Cell wall skeleton

Therapeutic vaccines were tested in BALB/c mice bearing TA3-Ha mammary carcinoma. The treatment consisted of 4 subcutaneous injections, at 3-6 days intervals, of Detox [a commercial preparation of cell wall skeletons from Mycobacterium phlei and non-toxic monophosphoryl lipid A from Salmonella minnesota (S. minnesota) in squalane oil and Tween 80 from Ribi Immunochemical research, Montana, USA] mixed with Thomsen-Friedenreich (TF) antigen coupled with KLH (Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin) performed 5 days after the tumor cell injection. This vaccination achieved the survival of 25 % of the mice. Pretreatment of mice with cyclophosphamide in order to inhibit any suppressive response, increased survival to 50 % when the treatment began 5 days after tumor cell injection, and to 90 % when the treatment began 2 days after tumor cell injection. Both antibody as well as delayed-... 

When crude endotoxin from the heptose-less mutant of Salmonella typhimurium is combined with trehalose dimycolate from mycobacteria in oil droplets and injected directly into established tumors (line 10 hepatocellular carcinoma) in syngeneic guinea pigs, rapid regression of the tumors occurs and over 90% of the animals are cured. The three required components for activity in this tumor model are (a) the endotoxin (b) the mycobacterial adjuvant, trehalose dimycolate and (c) a compound satisfying the minimal structural requirement (muramyl dipeptide) for adjuvant activity by bacterial cell wall materials. The mycobacterial cell wall skeleton is able to replace the latter two components. 

Table I. Synergistic Effect Between Cell Wall Skeleton (CWS) and Endotoxins (ET) in Regressing Line 10 Tumors ...

Diffusion through the hydrophilic outer core and the hydrophobic inner bilayer in case of the Gram-negative bacteria or a highly lipophilic outer core and a cell wall skeleton of mainly peptidoglycans in the case of mycobacteria. 

Silicon is important to plant and animal life. Diatoms in both fresh and salt water extract Silica from the water to build their cell walls. Silica is present in the ashes of plants and in the human skeleton. Silicon is an important ingredient in steel silicon carbide is one of the most important abrasives and has been used in lasers to produce coherent light of 4560 A. 

When the oxide is formed by anodizing in acid solutions and the sample is then left to rest at the OCP, some dissolution can occur. This process has been studied by a numbers of authors,70-75 especially in relation to porous oxides [cf. Section 111(4)]. It was found that pore walls are attacked, so that they are widened and tapered to a trumpet-like shape.70 71 Finally, the pore skeleton collapses and dissolves, at the outer oxide region. The outer regions of the oxide body dissolve at higher rates than the inner ones.9,19 The same is true for dissolution of other anodic oxides of valve metals.76 This thickness dependence is interpreted in terms of a depth-dependent vacancy concentration in the oxide75 or by acid permeation through cell walls by intercrystalline diffusion, disaggregating the microcrystallites of y-alumina.4... 

Particularly it became necessary to consider the bacterial membrane. As things stand now, the bacterial cell wall is thought of as an outer skeleton which can be freely traversed by macromolecules and is important for the mechanical structure and protection of the cell. It is made up of polysaccharides and carbohydrate-derived substances, which include some peptide groups. Underneath the cell wall there is the cell membrane, which appears to be the seat of the important physiological functions of assimilation and excretion. Some findings suggest... 

The isolation of bacterial DNA described in this experiment, patterned after the work of Marmur (1961), accomplishes these objectives. Bacterial cells are disrupted by initial treatment with the enzyme, egg-white lysozyme, which hydrolyzes the peptidoglycan that makes up the structural skeleton of the bacterial cell wall. The resultant cell walls are unable to withstand osmotic shock. Thus, the bacteria lyse in the hypotonic environment. The detergent, sodium dodecyl sulfate, (SDS, sodium do-decyl sulfate) then completes lysis by disrupting residual bacterial membranes. SDS also reduces harmful enzymatic activities (nucleases) by its ability to denature proteins. The chelating agents, citrate and EDTA (ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid), also inhibit nucleases by removing divalent cations required for nuclease activity. 

An alternative approach to measurement of lignin distribution is to assess variation in the porosity of wood which has been hydrolyzed to form a lignin skeleton (Donaldson 1987). Hydrolysis with sulfuric acid is particularly useful because of the swelling that occurs. This magnifies areas of the cell wall such as the S3 layer or the compound middle lamella which would otherwise be too small to measure. 

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