Antibodies from the egg yolks of immunized chickens may be an effective alternative to antibiotic treatment of Helicobacter pylori infections say Korean researchers in the September 2002 issue of the journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology.
In the study antibodies were extracted from egg yolks of immunized chickens and administered orally to Mongolian gerbils infected with H. pylori. The gerbils were then examined to determine if the antibodies were effective in decreasing damage to the stomach wall.
"The encouraging results of this study indicate that the immunoglobulin obtained from hens immunized by H. pylori may provide a novel approach to the management of H. pylori infections in humans."
(J.-H. Shin, M. Yang, S.W. Nam, J.T. Kim, N.A. Myung, W.-G. Bang, I.H. Roe. 2002. Use of egg yolk-derived immunoglobulin as an alternative to antibiotic treatment for control of Helicobacter pylori infection. Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, 9: 1061-1066.)
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BACTERIA WORK WITH DIET IN HEART DISEASE
Infection with the bacteria Chlamydia pneumoniae alone is not sufficient to induce athersclerosis but must act in concert with an already existing high-fat, high-cholesterol diet, say researchers from the University of Washington. They report their findings in the September 2002 issue of the journal Infection and Immunity.
Previous studies have found that mice fed a high-fat, high cholesterol diet at the same time as infection experienced atherosclerotic lesions 3 times larger than uninfected mice. In this study the researchers initiated the high-fat, high cholesterol diet in the mice several weeks after infection with C. pneumoniae. They found no significant difference in atherosclerotic lesion formation in the infected mice versus the control mice.
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Contact: Jim Sliwa
jsliwa@asmusa.org
202-942-9367
American Society for Microbiology
18-Sep-2002