Tuberculosis

Clinical value of surfactant protein-A in serum and sputum for pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis

H. Hu, Teng, G. L., Gai, L. Z., Yang, Y., and Zhu, C. J., “Clinical value of surfactant protein-A in serum and sputum for pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis”, vol. 12, pp. 4918-4924, 2013.

The aim of this study was to explore the diagnostic and differential diagnosis value of surfactant protein-A (SP-A) in the serum and sputum for pulmonary tuberculosis. A total of 101 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, 85 healthy volunteers, and 30 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients were divided into pulmonary tuberculosis group, healthy control group, and COPD group, respectively. SP-A was determined in the serum and sputum in the three groups by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The expression of SP-A in serum was significantly higher (P 0.05).

Lack of association between MD-2 promoter gene variants and tuberculosis

Y. Xue, Zhao, Z. Q., Hong, D., Zhao, M. Y., Zhang, Y. X., Wang, H. J., Wang, Y., and Li, J. C., “Lack of association between MD-2 promoter gene variants and tuberculosis”, vol. 9, pp. 1584-1590, 2010.

Myeloid differentiation-2 (MD-2) is an essential component of the CD14-TLR4/MD-2 receptor complex involved in microbial cell wall component recognition during infection. Genetic variations in the MD-2 gene may influence human susceptibility to infectious diseases. To date, a predisposition of MD-2 gene variants to contract tuberculosis has not been reported. We investigated whether MD-2 gene polymorphisms were associated with the development of tuberculosis in a Chinese population.