[Pitfalls of Differential Diagnosis in Dermatologic Surgery]. / Differenzialdiagnostische Fallstricke aus der Dermatochirurgie.

Evaluation of skin diseases can be challenging for non-dermatologists. Even obvious well-characterized skin pathologies might be misleading and thus treatment can fail. Particularly the differentiation of surgical treated entities is important, for example the management of a wound healing disturbance profoundly differs from that of a pyoderma gangrenosum. This article outlines several easily mistaken pairs of dermatologic entities on one hand and surgical on the other. For example, a livedo vasculopathy can be confused with a leg ulcer, a nail melanoma with a simple hematoma and finally a hidradenitis suppurativa with an axillary abscess. Typical clinical signs and anamnestic data may often lead to the right diagnosis also assisted by the simple fact to "keep it in mind".

Continuous cell lines from the Muscovy duck as potential replacement for primary cells in the production of avian vaccines.

Veterinary vaccines contribute to food security, interrupt zoonotic transmissions, and help to maintain overall health in livestock. Although vaccines are usually cost-effective, their adoption depends on a multitude of factors. Because poultry vaccines are usually given to birds with a short life span, very low production cost per dose is one important challenge. Other hurdles are to ensure a consistent and reliable supply of very large number of doses, and to have flexible production processes to accommodate a range of different pathogens and dosage requirements. Most poultry vaccines are currently being produced on primary avian cells derived from chicken or waterfowl embryos. This production system is associated with high costs, logistic complexities, rigid intervals between harvest and production, and supply limitations. We investigated whether the continuous cell lines Cairina retina and CR.pIX may provide a substrate independent of primary cell cultures or embryonated eggs. Viruses examined for replication in these cell lines are strains associated with, or contained in vaccines against egg drop syndrome, Marek's disease, Newcastle disease, avian influenza, infectious bursal disease and Derzsy's disease. Each of the tested viruses required the development of unique conditions for replication that are described here and can be used to generate material for in vivo efficacy studies and to accelerate transfer of the processes to larger production volumes.

A genotype of modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) that facilitates replication in suspension cultures in chemically defined medium.

While vectored vaccines, based on hyperattenuated viruses, may lead to new treatment options against infectious diseases and certain cancers, they are also complex products and sometimes difficult to provide in sufficient amount and purity. To facilitate vaccine programs utilizing host-restricted poxviruses, we established avian suspension cell lines (CR and CR.pIX) and developed a robust, chemically defined, culturing process for production of this class of vectors. For one prominent member, modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), we now describe a new strain that appears to replicate to greater yields of infectious units, especially in the cell-free supernatant of cultures in chemically defined media. The new strain was obtained by repeated passaging in CR suspension cultures and, consistent with reports on the exceptional genetic stability of MVA, sequencing of 135 kb of the viral genomic DNA revealed that only three structural proteins (A3L, A9L and A34R) each carry a single amino acid exchange (H639Y, K75E and D86Y, respectively). Host restriction in a plaque-purified isolate of the new genotype appears to be maintained in cell culture. Processing towards an injectable vaccine preparation may be simplified with this strain as a complete lysate, containing the main burden of host cell contaminants, may not be required anymore to obtain adequate yields.