ABSTRACT
Shikimic acid is an important metabolic intermediate with various applications. This paper presents a novel control strategy for the construction of shikimic acid producing strains, without completely blocking the aromatic amino acid biosynthesis pathways. Growth phase-dependent expression and gene deletion was performed to regulate the aroK gene expression in the shikimic acid producing Escherichia coli strain, SK4/rpsM. In this strain, the aroL and aroK genes were deleted, and the aroB, aroG*, ppsA, and tktA genes were overexpressed. The relative amount of shikimic acid that accumulated in SK4/rpsM was 1.28-fold higher than that in SK4/pLac. Furthermore, a novel shikimic acid production pathway, combining the expression of the dehydroquinate dehydratase-shikimate dehydrogenase (DHQ-SDH) enzyme from woody plants, was constructed in E. coli strains. The results demonstrated that a growth phase-dependent control of the aroK gene leads to higher SA accumulation (5.33 g/L) in SK5/pSK6. This novel design can achieve higher shikimic acid production by using the same amount of medium used by the current methods and can also be widely used for modifying other metabolic pathways.
Subject(s)
Alcohol Oxidoreductases/metabolism , Escherichia coli Proteins/genetics , Escherichia coli/growth & development , Glycerol/metabolism , Shikimic Acid/metabolism , Alcohol Oxidoreductases/genetics , Biosynthetic Pathways , Escherichia coli/genetics , Escherichia coli Proteins/metabolism , Gene Deletion , Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial , Kinetics , Metabolic Engineering , Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor)/genetics , Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor)/metabolism , Plant Proteins/genetics , Pyruvate Synthase/genetics , Pyruvate Synthase/metabolismABSTRACT
We described a patient who was diagnosed of Tetralogy of Fallot with right arch. Dorsal aortic aneurysm was found later confirmed by cardiac catheterization and reconstruction of 3D computer tomography. To our knowledge, the combination of Tetralogy of Fallot and dorsal aortic aneurysm had never been reported.
Subject(s)
Aorta, Thoracic/abnormalities , Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic/complications , Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic/diagnosis , Tetralogy of Fallot/complications , Tetralogy of Fallot/diagnosis , Aorta, Thoracic/pathology , Female , Humans , InfantABSTRACT
Postoperative chylothorax is sometimes difficult to be managed either by conventional therapies or by surgery. Herein, we report the experience of octreotide therapy for intractable postoperative chylothorax in two children (one was severe tetralogy of Fallot received Blalock-Taussing shunt, and the other was a single ventricle received bi-directional Glenn shunt) and review the literature on octreotide efficacy.
Subject(s)
Chylothorax/drug therapy , Octreotide/therapeutic use , Postoperative Complications/drug therapy , Female , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Somatostatin/analogs & derivatives , Somatostatin/therapeutic useABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether renal vasculitis is the sole cause or merely a contributing cause of renal inflammation in Kawasaki disease (KD). STUDY DESIGN: This prospective study in a university medical center in Taiwan enrolled 24 children with KD between June 2004 and November 2005. All patients underwent a technetium-99 m dimercaptosuccinic acid scintigraphy single-photon emission computed tomography scan, the results of which were used to group the patients with KD as with or without renal involvement. Urine samples underwent a cytokine analysis. Renal Doppler ultrasonography was used to evaluate renal vasculitis by measuring the pulsatility index (PI) and resistance index (RI). RESULTS: Ten of the 24 patients (42%) with renal inflammatory foci were the study group; the remainder composed the control group. Urinary interleukin (IL)-6 levels were significantly higher in the study group (496.7 +/- 310.9 vs 115.0 +/- 65.9 ng/g urinary creatinine; P < .01), as were PI values (1.85 +/- 0.70 vs 1.44 +/- 0.53; P < .05). Urinary IL-6 levels and PI values were significantly (P < .05) correlated. CONCLUSIONS: Increased urinary IL-6 and elevated renal Doppler measures suggest that immune-mediated vasculitis is one of the mechanisms causing renal inflammation in KD.
