Knowledge and attitudes among patients with asthma and parents and physicians towards influenza vaccination

BACKGROUND: Influenza is an infectious disease, dangerous for all people, especially for some risk groups such as patients with chronic diseases and health care workers. But most of the people under the risk of influenza, including health care workers are not immunised because of misinformation. In this study, we aimed to determine the knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma and parents of such children related to influenza vaccination. Attitudes and beliefs of physicians treating these patients about influenza vaccination were also investigated. METHODS: Two different questionnaires consisting of various items related to influenza vaccine were distributed to physicians and patients and parents of children with asthma and allergic disease. RESULTS: The physicians group consisted of 189 physicians from various branches. About one third of physicians from various branches reported that they did not believe the vaccine's effectiveness. Most of the participating physicians did not immunise themselves with influenza vaccination despite the fact that any patient of theirs had died due to influenza infection. Although nearly half of the 183 patients had been vaccinated with influenza vaccine, only 27% of adults and 11.7% of children had been vaccinated annually. CONCLUSIONS: Asthmatic patients are not immunised regularly with influenza vaccine due to misperceptions about vaccine effectiveness and fear of adverse effects. Another important reason of this is that most the physicians caring for these patients neither immunise themselves nor recommend the vaccine to their patients

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A continuous culture of pluripotent fetal hepatocytes derived from the 8-day epiblast of the pig.

Continuous cultures of pluripotent parenchymal hepatocytes were derived from the epiblasts of 8-day-old pig blastocysts. The cells were polygonal and had phase-contrast dark, granular cytoplasm with prominent nuclei and nucleoli. These feeder-dependent cell cultures differentiated into large, multicellular, secretory, duct-like structures or formed small canaliculi between individual cells. Alternatively, the cells accumulated droplets that stained intensely with Oil Red O, a lipid-specific stain. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), albumin, and beta-fibrinogen mRNAs were expressed as the cells differentiated in culture. Serum-free medium that was conditioned by the cells contained transferrin, AFP, and albumin. The growth and viability of the cells were inhibited by transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF beta 1) at concentrations > or = 1 ng/ml. The cell cultures grew slowly with doubling times of 2 to 3 d. One of the cultures, pig inner cell mass-19 (PICM-19), was passaged continuously for over 2 yr [> 100 population doublings (PD)] and appears to be an infinitely self-renewing cell population. The stem cell characteristics of the epiblast-derived fetal hepatocytes indicate that the cells may be unique for investigations of liver differentiation and organogenesis.

Culturing the epiblast cells of the pig blastocyst.

Pig epiblast cells that had been separated from other early embryonic cells were cultured in vitro. A three-step dissection protocol was used to isolate the epiblast from trophectoderm and primitive endoderm before culturing. Blastocysts collected at 7 to 8 days postestrus were immunodissected to obtain the inner cell mass (ICM) and destroy trophectodermal cells. The ICM was cultured for 2 to 3 days on STO feeder cells. The epiblast was then physically dissected free of associated primitive endoderm. Epiblast-derived cells, grown on STO feeders, produced colonies of small cells resembling mouse embryonic stem cells. This primary cell morphology changed as the colonies grew and evolved into three distinct colony types (endodermlike, neural rosette, or complex). Cell cultures derived from these three colony types spontaneously differentiated into numerous specialized cell types in STO co-culture. These included fibroblasts, endodermlike cells, neuronlike cells, pigmented cells, adipogenic cells, contracting muscle cells, dome-forming epithelium, ciliated epithelium, tubule-forming epithelium, and a round amoeboid cell type resembling a plasmacyte after Wright staining. The neuronlike cells, contracting muscle cells, and tubule-forming epithelium had normal karyotypes and displayed finite or undefined life spans upon long-term STO co-culture. The dome-forming epithelium had an indefinite life span in STO co-culture and also retained a normal karyotype. These results demonstrate the in vitro pluripotency of pig epiblast cells and indicate the epiblast can be a source for deriving various specialized cell cultures or cell lines.

Investigation of means to improve rates of fertilization in in vitro matured/in vitro fertilized bovine oocytes.

