Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M J Day

Publications and source records attributed to M J Day.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

The role of the clinical specialist in an adult congenital heart disease program.

As the specialty of adult congenital heart disease (CHD) develops, there is concern regarding the training of the health professional who will be responsible for patient management. Integral to the program is the role of the clinical nurse specialist. An advanced practice role, the clinical nurse specialist provides her or his expertise to both the daily operation of the program and to the clinical management and education of patients and their families. The educational preparation and roles of a clinical specialist in adult CHD are described.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Angiostrongylus vasorum infection in seven dogs.

Angiostrongylus vasorum infection was diagnosed in six dogs by the identification of larvae in sputum or faeces, or by the identification of adult worms post mortem. In another dog strong evidence of the condition was obtained but no parasites were identified. In four cases the main clinical signs were coughing and dyspnoea, but one dog had exercise intolerance and no history of coughing. One dog in which larvae were found in the faeces had no clinical signs that were related to the infection. Another dog had flaccid hindlimb paralysis and forelimb hypermetria-clinical signs of the disease which have not been reported previously. Four of the cases came from south Wales, one of them being the first case of the infection to be reported from this area.

Angiostrongylus↗
PubMed1993

Immune-mediated skin disease in the dog and cat.

Immune-mediated skin disease was recorded in 24 dogs and 11 cats by the Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Bristol, over the period 1973-1992. The clinical and histopathological features, together with the age, breed and sex, are given for each case. Skin biopsies from the 24 dogs in this series, together with tissue from 25 control dogs, were immunostained for IgG, IgM and C3 by direct immunoperoxidase methodology. The same technique, with species-specific antisera for IgG and IgM, was applied to skin biopsies from 10 affected cats. The correlation between clinical features, histopathology and immunohistochemistry is discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Prevention of pristane-induced arthritis by the oral administration of type II collagen.

This is the first demonstration of a role for type II collagen in pristane-induced arthritis. Pretreatment with soluble type II collagen either lowers or raises the subsequent incidence and severity of pristane-induced arthritis. These effects are dependent upon both the dose and route of administration of the soluble type II collagen. Increasing doses of orally administered type II collagen lowered both the incidence and severity of pristane-induced arthritis. Conversely, increasing doses of intraperitoneally administered type II collagen increased both the incidence and severity of arthritis. This exacerbation of pristane-induced arthritis was accompanied by elevated B- and T-cell responses to type II collagen. These findings highlight the importance of the site at which antigen is encountered in influencing subsequent immune responses and extend the observations of the use of orally administered antigens to ameliorate experimental autoimmunity.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1992

Targeting autoantigen to B cells prevents the induction of a cell-mediated autoimmune disease in rats.

Immunization protocols that induce high levels of delayed-type hypersensitivity are often associated with low levels of antibody production, whereas alternative immunization strategies can produce the opposite effect. This reciprocal relationship appears to depend, at least in part, on the fact that T cell-derived lymphokines that are predominantly involved in one type of response inhibit the development of those T cells that promote the alternative one. Such a regulatory mechanism is likely to be bistable in that whenever one form of response is established, spontaneous development of the alternative one will be inhibited. We have applied this concept to the control of a cell-mediated autoimmune disease in rats. By covalently linking the autoantigen to anti-IgD antibody, we have targeted it to B cells for presentation to antigen-specific T cells. This form of presentation favors antibody production and may be expected to antagonize the cell-mediated disease-inducing response to the same antigen. To test this hypothesis, use was made of the fact that experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), when induced with the encephalitogenic peptide of guinea pig myelin basic protein, is purely a cell-mediated disease. The experiments show that Lewis rats, immunized with the peptide in its encephalitogenic form, were protected from disease when simultaneously injected with the peptide coupled to anti-IgD monoclonal antibodies. Control experiments showed that neither peptide nor anti-IgD alone were protective, and the peptide covalently coupled to irrelevant antibodies also failed to protect. Spleen cells from animals protected from disease by the anti-IgD-peptide conjugate, when activated in vitro with the encephalitogen, were able to transfer EAE to naive recipients. The results demonstrate that a cell-mediated immune response can be controlled by appropriate targeting of the specific antigen without inducing T cell anergy and suggest a potential strategy for preventing autoimmune diseases that are essentially cell-mediated in type.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Immune-mediated disease in the old English sheepdog.

Immunological data are reported from 19 cases of immune-mediated disease recorded in the old English sheepdog breed in Western Australia between 1978 and 1989. The conditions included autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (seven), idiopathic thrombocytopenia (one), Evans' syndrome (five), multiple myeloma (two), systemic lupus erythematosus (one), discoid lupus erythematosus (one) and hypothyroidism (two). The most consistent serological findings were raised serum IgG (60 per cent), depressed serum IgM (60 per cent) and the presence of multiple autoantibodies (anti-red blood cell 78 per cent, antinuclear antibody 44 per cent, rheumatoid factor 19 per cent). An underlying, breed-related disorder of immune regulation may account for these observations.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

The refractory phase of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in the Lewis rat is antigen specific in its induction but not in its effect.

