First Isolation of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium Carrying Plasmid-Borne vanD1.

Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium carrying the vanD1 gene on plasmid pEF-D was isolated from a fecal sample of a hospitalized patient in Japan. The strain JH5687 showed moderate resistance to vancomycin (MIC, 16 µg/mL) but remained susceptible to teicoplanin (MIC, 1 µg/mL). The backbone gene organization of pEF-D was highly homologous to that of conjugative plasmid pMG1 or pHTß. The calculated conjugation frequency of JH5687 was 10-4 to 10-5 per donor cell.

Spontaneous regression of lung metastasis in the absence of tumor necrosis factor receptor p55.

In order to clarify the roles of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha in lung metastasis, we injected Renca cells intravenously into TNF receptor p55-deficient (TNF-Rp55 KO) and wild-type (WT) mice. Microscopic and macroscopic metastasis foci appeared in lungs at 7 and 14 days after the tumor injection, respectively. Moreover, metastasis foci expanded at similar rates in both WT and TNF-Rp55 KO mice until 21 days, and lungs were occupied with metastasis foci. However, later than 21 days after the injection, metastasis foci spontaneously regressed in TNF-Rp55 KO mice, whereas WT mice exhibited a progressive growth of metastasis foci. Moreover, metastasis foci remained reduced sizes in TNF-Rp55 KO mice even at 26 days, when all WT mice died with lungs filled with metastasis foci. Later than 21 days after the tumor injection, the number of apoptotic tumor cells was increased in TNF-Rp55 KO mice. In contrast, neovascularization was less evident in TNF-Rp55 KO than WT mice, with depressed hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gene in TNF-Rp55 KO mice at 21 days after the tumor injection. Thus, TNF-Rp55-mediated signals can maintain tumor neovascularization at least partly by inducing HGF expression, and eventually support lung metastasis process.