Experiments were conducted with 5,979 oocytes to determine whether detaching some of the cumulus cells from oocytes either before or after maturation would improve the fertilization rate and proportion of oocytes that developed to expanded blastocysts. Oocytes were aspirated from ovaries of slaughtered cows and matured, fertilized and cultured in vitro. Pipetting immature oocytes before maturation to detach some of the cumulus, with all cumulus cells left in the maturation wells, significantly increased fertilization rates, especially of oocytes that initially had a full cumulus investment. In further experiments, pipetting oocytes either before or after maturation to detach most of the cumulus, or treating with hyaluronidase after maturation to disperse the cumulus, significantly increased fertilization rates and proportions of oocytes developing to expanded blastocysts.

Coincidental finding of May-Hegglin anomaly in a patient with end-stage renal failure.

We present two cases of May-Hegglin anomaly incidentally discovered in a patient and his brother during investigation of the patient for end-stage renal failure and workup for renal transplantation. Routine laboratory tests were performed and included a basically normal clotting profile. Ultrastructural studies of the May-Hegglin inclusions proved diagnostic, findings were compared with those of two similar granulocyte inclusion bodies, and nomenclature discrepancies that still exist in most references are again emphasized. The finding of the May-Hegglin anomaly in our patient appears to be incidental to the underlying renal disease. A successful renal transplant has been carried out in this patient. We now report on a patient and his brother in which the MHA was discovered during workup of the patient for end-stage renal failure and renal transplantation. No association between the underlying renal disease and the MHA could be demonstrated.

Making transgenic livestock: genetic engineering on a large scale.

The feasibility of introducing foreign genes into the genomes of cattle, goats, pigs, and sheep has only recently been demonstrated. Studies have thus far focused on improving growth efficiency or directing expression of pharmaceutical proteins to the mammary glands of these species. The general strategy for producing transgenic livestock and mice is similar. In addition to the obvious difference in scale between mice and livestock experiments, there are noteworthy obstacles that significantly reduce the efficiency of producing transgenic livestock. Low embryo viability, low transgene integration rates, and high animal costs contribute to project costs that can easily exceed hundreds of thousands of dollars. A better understanding of the mechanisms that govern transgene integration should lead to improved efficiencies. But, the full potential of the transgenic livestock system will not be fully realized until: 1) gene constructs can be designed that function in a reproducible, predictable manner; and 2) the genetic control of physiological processes are more clearly elucidated. Newly emerging approaches may resolve at least some of these issues within the next decade.

In vitro reactivities of blood lymphocytes from symptomatic and asymptomatic pigeon breeders to antigen and mitogens.

The proliferation of blood lymphocytes in response to pigeon gammaglobulin in the presence or absence of IL2 was measured in 9 symptomatic and 12 asymptomatic pigeon breeders and 24 controls. The symptomatic breeders exhibited spontaneous lymphocyte proliferation (p less than 0.001) when compared with controls whilst lymphocytes from asymptomatic breeders required the simultaneous addition of IL2 in order to proliferate (p less than 0.001). IL2 alone did not induce cellular proliferation. Both patient groups had abnormal T-cell functions and response to lectins and, in the symptomatic group, there existed an inverse correlation (r = -0.70, p less than 0.001) between specific antibody titres to pigeon gammaglobulin and the Con A response. We conclude that both patient groups have circulating, presensitized antigen-specific lymphocytes but these require different stimulatory signals at the cellular level.

Anti-cardiolipin antibodies in ischaemic heart disease.

IgG and IgM anti-cardiolipin antibodies (ACA) were assayed by an ELISA technique in 86 patients with ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and compared to 124 healthy controls and to 62 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 20 with tuberculosis (TB). IgG ACA levels in IHD, RA and TB were comparable and significantly higher than in controls (P less than 0.0001). IgM ACA was significantly higher in IHD and RA than controls (P less than 0.0001) but not TB (P = 0.045). The number of IHD patients with raised ACA (IgG and/or IgM) was significantly greater than in RA or TB. (chi 2 = 30.77, P less than 0.0001). ACA were raised in 80.2% IHD patients on one or more occasions during a 1-11 day (mean 4.7) hospital admission. There was no difference in either ACA levels or in the frequency of ACA elevation in patients with stable or unstable angina pectoris or myocardial infarction. We conclude that there is a strong association between IHD and ACA with potentially important therapeutic implications.

A column purification procedure for the removal of leucocytes from parasite-infected bovine blood.

A cellulose column procedure is described which removes white cells from bovine blood infected with Babesia and Anaplasma. The efficiency of this method was confirmed by the absence of white blood cell DNA in lysates from column-filtered infected as well as non-infected blood.