PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

L Jacques

Publications and source records attributed to L Jacques.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

[A case of septicemia by a Corynebacterium of the J. K. group].

We have reported a case of septicaemia caused by "Corynebacterium of group J. K." in a patient with acute myeloblastic leukaemia. Recent studies by Riley (1978) have shown that the corynebacteria, saprophytes of the skin and mucosa have a resistance to common antibiotics. Corynebacteria that are only sensitive to virginiamycin and vancomycin are a potential danger for immunosuppressed patients and patients with artificial heart valves, the appropriate choice of antibiotic can be difficult in these patients.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1985

[Bacteriological study of hygienic conditions in the Department of Blood Diseases and Tumors of the Paul Brousse Hospital at Villejuif. I. The atmospheric flora].

Admission to hospital considerably increases the risk of cross infection. The sources of contamination are of exogenous origin (airborne flora) or endogenous (intestinal flora). Because of the great susceptibility of immunosuppressed patients to microbial agents, it is essential to treat them in a special environment in which there is rigorous attention to hygiene and asepsis. In order to ensure these optimal conditions have been attained, we have made a bacteriological survey for several months in the Service des Maladies Sanguines et Tumorales of the Paul Brousse Hospital, Villejuif. The first part of the survey has given an assessment of the efficiency of the positive pressure air filtration system in one of the units on the Service. Although it should not be neglected, the airborne microbial flora appears to have only a slight effect on the development of infections in our patients. By contrast, the endogenous flora is the main source of infection. Apart from infection via intravenous drips, it is essentially transmitted by direct contact with the nurses' hands or via a variety of instruments. On account of its importance the direct transmission will be described in the second part of this report.

Air Microbiology↗
PubMed1983

[Bacteriological study of hands and the use of soap in the hospital environment].

Direct contact, especially by touching, is the most important route for the transmission of hospital infections. To examine this risk, we have investigated the frequency of bacteria present on the hands of the nursing staff on the long and medium stay wards of the Hospital Paul- Brousse in Villejuif. The study showed that the amount of bacteria after tending the patients before and after washing the hands with soap tablets is still far from negligible. Staphylococci were predominant both from the frequency and density of their cultures, the risks of transmitting the infection increased with the level of contamination. Although in far smaller amounts, enterobacteria were isolated, probably a sign of faecal contamination. Some of these organisms belonged to bacteria called "hospital infections", resistant to many types of antibiotics. The results point out the limitations of the present system for washing hands, in particular using soap tablets--the soap is a source of infection as it becomes soft when kept wet. Improvement could be achieved by instituting a few simple measures, such as rehabilitating mobile basin units using a scrubbing-brush, carefully drying the hands, using linen that is kept only for patients who have septic infections, issuing personal soap tablets or even better using liquid soap in disposable containers.

Cross Infection↗
PubMed1982

[Effect of an immunomodulator (P40) on Escherichia coli urinary infection in the rat].

The preventive effects of various doses of the immunomodulator P40 on the experimental E. coli infection of the upper and lower urinary tract have been investigated in the rat. Under our experimental conditions, P40 only weakly influenced the bacteriological picture of the infection in rats infected by the upper route. However, the development of nephropathia might be decreased. By contrast, P40 was found to prevent the development of infection in two thirds of cases infected by the lower route. The preventive effect of P40 on infections of the lower urinary tract seems to be mostly medicated by the stimulation of phagocytosis, although both humoral and cellular immunity are likely to be involved. In contrast, the defense is most probably to be ascribed to cellular immunity in infections of the upper urinary tract. For the future, conditions will have to be specified which enable P40 to express predominantly its stimulating effect on cellular immunity. Furthermore, the choice of the minimum active dose together with its fractionated administration will prevent side-effects (prostatitis) while resulting in equally pronounced protective action. Since P40 has already successfully been used in man for the treatment of both infectious and tumoral processes, it could as well be used for the prevention of relapses in recurrent urinary infections.

Adjuvants, Immunologic↗
PubMed1981

Characterization and partial purification of a neuronal factor which increases acetylcholine receptor aggregation on cultured muscle cells.

Medium conditioned by NG108-15 neuroblastoma x glioma hybrid cells contains a factor which increases the number of acetylcholine receptor (AChR) aggregates on cultured myotubes. Protease digestion indicates that the AChR aggregation factor is a protein, and the molecular weight is from 150,000 to 250,000 daltons as estimated by ultrafiltration and gel filtration. Preparative isoelectrofocusing indicates that the aggregation factor has a pI of about 4.7. The factor is found in the soluble cytoplasmic fraction but not in the plasma membrane fraction of NG108-15 cells. Aggregation activity is not detected in the cytoplasm of liver cells or in the cytoplasm of C6BU-1 glioma cells. A possible developmental role for the aggregation factor is suggested by its presence in embryonic rat brain but not in adult rat brain. AChR aggregation factors found in the cytoplasm or conditioned medium of NG108-15 cells or in the cytoplasmic fraction of fetal brain have similar molecular weights and isoelectric points.

Acetylcholine↗
PubMed1979

[Production of O antigens and antibodies during urinary tract infections due to Escherichia coli (author's transl)].

