Detection of deletion/insertion polymorphism profiles from single human hair shafts.

BACKGROUND: Hair is a frequently encountered biological evidence in personal identification. The amount of nuclear DNA that can be extracted from a single strand of rootless hair is most limited, making the detection of short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphisms difficult. To overcome these limitations, deletion/insertion polymorphisms (DIP) as a new type of genetic marker have shown their benefits in detecting low-copy-number DNA. The Investigator DIPplex kit contains 30 biallelic autosomal DIP and amelogenin. The analysis of DIPs combines the advantages of both STR and single nucleotide polymorphism analyses. Thus, this study aimed to detect the DIP distribution of individual hair shafts from individuals. METHODS AND RESULTS: DNA was extracted from the shaft of fresh, aged, and shed hair. After DNA was evaluated, the DIP profiles were detected by capillary electrophoresis. The results indicated that the amount of DNA extracted from hair roots was much higher than that from the hair shafts in the same individual for all samples. The degradation index values of DNA from the aged hair shafts were highest. It is classified to be "mildly degraded." Compared with their hair roots, the full DIP profiles were detected for fresh hair, 70% for aged hair, and 92% for shed hair. Contrarily, except for fresh hair shafts, only three STR loci of the aged and shed strands of hair could be genotyped using AmpFlSTR MiniFiler PCR Amplification Kit. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the detection of DIP profile is an effective tool for personal identification from hair shafts, including aged hair.

Treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome with antibiotics: pilot study assessing the involvement of Coxiella burnetii infection.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether Coxiella burnetii (C. burnetii) is involved in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), we administered tetracycline antibiotics to subjects with CFS, and followed changes in clinical symptoms, PCR findings, and C. burnetii antibody titers. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The subjects were 8 patients with CFS and 213 with nonspecific complaints such as chronic fatigue and low-grade fever for several months or longer but not meeting the diagnostic criteria for CFS. All were examined for C. burnetii infection by nested PCR and the indirect immunofluorescence test (IF). RESULTS: Four CFS patients (the CFS group) and 54 controls [the post-Q fever fatigue syndrome (QFS) group] positive for C. burnetii were treated mainly with minocycline or doxycycline (100 mg/day) for 3 months. After treatment, all 58 patients tested negative for C. burnetii infection. In the CFS group, no significant difference was noted between the mean pre- and post-treatment temperatures or headache scores. Similarly, there was no significant improvement in performance status (PS) scores. In the QFS group, however, mean temperatures and headache scores were significantly decreased after treatment (p<0.001). PS scores were also improved. CONCLUSION: These results suggest the possibility of direct involvement of C. burnetii in the pathological state of CFS to be low, despite the C. burnetii infection rate being high in CFS patients. This is a pilot study and further larger investigations are necessary to confirm our preliminary results.

A case of shaker dog disease in a miniature dachshund.

A male miniature Dachshund, twenty-two months of age, was referred with paroxysmal generalized tremors as a main clinical sign. There were no abnormalities in the neurological examination except the lack of bilateral menace responses, and in the magnetic resonance imaging of its brain. Analysis of cerebro-spinal fluid revealed a slight rise in protein concentration and an increase in the number of cells. This case with brown hair was diagnosed as the shaker dog disease, which has also been well known as "little white shakers" syndrome due to being found in small dogs with white hair, because the clinical signs were exactly analogous to the shaker dog disease, and the generalized tremors disappeared on the first day after the administration of prednisolone and diazepam.