ABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: Neonatal sepsis remains an unsolved major contributor to morbidity and mortality. In the 1980s the promise of augmenting immune function using pooled intravenous gammaglobulin to supplement the exceedingly low levels of immunoglobulin G in premature infants failed to demonstrate a clear advantage. Similarly, cytokine augmentation of cellular function in the 1990s largely appeared to be suffering the same fate. However, both results may arise from a problem in experimental design where the combination of both treatments may be necessary along with specific antibody. For example, in vitro, independently of an array of other humoral and cellular immature immune system issues, opsonization of bacteria is improved in the presence of antibody. The question is whether the same result can be achieved in vivo. No experiments have been reported that directly test this hypothesis. CONCLUSION: More investigation is needed in this challenging area of neonatal research.
Subject(s)
Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor/therapeutic use , Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor/therapeutic use , Immune System/physiology , Infant, Premature , Neutropenia/drug therapy , Neutropenia/immunology , Sepsis/drug therapy , Sepsis/immunology , Clinical Trials as Topic , Female , Humans , Incidence , Infant, Newborn , Intensive Care Units, Neonatal , Male , Neutropenia/mortality , Prognosis , Risk Assessment , Risk Factors , Sepsis/mortality , Severity of Illness Index , Survival Analysis , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Survival of Lactobacillus bulgaricus during spray drying was studied at various outlet air temperatures. During spray drying the logarithmic survival ratio decreased with increased outlet air temperature with first-order kinetics; the pseudo-z value for Lactobacillus bulgaricus was 17.3°C. Plots of the death-rate constant for Lactobacillus bulgaricus versus reciprocal outlet temperature during spray drying in skim milk show a curve with two different activation energies (Ea). The calculated Ea values were 33.47 kJ/mol above 70°C and 85.77 kJ/mol below 70°C. Thermodynamic quantities for spray drying of Lactobacillus bulgaricus are also presented. Results show that the relationship between the entropy of activation and the enthalpy of activation for both spray drying and heating in liquid medium is linear, with all the data for drying falling in the range of a negative entropy.