Sarcoidosis occurring after interferon-alpha therapy for chronic hepatitis C: report of two cases.

We report two patients who were diagnosed with sarcoidosis after receiving interferon (IFN)-alpha therapy for chronic hepatitis C, and conduct a review the relevant literature. The first patient was a 52-year-old female who developed multiple subcutaneous nodules 2 months after finishing IFN-alpha therapy. A skin biopsy from subcutaneous nodules on the right elbow joint revealed sarcoid granulomata. These lesions resolved spontaneously 4 months later. The second patient, a 57-year-old male, developed bilateral hilar and mediastinal lymph node enlargement 2 years after finishing IFN-alpha 2a therapy. A transbronchial lung biopsy demonstrated sarcoid granulomata. In addition, he had uveitis and left ulnar nerve involvement. His eye and nerve involvement gradually improved over 20 months. It is feasible that IFN therapy has been a trigger for sarcoidosis in these patients.

Propionibacterium acnes DNA detected in bronchoalveolar lavage cells from patients with sarcoidosis.

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK: The causes of sarcoidosis are unknown. Propionibacterium acnes is so far the only bacterium to be found in sarcoid lymph nodes. We attempted to detect P. acnes DNA in cells recovered by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from patients with sarcoidosis. METHODS: BAL cells from 30 patients with histologically proven sarcoidosis and 30 controls with other lung diseases were examined by a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for 16S rRNA of P. acnes. BAL cells from three recent sarcoid patients and two control patients were also examined by in situ PCR to locate P. acnes DNA. Clinical findings in sarcoid patients with and without positive results by PCR were compared. RESULTS: P. acnes DNA was detected in BAL cells from 21 (70%) sarcoid patients and 7 (23%) control patients. In situ signals of P. acnes DNA were detected in the cytoplasm of 0.2% to 2.8% of alveolar macrophages from sarcoid patients, but from no cells of the control patients. Gallium-67 uptake by lung parenchyma was found in about half of the sarcoid patients with P. acnes DNA, but in none of the other sarcoid patients. More of these patients with such DNA had lung parenchymal shadows in chest X-ray films and were in more advanced stages of the disease than the other sarcoid patients. CONCLUSIONS: Detection of P. acnes DNA in BAL cells was significantly more common in the patients with confirmed sarcoidosis. Detection was associated with some indices of disease activity in the lung.

A modified ninhydrin reagent using ascorbic acid instead of potassium cyanide.

The use of a modified ninhydrin reagent using ascorbic acid instead of potassium cyanide was investigated for the photometric determination of amino acids. It has been found possible to obtain an almost stoichiometric reaction for glutamic acid with a quantitative yield of "Ruhemann's purple", the end-product of the reaction, using ascorbic acid as a safe and economical reducing agent. The modified ninhydrin reagent was composed of 0.5 g of ninhydrin, and 15 mg of ascorbic acid in 60 ml of methyl cellosolve.

Characterization of an alpha-ketoglutarate-resistant sake yeast mutant with high organic acid productivity.

A yeast with high organic acid productivity was isolated from alpha-ketoglutarate-resistant mutants obtained by mutagenizing a sake yeast, Kyokai no. 701 (K-701). The new strain, 20G-R39, produces about twice as much malate and succinate as the parental strain. DNA microarray analyses revealed that the transcriptional levels of genes involved in the TCA cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, and respiration were higher in strain 20G-R39 than in strain K-701. Expression of these genes is regulated by the Hap2/3/4/5p complex, and especially by expression of the HAP4 gene. In a Northern blot analysis, the transcriptional level of the HAP4 gene was higher in strain 20G-R39 than in strain K-701. We constructed a plasmid that expresses the HAP4 gene constitutively and introduced it into strain K-701. The HAP4-overexpression-strain produced more malate and succinate than strain K-701 both in YPD medium and in a sake brewing test. These results indicate that strain 20G-R39 produces more organic acids than strain K-701 because strain 20G-R39 has a higher level of expression of the HAP4 gene than strain K-701.

Production of gamma-aminobutyric acid from alcohol distillery lees by Lactobacillus brevis IFO-12005.

Lactobacillus brevis IFO-12005 showed good growth in rice shochu distillery lees (kome shochu kasu). Almost all of the free glutamic acid (10.50 mM) in shochu kasu was converted to gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA) within 2 d of stationary culture at 30 degrees C. The amount of GABA in the kome shochu kasu medium finally reached 10.18 mM. After centrifugation of the broth culture, the supernatant fraction was treated with a flocculation agent to form a clear solution, then passed through a column containing a synthetic adsorbents, SP-207 to remove the yellow pigment and flavors which are unnecessary from a sensory perspective. An economical and simple production process for GABA was established.