Low Doses of Rifampicin Used in New Tuberculosis Patients Correlated to Increased Frequency of Rifampicin-Resistance and Poorer Treatment Outcomes

The prognosis of patients with previously treated tuberculosis (TB) was suggested to be dependent on whether the initial treatment was in compliance with the established guidelines. The aim of this retrospective multicenter study was to determine the proportion of new TB patients who received standard doses of rifampicin in multiple provinces of China, and the relationship between low doses of rifampicin and frequency of rifampicin-resistance as well as treatment outcomes. A total of 713 new TB patients were treated with either once-daily dose of bulk anti-TB drugs (group I) or every other day combination blister packs of anti-TB drugs containing rifampicin (group II) at more than 30 TB treatment centers/hospitals in China. Treatment history, therapeutic doses of rifampicin, and information about patients were extracted from their medical records and analyzed, and rifampicin-resistance of isolates collected from patients following the treatment as well as treatment outcomes were compared between two treatment groups. Among 522 patients in treatment group I, 154 (29.5%) received standard and 363 (69.5%) received low doses of rifampicin;238 (45.6%) isolates were rifampicin-resistant, and 243 (46.6%) were successfully treated. Among 191 patients in treatment group II, 175 (91.6%) received standard and 15 (7.9%) received low doses of rifampicin;72 (37.7%) isolates were rifampicin-resistant, and 105 (55%) were successfully treated. When patients who received low doses of rifampicin were compared to others within the same treatment group, increased rates for rifampicin-resistance and treatment failure were observed. Results from this study showed that most new TB patients in treatment group I (69.5%) received low doses of rifampicin, and their treatment outcomes were worse than those in treatment group II, indicating that low doses of rifampicin used for the initial treatment of new TB patients were correlated to increased frequency of rifampicin-resistance and poorer treatment outcomes.

Vitamin A injection at birth improves muscle growth in lambs

Vitamin A and its metabolite,retinoic acid(RA)play important roles in regulating skeletal muscle development.This study was conducted to investigate the effects of early intramuscular vitamin A injection on the muscle growth of lambs.A total of 16 newborn lambs were given weekly intramuscular injections of corn oil(control group,n=8)or 7,500 IU vitamin A palmitate(vitamin A group,n=8)from birth to 3 wk of age(4 shots in total).At 3 wk of age and weaning,biceps femoris muscle samples were taken to analyze the effects of vitamin A on the myogenic capacity of skeletal muscle cells.All lambs were slaughtered at 8 months of age.The results suggest that vitamin A treatment accelerated the growth rate of lambs and increased the loin eye area(P<0.05).Consistently,vitamin A increased the diameter of myofibers in longissimus thoracis muscle(P<0.01)and increased the final body weight of lambs(P<0.05).Vitamin A injection did not change the protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin and myostatin signaling(P>0.05).Moreover,vitamin A upregulated the expression of PAX7(P<0.05)and the myogenic marker genes including MYOD and MYOG(P<0.01).The skeletal muscle-derived mononuclear cells from vitamin A-treated lambs showed higher expression of myogenic genes(P<0.05)and formed more myotubes(P<0.01)when myogenic differentiation was induced in vitro.In addition,in vitro analysis showed that RA promoted myogenic differentiation of the skeletal muscle-derived mononuclear cells in the first 3 d(P<0.05)but not at the later stage(P>0.05)as evidenced by myogenic gene expression and fusion index.Taken together,neonatal intramuscular vitamin A injection promotes lamb muscle growth by promoting the myogenic potential of satellite cells.

Zeros of Monomial Brauer Characters

Let G be a finite group and p be a fixed prime. A p-Brauer character of G is said to be monomial if it is induced from a linear p-Brauer character of some subgroup(not necessarily proper) of G. Denote by IBr_m(G) the set of irreducible monomial p-Brauer′characters of G. Let H = G′O^p′(G) be the smallest normal subgroup such that G/H is an abelian p′-group. Suppose that g ∈ G is a p-regular element and the order of gH in the factor group G/H does not divide |IBr_m(G)|. Then there exists ? ∈ IBr_m(G) such that ?(g) = 0.

Upper and Lower Bounds of Table Sums

For a group G,we produce upper and lower bounds for the sum of the entries of the Brauer character table of G and the projective indecomposable character table of G.When G is aπ-separable group,we show that the sum of the entries in the table of Isaacs'partial characters is a real number,and we obtain upper and lower bounds for this sum.

Normal Sylow subgroups and monomial Brauer characters

Let G be a finite group,p be a prime divisor of|G|,and P be a Sylow p-subgroup of G.We prove that P is normal in a solvable group G if|G:kerφ|_(p′)=φ(1)_(p′)for every nonlinear irreducible monomial p-Brauer characterφof G,where kerφis the kernel ofφandφ(1)_(p′)is the p′-part ofφ(1).