St. Cercet. Virusol. 34 (1) 2004

Abstract. The objectives of the project lie in the necesity of an epidemiological assesment of the incidence of sexually transmitted infections induced by mycoplasmas and Chlamydia trachomatis, germs often ignored, although responsible of severe acute and chronic infections, such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), infertility, perinatal diseases, etc.
The project tries to optimize the diagnosis of these diseases and to introduce into it molecular techniques, aimed especially at the asymptomatic forms of disease.
The objectives of the project will be achieved by: formation of groups of patients according to the age, the sex and the symptomatology; establishment of criteria regarding the sampling, processing and stockage of the specimens taken from the patients; evaluation of the incidence of infections with Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma genitalium, in dependence on the results obtained by tests performed by usual techniques(EIA, IFD, isolation and identification of mycoplasmas). In the case of positive results, the susceeptibility to antibiotics will be tested; estimation of immunity of patients to the mentioned germs by performing serological tests; optimization and standardization of PCR protocols, in order to make possible their introduction into the current diagnosis of sexually transmited infections caused by Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplsma genitalium; interpretation of results, their correlation with the clinical data, final assessment of the prevalence of STD induced by Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma genitalium in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients.
In view achieving the project, we intend to select on the basis of clinical and laboratory criteria a number of patients with STD, beside patients without symptoms specific of these diseases. The biological specimens taken from these patients will be: endocervical swabs, urine, blood; they will be processed and stocked in compliance with the established protocols in order to be tested according to the algoritm elaborated by us.

Abstract. DNA methylation is essential for mammalian cell development, representing one of the numerous signals involved in the cell cycle regulation. One of the most important properties of CpG islands from mammalian cell promoters is represented by their unmethylated pattern in the germ line and indeed in most somatic cells. CpG islands act often as strong promoters and some authors consider them as replicating origins. Gene expression is regulated not only by DNA sequence but also by its epigenetic status. Recent studies exhibited that aberrant promoter methylation of some tumorsupressor genes affect their silencing and correlate with carcinogenic initiation and progression. This paper is focused on studies concerning some epigenetic changes in biologic samples from patients with cervix cancer. As we know, in Romania, these molecular aspects of cancer diseases in general (and in special of cervix cancer) have not been investigated yet. The objectives of this paper are: i) the analysis of some tumorsupressor genes (p16, PTEN, HIC-1, DAPK) expression levels in biological samples from control and patients with cervix cancer; ii) the selection of the adequate protocols, in order to evaluate the tumorsupressor gene promoters hyper-methylation; iii) the correlation between methylation pattern of multiple genes and cervical carcinogenesis status.

Abstract. Hematopoietic stem cells represent a renewable source of material for cellular therapy. Therefore, the development of ex vivo experimental systems for studies on hematopoietic stem cells is very important. The promise of stem cells for clinical therapy, however, is limited because the number of cells that can be obtained is inadequate. Manipulation of the in vitro culture microenvironment, primarily through cytokine supplementation, has been the predominant approach in studies attempting to expand primary human hematopoietic stem cells in vitro. While promising results have been accomplished, it seems obvious that novel methods must be developed before cellular therapies using these stem cells can become standard operation. This study intend: i) to design a device for efficient cord blood collection and to evaluate the obstetric factors that may influence the final collection yield in terms of recovered cell number; ii) to develop novel methods able to sustain the increase of hematopoietic stem cell number; iii) to assess the susceptibility of hematopoietic stem cells to different viral infections; iv) to create a system for toxicity studies following exposure to anti-neoplasic and anti-viral agents.