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Background: Leptospira interrogans is an important mammalian pathogen. Transmission from an environmental source requires adaptation to a range of new environmental conditions in the organs and tissues of the infected host. Several studies have shown that a shift in culture temperature from 28°C to 37°C, similar to that encountered during infection of a host from an environmental source, is associated with differential synthesis of several proteins of the outer membrane, periplasm and cytoplasm. The whole genome of the Leptospira interrogans serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae serovar lai type strain #56601 was sequenced in 2003 and microarrays were constructed to compare differential transcription of the whole genome at 37°C and 28°C.

Background: Up to a 20-fold variation in serum cardiac troponin I (cTnI) concentration may be observed for a given patient sample with different analytical methods. Because more limited variation is seen for control materials and for purified cTnI, we explored the possibility that cTnI was present in altered forms in serum. Methods: We used four recombinantly engineered cTnI fragments to study the regions of cTnI recognized by the Stratus®, Opus®, and ACCESS® immunoassays. The stability of these regions in serum was analyzed with Western blot. Results: The measurement of several control materials and different forms of purified cTnI using selected commercial assays demonstrated five- to ninefold variation. Both the Stratus and Opus assays recognized the N-terminal portion (NTP) of cTnI, whereas the ACCESS assay recognized the C-terminal portion (CTP) of cTnI. Incubation of recombinant cTnI in normal human serum produced a marked decrease in cTnI concentration as determined with the ACCESS, but not the Stratus, immunoassay. Western blot analysis of the same samples using cTnI NTP- and CTP-specific antibodies demonstrated preferential degradation of the CTP of cTnI. Conclusions: The availability of serum cTnI epitopes is markedly affected by the extent of ligand degradation. The N-terminal half of the cTnI molecule was found to be the most stable region in human serum. Differential degradation of cTnI is a key factor in assay-to-assay variation.

Lower back pain (LBP) is the most common disease in orthopedic clinics world-wide. A classic Fangji of traditional Chinese medicine, Duhuo Jisheng Decoction (DHJSD), has been proven clinically effective for LBP but its therapeutic mechanisms remain unclear. We hypothesized that DHJSD might relieve LBP through inhibiting the exaggerated proinflammatory cytokines and extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation. Thus, we studied the effects of DHJSD on stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1)-induced inflammation and ECM degradation in human nucleus pulposus cells (hNPCs). The primary hNPCs were isolated from either degenerated human intervertebral disc (HID) of LBP patients or normal HID of lumbar vertebral fracture patients, and cultured in vitro. The cells were treated with SDF-1 (10 ng/mL) and subsequently with different concentrations (100-500 μg/mL) of DHJSD for 24 h, respectively. We found that application of DHJSD significantly antagonized the SDF-1-induced production of proinflammatory cytokines and reduction of aggrecan and type II collagen in the hNPCs. DHJSD also markedly reduced the SDF-1-induced increase of CXCR4 and p-p65 and inhibited the nuclear translocation of p65 in the hNPCs. DHJSD, CXCR4-siRNA, and NF-κB inhibitor (BAY11-7082) caused the same inhibition of exaggerated proinflammatory cytokines in the SDF-1-treated hNPCs. These results provided compelling evidence that DHJSD may inhibit the generation of proinflammatory mediators and ECM degradation of HID through an orchestrated targeting at multiple molecules in the SDF-1/CXCR4/NF-κB pathway, thus offered novel mechanistic insights into the clinical effectiveness of DHJSD on LBP.