The addition of 1% (v/v) ethanol to the basal medium inhibited growth of Gluconacetobacter hansenii but decreased the numbers of non-cellulose producing cells. Cellulose production increased 1.7 times to approx. 2.5 g l(-1) and showed a pattern of mixed growth-associated production. Microbial cells produced rigid pellicle-type bacterial cellulose as the shell of a large lump of bacterial cellulose like a static culture. The inoculum cultivated for 3 d maintained cellulose production by the fifth batch.

Various automated chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) analyzers for the detection of antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) are now commercially available in clinical laboratories and are replacing conventional enzyme immunoassays. We investigated the performance of four anti-HCV CLIAs (the Architect Anti-HCV assay on the Architect i2000 system, the Vitros Anti-HCV assay on the Vitros ECiQ Immunodiagnostic System, the Access HCV Ab PLUS assay on the UniCel DxI 800 analyzer, and the newly developed Elecsys Anti-HCV assay on the Cobas e 411 analyzer). The total percent coefficient of variation values of imprecision were 3.5 to 5.7% with positive control materials and 7.2 to 10.2% with negative control materials. The agreement between the results of the Elecsys, Architect, Vitros, and Access CLIAs ranged from 94.5 to 98.1%. The clinical sensitivity of all CLIAs was 100%. Each CLIA showed excellent reproducibility and clinical sensitivity. The Elecsys, Architect, Vitros, and Access CLIAs showed clinical specificities of 98.2, 98.8, 96.5, and 98.2%.Hepatitis C virus (HCV), first identified in 1989, is an enveloped positive-strand RNA virus classified in the Hepacivirus genus in the family Flaviviridae (6). The HCV genome is about 9.5 kb in length and encodes 3,011-to 3,033-amino-acid polypeptides in structural and nonstructural regions (20). The structural region contains the core protein and two envelope proteins (E1 and E2), and nonstructural proteins have been assigned protease (NS2, NS3, and NS4A), helicase (NS3), and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (NS5B) (21) functions.The first commercially available anti-HCV enzyme immunoassay (EIA) used a single HCV recombinant antigen derived from the nonstructural NS4 protein designated c100-3 (19). The sensitivity of this first-generation EIA was low for a highprevalence population (approximately 80%) and showed a high false-positive rate (up to 70%) in a low-prevalence blood donor group (13). Therefore, a second-generation EIA was developed and approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1992 (3). The second-generation EIA, which contained additional HCV antigens from the core (c22-3) and NS3 (c33c) proteins, showed increased sensitivity and specificity and shortened the average seroconversion period from 16 to 10 weeks (1, 3, 13, 18). The third-generation EIA, which added a fourth antigen (NS5), showed significantly improved performance, particularly for high-risk patients (2, 8). However, a residual risk still exists due to the seroconversion period of approximately 56 days, and high false-positive rates were not resolved (12). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that an anti-HCV screening test positive result be verified by a more specific supplemental assay such as recombinant immunoblot or nucleic acid test (5). To facilitate the use of the supplemental assay, the revised guideline included an option for reflex supplemental testing based on signal-to-cutoff (s/co) ratios (4).Today, automated chemiluminescence immunoassay (...

Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) is known to be implicated in a tumor-driven immune escape mechanism in malignancies. The purpose of this study was to investigate HLA-G polymorphism and expression in breast cancer. HLA-G alleles were determined by direct DNA sequencing procedures from blood samples of 80 breast cancer patients and 80 healthy controls. Soluble HLA-G (sHLA-G) was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) from serum specimens. HLA-G expression in breast cancer lesions was also analyzed by immunohistochemistry staining. The presence of HLA-G 3′ untranslated region (UTR) 14-bp sequence was analyzed and found to be associated with reduced risk of breast cancer susceptibility based on HLA-G expression in tissues (P = 0.0407). Levels of sHLA-G were higher in the breast cancer group (median 117.2 U/mL) compared to the control group (median 10.1 U/mL, P<0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AU-ROC) values of sHLA-G for differentiating breast cancer from normal controls and for detecting metastasis from other stages of breast cancer were 0.89 and 0.79, respectively. HLA-G polymorphism and expression may be involved in breast carcinogenesis and sHLA-G concentrations could be used as a diagnostic marker for detecting breast cancer.

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A bstractResveratrol has been show n to possess antioxidant and anticancer activities, but little is know n on the effect of resveratrol derivatives. Recently w e have isolated resveratrol and its dim ers and trim ers from peony (Paeonia lactiflora) seeds, and reported their strong antioxidant and cytotoxic activity. In the present study