• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.186-193
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• 2020

Objective: The effectiveness of Staphylococcus protein A (SPA) in improving the penetration ability of sperm and reducing antisperm antibody (ASA) titers in immunologically infertile males was evaluated. Methods: Seminal fluid samples were obtained from 15 infertile men, and ASA titers were assessed with the latex agglutination test. Identification of immunoglobulin (Ig) classes and characterization of the antigens involved in the immune response were performed using indirect immunofluorescence. Local ASAs typically present as a mixture of IgG and IgA classes. The capillary tube penetration method was used to assess the capability of spermatozoa to penetrate the cervical mucus (CM). Results: ASAs associated with the neck region of sperm showed a significantly lower migration distance in the CM of infertile females than ASAs associated with the head or tail segments. ASA-positive seminal fluid exhibited significant increases in the mean migration distance (2.6 ± 1.4 cm vs. 1.54 ± 1.1 cm, respectively; p< 0.001) and sperm concentration (174 ± 121.0 × 10³/mL vs. 101 ± 93.7 × 10³/mL, respectively; p= 0.033) after treatment with SPA compared to pre-treated samples. A significant reduction (p< 0.01) in the recorded ASA titer was detected. Conclusion: These results indicate that SPA can be used as a sorting regimen for insemination programs. However, further studies are warranted to assess its influence on pregnancy rate.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.673-676
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• 2007

A two-step triplex PCR assay targeting the mecA, femA, and nuc genes was developed for the detection of methicillin resistance genes harbored by some Staphylococcus aureus isolates and for the simultaneous identification of such isolates at the species level. The triplex PCR revealed the presence of the femA and nuc genes in all the S. aureus isolates examined (n=105). Forty-four clinical isolates were mecA positive and no foodborne isolates were mecA positive. The PCR results had a 98 or 99% correlation with the results of PBP2a latex agglutination tests or oxacillin susceptibility tests, respectively.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.243-253
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• 1986

In recent years much attention has been paid to swine respiratory infection caused by Haemophilus(H.) Pleuropneumoniae with rapid expansion of pork industry in Korea. The organism may cause an acute respiratory infection with high morbidity and mortality, or it may also cause chronic persistent infection, resulting in loss of body weight. The present study was performed to observe the etiologic situation of H. Pleuropneumoniae infection by evaluating bacteriological, serological examinations with the lungs and sera collected from slaughtered pigs in Daegu city, respectively. In addition, antibiotic susceptibility test was carried out against the isolated strains of H. Pleuropneumoniae. The results obtained are summarized as follows : 1. Only 10 strains of H. Pleuropneumoniae were isolated from the 120 cases of swine lungs examined, and biological and biochemical characteristics of the isolates were identical with that of standard strains(serovar 1 to 6). 2. Out of 336 swine sera examined, 108(32.1%) were shown to be positive against H. Pleuropneumoniae by latex agglutination test. 3. Antibiotic susceptibility test revealed that 10 isolates of H. Pleuropneumoniae were sensitive to 16 kinds of antibiotic such as ampicillin, benzylpenicillin, piperacillin, cephalothin, cefazolin, cefamandol, cefoperagon, lactomoxycefa, tetracycline, minocycline, chloramphenicol, gentamicin, kanamycin, amikacin, colistin and nalidixic acid, whereas cloxacillin, erythromycin, kitasamycin, lincomycin, oleand-amycin, and bacitracin were resistent.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2012

This study was performed to evaluate the prevalence rate of Toxoplasma gondii on 217 stray cats in Daejeon. The positive infection rate of T. gondii was 15.7% in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), 12.4% in latex agglutination test (LAT), 14.7% in indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFA) and 0.5% in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) respectively. In districts, Yuseong-gu was shown the highest seropositive rate of T. gondii as 31.8% in ELISA, 22.7% in LAT and 31.8% in IFA. In gender, the seropositive rate of female cats was slightly higher than that of male cats as 17.2% in ELISA, 15.2% in LAT, 15.2% in IFA and 1.0% in PCR. Cats captured in National science museum, detached house and apartment was shown relatively high prevalence rate of T. gondii.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.444-446
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• 2001

Objectives : Toxoplasmosis is a member of the zoonosis group and may cause congenital infection . Antibody positive rates of toxoplasmosis were examined in high school students in Cheju, Korea to facilitate the study aim of examining the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in school teachers of child-bearing age in Cheju Island. Methods : The study population comprised teachers of child-bearing age in primary, middle and high schools, aged 35 years and younger, who wished to be tested for Toxoplasma gondii antibodies (IgG) by the indirect latex agglutination test (ILA) and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Results : The overall antibody positive rate was 3.8% in the study subjects (n=314), a rate which showed no significant difference due to birth place, history of bringing up pets, or history of contacting a cat. Conclusion : We confirmed that the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in a population of child-bearing teachers in Cheju Island was the same as that previously reported in other parts of Korea.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.218-224
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• 1997

Purpose: The antimicrobial resistance of S. pneumoniae has encountered with increasing frequency from around the world. In our country, penicillin resistant strains of S. penumococci are rapidly increasing. It has been known that colonized pneumococci in upper respiratory tract cause sinisitis, otitis media, meningitis and pneumonia. We tried to reveal the colonization rate of pneumonocci in upper respiratory tract, their antimicrobial resistance and DNA fingerprinting pattern in normal children. Methods: We got specimens from 117 children of day-care center in Seoul through oropharyngeal swab. After incubation on BAP, optochin test and slide latex agglutination test were used for identification. Antimicobial susceptibility test to penicillin, vancomycin, erythromycin and TMP-SMZ was done with disk diffusion method. Penicillin MIC was gotten through the broth microdilution method. Genotyping of 45 pneumococci was done by rep-PCR using REP1R-Dt and REP2-Dt primer. Results: The carriage rate of pneumococci in the day-care center children was 38%(45/117). The resistance of penicillin, erhthromycin, TMP/SMZ, vancomycin by the disk diffusion method are 89%, 91%, 64% and 0%, respectively. 64% of the isolates showed multiple resistance. 7 types of DNA fingerprinting were gotten and 78% of isolates belonged to three types. Conclusion: We found that the antimicrobial resistance of children attending the day-care center in Seoul was much higher than expected. We assumed that this might be due to their easy and frequent exposure to antimicrobial agents and crowded day-care center environment.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1238-1243
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• 2009

