Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0038187 (starvation)
 24,951 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Chronic ingestion of excessive amounts of fluoride from commercial fox food is associated with agalactia in vixens resulting in the starvation deaths of large numbers of kits in three fox herds. Evidence of infectious disease or poor management could not be found and a causal relationship between fluoride and high kit mortality is suggested.
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PMID:Toxic effects of food-borne fluoride in silver foxes. 375 22

Escherichia coli O157:H7 can persist for days to weeks in microcosms simulating natural conditions. In this study, we used a suite of fluorescent, in situ stains and probes to assess the influence of starvation on physiological activity based on membrane potential (rhodamine 123 assay), membrane integrity (LIVE/DEAD BacLight kit), respiratory activity (5-cyano-2,3-di-4-tolyl-tetrazolium chloride assay), intracellular esterase activity (ScanRDI assay), and 16S rRNA content. Growth-dependent assays were also used to assess substrate responsiveness (direct viable count [DVC] assay), ATP activity (MicroStar assay), and culturability (R2A agar assay). In addition, resistance to chlorine disinfection was assessed. After 14 days of starvation, the DVC values decreased, while the values in all other assays remained relatively constant and equivalent to each other. Chlorine resistance progressively increased through the starvation period. After 29 days of starvation, there was no significant difference in chlorine resistance between control cultures that had not been exposed to the disinfectant and cultures that had been exposed. This study demonstrates that E. coli O157:H7 adapts to starvation conditions by developing a chlorine resistance phenotype.
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PMID:Effects of starvation on physiological activity and chlorine disinfection resistance in Escherichia coli O157:H7. 983 45

The changes in bacterial counts during the storage of a natural mineral water from a French spring were studied. Samples were taken from the spring and the bottling line. Viable cultivable (VC) bacteria were counted on R2A medium. Total counts, viable and dead bacteria were counted using the LIVE/DEAD Bac Light VIABILITY kit and epifluorescence microscopy. Viable but non-cultivable (VNC) bacteria were estimated by difference between viable and VC counts. Isolates were clustered by phenotype. The microflora in the spring water increased from < 10-3 x 10(5) bacteria ml-1 after 6 d in storage and then stabilized. Mechanical bottling increased the allochthonous bacteria in the water that stabilized at 10(5) bacteria ml-1. Maximal growth is controlled by the low concentration of nutrients in the mineral water and the lysis of dead cells. The allochthonous bacteria came from the aquifer and colonized the filling line. The changes in the VC and VNC populations showed that the bacteria used starvation-survival and entry into the VNC state to adapt to the bottling stress and the enclosed oligotrophic environment.
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PMID:Total counts, culturable and viable, and non-culturable microflora of a French mineral water: a case study. 1038 50

Physical changes in Flavobacterium psychrophilum, the causative agent of rainbow trout fry syndrome (RTFS), were examined over a 19 wk period of starvation. Bacteria were maintained in either Cytophaga broth, filtered stream water, or filtered distilled water, or were maintained in broth after disinfection as a negative control for dead bacteria. Culturability and viability of the bacterium were assessed using colony-forming units (CFUs) and a commercially available live/dead kit. Antigenic profiles and general morphology of the bacterium were also examined using Western blot analysis and electron microscopy, respectively. The bacterium appeared to stop multiplying and became smaller and rounded when maintained in stream water. Its culturability declined until it was no longer possible to obtain colonies on agar plates at the end of the trial at 19 wk, and results from the live/dead kit did not correspond with the viability obtained as CFUs in culture. However, it was still possible to obtain growth of the bacterium after 36 wk with a resuscitation step in Cytophaga broth. Bacteria maintained in distilled water or treated with a disinfectant appeared non-viable using the live/dead kit and were unable to grow on agar 1 h after setting up the experiment; no morphological changes were observed in the bacteria maintained under these conditions. Bacteria maintained in broth were present as long, slim rods, some of which developed into 'ring' formations. Small differences were observed in the antigen profiles of the bacteria maintained under the different treatments, possibly due to a reduction in the size and metabolism of the bacteria. There was also a marked decline in the sensitivity of the PCR with bacteria maintained under the different treatments 14 wk from the onset of the study.
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PMID:Starvation of Flavobacterium psychrophilum in broth, stream water and distilled water. 1459 87

Gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) are rare neoplasms originating from connective tissue in the digestive tract with an incidence of less than 1% and account for most non-epithelial primitive digestive tumours. Metastasis diagnosed at the time of disease discovery confirms GIST malignancy. Kit protein, a trans-membrane tyrosine kinase receptor of staminal cells, is characteristically expressed by GIST. Most GIST have a mutation in the kit proto-oncogene. Resistance to conventional chemotherapy is commonly shown by malignant GIST. Most patients with advanced malignant GIST achieve clinical benefit with imatinib mesilate, an orally administered selective inhibitor of the tyrosine kinase receptor. We treated a 43-year-old male patient suffering from a gastric GIST diagnosed during a surgical emergency operation for peritonitis caused by gastric perforation. At the time of the first operation the patient had lost 10 kg body weight over the previous months and was seriously cachectic. During the emergency operation the perforation was sutured. The biopsy results showed the presence of CD1 17 (c-kit) and CD34 markers. A total body CT scan documented the substantial size of the gastric wall lesion, an increased volume of abdominal lymph nodes and compression of the splenic vein with alternative collateral circulation. The liver presented no less than 5 large metastases distributed in both the left and right lobes. There was also a pulmonary metastasis. Because of frequent spontaneous bleeding and starvation the patient was seriously anaemic. Considering the action mechanism of imatinib and the extent of the lesion we decided to perform a total gastrectomy procedure. At the time of the operation the stomach seemed to have a modified volume and shape: it appeared to be divided into two sacs, the larger and deeper of which was the original gastric cavity, while the superficial, smaller one seemed to be a protrusion of the organ. The stomach was indistinguishable from the spleen, the transverse colon and the distal pancreatic tract. The neoplasm was directly linked to the left liver and to the inferior diaphragmatic surface. We performed total gastrectomy and resection of the tail of the pancreas, the spleen, and the transverse colon all in one and the same session. The patient was discharged on postoperative day 8 and commenced imatinib therapy 30 days after the operation with 4 tablets per day. In the following months the patient repeated the CT scan to monitor the progressive volume reduction of the liver and lung lesions and a PET scan confirmed that the lesions were not active; the patient experienced a 13 kg body weight increase. One year after the operation the outcome appears to be lasting and the patient has tolerated the drug treatment well.
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PMID:[New orientations in the management of advanced, metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST): combination of surgery and systemic therapy with imatinib in a case of primary gastric location]. 1583 50

One of the popular ideas is that decline in methyl-directed mismatch repair (MMR) in carbon-starved bacteria might facilitate occurrence of stationary-phase mutations. We compared the frequency of accumulation of stationary-phase mutations in carbon-starved Pseudomonas putida wild-type and MMR-defective strains and found that knockout of MMR system increased significantly emergence of base substitutions in starving P. putida. At the same time, the appearance of 1-bp deletion mutations was less affected by MMR in this bacterium. The spectrum of base substitution mutations which occurred in starving populations of P. putida wild-type strain was distinct from mutation spectrum identified in MMR-defective strains. The spectrum of base substitutions differed also in this case when mutants emerged in starved populations of MutS or MutL-defective strains were comparatively analyzed. Based on our results we suppose that other mechanisms than malfunctioning of MMR system in resting cells might be considered to explain the accumulation of stationary-phase mutations in P. putida. To further characterize populations of P. putida starved on selective plates, we stained bacteria with LIVE/DEAD kit in situ on agar plates. We found that although the overall number of colony forming units (CFU) did not decline in long-term-starved populations, these populations were very heterogeneous on the plates and contained many dead cells. Our results imply that slow growth of subpopulation of cells at the expenses of dead cells on selective plates might be important for the generation of stationary-phase mutations in P. putida. Additionally, the different survival patterns of P. putida on the same selective plates hint that competitive interactions taking place under conditions of prolonged starvation of microbial populations on semi-solid surfaces might be more complicated than previously assumed.
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PMID:Involvement of DNA mismatch repair in stationary-phase mutagenesis during prolonged starvation of Pseudomonas putida. 1641 11

pcDNA3.1 in NIH3T3 and Psap-Myc in NIH3T3 cell strains were used as cell models in order to study the effect of prosaposin on cell proliferation, cell apoptosis and its possible molecular mechanism. MTT assay and Annexin V/PI apoptosis kit were used to detect the effect of prosaposin on cell proliferation and cell apoptosis induced by se-rum-starvation stress, respectively. Western blotting was conducted to detect the phosphorylative level of PI3K/Akt pathway, and real-time PCR was carried out to explore the expression of the genes regulated by PI3K/Akt pathway. Prosaposin pro-tein was proved to activate the PI3K/Akt signal pathway, upregulate the phosphorylative activity of Akt at Serine 473, downregulate the expression of P27(Kip1) gene, upregulate the expression of Cyclin D1 gene and then promote the G1/S tran-sition, and upregulate the expression of survival genes cIAP1 and cIAP2 and then prevent cell apoptosis. These findings suggest that the growth promotion and anti-apoptotic activity of prosaposin may be partly through the PI3K/Akt signal pathway and its downstream targeted genes.
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PMID:[Studies of effect of prosaposin on cell proliferation, cell apoptosis and its possible molecular mechanism]. 2004 90

