A highly sensitive monoreagent for the determination of iron and total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) in serum is described in this paper. It contains the dye chromazurol B which gives with iron a high molar absorption complex (A630nm = 1.6 X 10(5) l/mol cm). The more complex problem in the study of the reagent was to make negligible the interferences of the substances in the sera in order to get the procedure without blank samples or deproteinization. Until now none of the reagents presents these peculiarities, that might render easier both the manual analysis and the application to the automatic apparatus. Furthermore, the stability of the reagent (2 years) and the reliability of the results, as detected by data on accuracy, precision (coefficient of variation = 1.9%), linearity (up to 110 mumol/l) and correlation with three different methods, indicate that this procedure is particularly suitable for routine clinical chemistry.

Benzoates↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Cellular localization of human herpesvirus 8 in nonneoplastic lymphadenopathies and chronic interstitial pneumonitis by in situ polymerase chain reaction studies.

OBJECTIVES: To study the cellular localization of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) in rare cases of HHV-8 infection from Italy that are associated neither with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection nor Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). METHODS: The presence and distribution of HHV-8-infected cells was investigated by direct in situ polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the lymph node tissues from 2 patients with reactive lymphadenopathies with florid follicular hyperplasia and increased vascularity and in the lung tissue from 1 patient with chronic interstitial pneumonitis. RESULTS: HHV-8 was localized in lymphoid and monocyte-macrophage cells scattered in the interfollicular regions of both lymph nodes but not in endothelial cells. In the lung tissue, HHV-8 was found in the inflammatory cells infiltrating the interalveolar interstitium, in endothelial cells of the pulmonary vasculature, and in rare pneumocytes. CONCLUSIONS: HHV-8 can infect nonneoplastic lymph nodes of immunocompetent subjects, and the distribution of infected cells outside of the germinal centers resembles that of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-infected cells in the lymph nodes in the course of infectious mononucleosis. Endothelial cells and pneumocytes may be a target of HHV-8 infection out of the KS setting, at least in the presence of a chronic inflammatory process.

Herpesviridae Infections↗