coli DH5α and P. aeruginosa ATCC 14207, but not S. Typhimurium ATCC 23564. Both CclA and AS-48 target the cytoplasmic membrane, but differ slightly in their mode of action. AS-48 forms nonselective pores (Gálvez et al., 1991), whereas CclA generates anion-selective pores (Gong et al., 2009). It is not clear whether the differences between AS-48 and CclA toward Salmonella arise from differences in the mode of action or from differences in the strains tested. To lend a broader context to our findings with the UAL307 bacteriocins,

we also examined the activity of gallidermin and SubA. Our results show that when tested in combination with EDTA, gallidermin has comparable activity to nisin against Gram-negative bacteria. Because the receptor molecule for nisin and gallidermin (lipid II) is highly conserved across the prokaryotes, once these lantibiotics are able to Selleck EPZ015666 access the cytoplasmic membrane, they are more likely to display a killing effect compared with CbnBM1 or PisA, which require a specific EIItman permease receptor for binding. Indeed, upon cotreatment with EDTA, both lantibiotics were more active than either CbnBM1 or PisA against the strains of E. coli and Salmonella that were tested. Conversely, although it had little www.selleckchem.com/products/BKM-120.html effect against S.

Typhimurium ATCC 23564, CclA showed activity against E. coli DH5α and P. aeruginosa ATCC 14207 comparable to that of the lantibiotics. Our other point of comparison, SubA, is a non-LAB circular bacteriocin with unusual thioether cross-links. Reports indicate that SubA is able to directly inhibit the growth of some Gram-negative bacteria, including certain strains of E. coli and

Pseudomonas, and is able to inhibit additional Gram-negative strains when subjected to heat stress (Shelburne et al., 2007). In contrast, we found that SubA combined with EDTA did not inhibit Gram-negative bacteria significantly, leading us to speculate whether EDTA was interfering with the activity of SubA. In support of this hypothesis, we found that when EDTA was used in combination with SubA, its activity toward a sensitive Gram-positive organism was reduced. It has been reported that many anionic antimicrobial peptides exert maximal activity when complexed with see more cationic species (Brogden, 2005). SubA is an anionic bacteriocin, and because EDTA chelates Mg2+ and Ca2+ ions, it may be that the experimental conditions ‘inactivated’ SubA. If an alternate OM destabilizing strategy was used, it is likely that a greater killing effect from SubA would be observed. However, SubA may also require a membrane-bound receptor: SubA can interact directly with lipid bilayers, causing pore formation, albeit at concentrations higher than those required for antimicrobial activity (Thennarasu et al., 2005).

Double restriction digests

were carried out using restriction selleck enzymes EcoRI and RsaI or EcoRI and DdeI (Fermentas, Vilnius, Lithuania). Two microlitres of 100 μg mL−1 RNase (Promega, Madison, WI) was added to each reaction. Restriction digests were incubated at 37 °C for 16 h and analysed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Gels were stained with ethidium bromide to enable the visualisation of the DNA fragments using UV transillumination. Different RFLP types were assigned manually. DNA sequences obtained in this study were aligned in ARB (Ludwig, et al., 2004) together with all other available cmuA sequences using the integrated aligner, and the resulting alignments were edited manually. Primer sequences were removed and the remaining sequences translated to amino acid sequence, resulting in a 252-residue alignment (min 251, max 252, mean 251.99); the presence of conserved functional amino acid residues was confirmed, before export of the alignment from ARB. FastTree [version 2.1.3 (Price et al., 2010)] was used to construct click here nearest neighbour interchange neighbour-joining trees rapidly with the

parameters -spr 4, -mlacc 2 and -slownni, increasing the number of rounds of minimum-evolution subtree pruning and regrafting moves and making the maximum-likelihood nearest neighbour interchanges more exhaustive in order to increase the accuracy of the tree. The tree was imported into ARB, where it was annotated and rooted with reference to AJ011316 Methylobacterium chloromethanicum strain CM4. PCR products of the expected size (~ 807 bp) were only obtained from three of the nine cruise stations where SAPs had been used to concentrate large volumes of seawater for DNA extraction; faint PCR products were obtained from stations 1, 4 and 9. Libraries of 50 cmuA

