were histochemically investigated at the cessation of carcinogenic insult and at varying periods thereafter for their glycogen content, basophilia and activities of various enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism: glycogen synthetase, glycogen phosphorylase, glucose-6-phosphatase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. The enzymatic patterns of normal tissue, preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions were characterized and compared with reference to the morphologically defined stages of tumor development in the liver. The early appearing glycogen storing areas, localized in the peripheral and intermediate lobular regions, did not show significant changes in the histochemically demonstrable activities of the enzymes tested. After cessation of the carcinogen treatment the more pronounced glycogen storage foci which developed within the aforementioned regions of the liver acinus usually showed a reduction in the activities of phosphorylase and glcose-6-phosphatase while the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, a key enzyme for the pentose phosphate pathway, was increased. The mixed cell foci, neoplastic nodules and tumors which emerged at later stages were characterized by a progressive shift away from glycogen metabolism towards glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway, as indicated by an increase in glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activities. These changes in enzyme pattern are supportive of a developmental sequence leading from glycogen storage foci through mixed cell foci and neoplastic nodules to hepatocellular carcinomas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Male outbred Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a choline-deficient diet containing 0.10% DL-ethionine (CDE) for 4, 6, 10, 14 or 22 weeks followed by a standard diet for up to 59 weeks. Liver sections were histochemically analyzed for the following parameters: basophilia, glycogen content and the activities of glycogen synthase (SYN), glycogen phosphorylase (PHO), glucose-6-phosphatase (G6PASE), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), glycerin-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3PDH), ‘malic enzyme’ (MDH), alkaline phosphatase (ALKPASE) and γ-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT). The stop experiments revealed that many of the oval cells proliferating during the first 4–6 weeks may undergo necrotic changes and disappear with time, whereas cholangiofibroses appearing in animals fed CDE for at least 10 weeks are persistent lesions. The sequence of lesions seen in this study, leading from persistent oval cells through cholangiofibroses to cholangiofibromas, strongly suggests that the oval cells are the precursor cells of cholangiocellular tumors. The proliferating oval cells and the hepatic foci consisting of clear and acidophilic or mixed cell populations were always spatially separated and no transitions between oval and parenchymal cells were observed. These results argue against a precursor-product relationship between oval and parenchymal cells. Both proliferating and persistent oval cells, cholangiofibroses and cholangiofibromas showed a strong staining for G6PDH, GAPDH, G3PDH, MDH, ALKPASE and GGT; low PHO, SYN and G6PASE activities were also detected in these lesions. Persistent glycogen-storage foci, which developed in all rats fed CDE for 4–14 weeks followed by a normal lab chow for over a year, had increased PHO, G6PDH, MDH, ALKPASE and GGT activities, while SYN, GAPDH and G3PDH activities remained unaltered and G6PASE activity decreased. Mixed cell foci appearing in animals fed CDE for 22 weeks followed by a normal lab chow for 59 weeks had strongly increased G6PDH, GAPDH, G3PDH, MDH, ALKPASE and GGT activities as well as decreased G6PASE activity. These results indicate that the characteristic metabolic pattern of preneoplastic hepatic foci is independent of the further administration of the carcinogenic diet. The shift from glycogen metabolism to glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway occurring during the later stages of CDE-induced hepatocarcinogenesis is an autogenous process apparently directing the disturbed carbohydrate metabolism towards alternative metabolic pathways. A similar metabolic shift also seems to take place during cholangiocarcinogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Male Wistar rats were given a single i.v. injection of lead nitrate (10 μmol/100 g body wt) and were killed with matched controls 24, 48, 72 h and 20 days after the treatment. Changes of liver carbohydrate metabolism were studied histodiemically testing the following parameters: glycogen content, activities of glycogen synthase (SYN), glycogen phosphorylase (PHO), glucose-6-phosphatase (G6PASE), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (C6PDH), 6-phosphogluconate deliydrogenase (6PGDH), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). In addition, gammaglutamyltransferase (GGT) activity was demonstrated. Between 24 and 48 h after lead nitrate injection there was a nearly complete loss of liver glycogen. Seventy-two hours later the polysaccharide reappeared in single hepatocytes and after 20 days the livers of the lead-treated animals not only had replenished their glycogen stores but contained even more glycogen than the matched controls. SYN and PHO activities were diminished from 24 to 72 h, but returned to control values after 20 days. G6PASE and GGT remained elevated up to 72 h before dropping to normal at 20 days after treatment. The pentose phosphate pathway enzymes G6PDH and 6PGDH showed the most remarkable changes in livers treated with lead nitrate. G6PDH was already elevated at 24 h, but only in Kupffer cells. At 48 and 72 h, when hepatocytes exhibited a highly increased mitotic rate, the levels of G6PDH, 6PGDH and GAPDH were elevated. After 20 days dehydrogenase activities were comparable to those of controls. The results of this study suggest that a single dose of lead nitrate not only stimulates proliferation of hepatocytes but also induces considerable changes in rat liver carbohydrate metabolism, espedally between 24 and 72 h after administration. During that period glycogen metabolism undergoes a strong reduction, whereas gluconeogenesis and particularly the pentose phosphate pathway respond with a remarkable increase. This metabolic profile is most likely associated with lead biotransformation as well as with liver cell proliferation. It corresponds only partially to that found in preneoplastic and neoplastic liver lesions observed in chemical carcinogenesis, and is reversible, in contrast to the persistent alterations associated with neoplastic transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The sequential histochemical changes during colon carcinogenesis were studied in male Sprague-Dawley rats given 16 weekly subcutaneous injections of 15 mg 1,2-diinethyl- hydrazine per kg body wt and serially killed at regular in tervals. Cryostat sections were used to study the mucus content of the colonic mucosa with the periodic acid Schiff's reaction, and enzyme histocheinical methods were applied to investigate the activity of some key enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism at different stages of carcinogenesis. Enlarged mucus-rich crypts with a marked hypercellularlty (149% of control as determined morpbometrically) appearing very early during carcinogenic treatment revealed almost normal activities of glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). Hyperbasophllic crypts lacking mucus production were observed later and showed a loss of G6Pase, but marked increase of G6PDH and GAPDH activity. Mucus-rich signet ring cell carcinomas showed the same enzymatic pattern as the mucus-rich crypts, whereas mucus-free adenocarcinomas and undifferentiated carcinomas revealed a loss of G6Pase and highly increased G6PDH and GAPDH activities. The results showed that focal changes in polysaccharide content and in the activity of some enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism, as observed in various organs, also accompany the carcinogenic process in the colon. This supports the concept that aberrations in carbohydrate metabolism play an important role during the process of carcinogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]