• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 1981

Recent studies have demonstrated that histamine could have a modulatory influence on the immune response in vitro and in vivo. However, the effect of histamine on immune response in mice has not been extensivley analyzed. In the present study the regulatory effects of cimetidine, a histamine-2-receptor antagonist(H2 blocker) and histamine on the immune response to sheep red blood cells(SRBC) were evaluated in mice. Mice pretreated with daily intraperitoneal injection of varying concentrations of cimetidine for 14 days were immunized intraperitoneally with various concentrations of SRBC($10^6,\;10^7,\;and\;10^8$ cells) and challenged 4 days post immunization. The cellular immune response was determined by measuring the footpad swelling reaction. Footpad swelling reaction of each mouse was measured at 3hr(Arthus) reaction) and 24 or 48 hr(delayed reactions) after challenge. The humoral immune response was determined by measuring hemagglutinins to SRBC. Histamine in varying concentrations($10^{-1},\;10^{-3}\;and\;10^{-5}M$(was added in SRBC suspension at the time of antigen challenge into footpad, and 24-hr delayed type hypersensitivity(DTH) was measured. Cimetidine in varying concentrations(10, 50, 250, 1250 and 6250${\mu}g$) enhanced 24-hr DTH and this enhancement of DTH was more pronounced at 250${\mu}g$ of cimetidine. However, there were no significant differences between the cimetidine-pretreated groups and controls in Arthus reaction and hemagglutinin titers. Histamine suppressed the DTH in the dose-dependent fashion. This suppression was more pronounced at lower concentration of immunizing antigen($10^7\;and\;10^6$ SRBC). However, histamine did not diminish the DTH at higher concentration of antigen($10^8$ SRBC). These results present the evidences which strongly suggest that cimetidine enhances the cell-mediated immune response but not significantlly influences the humoral immune response and that exogenous and endogenous histamine is involved in the modulation of cellular immune response as well as immediate hypersensitivity.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.175-181
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• 2002

Purpose : Scrub typhus(tsutsugamushi disease) is a febrile disease characterized by fever, rash, eschar, lymphadenopathy. Therapy with tetracycline(doxycycline) or chloramphenicol is currently recommended for the treatment for scrub typhus. But there are limitations in usage a tetracycline(doxycycline) for scrub typhus in the children. Recently, there was a report that azithromycin, a macrolide antibiotic was used for scrub typhus in pregnant woman successfully. So we evaluated the effectiveness of the Clarithromycin, other a macrolide antibiotic, for scrub typhus. Methods : Seven patients with scrub typhus at department of internal medicine and three patients with scrub typhus at department of pediatrics Masan Fatima Hospital were involved for this study. A serologic diagnosis for scrub typhus were performed by use of passive hemagglutination test. Clarithromycin(Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, IL, USA) was administrated orally in a daily dose of 500 mg for adult patients and 15 mg/kg/bid/day for pediatric patients. Results : There were 7 cases of adult patients, varying from 28 to 76 years of age and 3 cases of pediatirc patients, varying from 4 to 7 years of age with scrub typhus. All of cases had fever, myalgia, headache, rash, eschar. Seven cases had positive passive hemagglutination test and eight cases had abnormal liver function. Mean duration for the removal of fever after medication was 1.3 day(1~2 days) and all cases were recovered without complications. Conclusion : Our results suggest that Clarithromycin therapy may be effective for scrub typhus.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.657-664
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• 1993

To reveal the immunogenicity of ${\gamma}-irradiated$ E tenella and its progeny, a series of experiments on the effects of Cobalt-to ${\gamma}-irradiation$ was performed. The SPF chickens inoculated with diffenrt doses of inoculum were challenged with $1{\times}10^5$ oocysts of virulent E tenella. The levels of 100 Gy ${\gamma}-irradiation$ from $^{60}Co$ and of inoculum with $1{\times}10^4$ oocysts were recognized as proper as immunogen by comparison of survival rates, body weight gains, blood in feces and lesion scores in the chickens. In these trials of challenge with virulent E tenella after inoculation with $1{\times}10^4$ oocysts of the ${\gamma}-irradiated$ E tenella and its progeny, the survival rates of the chickens challenged with the virulent E tenella after immunization with the 1st and the 3rd progeny groups of ${\gamma}-irradiated$ E tenella oocysts were higher(l00%) than that(87.0%) of the challenged control group. The signs of blood in feces and the lesion scores were seen markedly lower with the ourput of the smaller number of oocysts, i.e. OPG 103,900 and 25,800 in the groups of the 1st and the 3rd progeny, respectively, than those(OPG 1,658,900) of the challenged control group. The body weight gains of the 1st and the 3rd progeny groups, the 1st week and the 2nd week after challenge, were higher (2.6g and 155.4g, 11.6g and 168.9g respectively) than those(-85.8g and 63.6g, respectively) of the challenged control group, and the feed conversion ratios(FCR 3.28 and 2.96) of the 1st and the 3rd progeny groups were lower than that(FCR 5.60) of the groups challenged control group. The anticoccidial indices(70.5 and 93.9) of the groups challenged with the virulent oocysts of E tenella after immunization with the 1st and the 3rd progeny of the ${\gamma}-irradiated$ E tenella were significantly higher than that (ACI -81.9) of the challenged control group. It was thought that the immunogenicity of ${\gamma}-irradiated$ E tenella would be increase according to increase the number of generation passaged in chicken. That might be because of increasing the pathogenicity of ${\gamma}-irradiated$ E tenella according to increase the number of generation passaged in chicken.