Replication of the Ordered, Nonredundant Library of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PA14 Transposon Insertion Mutants.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a phenotypically and genotypically diverse and adaptable Gram-negative bacterium ubiquitous in human environments. P. aeruginosa is able to form biofilms, develop antibiotic resistance, produce virulence factors, and rapidly evolve in the course of a chronic infection. Thus P. aeruginosa can cause both acute and chronic, difficult to treat infections, resulting in significant morbidity in certain patient populations. P. aeruginosa strain PA14 is a human clinical isolate with a conserved genome structure that infects a variety of mammalian and nonvertebrate hosts making PA14 an attractive strain for studying this pathogen. In 2006, a nonredundant transposon insertion mutant library containing 5,459 mutants corresponding to 4,596 predicted PA14 genes was generated. Since then, distribution of the PA14 library has allowed the research community to better understand the function of individual genes and complex pathways of P. aeruginosa. Maintenance of library integrity through the replication process requires proper handling and precise techniques. To that end, this manuscript presents protocols that describe in detail the steps involved in library replication, library quality control and proper storage of individual mutants.

The role of confocal microscopy in the dermato-oncology practice.

Reflectance-mode confocal microscopy (RCM) is a new in vivo skin imaging technique. We present our one-year experience in RCM examinations in skin tumors and the retrospective analysis of patients enrolled in the Dermatological Department of 'N. Paulescu' Institute using the Fotofinder Dermoscope IIW for the dermatoscopy analysis and VivaScope 1500W for in vivo RCM. We established the rank of RCM in the complex algorithm of skin cancer diagnose, showing that the presented experience can open new possibilities to implement this automated image analyzing system in the routine practice. Our analyzed cases clearly showed that confocal microscopy, therefore, optical biopsy, could guide the clinician towards an accurate diagnosis before surgical removal. Moreover, we emphasized that the development of this technique increases the potential of future teledermatologic applications.

Pancreatic beta cell allotransplant in double transgenic mouse model of type 1 diabetes mellitus.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic response to intra-hepatic and intra-portal allotransplant with pancreatic beta cells in double transgenic mice (dTg) with autoimmune diabetes. The results showed an improvement in metabolic and somatic parameters and an increase in survival rate. Histopathology analysis revealed the presence of transplanted islets and the absence of the inflammatory infiltrate 5 days after the procedure and an increase in insulinemia. In the absence of immunosuppressive drugs, rejection of the transplanted islet seems to appear after 10 weeks, being marked by an increase in blood glucose level. A re-transplantation was performed in one mouse of each group and the glycemia levels recorded after the second transplant were less successful.

[Sacrococcygeal teratoma in an adult female operated with abdominoperineal approach]. / Teratom sacro-coccigian la adult rezolvat prin abord mixt abdomino-perineal.

The authors present the case of a 28 years old female with a mature, three-layers sacrococcygeal teratoma, which has been operated using an abdominoperineal approach. Teratomas are quite frequent in pediatric surgery; their incidence gradually decreases in adult population. Lately, significant progresses in the diagnosis and treatment of fetus and new born teratomas have been achieved; a review of the literature (2000-2004) is added. In adults, the diagnosis of teratomas is rather difficult. The symptoms are due to their size, to the compression of pelvic viscera or to their complications (infections, bowel obstruction, fistulas, malignancy). The treatment of teratomas is mainly surgical. The approach depends on the peculiarities of each case (size, invasion of the nearby viscera).