Rats that have recovered from experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) are refractory to attempts to induce further episodes of the disease. The specificity of this refractoriness was examined by determining the susceptibility of such animals to the related disease experimental allergic neuritis (EAN). As EAE and EAN are induced respectively by central nervous system myelin basic protein (MBP) and the P2 peptide of peripheral nerve myelin, it was possible to test whether the refractory phase of EAE represented a generalized hyporeactivity to antigenic challenge or was solely a failure to respond to the antigen with which disease was induced. For some experiments the roles of the two antigens were reversed, i.e. the effects of preimmunizing with P2 peptide on the susceptibility to EAE was examined. Animals preimmunized with MBP or P2 peptide became profoundly refractory to EAE and EAN respectively and rats preimmunized with one antigen but challenged with the other were susceptible to the challenge. It is concluded that refractoriness to EAE and EAN is largely antigen specific. Preimmunization with one antigen followed by challenge with a mixture of both suggested that the immunosuppression responsible for refractoriness, although specific in its induction, was non-specific in its effect.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Factors affecting conjugative transfer of plasmid pWG613, determining gentamicin resistance, in Staphylococcus aureus.

Factors that are known to influence plasmid transfer in bacterial populations were studied for the conjugative plasmid pWG613, which determined gentamicin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus. The transfer frequency was largely unaffected over a wide range of temperature (18-42 degrees C); pH also had little effect on the transfer frequency in the range 5.0-8.5. High cell density and log phase cultures were required for optimal plasmid transfer, as were donor:recipient ratios of 0.003-3.3.

Cetrimonium↗
PubMed1991

Comparative sensitivity to antibiotics and biocides of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from Saudi Arabia and Great Britain.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated in Saudi Arabia and Great Britain were examined for susceptibility to antibiotics and biocides. The strains differed in their sensitivity patterns. None of the Saudi strains showed resistance to propamidine isethionate, but most of the British gentamicin methicillin-resistant Staph. aureus (GMRSA) strains were highly resistant to this compound and to some other nucleic acid-binding (NAB) compounds. Both groups showed a low level of resistance towards quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), but resistance to these compounds was not associated with resistance to gentamicin in the Saudi strains. The aminoglycoside-resistant determinants were non-conjugative in these strains. Natural MRSA strains were good recipients for pWG613, but transferred this plasmid in reciprocal crosses at significantly lower rates.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1991

Effect of some antibiotics and biocides on plasmid transfer in Staphylococcus aureus.

The effects of some antibiotics and biocides on the conjugative transfer of the Staphylococcus aureus gentamicin resistance plasmid pWG613 were investigated. Gentamicin and vancomycin were found to stimulate plasmid transfer frequency by 10- to 20-fold whereas methicillin and three inhibitors of protein synthesis each reduced it by various degrees. Most significantly, mupirocin inhibited plasmid transfer frequency by more than 1000-fold. All the biocides tested (cationic agents, sodium dodecyl sulphate and an organomercurial) reduced plasmid transfer.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1991

An immunohistochemical study of canine disseminated aspergillosis.

An immunohistochemical study of 25 lesions from 7 dogs with disseminated aspergillosis (Aspergillus terreus) is presented. All had multiple fungal granulomas in many viscera, with centres of necrotic tissue and hyphal elements surrounded by a mixed infiltrate of predominantly mononuclear cells. Within these lesions, hyphae coated with immunoglobulin (IgG, IgM, IgA) and complement (C3, C4) were identified, together with peri-lesional mononuclear cells that reacted with antisera directed towards either IgG, IgM, IgA or a T lymphocyte marker (MUII). A conspicuous feature was the prominent hyphal fluorescence seen with IgA and C3 antisera. The IgA reagent also marked large numbers of mononuclear cells both around lesions and scattered throughout interstitial tissue, suggesting an abnormality of IgA production or regulation as a factor predisposing to this condition.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Loss of encephalitogenicity of a myelin basic protein-specific T cell line is associated with a phenotypic change but not with alteration in production of interleukin-2, gamma-interferon or tumour necrosis factor.

Continued stimulation of a CD4+ myelin basic protein-specific T cell line led to loss of in vivo encephalitogenic activity but no alteration in ability of the line to produce interleukin-2, gamma-interferon or tumour necrosis factor. Loss of encephalitogenicity was, however, associated with an increased presence of CD4+ CD8+ cells which likely represents preferential outgrowth of this population. The possible in vivo relevance of these findings is discussed.

Animals↗