The susceptibilities of major enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) strains to antimicrobial agents and the cytotoxicity of these agents were examined using a total of 38 strains of E. coli O26, O111, and O157, which are the major serogroups of EHEC. Among the 38 strains, 35, 36, and 36 were susceptible to amikacin, imipenem, and norfloxacin, respectively. These antimicrobial agents were further examined to determine their cytotoxicity on Vero cells as well as their effect on the release of Shiga toxins along with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Each of the E. coli O26, O111, and O157 strains containing both the stx1 and stx2 genes were grown in the absence or presence of these agents at 1/4 minimal inhibitory concentration for 6 h, 12 h, and 18 h. At the concentrations used in this study, none of the agents significantly altered cell count compared with the control group. The level of cytotoxicity in the imipenem group was lower at 12 hand 18 h than their respective controls. In contrast, the level of cytotoxicity in cultures treated with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, norfloxacin, and amikacin was increased. The strains were also examined for the release of Shiga toxins 1 and 2 following treatment with the agents, which were measured by the reversed passive latex agglutination (RPLA) method. The RPLA assay showed a suppression of release of Shiga toxin 2 in the strain cultures containing imipenem. These results indicate that imipenem may be a safe and effective agent for inhibition of these bacteria, which has clinical implications for the treatment of EHEC infections.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.241-249
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• 2009

Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains can cause broad spectrum of human disease, including diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis, and the life-threatening hemolytic uremic colitis (HUS). We examined 868 samples was taken from bovine feces and carcass from January to December 2008 in Seoul. Twenty two (9.5%) shiga toxin -producing Escherichia coli were isolated from the 230 of bovine feces, and two (0.31%) were isolated from the 638 of carcasses. Serotype of E. coli isolates were O157 (10, 41.6%), O26 (10, 41.6%), O111 (1, 4.2%) and UT (3, 12.6%). In PCR, the isolates displayed three different stx gene combination (stx1 [2, 8.4%]), stx2 [3, 12.6%] and stx1 and stx2 [19,87.5%]). The eaeA and hlyA gene were found in 11 (45.8%) of the 24 strains. Saa gene was present only one strains (4.2%). Toxin typing using reverse passive latex agglutination test showed the same result in VT 1. But it showed different result in VT 2. In antimicrobial susceptibility test, all isolates were sensitive to amikacin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, ciprofloxacin and colistin. Eighteen strains (75.0%) of 24 isolates showed the multi-resistant patterns with over 3 drugs. PFGE was performed after the genomic DNA of twenty four isolates was digested with Xba I. the 24 isolates showed 7 (A~G) PFGE type.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.45-48
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• 2008

To evaluate the usefulness of the Korean Isolate-1 (KI-1) antigen for serodiagnosis of toxoplasmosis, antigen profiles of KI-1 tachyzoites were analyzed in comparison with RH tachyzoites by SOS-PAGE and immunoblotting. ELISA was performed on latex agglutination (LA)-positive and negative serum samples using KI-1 and RH antigens. Immunoblotting of the KI-1 antigen showed multiple antigen bands with molecular sizes of 22-105 kDa. Among them, 1 and 6 common bands were noted against a KI-1-infected and a RH-infected human serum, respectively, which represented differences in antigenic profiles between KI-1 and RH tachyzoites. However, all 9 LA-positive human sera were found positive by ELISA, and all 12 LA-negative sera were negative by ELISA; the correlation between the ELISA titers and LA titers was high (r = 0.749). Our results suggest that tachyzoites of KI-1 may be useful for serodiagnosis of human toxoplasmosis.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.249-256
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• 1999

A total of 198 sera from stray cats was assayed against Toxoplasma gondii antigen by western blot. Out of 198 sera assayed, 26 sera (13.1％) showed typical blot patterns against T gondii. When spotted by ELISA absorbance and indirect latex agglutination lest (ILAT) titer, all 26 cases were distributed over the cut-off value of ELISA whereas 24 cases (92.3％) were in the positive range of 1:32 or higher and 2 cases in negative range by ILAT. Among western blot negative 172 sera, 162 cases were negative in both ILAT and ELISA while 10 cases were reactive falsely such that three cases were ILAT positive with 1:32 titer and 9 cases were ELISA positive (2 cases overlapped). These 10 cases reacted peculiarly without typical binding pattern in Western blot. Sandwich-ELISA was performed with monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) of Tg563 (30 kDa, SAG 1), Tg505 (22 kDa, SAG2), Tg605 (43 kDa, SAG3), Tg556 (28 kDa, GRA2), Tg737 (32 kDa, GRA6). Tg695 (66 kDa, ROP2), Tg786 (42 kDa, ROP6), and Tg621 (32 kDa, anonymous but cytosolic) clone, respectively. All western blot-positive cases were in the positive range and negative cases in the negative range clearly. Among the 10 false reactive cases, 3 cases were in the positive range with one or more mAbs. All mAbs used in this study were confirmed to be specific to T. gondii infection as a standardized sandwich-ELISA to differentiate it from other pathogens.