Follow-up study of clinical and immunological findings in patients presenting with acute parvovirus B19 infection.

This study was undertaken to examine the natural history of parvovirus B19 infection in persons without a known immune defect in terms of both clinical symptoms and immune responsiveness to the virus. Fifty-three patients with acute B19 infection (positive for serum anti-B19 IgM) were studied; symptoms at acute infection were rash and arthralgia (n = 26), rash (n = 7), arthralgia (n = 16), aplastic crisis (n = 3), and intrauterine fetal death (n = 1). Patients were followed for 26-85 months (mean 57 months) and reassessed for persistent symptoms, anti-B19 antibodies, and antibodies to the unique region of B19 VP1. There were 23 cases of arthralgia persisting for longer than 1 year after acute infection. One of these patients, a 48-year-old woman at follow-up, had had persistent arthralgia for 4 years following acute B19 infection, had rheumatoid factor at a titre of 1920 IU/ml detected at follow-up, and had been independently diagnosed as having rheumatoid arthritis at the time of follow-up. All 53 patients were positive for serum anti-B19 IgG compared to 45 of 53 age- and sex-matched control patients, a significant difference (two-tailed P value = 0.008). All test patients at follow-up and control patients were negative for serum anti-B19 IgM and antibodies to the unique region of B19 VP1. Serum from acute infection from 33 of 53 test patients was tested for antibodies to the unique region of VP1, and 16 of these were positive. The presence of this antibody did not correlate with subsequent duration of symptoms but did correlate with a short interval between symptom onset and blood sampling. The unique region of B19 VP1 is known to be crucial for a successful humoral response to the virus, and it seems that the antigenic role played by this region is important only during the acute phase of B19 infection.

Unusual effects of penicillin G and chloramphenicol on the growth of Moraxella osloensis.

Growth of exponential-phase liquid cultures of Moraxella osloensis was inhibited by 0.5 U of penicillin G per ml. For this organism, low concentrations of penicillin acted primarily in a bacteriostatic rather than in a bactericidal manner. At higher concentrations of penicillin some killing did take place, but the rate of killing was rather slow and appeared to be independent of penicillin concentration. Microscopic observation of cells from penicillin-treated cultures showed little or no cellular swelling or lysis. The total cell count did not decrease significantly during 6 h of incubation in 5,000 U of penicillin per ml. The rates of respiration, nucleic acid synthesis, and protein synthesis were not affected by the presence of penicillin. Attempts to counteract the bactericidal action of high concentrations of penicillin with growth inhibitory concentrations of chloramphenicol were unsuccessful, since chloramphenicol itself was more bactericidal than penicillin for M. osloensis.

Electrophoretic analysis of covalently closed SV40 DNA: Boltzmann distributions of DNA species.

Covalently closed relaxed SV40 DNA [SV40(I')] generated by polynucleotide ligase closure of nicked circular SV40 DNA was analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis. The DNA can be resolved into a series of bands differing in superhelical density whose intensities are approximately symmetrical about a central most intense band. Densitometric analysis of the gel pattern has revealed that the distribution of DNA species conforms to a Boltzmann distribution and has enabled us to derive an equation for the free energy of superhelix formation for SV40 DNA. We believe the observed bands reflect the time-averaged distribution of thermally induced fluctuations in DNA chain conformation in solution at the time of ligase catalyzed phosphodiester bond formation. Densitometric analysis of native supercoiled SV40 DNA, partially unwound in the presence of ethidium bromide, demonstrates that the separation between adjacent bands is approximately half that seen with SV40(I'). Agarose gel electrophoresis was also used to measure the change in average base rotation angle as a function of temperature by a procedure independent of ethidium dye binding.