Aquamicrobium soli sp. nov., a bacterium isolated from a chlorobenzoate-contaminated soil.

An aerobic, Gram-stain negative, short rod-shaped, asporogenous, non-motile bacterium designated strain NK8T was isolated from a chlorobenzoate contaminated soil in China. Strain NK8T was observed to grow optimally at pH 7.0, 30 °C and in the absence of NaCl in LB medium. The G + C content of the total DNA of strain NK8T was found to be 65.5 mol%. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain NK8T showed high similarity to that of Aquamicrobium aerolatum Sa14T (97.3%), followed by Aquamicrobium lusatiense S1T (96.7%) and Mesorhizobium sangali SCAU7T (96.6%). The DNA-DNA relatedness between strain NK8T and A. aerolatum Sa14T was 35.5 ± 0.9%. The major fatty acids of strain NK8T were determined to be C19:0 cyclo ω8c (45.6%), C18:1 ω7c (33.4%) and C16:0 (8.4%). The respiratory quinone was found to be ubiquinone Q-10. The major polyamine was found to be spermidine. The polar lipid profile include the major compounds phosphatidylcholine and diphosphatidylglycerol, and moderate amounts of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, aminolipid and phospholipid. Based on the differential biochemical and physiological characteristics, the geno-, chemo- and phenotypic characteristics, strain NK8T is proposed to represent a novel species of the genus Aquamicrobium, Aquamicrobium soli sp. nov. The type strain is NK8T (=KCTC 52165T=CCTCC AB2016045T).

[Liver histopathological features influencing HBeAg seroconversion in patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B responding to Peg-IFN treatment].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the therapeutic efficiency of antiviral treatment with pegylated-interferon (Peg-IFN) for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and to explore whether liver histopathological features or other factors influence the HBeAg seroconversion treatment response. METHODS: Eighty HBeAg-positive CHB patients with diagnosis confirmed by liver puncture were treated with Peg-IFN(2a or 2b)body weight dose, once weekly). At treatment week 48, the rate of HBeAg seroconversion was determined and used to analyze the influence of liver histopathological features (liver biopsy assessment of: inflammation, graded G0 to G4; fibrosis stage, graded S0 to S4), sex, age, differential levels (pre-treatment baseline vs. week 48 post-treatment) of serum alanine transferase (ALT), and HBV DNA, by binary logistic analysis. RESULTS: At week 48, the overall rate of HBeAg seroconversion was 30.0%. The rate of HBeAg seroconversion gradually advanced with increased liver inflammation (X2 = 8.435, P = 0.015): 9.09% of the 22 patients with G1; 31.58% of the 38 patients with G2; 47.30% of the 19 patients with G3; the one patient with G4. In contrast, the rate of HBeAg seroconversion showed a much weaker association with liver fibrosis (X2 = 5.917, P = 0.116). Only baseline HBeAg level, and no other baseline index, was significantly different between the patients who achieved HBeAg seroconversion and those who did not. Liver inflammation and baseline HBeAg level were identified as influencing factors of HbeAg seroconversion in response to Peg-IFN treatment. CONCLUSION: Peg-IFN therapy induces a higher rate of HBeAg seroconversion in HBeAg-positive CHB patients with severe liver inflammation; histological analysis of pre-treatment liver biopsies may help to identify patients most likely to benefit from the antiviral regimen.

Detecting AFP mRNA in peripheral blood of the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, liver cirrhosis and hepatitis.

BACKGROUND: The low frequency of disseminated carcinoma cells in the blood now makes immunomagnetic bead sorting and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique more popular. METHODS: Three milliliters of peripheral blood were collected from 91 patients and 18 normal donors. The circulating carcinoma cells were enriched with CD45 and Ber-EP4 immunomagnetic beads. The alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) mRNA was amplified with nested RT-PCR. RESULTS: The total positive detection rate was 72.1%, 43.8%, 25.0%, 100%, and 66.7% in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) untreated, liver cirrhosis (LC), hepatitis, metastasis liver cancer, and postsurgery of hepatocellular carcinoma, respectively. There was a significant difference among the patients with HCC, LC and hepatitis (HCC vs. LC, P<0.05; HCC vs. hepatitis, P<0.01) and between Class A and B of the HCC patients (P<0.05). Meanwhile, AFP mRNA was markedly expressed in HCC patients compared to the patients with no HCC (LC and hepatitis). The levels of aspartate transaminase (AST) and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) were significantly different in AFP mRNA-positive patients with autoimmune chronic active hepatitis B (CAHB) or LC in contrast to the corresponding negative patients. CONCLUSION: Combining negative and positive immunomagnetic bead sorting and RT-PCR technique can effectively detect circulating tumor cells. AFP mRNA is a more reliable marker of metastasis compared to serum AFP.