Recognition Of Bacterial Infections Research Articles

Bacterial Triggering of Inflammation by Intracellular Sensors

Recognition of bacterial infection is the first key step to the initiation of an inflammatory response and host defense. Transmembrane proteins of the Toll-like receptor family have long been recognized as key detectors of the extracellular presence of pathogens. Recently, much research has identified a variety of intracellular detectors that also mediate innate immune responses following bacterial infection. These cannot only recognize bacteria that invade the cell cytoplasm, but also a variety of bacterial products that are introduced into cells by specialized secretion systems or are secreted toxins. This article will focus on these intracellular detectors and the bacterial components that they recognize. These detectors are particularly well adapted to recognize the presence of pathogenic bacteria as opposed to commensal organisms. Their growing importance suggests that targeting such intracellular pathways may be important in the future for manipulating the immune response to infection as an aid to augmenting host defense and providing more effective vaccines.

Fractures: A History and Iconography of Their Treatment

This marvelous historical summary of fracture management from the time of the pharaohs to nearly the present should be required reading for all orthopedic residents and for all surgeons who treat fractures. It updates the classic works of Malgaigne and Gurlt published in the mid-19th century and brings them up to just past the mid-20th century. Ancient illustrations from old woodcuts and modern diagrams are all clearly presented. The names of the physicians and surgeons involved are household words, and Dr Peltier has clearly summarized their contributions and put them into perspective. A brief introduction to bone setting is followed by the evolution of splints from blood-soaked bandages to plaster of paris. There is a fascinating account of the management of open fractures prior to the recognition of bacterial infections and Lister's antisepsis. The unlucky patient with an open fracture could anticipate something between amputation and death, most commonly the

Edwin Klebs

IN a centennial note published in the New England Journal of Medicine of July 11, Dr. Leona Baum-gartner, of Cornell University Medical College, New York, claims that Edwin Klebs, who was born on February 6, 1834, and died in 1913, was not only one of the pioneers of bacteriology, but also made important contributions to other fields of medicine. In addition to being the first to describe the causal organism of diphtheria in 1875, he described acro-megaly in 1884, two years before Pierre Marie; inoculated primates with syphilis fifteen years before Metch-nikoff; isolated colonies of bacteria on solid media in the form of Sturgen's glue nine years before Koch; was the first to produce tuberculosis experimentally in animals by the injection of milk from infected cows, thereby establishing the bovine origin of the disease; and described the typhoid bacillus before Eberth. Klebs pursued his medical education in his native town of Konigsberg under Rathke, Helm-holtz, Burdach and Werther, and later in Wiirzburg under Virchow, Kolliker, Ley dig and Scanzoni. He led a wandering life, being successively professor at Berne, Wiirzburg, Prague, Zurich and the Rush Medical College, Chicago. His contributions to pathological anatomy and physiology included the first experimental production of valvular disease of the heart and the recognition of bacterial infection in the production of the subsequent endocarditis, the description of hsemorrhagic pancreatitis as a rapidly fatal disease, the introduction of the paraffin embedding method and his textbooks on pathological anatomy (1869-76) and general pathology (1887-89). Klebs also took an active part in the foundation of three important medical journals, namely, the Correspondenz-Blatt fiir Schweizer Aerzte (1871), which some years ago was renamed Schweizer medizinische Wochenschrift, the Archiv fur experi-mentelle Pathologie und PharmaJcologie (1873) and the Prager Medizinische Wochenschrift (1876).