Removal of phenanthrene from soil by co-cultures of bacteria and fungi pregrown on sugarcane bagasse pith.

Sixteen co-cultures composed of four bacteria and four fungi grown on sugarcane bagasse pith were tested for phenanthrene degradation in soil. The four bacteria were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginose, Ralstonia pickettii, Pseudomonas sp. and Pseudomonas cepacea. The four fungi were identified as: Penicillium sp., Trichoderma viride, Alternaria tenuis and Aspergillus terrus that were previously isolated from different hydrocarbon-contaminated soils. Fungi had a statistically significant positive (0.0001

IL-1 plays a critical role in oral, but not dermal, wound healing.

Wound healing is a well-orchestrated complex process leading to the repair of injured tissues. After injury, proinflammatory cytokines act as important modulators of the inflammatory process. IL-1 expression has been regarded as necessary for healing; however, its effects have also been implicated in delayed wound repair. Currently, there is no consensus or direct evidence that IL-1 activity plays a central role in the healing process. The present investigation was undertaken to define the role of IL-1R signaling in the healing outcome of an excisional wound in the palate or scalp of mice that had targeted deletions of the IL-1R type 1 (IL-1R1(-/-)) compared with matched wild-type mice. Histomorphometric analysis was undertaken to assess the degree of healing and the recruitment of polymorphonuclear and mononuclear phagocytes. After 14 days, wild-type mice exhibited complete closure of intraoral wounds, while IL-1R1(-/-) animals had only partial closure (50%). In the IL-1R1(-/-) mice, healing tissues exhibited a persistent inflammatory cell infiltrate, which did not occur in wild-type animals. Treatment with antibiotics significantly diminished the persistent inflammatory infiltrate and improved healing in the experimental animals. In contrast to oral wounds, the rate of healing and recruitment of polymorphonuclear cells in scalp wounds was similar in IL-1R1(-/-) and wild-type mice. The present data underscore the importance of IL-1 in wound healing in a challenging environment and identify its principal role in facilitating the healing process by protecting an open wound from bacterial insult. In a less challenging environment, the production of new connective tissue and its coverage by migrating epithelium are minimally affected by the absence of IL-1 activity.

Clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease. Calculating Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subsection with the data from the consortium to establish a registry for Alzheimer's disease.

The database of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) is a seminal work in the field of cognitive dysfunction and Alzheimer's disease. This 24-center study of 1,094 patients with Alzheimer's disease who received no treatment for their cognitive dysfunction and 463 normal control subjects is rich in neurobehavioral data and contains extensive imaging and neuropathologic findings. However, the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS) was not administered as part of the CERAD study, which limits the study's applicability to modern drug trials, in which the ADAS-cognitive subsection (ADAS-cog) is a popular end point. The purpose of this investigation was to develop a derived ADAS-cog score from the neurobehavioral data obtained from subjects during their evaluation in the CERAD study. Two calculated ADAS-cog scores were developed. The first was based on clinically mapping the items on the ADAS-cog to assessments that were performed in the CERAD study. The second was based on rescaling the Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE), using published results correlating the ADAS-cog to the MMSE. Standard characteristics of both calculated ADAS-cog scores were calculated and compared with each other and with the literature. Both calculated ADAS-cog scores performed comparably to published characteristics of the ADAS-cog. The clinically based calculated ADAS-cog outperformed the rescaled MMSE. Using the CERAD database, it is now possible to model the progression of an untreated (placebo) population of patients with Alzheimer's disease and correlate it to a study using ADAS-cog.