In 138 adults with monomicrobial E. coli urinary tract infections, IgG coated bacteriuria (ACB) are found in 9/10 acute pyelonephritis, 21/24 chronic pyelonephritis, 2/5 acute prostatitis, and in only 6/99 lower UTI. These urinary antibodies are synthetised localy because IgA-S are found in 75%, in the kidney because humoral IgG antibodies are detected in only 40% of the ACB + patients. O6, O18, O22, O75, are the four most frequent O antigens (47,5%) and no difference were found in the distribution of O serotypes according to ACB production or clinical signs. But rough strains are significantly more frequent in pyelonephritis, suggesting a modification of the bacterial wall. The use of ACB test and O serotyping allows a better follow-up of patients, but relapses with ACB- and reinfection with ACB+ show the complexity of the relation host-E. coli.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1978

A factor from neurons increases the number of acetylcholine receptor aggregates on cultured muscle cells.

There is an increase in the number of acetylcholine (AcCho) receptor aggregates on striated embryonic mouse myotubules when they are cocultured with clonal neuroblastoma-glioma hybrid cells. Medium conditioned by hybrid cells contains a factor which increases the number of AcCho receptor aggregates on myotubes cultured from mouse, rat or chick muscle. AcCho receptor-aggregating activity was present in medium conditioned by the neuroblastoma parent clone but was not detected in medium conditioned by cells of the parent glioma clone, fibroblasts, or HeLa cells. The factor increased the aggregation of AcCho receptors within 24 hr without a significant increase in the total number of AcCho receptors, and its action did not depend on myotube protein synthesis. The factor appears to rearrange the distribution of myotube AcCho receptors either by aggregating mobile AcCho receptors or by stabilizing labile receptor aggregates.

Cells, Cultured↗
PubMed1978

[Variations in the phagocytic potency of circulating leukocytes from rats which received a thermal injury. Effects of an immunostimulation with Corynebacterium granulosum (author's transl)].

Experiments were carried out to study in vitro the variations of phagocytic activity of circulating leukocytes from rats which received a thermal injury and were either immunostimulated or not by a single iv injection of C. granulosum. The thermal injury which was applied at about 10 percent of the body surface was of an intermediary type ; it developed towards necrosis before cicatrising on about the 30th day. Phagocytic activity was expressed as the percentage of "active" phagocytes or of those cells which phagocytosed Sta. aureus and S. typhi murium. In not immunostimulated rats, the phagocytic activity was profoundly depressed as a result of the thermal injury ; this was most marked at about 8 days after the thermal injury (close to 38% compared with 80% in control-not-burned-rats). The phagocytic potency or circulating leukocytes from burned and immunostimulated rats corresponded at about the 8th day to that of healthy rats. The reported variations are statistically significant, as assessed by the Student "t" and X2 tests. Our study showed that those rats which were burned in our experimental conditions responded favourably to the immunostimulation. It would be interesting to check whether the use of anaerobic corynebacteria in man could represent an adjunct treatment of those septic complications which are so frequent in severe burns.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

[Serum and urinary antibodies in pyelonephritis (author's transl)].

Pyelonephritis is accompanied by complex immunological reactions, the study of which is just now being undertaken. Study of 216 patients with a significant monomicrobial urinary infection showed that in more than 95 per cent of cases of Gram negative infection the urine contained IgG type antibodies, often associated with IgA. These antibodies may be easily detected using an immunofluorescent technique, which would appear to be the best method available at present for distinguishing between pyelonephritis and an infection of the lower urinary tract. They may also be found in the serum, though less frequently. Detection by immunofluorescence is markedly more sensitive than using the classical passive haemagglutination technique. The biological significance of these antibodies remains imprecise, and their protective or facilitating role may be discussed. Their specificity must be determined, in order that sequential study of these immunological reactions may be of help in the conduct of treatment.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗
PubMed1977

Antibodies in Escherichia coli urinary tract infection.

In 105 adults with E.Coli urinary tract infections, IgG coated bacteriuria was found in 8/9 with acute pyelonephritis (PN), 17/20 with chronic PN, and in only 2/76 with lower UTI. IgA was present in 66% of PN, but IgA secretory piece in less than 10%. These urinary IgG antibodies were, at least in part, synthesised in the kidney because serum IgG antibodies were detected by indirect immunofluorescence in only half the patients. 06, 018, 022 E.Coli serotypes were the three most frequently found O groups, but their prevalence in PN is not significant. The immunology of urinary tract infection (UTI) is still a subject of little interest in adult nephrology; but antibody production is a well-characterised event in pyelonephritis (PN), the study of which seems to be the best indirect procedure for localising the site of UTI. We have analysed the production of urinary and humoral antibodies, and their correlation with E.Coli serotypes in patients with E.Coli UTI.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

[Immunofluorescence study of bacteriuria. A new technic for the localization of urinary infection].

The detection by immunofluorescence of immunoglobulins fixed to the wall of urinary bacteria makes it possible to localise the site of the urinary infection. The presence of immunoglobulins was noted in 18 out of 19 patients with a high urinary tract infection involving the renal parenchyma. They were absent in 25 out of 28 subjects with a lower urinary tract infection. The three apparently discordant positive reaction involved 1 case of prostatitis and two cases in which the diagnosis of pyelonephritis was made later. In the case of renal involvement, these immunoglobulins, essentially IgG, are seen with greater frequency than humoral antibodies. Whilst the biological significance of these immunoglobulins remains uncertain, their existence probably being a reflection of parenchymatous inflammation, this nevertheless is a new and, apparently, reliable, method for the determination of the site of an infective process.

Adult↗