微生物学技术

Introduction of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique as a rapid and sensitive method for amplification of DNA has resulted in development of new specific nucleic acid-based techniques for clinical diagnosis of infections (1). Improvements in nucleic acid amplification by P ...

Acute and chronic liver disease is most commonly caused by hepatitis viruses. Liver diseases resulting from hepatitis viruses share the common characteristic of causing inflammation of the liver. Hepatitis viruses affect a significant population in the world and is a serious public he ...

Eight viruses are included in the herpesvirus group: herpes simplex virus (HSV) (types 1 and 2), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), human herpesviruses 6 (HHV-6), 7 (HHV-7), and 8 (HHV-8). All of the herpesvirus have icosahedral symmetry, are surrou ...

Influenza viruses are segmented, negative-stranded RNA viruses belonging to the family Orthomyxoviridae. They are classified into influenza A, B, and C on the basis of different epitopes on the nucleoprotein (NP) and matrix proteins (M). Influenza A viruses are further divided into subty ...

The diagnosis of many gastrointestinal disorders is made by assessing lesions in an endoscopic mucosal biopsy subjectively, or by objective parameters and morphometric techniques (1–4). Morphometry was first introduced into pathology 80 yr ago. It arose from doubts about qualitat ...

The widespread use of peroral (capsule) and, more recently, endoscopically obtained mucosal biopsies from jejunum and duodenum provides an easy source of material for diagnostic (clinical) and investigative scientific study. The basis of our understanding of small intestinal di ...

Celiac disease is sustained by an immunological process that mainly affects the jejunal mucosa (1). Nonetheless, jejunum is not the only site of the gastrointestinal tract that is involved in celiac disease. In recent years, Ensari and colleagues (2,3), by using immunohistochemical analy ...

Immunohistochemistry comprises methods used to recognize tissue components as antigens in situ by means of directly or indirectly labeled antibodies, usually (but not always) derived from another species. When applied to cell preparations, the same methods are called immunocyto ...

Cytokines are known to play a key regulatory role in immune responses. The onset or progression of immunopathology in various diseases is often associated with aberrant production of one or more cytokines. It is therefore of considerable interest to characterize cytokine “profiles” as ...

Celiac disease is characterized by mucosal changes in the small intestine, ranging from increased numbers of intraepithelial lymphocytes to complete villus effacement with various signs of malabsorption (1,2). Celiac disease is diagnosed by the demonstration of an altered intes ...

Celiac disease and the related condition dermatitis herpetiformis are caused by ingestion of wheat gluten (gliadin being the active moiety) and certain other cereal proteins.

Studies of intestinal mucosal immunity and inflammation are limited by the relative inaccessibility of most of the small intestine. Any new method of studying mucosal immunity and inflammation in patients should be minimally invasive, cost-effective, and provide information not r ...

Historically, the term celiac disease evolved within pediatric practice during the nineteenth century, defining children with severe wasting and putrid stools (1). In the earlier twentieth century, similar complaints in adults were categorized as “intestinal insufficiency” or ...

This chapter details DNA extraction through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, gel running, allele assignment, and data management so that the genotyping data produced is suitable for use in linkage analysis programs.

Many disorders such as celiac disease do not conform to a simple Mendelian model of inheritance and display a complex pattern of inheritance indicative of the interaction of a number of distinct susceptibility genes. Susceptibility to celiac disease is genetically determined by posse ...

Linkage analysis in families containing affected individuals can be used to identify the location of disease susceptibility genes. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the molecular methods employed to clone these susceptibility genes on the basis of linkage data.

The wheat proteins, which are active in celiac disease and other glutenrelated conditions, are defined as prolamins, in that they are soluble as individual subunits in alcohol-water mixtures, such as 50% (v/v) aqueous propan-1-ol or 60–70% (v/v) aqueous ethanol. However, in wheat grain and flour, ...

In recent years there have been major developments in the field of mass spectrometry (MS) that permit the analysis and characterization of peptides and proteins at the femtomolar level (1–8). This chapter deals with the use of MS for the elucidation of peptide sequences of gliadin- and/or gluteni ...

This chapter describes a methodology for elucidating immunogenic epitopes stimulatory for CD4+ T-cell clones (Fig. 1). The methodology makes use of synthetic peptide libraries and must be regarded as an alternative to other approaches, such as peptide elution or the application of genet ...

Several immunological disorders display a striking association with particular HLA alleles. Although the basis for these HLA-disease associations is not completely understood, it is likely that peptides bound to the disease-associated molecules play a role in pathogenesis. The ...