Ercc1 is essential for nucleotide excision repair (NER) but, unlike other NER proteins, Ercc1 and Xpf are also involved in recombination repair pathways. Ercc1 knockout mice have profound cell cycle abnormalities in the liver and die before weaning. Subsequently Xpa andXpc knockouts have proved to be good models for the human NER deficiency disease, xeroderma pigmentosum, leading to speculation that the recombination, rather than the NER deficit is the key to the Ercc1knockout phenotype. To investigate the importance of the recombination repair functions of Ercc1 we studied spermatogenesis and oogenesis inErcc1-deficient mice. Male and female Ercc1-deficient mice were both infertile. Ercc1 was expressed at a high level in the testis and the highest levels of Ercc1 protein occurred in germ cells following meiotic crossing over. However, in Ercc1 null males some germ cell loss occurred prior to meiotic entry and there was no evidence that Ercc1 was essential for meiotic crossing over. An increased level of DNA strand breaks and oxidative DNA damage was found in Ercc1-deficient testis and increased apoptosis was noted in male germ cells. We conclude that the repair functions of Ercc1 are required in both male and female germ cells at all stages of their maturation. The role of endogenous oxidative DNA damage and the reason for the sensitivity of the germ cells to Ercc1deficiency are discussed.

A novel one-step, closed-tube, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for detecting Entamoeba histolytica, one of the leading causes of morbidity in developing countries, was developed. The sensitivity of the LAMP assay is 1 parasite per reaction. A total of 130 clinical samples were analyzed, and the results compared with those of conventional nested PCR to validate the practicability of this assay. No DNA was amplified from other diarrheal pathogens, such as other Entamoeba species, bacteria, and viruses. These results indicate that LAMP is a rapid, simple, and valuable diagnostic tool for epidemiological studies of amebiasis.

Matriptase expression correlates with tumour progression and invasive capability in OSCC and may be an adverse prognostic marker for this cancer.

The integration of field survey, clinical data and morphological and genetic examination represents a sound strategy for investigation of the possible role of free-living amoebae in causing human diseases. Future work should include investigating the potential contributory role of other nonpathogenic free-living protozoa in disease of livestock or even human.

No abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze recent infections and the molecular epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) among different risk groups since the outbreak of circulating recombinant form CRF07_BC among intravenous drug users (IDUs) in 2004 in Taiwan. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using the env and pol fragment sequences amplified from these specimens. The BED IgG capture incidence EIA (BED-CEIA assay) was used to determine recent infections. Among the 683 HIV-1-positive individuals enrolled between 2007 and 2009, 394 (57.7%) were subtype B, 260 (38.1%) were CRF07_BC, 26 (3.8%) were CRF01_AE, two (0.3%) were CRF08_BC, and one (0.1%) was CRF06_cpx. While the percentage of CRF07_BC decreased (58.5-17.9%, p < 0.001) from 2007 to 2009, the percentage of subtype B increased (37.6% to 74.9%, p < 0.001). A concordant decrease in the proportion of recent infections to new infections among IDUs (63.6% to 9.8%, p < 0.001), accompanied with an increase of the proportion of recent infections in MSM (men having sex with men) (22.4-67.1%, p = 0.77) and heterosexual groups (13.1- 23.2%, p = 0.852), was observed. The decrease in CRF07_BC infections and the reduction in the proportion of recent infections among IDUs reflected the success of harm reduction strategies initiated by the government in 2005.

Elevated APE1/Ref-1 expression may be used to predict poor survival and may confer chemoresistance in OSCC.

The present study did not find statistically significant association between six common MGMT polymorphisms and oral cancer risk, however, both MGMT L53L and L84F polymorphisms in old patients with CT genotype have higher overall survival rates than patients with CC genotype. Because of limited power of the present study, further study may be warranted in ethnically different populations to explore outcomes of these polymorphisms in the oral cancer risk.