After ASCT single or tandem, five patients obtained CR, three VGPR, two PR and one SD. One patient in PR after HDT/ASCT received maintenance with bortezomib and another patient also in PR received Thalidomide as maintenance treatment both patients maintained PR. The ORR in patients treated with GSK126 purchase HDT/ASCT was 90% after a median follow up of 50 months (range 17-148); median OS, PFS [Figures 1, 2] and DOR are not reached. The log-rank test for DOR was P = 0.23. Figure 1 Overall Survival of HDT/ASCT and CT groups. Figure 2 Progression free survival of HDT/ASCT and CT groups. A progression or relapse was observed in 4/11 (36.4%)

patients treated with HDT/ASCT and in 4/6 (66.7%) of those undergone CT. The log-rank test for PFS was P = 0.10, the hazard ratio was 0.31 (95% CI 0.07-1.40). One patient who received single ASCT was treated with allogeneic transplantation at relapse. Peripheral neurophaty of grade 1-2 was observed in all patients treated with thalidomide and or bortezomib either in induction or in maintenance therapy. All patients with bone disease received bisphosphonates; patients treated with thalidomide, buy CB-839 received aspirin or low molecular-weight heparin as thromboprophylaxis and nobody developed venous thromboembolism. Seven of 17 patients

had died by the time of analysis: four in the group treated with CT and three in the group of HDT/ASCT, 85% of death for disease progression; there were no peritransplant deaths. Comparing OS with log-rank test we obtained P = 0.18,

the hazard ratio was 0.37 (95% CI 0.08-1.68). FISH analysis was available only for 6/17 of cases, in these six patients cytogenetic profile had not statistical significance for OS, PFS or DOR Discussion The clinical features of our patients reported in this study underline the worse characteristics of IgD MM. As in other series described in the literature [18], we also found an advanced stage and a younger age at presentation, with more aggressive clinical course. In addition, the poor survival of the patients may be selleck chemicals llc associated with problems related to delayed diagnosis [13, 19]. Patients with renal failure of unknown cause, bone pain, small serum M-protein bands, or unidentified Ig isotype should be suspected for IgD MM. However, TCL the underlying tumor biology responsible for the differences between IgD MM and other MM isotypes remains to be defined. IgD MM should be considered a rare subgroup of MM with aggressive features rather than a single parameter of poor prognosis. Jancelewicz et al. [2] reported that λ light-chains are found in 90% and almost the totality of patients had Bence-Jones proteinuria. A mean survival of 13.7 months from diagnosis, that was worse than the common myelomas, was observed in this study. Bladé et al [4] reviews outcomes in 53 patients from 1965 to 1992 and observed λ light-chain disease in 60%, Bence Jones proteinuria in 96%, renal failure in 33% and hypercalcemia in 22%.

For a long time, progesterone has been considered to be a protective factor for ovarian cancer. Approximately 26% to 49% of ovarian cancers have PR expression [35], and patients with a high expression of PR often have a good prognosis [36]. In contrast, estrogen has been considered as a risk factor for epithelial ovarian cancer. The proliferation of ovarian tissue with estrogenic stimulation and estrogen/hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may possibly increase the risk of ovarian cancer [37, 38]. Approximately 61% to 79% of ovarian cancers express the ER [35]. From the pathological standpoint, estrogen and ER expression

can accelerate the mitosis of ovarian cancer cells, which find more selleck rely on inhibiting apoptosis and promoting cell proliferation to participate in the see more development of tumors. Hence, ER-positive ovarian cancer patients often suffer from a poor prognosis. The data in our research illustrated that

ER-positive patients tend to carry the AA and GA genotypes in p73 rs6695978 compared with the GG genotypes. In contrast with ER-negative, the A allele frequency in rs6695978 were also statistically increased in ER-positive patients. There appears to be a potential connection between rs6695978 A allele and bad clinical outcomes. In conclusion, this is the first study to indicate the p73 rs6695978 G > A A allele as the at-risk allele may enhance susceptibility to ovarian cancer in Chinese women. The individuals

with the A allele were at increased risk of ovarian cancer compared to carriers of the G allele, and positively associated with the occurrence of mucinous ovarian cancer, poor differentiation, lymph node metastasis and estrogen receptor status, which all indicate a poor prognosis for ovarian cancer. However, detailed ovarian tumor histology data were not available, and the biological and mechanistic relevances between rs6695978 A allele and ovarian cancer remain Celastrol unclear. Meanwhile, the process of ovarian cancer development in women is probably mediated by other candidate genotypes and different pathways; this analysis leads to future work in the following directions (a) with large samples and detailed surveys focusing on the functional pattern of this polymorphism (b) examination of p73 expression levels by genotype among the current population. (c) analysis of genotypic interactions with closely-related genes. Further research of this critical gene and those which are biologically related may lead to a better informed biological understanding of ovarian cancers. Substantiating its independent prognostic value for clinical diagnosis and outcome is of great significance. In addition, findings such as these will lead to the development of genetic risk prediction panels for eventual classification of women who may most benefit from targeted surveillance or prevention strategies.