clones were produced from each of the PCR products. Clones were assigned to different RFLP pattern types by RFLP analysis with EcoRI/DdeI and EcoRI/RsaI double digests. The station 1 cmuA library was shown to contain only two OTUs; 70% of clones belonged to OTU 1 and 30% to OTU 2. The station 4 clone library was dominated by OTU 3 (98%) with a single clone designated OTU 4. Station DNA ligase 9 was similarly dominated, with 100% of clones affiliated by RFLP to OTU 3. Representatives of each OTU were sequenced and deposited in GenBank with the accessions DQ090698–DQ090705. The faint PCR products and low diversity of cmuA sequences obtained from the large-volume SAP DNA samples indicated that these organisms were probably a small component of the microbial community. We attempted enrichment of methyl halide-utilising bacteria in seawater samples from both the Arabian Sea and the English Channel near Plymouth, UK, in order to increase their relative abundance. Enrichment cultures with different concentrations of CH3Br and CH3Cl, either alone or together with a range of one-carbon (C1) compounds (see ‘Materials and methods’ for details), were set up during the AMBITION cruise.

Only six patients underwent a switch in NNRTI between t0 and t1: four patients switched from nevirapine to efavirenz and two patients did the opposite and were classified according to their NNRTI exposure at t0. At the first GRT in a pair, the median number of drugs in the

regimen was 4 (IQR 3–4) and the most frequently used NRTIs at t0 together with the NNRTI were lamivudine (56%), stavudine (49%) and didanosine (36%). At t0, two NRTIs plus either nevirapine or efavirenz were used in 189 (41%) of the pairs while the remaining pairs were on combinations including PIs (Table 1b). The frequency of use of other antiretrovirals besides nevirapine/efavirenz at t1 was similar to that observed at t0 (data

not shown), suggesting see more that these patients had in most cases been kept on the same drugs over t0–t1 despite virological failure. The median number of NNRTI mutations detected at baseline-t0 was 2 (range 0–8) and the majority of patients (66%) had at least one NNRTI mutation (supporting information, Table S4). For only 36 of the GRT pairs (8%) were no NNRTI mutations detected at both GRTs. In 2% of selleck the patients included in the study, NNRTI mutations were detected at the GRT performed prior to the estimated date of virological failure. Table 2a shows the prevalence of patients with at least one IAS NNRTI mutation, the distribution of individual IAS NNRTI mutations detected in major virus populations at t0 and the estimated proportions at t1. Table 2a also shows the total number of NNRTI mutations (overall and stratified by specific NNRTI drug) at t0 and t1, and the estimate of the rate of accumulation of NNRTI resistance over the observation period. The highest rate of accumulation was observed for mutations

103N (27.6 new mutations per 100 years; 95% CI 20.7–35.3), 181C (12.2/100 years; 95% CI 8.0–17.7) 190A (9.4/100 years; 95% CI 5.8–14.3) and Abiraterone concentration 108I (6.7/100 years; 95% CI 4.0–10.6). Other mutations such as 98G, 100I, 101E, 181I and 188L were also accumulated, although at the lower rate of 0.2–0.4/100 years. The number of pairs for which there was at least one NNRTI mutation that was detected at t1 but not at t0 was 39/49 PYFU, giving a rate of accumulation of at least 0.79 new NNRTI mutations/year (95% CI 0.66–0.90; Table 2a). Overall, 180 IAS NNRTI resistance mutations were accumulated over 295 PYFU (average rate of 0.61 per year; 95% CI 0.55–0.67), while the rate of accumulation of NNRTI drug-specific mutations was somewhat slower, at 0.46/year, and that of etravirine mutations was a little lower compared with nevirapine or efavirenz mutations.

l. is also traditionally considered to be highly polymorphic (Jumpponen & Trappe, 1998; Gams, 2000). Likewise, there are still some disagreements between the morphological and the molecular identification of Phialophora spp. (Yan et al., 1995; de Hoog et al., 1999; Ulrich et al., 2000; Sieber, 2002). Species formerly classified in the genus are now known to belong to different orders of Ascomycetes. Gams (2000) began to sort out the taxonomy of Phialophora spp. and erected Harpophora for anamorphs of Gaeumannomyces and Magnaporthe within the Magnaporthaceae. Its morphological characteristics include fast-growing, thin colonies with ‘runner hyphae’ and more or less pigmented phialides coupled with cylindrical,

hyaline Dasatinib datasheet and strongly curved conidia. Up to now, four species combinations have been described within Harpophora, i.e. Harpophora radicicola (type species, previously Phialophora radicicola) (McKeen, 1952; Walker, 1980), Harpophora maydis (Cephalosporium maydis) (Samra et al., 1963), Harpophora graminicola (Phialophora graminicola) (Hornby et al., 1977; Walker, 1980) and Harpophora zeicola (Phialophora zeicola) (Deacon & Scott, 1983). In addition, the anamorphs of Gaeumannomyces spp. belong here without being separately named as anamorph species. We have recently started an

examination of the endophytic fungal community in wild rice (Oryza granulata) roots in China, during which we found a new species, which is described here as Harpophora oryzae.