Two analytical approaches for the rapid measurement of hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) have been compared to a reference method for their potential application as a rapid procedure for the quantification of H(2)S formed during alcoholic fermentations. In one case, silver nitrate, lead acetate, and mercuric chloride selective detector tubes for the analysis of H(2)S in air were investigated. In the other case, a commercially available kit for the diagnosis of nitrogen starvation in wine fermentations, which is based on the detection of H(2)S, was investigated. Both methods exhibited excellent linearity of response, but the mercuric chloride tube was found to suffer from interferences due to the concomitant presence of mercaptans, which resulted in erroneous H(2)S quantification. A comparative study between the two methods studied and the cadmium hydroxide/methylene blue reference method commonly used to monitor H(2)S indicate that the two new methods displayed better recoveries at low H(2)S concentrations, besides being more rapid and economical. The two new methods were successfully used to quantify production of H(2)S in different grape juice fermentations. The suitability of each method for the study of specific aspects of H(2)S production during fermentation is discussed.
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PMID:Comparison of three methods for accurate quantification of hydrogen sulfide during fermentation. 2010 48

Accumulation of phosphate and ammonia in estuarine systems and subsequent dinoflagellate and algal blooms has been implicated in fish kills and in health risks for fishermen. Analytic chemistry kits are used to measure phosphate and ammonia levels in water samples, but their sensitivity is limited due to specificity for inorganic forms of these moieties. An Escherichia coli bioluminescent reporter system measured the bioavailability of inorganic nutrients through fusion of E. coli promoters (phoA or glnAp2) to the luxCDABE operon of Vibrio fischeri carried either on the chromosome or on a multicopy plasmid vector, resulting in emission of light in response to phosphate or ammonia starvation. Responses were shown to be under the control of expected physiological regulators, phoB and glnFG, respectively. Standard curves were used to determine the phosphate and ammonia levels in water samples from diverse watersheds located in the northeastern United States. Bioluminescence produced in response to nutrient starvation correlated with concentrations of phosphate (1-24 ppm) and ammonia (0.1-1.6 ppm). While the ammonia biosensor measured nutrient concentrations in tested water samples that were comparable to the amounts reported by a commercial kit, the phosphate biosensor reported higher levels of phosphate in Chesapeake water samples than did the kit.
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PMID:Bioluminescent Escherichia coli strains for the quantitative detection of phosphate and ammonia in coastal and suburban watersheds. 2049 81

Starvation represents an extreme physiological state and entails numerous endocrine and metabolic adaptations. The large-scale application of metabolomics to patients with acute anorexia nervosa (AN) should lead to the identification of state markers characteristic of starvation in general and of the starvation specifically associated with this eating disorder. Novel metabolomics technology has not yet been applied to this disorder. Using a targeted metabolomics approach, we analysed 163 metabolite concentrations in 29 patients with AN in the acute stage of starvation (T0) and after short-term weight recovery (T1). Of the 163 metabolites of the respective kit, 112 metabolites were quantified within restrictive quality control limits. We hypothesized that concentrations are different in patients in the acute stage of starvation (T0) and after weight gain (T1). Furthermore, we compared all 112 metabolite concentrations of patients at the two time points (T0, T1) with those of 16 age and gender matched healthy controls. Thirty-three of the metabolite serum levels were found significantly different between T0 and T1. At the acute stage of starvation (T0) serum concentrations of 90 metabolites differed significantly from those of healthy controls. Concentrations of controls mostly differed even more strongly from those of AN patients after short-term weight recovery than at the acute stage of starvation. We conclude that AN entails profound and longer lasting alterations of a large number of serum metabolites. Further studies are warranted to distinguish between state and trait related alterations and to establish diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the thus altered metabolites.
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PMID:Comparison of metabolic profiles of acutely ill and short-term weight recovered patients with anorexia nervosa reveals alterations of 33 out of 163 metabolites. 2298 4


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