Cancer 1995, 76 (5) : 853–9.CrossRefPubMed 16. Arai Y, Tsukuda M, Ito K, Enomoto H, Furukawa M, Kubota A, Yanoma S, Okamoto N: Analysis of DNA ploidy using fresh frozen tissues of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. Auris Nasus Larynx 1997, 24 (2) : 193–8.CrossRefPubMed 17. Rubio Bueno P, Naval Gias L, Garcia Delgado R, Domingo Cebollada J, Diaz Gonzalez FJ: Tumor DNA content as a prognostic indicator in squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity and tongue base. Head & Neck 1998, 20 (3) : 232–39.CrossRef 18. Goldsmith MM, Cresson DH, Arnold LA, Postma DS, Askin FB, Pillsbury HC: DNA flow cytometry as a prognostic indicator in head and neck cancer. Otolaryngol Head Neck

Surg 1987, 96 (4) : 307–18.PubMed 19. Borst GR, Belderbos JS, Boellaard R, Comans EF, De Jaeger K, Lammertsma AA, Lebesque JV: Standardised FDG uptake: a prognostic factor for inoperable this website non-small cell lung cancer. Eur J Cancer 2005, 41 (11) : 1533–41.CrossRefPubMed 20. Sperti C, Pasquali C, Chierichetti F, Ferronato A, Decet G, Pedrazzoli S: 18-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography

in predicting survival of patients with pancreatic carcinoma. J Gastrointest Surg 2003, 7 (8) : 953–9. discussion 59–60.CrossRefPubMed 21. Halfpenny W, Hain SF, Biassoni L, Maisey MN, Sherman JA, CX-4945 mw McGurk M: FDG-PET. A possible prognostic factor in head and neck cancer. Br J Cancer 2002, 86 (4) : 512–6.CrossRefPubMed 22. Kunkel M, Reichert TE, Benz P, Lehr HA, Jeong JH, Wieand S, Bartenstein P, Wagner MM-102 in vivo Dichloromethane dehalogenase W, Whiteside TL: Overexpression of Glut-1 and increased glucose metabolism in tumors are associated with a poor prognosis in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. Cancer 2003, 97 (4) : 1015–24.CrossRefPubMed 23. Brun E, Kjellen

E, Tennvall J, Ohlsson T, Sandell A, Perfekt R, Wennerberg J, Strand SE: FDG PET studies during treatment: prediction of therapy outcome in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Head Neck 2002, 24 (2) : 127–35.CrossRefPubMed 24. Schoder H, Yeung HW: Positron emission imaging of head and neck cancer, including thyroid carcinoma. Semin Nucl Med 2004, 34 (3) : 180–97.CrossRefPubMed 25. Smith TA, Titley JC, McCready VR: Proliferation is associated with 2-deoxy-D-[1–3H]glucose uptake by T47D breast tumour and SW480 and SW620 colonic tumour cells. Nucl Med Biol 1998, 25 (5) : 481–5.CrossRefPubMed 26. Minn H, Joensuu H, Ahonen A, Klemi P: Fluorodeoxyglucose imaging: a method to assess the proliferative activity of human cancer in vivo. Comparison with DNA flow cytometry in head and neck tumors. Cancer 1988, 61 (9) : 1776–81.CrossRefPubMed 27. Smith TA, Titley J: Deoxyglucose uptake by a head and neck squamous carcinoma: influence of changes in proliferative fraction. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2000, 47 (1) : 219–23.CrossRefPubMed 28.