The site of study is located in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan TSA HDAC province, southwest of China (22°04′–22°17′N; 100°32′–100°44′E). In September of 2007 and 2008, we collected samples from two sites in Xishuangbanna. Healthy and intact wild rice plants with bulk soil were packed in a box and carefully transported to the laboratory within 48 h. For isolation of endophytic fungi, healthy roots (free of detectable lesions) of the sample rice plants were gently rinsed with tap water, immersed in ethanol (75% v/v) for 30 s, then in sodium hypochlorite (1% w/v) for 10 min and finally rinsed three times in sterile-distilled water. Roots were cut into segments of 0.6 cm length and transferred to a malt extract agar (MEA) Methane monooxygenase plate containing 2% malt extract and 2% agar (w/v) supplemented with chloramphenicol (50 mg L−1) to prevent bacterial growth. Six root fragments were placed on one plate and incubated at 25 °C in permanent darkness. After the emergence of fungal hyphae, these were cut off and subcultured. Isolates were stored by covering a culture on potato dextrose agar (PDA) slants with sterile liquid paraffin at 25 °C and by preservation in aqueous 15% v/v glycerol additionally containing glucose (10 g L−1), yeast extract (1 g L−1) and casein hydrolysate (1 g L−1) at −70 °C. Light-microscopic analysis was performed using an Olympus BX51 microscope. Images were acquired using axiovision 3.1. For the determination of spore characteristics, specimens were mounted in water.

Plasticity of DCs with different maturity status and functions enable them to be exploited as potential cell-based therapy to restore immune tolerance in autoimmune diseases. Various ex vivo methods have been developed to generate stable tolerogenic DCs that are able to induce and maintain regulatory T cell homeostasis. The beneficial effect of tolerogenic DCs have been studied in murine autoimmune models with promising results. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a prototypic multi-systemic autoimmune disease characterized

by autoantibody production and deposition of immune complexes in organs. There are evidences that dysregulated DCs play www.selleckchem.com/products/PTC124.html a pivotal role in the initiation and perpetuation of lupus disease. Peripheral blood monocytes in SLE patients were found to have active phenotype with accelerated differentiation into

DCs efficient in antigen presentation. Plasmacytoid DCs in SLE patients produce high levels of interferon-alpha, the signature cytokine of this disease, that cause a positive feedback loop in the amplification of activation of innate and adaptive Trichostatin A mouse immunity. Furthermore, manipulation of DCs via toll-like receptor knockout in a murine lupus model leads to alteration in disease severity and survival. Thus, tolerogenic DCs may appear as a potential cell-based therapeutic option in SLE. “
“Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, China To determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression in axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) patients by a psychiatrist using the Chinese-bilingual Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition patient research version (CB-SCID-I/P), Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase and to examine the effectiveness of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) as a screening tool. We recruited 160 Chinese axial-SpA patients to determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression using the CB-SCID-I/P. Recruited subjects were asked to complete the HADS. HADS, HADS-depression (HADS-D) subscale and HADS-anxiety (HADS-A) subscale were analyzed to determine their

effectiveness in screening for depressive and anxiety disorders. The prevalence of current major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorder were 10.6% and 15.6%, respectively. The full-scale HADS outperformed the HADS-D subscale in screening for current MDD (area under the curve [AUC] 0.889; 0.844) and all depressive disorders (AUC 0.885; 0.862) while the HADS-A subscale outperformed the full scale HADS in screening for anxiety disorders (AUC 0.894; 0.846). The optimal cut-off point of the full scale HADS for screening current MDD and all depressive disorders were 7/8 and 6/7, yielding a sensitivity of 82.4% and 83.9%, specificity of 78.7% and 74.8%, respectively. The optimal cut-off point of HADS-A subscale for screening anxiety disorders was 6/7, yielding a sensitivity of 88.0% and specificity of 74.4%.

