The dysgonic fermenter-2 bacterium is a newly recognized fastidious gram-negative bacillus that causes bacteremia and sometimes endocarditis in immunocompromised persons after they are bitten by dogs. To develop an experimental model of this infection, we placed polyethylene catheters across the aortic valves of New Zealand white rabbits, which were inoculated intravenously the next day with dysgonic fermenter-2 bacteria. After 1 week, the rabbits were killed and the endocardial vegetations were homogenized for quantitative culture. Large inocula (1.3 x 1010 to 2.1 x 1010 viable bacteria) were required to produce infected vegetations. All infected rabbits had negative blood cultures at the time of autopsy and most developed serum agglutinins against dysgonic fermenter-2 bacteria. Three daily injections of methylprednisolone (30 mg/kg), starting the day before inoculation, significantly increased the incidence of endocarditis and the number of bacteria per gram of infected vegetation (P < 0.05). Treatment with methylprednisolone prolonged the initial bacteremia and caused significant increases in the numbers of bacteria per gram of blood, spleen, and liver compared with those of untreated controls (P < 0.05). Rabbits that had previously undergone splenectomy showed prolongation of the initial bacteremia but no significant increase in the incidence of infected vegetations. These results showed that the dysgonic fermenter-2 bacterium is a pathogen that causes endocarditis in rabbits but that it requires a large inoculum and produces blood culture-negative infections. Treatment with methylprednisolone enhances infection by prolonging the initial bacteremia and probably by diminishing bactericidal activity in the vegetations.
El Sistema de antígenos de Leucocitos Humanos (HLA) juega un papel funcional en la presentación de péptidos al sistema Inmune. El grado de compatibilidad de los antígenos de los leucocitos humanos (HLA) de los loci -A, -B, -DRB1 entre el receptor en lista de espera y el donante, y la ausencia de anticuerpos específicos contra los antígenos HLA del donante, tienen la mejor sobrevida en un trasplante. El nuevo algoritmo de selección de receptores sensibilizados en lista de espera, que se introduce en el presente trabajo, tiene como objetivo mejorar su posibilidad de recibir riñones provenientes de un donante fallecido. Este algoritmo cumple etapas que se siguen en la selección del receptor sensibilizado compatible con el donante fallecido. Previo a incorporar un paciente en la lista de espera, es requisito conocer el grado de sensibilización a los antígenos del sistema de Leucocitos Humanos (HLA). El Laboratorio Nacional de Trasplante ha incorporado el Panel Reactivo de Anticuerpos Calculado (cPRA) que utiliza la frecuencia de antígenos HLA de la población panameña, en sustitución del Panel Reactivo de anticuerpos (PRA) que utiliza la frecuencia de alelos de otra población que no es la panameña.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.