Methods YM155 Forty-one (n=41) healthy males (21.73 ± 1.74 yrs; 176.48 ± 7.54 cm; 81.16 ± 10.94 kg) volunteered to participate in this study. All test subjects completed a health history and caffeine usage questionnaires, as well as a consent form prior to participation. Subjects completed a pre and post sit-up to fatigue test within a week of one another. During the post-test session EVP4593 price subjects were either given four ounces of an energy supplement (Redline by VPX) or a placebo, 30 minutes prior to testing. Administration of the supplement was double blind. Twenty-three (n=23) subjects received the supplement, while eighteen

(n=18) subjects received the placebo. A 2 x 2 factorial ANOVA was used to determine between group differences for the muscular endurance assessments,at an alpha level of 0.10. Results Analysis of the data revealed a significant interaction at PRI-724 supplier the alpha 0.10 level, F (1, 40) = 2.79, p = 0.075. As indicated, the degrees of freedom are limited by sample size; therefore, with more subjects in both the treatment and placebo group the expected outcome would be magnified. However, further examination of the data revealed an important finding, the sit-up scores of the

treatment group were significantly higher for the posttest (59.00 ± 20.65) than the sit-up scores for the placebo group (53.06 ± 20.63). The treatment effect was further emphasized when comparing pretest sit-up scores. There was no significant difference in pretest sit-up scores between the groups (treatment: 52.13 ± 18.94, placebo: 53.44 ± 17.73), however posttest scores revealed significantly higher scores in the treatment group (13.2%) when compared to the placebo (- 0.7%). Conclusions The results of this study indicate thatthe pre-exercise liquid energy supplement investigated had a significant effect on upper-body muscular endurance as measured by the sit-up to fatigue test when taken within 30 minutes of the exercise bout.”
“Background The health and weight control benefits of low carbohydrate diets are well established. Likewise, nutrient timing has been shown to effectively enhance exercise

performance. However, there exists an apparent conflict between these two dietary strategies. In fact, many authorities consider high glycemic carbohydrates to PtdIns(3,4)P2 be a necessary component of nutrient timing and there is no place in athletic training or competition for low carbohydrate diets. Low carbohydrate diets Various low carbohydrate diets have been shown to provide beneficial changes in body mass, lipid profiles and other health risk factors. Recent evidence indicates that diets with lower glycemic index carbohydrates and increased protein provide greater weight loss and maintenance of the reduced weight as compared with high glycemic and low protein diets. Insulin release is lower with lower blood glucose levels, thereby reducing fatty acid metabolism and storage.

Hinckley (2002) noted that 62 % of chronic aphasia patients from an intensive treatment program were in employment 2 years after discharge. Aphasia rehabilitation may also promote community reintegration, workplace flexibility, and enhancement of social support to the patients that further enables the person with aphasia to return to a former job. The current study confirmed that job type remained significantly related to the chance of employment after 18 months from onset as well as to very early return to work, which was consistent with findings in previous studies in Japan and in other countries (Saeki et al. 1993; Howard et al. 1985; Hannerz et al. 2011; Vestling et al. 2003). Some studies

reported selleck products that age was not related to very early return to work, but our study

found that younger age was significantly associated with a return to employment within 18 months. Previous rehabilitation PF01367338 studies suggested that there were no differences in the chance of recovery from walking disability, attention dysfunction, and aphasia according to age, and they recommended intensive rehabilitation regardless of patient age (Pickersgill and Lincoln 1983; Luk et al. 2006; Denti et al. 2008). However, several studies, including this study, revealed that older age was related to a lower probability of returning to work in the chronic stage (Howard et al. 1985; Hannerz et al. 2011; Saeki 2000, Busch et al. 2009; Wozniak et al. 1999). We speculate that social as well as physiological conditions may play a role in employment rehabilitation of older patients who face restrictive social conditions for labor participation. Investigation of social aspects of rehabilitation into the

working environment is warranted to further facilitate return to work of stroke patients irrespective of age. In our analysis, the BI and walking ability in the early phase were related to return to work within 18 months. In our previous study on early return to work (Tanaka et al. 2011), we used the over mRS at discharge as a predictor of return to work. Since walking and functional abilities reflected in BI are influential factors determining the level of the mRS, the results confirmed that functional and walking disability similarly affected the chance of return to work in very early as well as in the chronic phase. We could not use the factors of family wish for patient return to work, collaboration with industrial physicians, cooperation of workplace supervisors, coordination of the work environment, provision of vocational rehabilitation, and support of medical institutions on return to work as independent variables in the multivariate analysis because of the large see more number of missing observation. The impact of support from patient’s family and former work place on return to work deserves further investigation in future research. This study had several limitations.