To confirm the importance of phosphorylation of Asp-54 in vivo, we constructed the KD1113 mutant strain, which has D54N-MbrC instead of wild-type MbrC. Both KD1113 and the mbrC deletion mutant KD1108 were 50-fold more susceptible to bacitracin than UA159 (Table 3). Furthermore, real-time RT-PCR analysis revealed that transcription of mbrA in KD1113 was not induced by bacitracin, while the wild-type strain UA159 showed 50-fold mbrA induction in the presence of bacitracin (Table 3). These results support GDC941 the idea that Asp-54 is essential

for the activation of mbrA transcription by MbrC. Induction of SMU.302, SMU.862, and SMU.1856c by bacitracin was not seen in KD1108 or K1113, while induction of SMU.1479 against bacitracin remained (Table 3). Eight S. mutans genes (SMU.302, SMU.862, SMU.863, SMU.864, mbrA, mbrB, SMU.1479, SMU.1856c) were induced fourfold or more by bacitracin (Table 2). Ouyang et al. (2010) found that the promoter regions of SMU.302, SMU.862, and SMU.1856c have a consensus-specific inverted repeat sequence similar to that of mbrA. Tandem arrangements Vorinostat research buy of SMU.862, 863, and 864 and mbrA and B suggest that induction of SMU.863 and 864 and mbrB against bacitracin is dependent on the upstream gene’s promoters. MbrC was associated with the transcriptional

regulation of these genes. In contrast, SMU.1479 has no consensus inverted repeat sequence and was not regulated by the MbrC protein, and Protein tyrosine phosphatase so this gene may be regulated by another signaling system. Inactivation of these genes, with the exception of mbrAB, did not affect bacitracin resistance, confirming that induction of mbrAB transcription is important for S. mutans bacitracin resistance. MbrC and D belong to the family of ‘bacitracin-responsive’ TCS (Chong et al., 2008), of which B. subtilis bceRS has been described in detail (Rietkotter et al., 2008). Genes encoding such TCS are usually located adjacent to ABC

transporter genes. The levels of mbrAB, but not mbrCD, mRNA increased drastically in response to bacitracin. This seems to contradict our previous finding that the four mbr genes constitute a single operon (Tsuda et al., 2002). One explanation might be that the mbr gene cluster comprises two types of operon structure, namely the mbrABCD and mbrAB operons due to a terminator structure between mbrB and mbrC, and transcription of the latter may be selectively activated by bacitracin to a greater degree than that of the former. Indeed, we found a stemloop structure, followed by a thymine-rich sequence in the intergenic region between mbrB and C. The deduced amino acid sequence of mbrC resembles a TCS response regulator. Phosphorylation of the response regulator is ordinarily required for DNA binding to the promoter region of the target gene. MbrC binds to the promoter region of mbrA and its phosphorylation enhances this binding (Ouyang et al., 2010).

We thank Drs K. Nakajima, K. Oishi and H. Tabata for their PF-01367338 supplier useful comments and assistance with the IUE. We also thank J. Motohashi and S. Narumi for their technical support. This work was supported by MEXT and/or JSPS KAKENHI to J.N., Y.H., W.K. and M.Y.; CREST from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (M.Y.); the Nakajima Foundation (W.K.); the Takeda Science Foundation (M.Y.); and a JSPS postdoctoral fellowship for research abroad (J.N.). Abbreviations

4OHT 4-hydroxytamoxifen AAV adeno-associated virus CF climbing fiber CJ-stim conjunctive stimulation ECFP enhanced cyan fluorescent protein EGFP enhanced green fluorescent protein EPSC excitatory postsynaptic current HA hemagglutinin IUE in utero electroporation LTD long-term depression PB phosphate buffer PF parallel fiber PFA paraformaldehyde RORα1 retinoid-related orphan receptor α1 VGAT vesicular GABA transporter Fig. S1. Orientation of electrodes for efficient gene delivery into Purkinje cells by IUE. Fig. S2. EGFP-positive

and calbindin-negative cells and fibers in the granular layer of the cerebellum. Fig. S3. EGFP-positive cells in the deep cerebellar nucleus and the dorsal cochlear nucleus. Fig. S4. IUE-mediated expression of mCherry-Bassoon in Purkinje cell axons. As a service selleck chemicals to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied

by the authors. Such materials are peer-reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset by Wiley-Blackwell. Technical support issues arising from supporting information (other than missing files) should be addressed to the authors. “
“Important to Western tonal music is the relationship between pitches both within and between musical chords; melody and harmony are generated by combining pitches selected from the fixed hierarchical scales of music. It is of critical importance that musicians have the ability to detect and discriminate minute deviations in pitch in order to remain in tune with other members Montelukast Sodium of their ensemble. Event-related potentials indicate that cortical mechanisms responsible for detecting mistuning and violations in pitch are more sensitive and accurate in musicians as compared with non-musicians. The aim of the present study was to address whether this superiority is also present at a subcortical stage of pitch processing. Brainstem frequency-following responses were recorded from musicians and non-musicians in response to tuned (i.e. major and minor) and detuned (± 4% difference in frequency) chordal arpeggios differing only in the pitch of their third.

Participants performed an auditory distraction task, in which they identified each sound as either short (350 ms) or long (550 ms) and ignored a change in timbre of the

sounds. Sounds consisted of a male and a female voice saying a neutral sound [a], and of a cello and a French Horn playing an F3 note. In some blocks, musical sounds occurred on 80% of trials, while voice sounds on 20% of trials. In other blocks, the reverse was true. Participants heard naturally recorded sounds in half of experimental blocks and their spectrally-rotated versions in the other half. Regarding voice perception, we found that musicians had a larger N1 event-related potential component not only to vocal sounds but also to their never before heard spectrally-rotated

HDAC inhibitor versions. We therefore conclude that musical training is associated with a general improvement in the early neural encoding of complex sounds. Regarding the ability Epigenetic inhibitor library to ignore irrelevant auditory change, musicians’ accuracy tended to suffer less from the change in timbre of the sounds, especially when deviants were musical notes. This behavioral finding was accompanied by a marginally larger re-orienting negativity in musicians, suggesting that their advantage may lie in a more efficient disengagement of attention from the distracting auditory dimension. This study has examined two questions in relation to musical training – namely, whether it enhances sensory encoding of the human voice due to the latter’s perceptual similarity to musical sounds and whether it improves the ability to ignore irrelevant auditory change. Previous research has shown that musical training leads to enhancement in the sensory encoding of musical sounds as revealed by the

increased amplitude of the N1 and P2 event-related potential (ERP) components in musicians compared with non-musicians (e.g. Pantev et al., 1998; Shahin et al., 2003, 2004; Fujioka et al., 2006). Such enhancement is greater for the instrument of training (e.g. Pantev et al., 2001), with some of its aspects already evident in brainstem recordings (Strait et al., 2012). We asked Teicoplanin whether musicians’ superiority in the early processing of musical timbre may extend to the perceptually similar timbre of the human voice. Although acoustic correlates of musical and vocal timbre have been studied largely independently from each other, in both cases the perceived timbre is due to a combination of multiple temporal and spectral properties of sound (Handel, 1989; McAdams et al., 1995; Kreiman, 1997; Caclin et al., 2005). Furthermore, neuropsychological and brain imaging studies point to similarities in the brain areas involved in vocal and musical timbre processing (Peretz et al., 1994, 1997; Samson & Zatorre, 1994; Samson et al., 2002; von Kriegstein et al., 2003; Halpern et al., 2004), suggesting that the perception of both timbres may rely on similar neural and cognitive processes.

Participants performed an auditory distraction task, in which they identified each sound as either short (350 ms) or long (550 ms) and ignored a change in timbre of the

sounds. Sounds consisted of a male and a female voice saying a neutral sound [a], and of a cello and a French Horn playing an F3 note. In some blocks, musical sounds occurred on 80% of trials, while voice sounds on 20% of trials. In other blocks, the reverse was true. Participants heard naturally recorded sounds in half of experimental blocks and their spectrally-rotated versions in the other half. Regarding voice perception, we found that musicians had a larger N1 event-related potential component not only to vocal sounds but also to their never before heard spectrally-rotated

