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L-amino acids are the predominant forms of organic molecules on the planet, but recent studies have revealed that various foods contain D-amino acids, the enantiomers of L-amino acids. Though diet plays important roles in both the development and progression of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), to our best knowledge, there has been no report on any potential interactions between D-amino acids and IBD. In this report, we aim to assess the effects of D-serine in a murine model of IBD.To induce chronic colitis, naïve CD4 T cells (CD4Mice treated with D-serine prior to the induction of colitis exhibited a reduction in T-cell infiltration into the lamina propria and colonic inflammation that were not seen in mice fed with water alone or L-serine. Moreover, D-serine suppressed the progression of chronic colitis when administered after the disease induction. Under in vitro conditions, D-serine suppressed the proliferation of activated CD4 T cells and limited their ability to differentiate to Th1 and Th17 cells.Our results suggest that D-serine not only can prevent, but also has efficacious effects as a treatment for IBD.

Ikarugamycin (IK) is an antibiotic which has been reported to have a variety of functions, such as inhibition of clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME), anti-tumor effects and regulation of the immune system. Whether IK influences cytokine production is poorly understood. We have investigated the relationship between IK and production of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF). TNF plays a pivotal role in pathogenesis of many diseases. Although the dynamics of soluble TNF (sTNF) has been widely explored so far, the functions of the membrane form of TNF (mTNF) have not been fully elucidated. We demonstrated that IK increases the amount of mTNF and prolongs the duration of TNF expression. This effect is unrelated to the shedding activity of disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain-containing protein 17 (ADAM 17). Our results revealed that there is a mechanism to terminate inflammation at the cellular level which IK dysregulates. Furthermore, IK can be a tool to study TNF signaling due to its effect of increasing mTNF expression.

Aims: Clinically significant antibodies may become undetectable and still provoke transfusion reactions. Hemolysis has been reported among transfusion recipients with anti-Kidd that was undetectable by gel column but detectable by other methods. Methods: We compared two automated technologies - microplate (MP) and gel column (GC) methods - with manual methods in ABO/RhD typing, irregular antibody screening, identification, titration, and detection threshold of mixed-field agglutination. Results: Automated systems agreed generally with tube results in 98% or more of ABO forward and RhD groupings, but showed weaker reactions in ABO reverse testing against A1 (K=0.88 with MP and K=0.77 with GC) and B cells (K=0.66 with MP and K=0.68 with GC) and failed to detect some anti-A (2 of 273 samples with MP) and anti-B (2 of 273 with MP and 1 of 272 with GC). MP missed 2 (anti-E and –Fyb) of 8 antibodies and GC missed 5 (2 anti-E and 1 each of -Fyb, -Jka and –Lea) of 10 antibodies, which manual PEG-IAT detected. Among 11 known alloantibodies, MP detected 7 antibodies at higher dilution than tube PEG-IAT, whereas GC showed lower scores in 7 samples than tube PEG-IAT and missed 2 clinically significant antibodies (anti-C and anti-Fyb). Conclusion: Automated systems, comparable to manual tube technique for forward grouping of ABO and RhD, are less sensitive in ABO reverse testing. As GC more often failed to detect clinically significant antibodies of low-titer, users should be especially mindful of possible post-transfusion hemolysis.

Automation is gaining favor for pre-transfusion testing to improve efficiency. Since microtube column agglutination systems were introduced, they have been compared with tube methods for detection of alloantibodies. These reports indicate that gel column systems are similar to tube polyethylene glycol (PEG)indirect antiglobulin (IAT) in detecting clinically significant antibodies [1]. Moreover, Weisbach et al. showed that the sensitivity of a number of microtube column system in the detection of clinically significant antibodies was similar, even superior, to that of tube low ionic strength solution (LISS)-IAT [2]. In contrast, gel techniques have been reported to be less sensitive than tube techniques in the detection of anti-Fyb, antiJka, anti-S [3], and anti-E [4]. These differences might be affected by the kind of column used and, for tube methods, the enhancement medium. We compared a gel column method (WADiana Compact, Grifols International, Spain) against manual PEG-IAT [5], for detection of red cell alloantibodies. We paralleled screening results prospectively between November and December 2012 on 270 samples and serial dilutions of 11 samples with known red cell alloantibodies were compared for antibody reactivity by AABB score. The results of screening show a concordance rate of 97.8% (5 samples both positive, 259 samples both negative) and discordance in 6 samples: 1 sample showed