Subjects The University Institutional Review Board approved the study and subjects provided written informed consent prior to participation. Thirty-five healthy male and female NVP-BSK805 concentration undergraduate and graduate students were recruited from Lifetime Physical Activity weight training classes. All participants were enrolled in an introductory strength training Erismodegib price class, and had not participated in more than 1 day/week of resistance training prior to study enrollment. All participants provided written informed

consent and a medical history. Exclusion criteria included a history of kidney disease, vascular disease, circulatory insufficiencies, or cancer; use of anti-depressants, warfarin, or any protein/muscle building supplements; and self-reported pregnancy, drug use, or smoking. SS and placebo supplementation Subjects were randomly assigned to receive either the active CP 690550 SS supplement (n = 17) or placebo (n = 18). The SS ingredient list is presented in Table 1. Subjects were instructed to adhere to the following dosing schedule according to manufacturer recommendations: 1000 mg of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae extract 3 times per day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and 1575 mg

of a proprietary herbal/botanical blend twice per day (breakfast and dinner). One additional dose of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae and one additional dose of the herbal/botanical blend were consumed before exercise and after exercise according to manufacture instructions. The placebo consisted of 1000 mg of encapsulated corn starch. Subjects were required to maintain a pill diary throughout the study and were instructed to forfeit any capsules not ingested during the study period. Supplements (SS and placebo) were dispensed weekly by the University investigational pharmacy. Over-the-counter analgesic and anti-inflammatory

medications (i.e. Tylenol, Advil, Ibuprofen, Motrin, Bextra, Celebrex, etc.) were prohibited during the supplementation period. Table 1 StemSport ingredient list and purported benefits Ingredient Amount per serving Purported benefit 1. Aphanizomenon flos-aquae extract 1000mg Increase the number of circulating stem cells 2. Proprietary herbal/botanical Reverse transcriptase blend 1575mg    Cats claw — Antioxidant  Mangosteen — Antioxidant  Rehmannia — Anti-inflammatory  Berry extracts — Antioxidant  Nattokinase — Anti-inflammatory/fibrinolytic  Serrapeptase — Anti-inflammatory/fibrinolytic  Curcumin — Antioxidant/anti-inflammatory Two subjects in the SS condition and one subject in the placebo condition withdrew prior to beginning the training intervention. Five subjects in the SS condition withdrew during the 12-week training program due to injury (n = 1), an adverse reaction to the supplement (n = 1), or time constraints (n = 3). Three subjects in the placebo condition withdrew during the intervention period due to time constraints.

HeLa cells were grown in 24-well tissue culture plates Selleckchem Y-27632 until they formed GSK3235025 clinical trial semi-confluent monolayers. The culture medium used was RPMI1640 supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (FCS), and 1% penicillin-streptomycin; and cultures were incubated at 37°C/5% CO2. Cells were washed three times with phosphate-buffered

saline (PBS), and bacteria added to the semi-confluent HeLa cultures at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 100. After incubating at 37°C for 90 min, growth medium containing 5% (w/v) agar and 20 μg/mL gentamicin was poured into the 24-well plates, then incubated at 37°C/5% CO2 for 72 h. HeLa cells were inoculated with SF301 as a positive control, and with E. coli ATCC 25922 as a negative control. Sequence and analysis of virulence genes on PAI-1 of SF51 SF51 genomic DNA was extracted using a QIAamp DNA Mini Kit (Qiagen). PCR primers for amplification of pic, sigA, int and

orf30 from PAI-1 of the SF51 clinical isolate were designed according to the SF301 sequence. Amplicons were cloned into a pCR-XL-TOPO vector using a TOPO® XL PCR Cloning Kit (Invitrogen), and the inserts were sequenced by Sangon Selleck mTOR inhibitor Biotech (Shanghai, China) Co. Ltd, then identified using the standard nucleotide basic local alignment search tool (BLASTn; NCBI). Construction of SF301-∆ pic The upstream and downstream portions of pic were amplified by PCR. Primers uppic-F-NotI and uppic-R-XbaI (Table 1) were used to amplify the upstream fragment of pic, with primers