buy Alectinib versions. We therefore conclude that musical training is associated with a general improvement in the early neural encoding of complex sounds. Regarding the ability Dasatinib supplier to ignore irrelevant auditory change, musicians’ accuracy tended to suffer less from the change in timbre of the sounds, especially when deviants were musical notes. This behavioral finding was accompanied by a marginally larger re-orienting negativity in musicians, suggesting that their advantage may lie in a more efficient disengagement of attention from the distracting auditory dimension. This study has examined two questions in relation to musical training – namely, whether it enhances sensory encoding of the human voice due to the latter’s perceptual similarity to musical sounds and whether it improves the ability to ignore irrelevant auditory change. Previous research has shown that musical training leads to enhancement in the sensory encoding of musical sounds as revealed by the

increased amplitude of the N1 and P2 event-related potential (ERP) components in musicians compared with non-musicians (e.g. Pantev et al., 1998; Shahin et al., 2003, 2004; Fujioka et al., 2006). Such enhancement is greater for the instrument of training (e.g. Pantev et al., 2001), with some of its aspects already evident in brainstem recordings (Strait et al., 2012). We asked Janus kinase (JAK) whether musicians’ superiority in the early processing of musical timbre may extend to the perceptually similar timbre of the human voice. Although acoustic correlates of musical and vocal timbre have been studied largely independently from each other, in both cases the perceived timbre is due to a combination of multiple temporal and spectral properties of sound (Handel, 1989; McAdams et al., 1995; Kreiman, 1997; Caclin et al., 2005). Furthermore, neuropsychological and brain imaging studies point to similarities in the brain areas involved in vocal and musical timbre processing (Peretz et al., 1994, 1997; Samson & Zatorre, 1994; Samson et al., 2002; von Kriegstein et al., 2003; Halpern et al., 2004), suggesting that the perception of both timbres may rely on similar neural and cognitive processes.

An adequate response to vaccination in patients ≤ 60 years old includes one of the following serological assessments: SPR > 70%,

SCR ≥ 40%, and mean increase in GMT > 2.5. Similarly, in persons older than 60 years, the criteria for an adequate response include one of the following: SPR > 60%, SCR > 30%, and mean increase in GMT > 2.0. A univariate analysis was conducted using the χ2 test or Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables and the Mann–Whitney U-test Selumetinib mouse for continuous variables prior to the binary logistic regression (BLR) analysis. BLR was used to identify variables independently associated with H1N1 seroprotectivity. The dependent variable was dichotomized, comparing the proportion of subjects with seroprotection (≥ 1:40) and without seroprotection (< 1:40) following vaccination. Independent variables entered were age, duration of HIV infection, ART status, baseline H1N1 antibody level, VL and CD4 T-cell count. The probability for entry and removal of variables was set at 0.05 and 0.20, respectively. Model assumptions and fit were checked. The study population consisted predominantly of men, with a median age and duration of HIV infection of 44 and 10 years, respectively. The majority of subjects (> 85%) were receiving ART and were this website well suppressed virologically (> 80% subjects had VL < 400 HIV-1 RNA copies/mL). No differences

in demographic features were observed between subjects who had both pre- and post-vaccination titres and those who had only pre-vaccination HI H1N1 antibody titres (Table 1). One hundred and ninety-nine HIV-1-seropositive patients had H1N1 antibodies measured during the mass vaccination period. One hundred and fifty-four subjects (response rate 77.4%) agreed to receive vaccination, of whom 126 had pre- and post-vaccination HI titres available. The pre- and post-vaccination serum HI H1N1 GMTs for 126 paired samples were DAPT research buy 39.32 ± 3.46 and 237.36 ± 3.94 [standard deviation (SD)], respectively, showing a significant

increase in antibody titre (P < 0.001). The mean duration of observation was 5.5 months [standard deviation (SD) 2.0 months]. One hundred and twenty-six patients had antibody titres measured at baseline, 41 at month 3, 65 at month 6 and 20 at month 9. Figure 1 shows HI H1N1 antibody GMTs at baseline to month 9. There was a significant increase in antibody titre (χ2 = 85.25; d.f. = 3; P < 0.0001) between baseline (39.30 ± 3.46) and months 3 (251.11 ± 2.85), 6 (251.42 ± 4.84) and 9 (211.06 ± 3.12). No differences were found between antibody titres at months 3, 6 and 9. Seventy-seven of 199 patients (38.7%) had a baseline antibody titre of at least 1:40, consistent with past exposure to H1N1 virus. Only 60 patients (30.2%) had an antibody titre below 1:10, indicating no past exposure. Following vaccination, the majority (86.