downpic-F-XbaI and downpic-R-BamHI Carbohydrate (Table 1) used to amplify the downstream fragment. The amplified downstream fragment of pic was digested with XbaI and BamHI and ligated into pSB890 which had been cut with the same restriction endonucleases [27]. We designated the resulting plasmid pSB890-pic downstream. The amplified upstream pic fragment was digested with NotI and XbaI and ligated into pSB890-pic downstream that had been digested with NotI and XbaI. The resulting vector was designated pSB890-∆ pic and transformed into E. coli SM10 λpir cells, then introduced into SF301 through a bacterial conjugation test. After culturing on a sucrose LB agar plate at 22°C, sucrose-tolerant colonies were screened using Shigella-specific minimal medium [7] and a PCR employing primers Upuppic-F and Downdownpic-R (Table 1). The mutant strain with the pic deletion was identified by sequencing and named SF301-∆ pic. Construction of complementation strains SF301-∆ pic/pPic and SF51/pPic A plasmid containing pic was constructed using pSC modified from pREP4. The pic gene was amplified from SF301 genomic DNA using PCR. The PCR primers used were pic-pSC-F-PfMlI and pic-pSC-R-AclI (Table 1). Amplicons were inserted into pSC, creating pSC-pic, which was verified by restriction enzyme digestion and nucleic acid sequencing.

J Clin Endocrinol Metab 93:2948–2952CrossRefPubMed 40. Kwek EB, Koh JS, Howe TS (2008) More on atypical fractures of the femoral diaphysis. N Engl J Med 359:316–317CrossRefPubMed 41. Lenart BA, Lorich DG, Lane JM (2008) Atypical fractures of the femoral diaphysis in postmenopausal women taking alendronate. N Engl J Med 358:1304–1306CrossRefPubMed 42. Leung F, Lau T-W, To M, Luk K-K, Kung A (2010) Atypical femoral diaphyseal and subtrochanteric fractures and their association with bisphosphonates. BMJ Case Reports. doi:10.​1136/​bcr.​10.​2008.​1073 43. Brandser EA, Buckwalter JA (1996) Imaging this website studies for diagnosing stress and

insufficiency fractures. Iowa Orthop J 16:70–78PubMed 44. Lunsjo K, Ceder L, Tidermark J, Hamberg P, Larsson BE, Ragnarsson B, Knebel RW, Allvin I, Hjalmars K, Norberg S, Fornander P, Hauggaard A, Stigsson L (1999) Extramedullary fixation of 107 subtrochanteric fractures: a randomized multicenter trial of the Medoff sliding plate versus 3 other screw-plate systems. Acta Orthop Scand 70:459–466CrossRefPubMed 45. Whitelaw GP, Segal D, Sanzone CF, Ober NS, Hadley N (1990) Unstable intertrochanteric/subtrochanteric fractures

of the femur. Clin Orthop Relat Res 252:238–245PubMed 46. Nieves JW, Bilezikian CHIR-99021 supplier JP, Lane JM, Einhorn TA, Wang Y, Steinbuch M, Cosman F (2010) Fragility fractures of the hip and femur: incidence and patient 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase characteristics. Osteoporos Int 21:299–408CrossRef 47. Glennon DA (2009) Subtrochanteric stress fractures in six patients on long term bisphosphonate therapy: a case series. Bone 44:S68–S98CrossRef 48. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (2010) Final appraisal

determination. Alendronate, etidronate, risedronate, raloxifene and strontium ranelate for the primary prevention of osteoporotic fragility fractures in postmenopausal women (amended). NICE technology appraisal guidance 160 (amended). http://​www.​nice.​org.​uk/​nicemedia/​pdf/​TA160guidance.​pdf. Accessed 23 Sep 2010 49. Johnell O, Kanis JA (2006) An estimate of the worldwide prevalence and disability associated with osteoporotic fractures. Osteoporos Int 17:1726–CDK inhibitor drugs 1733CrossRefPubMed 50. Giusti A, Hamdy NA, Papapoulos SE (2010) Atypical fractures of the femur and bisphosphonate therapy. A systematic review of case/case series studies. Bone 47:169–180CrossRefPubMed 51. Husada G, Libberecht K, Peeters T, Populaire J (2005) Bilateral mid-diaphyseal femoral stress fractures in the elderly. Eur J Trauma 31:68–71CrossRef 52. Schneider JP (2006) Should bisphosphonates be continued indefinitely? An unusual fracture in a healthy woman on long-term alendronate. Geriatrics 61:31–33PubMed 53. Armamento-Villareal R, Napoli N, Panwar V, Novack D (2006) Suppressed bone turnover during alendronate therapy for high-turnover osteoporosis. N Engl J Med 355:2048–2050CrossRefPubMed 54.

Strains CZ1424 and CZ1443 were grouped in the same cluster with a distance level

of up to 5, as were strains CZ1429 and CZ1449. Conversely, strains CZ1523 and CZ1504 were grouped in a different cluster, at a distance level signaling pathway greater than 10. Strain CZ1427, which showed a 60% similarity with the other strains isolated from the same patient, was grouped at an inter-strain distance level of 10–15. Figure 4 Score-oriented dendrogram of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry selleck compound profiles generated by the default setting in MALDI Biotyper software version 2.0. Discussion O. anthropi is an adaptable bacterial species, whose individual strains can thrive in different environments. Indeed, after its molecular characterization [11] human-associated clonal complex data appear to indicate it possesses a specialized opportunistic behaviour [3]. It is frequently isolated from contaminated medical materials/devices and specimens obtained from immunocompromised patients [3], and after the first recognized

Nec-1s solubility dmso case of human disease induced by this organism [16], O. anthropi infections causing primary or catheter-associated bacteraemia [1, 17] have been increasingly reported [4]. With this in mind, when this infection did occur in our hospital, we set out to study the identification and typing of the O. anthropi strains through the genomic and proteomic correlation. To our knowledge, this represents the first study on strain typing of O. anthropi

where the use of both rep-PCR and MALDI-TOF-MS-based fingerprinting were carried out. All patients developed infection during their stay in hospital, and in our Institution no cases of infection due to O. anthropi had been diagnosed before. Environmental and flushing solution cultures were negative for O. anthropi, therefore the source of the infection strains remained unclear. Fluoroquinolone monotherapy yielded good clinical response, however blood cultures from all patients became negative only after removal of CVC. Endonuclease Our results indicate that all investigated strains were highly related and that they arose from a common ancestor, strongly providing evidence for a clonal origin of the infection. Interestingly, the strains detected early on during the outbreak showed a great variability in correlation range (90%–99%), while bacteria isolated later showed a correlation higher than 99%. We can therefore speculate that O. anthropi is able to undergo rapid modifications, allowing bacteria to adapt to a human host. The proteomic profiles, which clustered the 23 strains in a single group, unrelated to the ATCC isolates present in the database (one of which comes from leech urine), further suggest a clonal origin of the infections.

For the Brucella species, Hoof-prints, a MLVA assay based on an eight-base pair tandem repeat sequence at eight loci, was introduced as a molecular method for fingerprinting the Brucella MM-102 purchase isolates [24]. Hoof-prints

were not appropriate for the discrimination of the B. abortus isolates in Korea because of their hypervariability, especially the Hoof 1 and 7 loci, and they need to be replaced by other stable markers [23, 35, 36] The MLVA typing assay, designated to some selections of the MLVA loci, was reported to have a good species identification capability and a higher discriminatory power, and could thus be proposed as a complement of, or even as a substitute for, the classical biotyping methods [23, 27, 30]. This assay showed that it could discriminate isolates originating from Epacadostat ic50 restricted Citarinostat price geographic sources, indicating its potential as an epidemiological tool [25–27]. Genetic diversity of the Brucella isolates must be investigated, and the epidemiological trace-back tool must be evaluated, for the effective prevention of brucellosis. Thus, we endeavoured to assess the MLVA typing assay of the B. abortus strains isolated in Korea based on 17 primer sets, which were consisted of 16 markers described previously [23, 30] and Hoof 3 used by hoof-prints [24]. Hoof 3 was able to differentiate the B. abortus RB51 vaccine strain (TRs copy number:

4) from its mother strain, B. abortus 2308 (TRs copy number: 5), and was shown to have the discrimnation power of a moderate stable marker (Table 1). As it caused abortion in pregnant cattle, Brucella RB51 vaccination was suspended in Korea in 1997. In late 1999, the however, one B. abortus strain isolated from dairy cattle

was identified as the RB51 vaccine strain using the classical biotyping scheme and differential AMOS PCR [17, 37], and its strain was confirmed to completely coincide with the original strain by 17 loci, especially Hoof 3 (Figure 2). This result shows that Hoof 3 can be increased the discrimination capacity and trace-back ability of the MLVA assay. The 177 strains isolated from 105 cattle farms in nine provinces in Korea from 1996 to 2008 were investigated in this study [see additional file 1]. Bruce 43 appeared to have a variety of alleles, and its DI value was the highest at 0.529 (Table 1). In addition, the B. abortus isolates that originated from the same farms at the same time were sometimes found to have a difference of one copy number for mainly Bruce 30 or 43 (Table 2). Le Fleche et al. [23] divided the 15 loci into two groups, one consisting of eight loci with a good species identification capability (panel 1) and another complementary group of seven loci with a high discriminatory power (panel 2). Bruce 43 was included in panel 1 and was reported to be a moderately variable marker. Moreover, Al Dahouk et al. [30] reported that Bruce 43 had three alleles and a 0.