All blue nodes and all radioactive nodes (hottest) were considered sentinel and were removed. All patients presenting a positive SLN underwent within four weeks

to a CLND. Histopathological examination SLNs were fixed in 4.5% formaldehyde for 24 hours. Then three-dimensional ATM Kinase Inhibitor concentration measurement and macroscopic characteristics were evaluated for every lymph node. Lymph nodes were cut Gilteritinib order parallel to the longest axis into slices about 1 mm thickness and embedded in paraffin blocks. Four sections (3 μm thick) of each slice were produced with a microtome: the first one was stained with haematoxylin-eosin, and the subsequent for the immuno-hystochemistry with S100, HMB45 and MART1 antibodies [9, 10]. Starz staging According to the Starz classification [8, 11, 12] all patients were divided into three categories based on the number of positive sections (n) and the maximum distance from the interior margin of the biggest metastatic group to the capsule of the SN (d) as follows: S1 for peripheral involvement (1

multifocal involvement (n>2 and 0.31 mm) [8, 11, 12]. Statistical analysis An independent biostatistician performed statistical evaluation. Patient’s characteristics included: demographic data (age and sex) and histological click here features of the primary melanoma (Breslow thickness, Clark level, ulceration and histological subtype); while for the sentinel lymph node included the number of sentinel lymph node removed, the pattern of invasion and the invasion depth of metastatic cells in the sentinel lymph node (Starz Classification). For statistical analysis parametric tests were applied: Hazard Ratio and 95% Confidence Interval were used to study the test and overall survival rate. Selleck Temsirolimus Kaplan-Meier curves were used to estimate significance in OS differences. Significance for all statistical tests was defined as p values <0.005. Results In this

study we have enrolled 80 patients, 46 (57%) were males and 34 (43%) were females (mean age 48 years; range of 20–83 years). The mean Breslow thickness of the primary melanoma was of 3.0 mm (range 0.4-6.0 mm); 3 patients (4%) were of Clark II, 21 (26%) were of Clark III, 52 (65%) were of Clark IV and 4 (5%) of Clark V. Melanoma subtype included nodular (36%), superficial spreading (47%), and polypoid (17%). More than half of the tumors were ulcerated (51%). Regarding the regional distribution of SLN biopsies 36 were axillary (45%), 32 groin (40%), 8 (10%) present a double basin (7axillary+groin and 1 axillary+supraclavear), and 4 of the neck (5%). CLND found at least one positive non-SLN in 15 cases (19%). The median follow-up was 78 months (range 60–120 months). During the follow-up period only 5 patients (6%) had a loco-regional recurrence. From the 80 enrolled cases, 69 (86%) were alive without evidence of disease at the time of this writing.

coli K12, the majority of persister studies have focused on three bacterial taxa: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Pseudomonas

aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus. M. tuberculosis is known for its recalcitrance to antibiotic LB-100 supplier treatment [14–16], and genetic studies have shown that toxin overexpression exhibits drug-specific effects: toxins that increase persistence in one antibiotic do not necessarily increase persistence in other antibiotics [15]. This contrasts with results in E. coli K12 outlined above, in which persistence is generally characterized buy DMXAA by multidrug tolerance [9, 11]. In clinical settings, P. aeruginosa mutants that produce increased persister fractions (up to 100-fold above wildtype) have been isolated [4]; however, the genetic mechanisms causing increased persister fractions are not well understood. Finally, in S. aureus, although some research on the influence of metabolism on persister formation [17], genetic studies Metabolism inhibitor are lacking. Most studies on persister formation have focused on strains

harboring mutations that increase or decrease persister frequency. However, one recent study [18] tested how persister formation differs among strains of bacteria. In this study, mammalian commensal and pathogenic E. coli isolates were found to exhibit substantial variation in the fraction of persisters that are present in exponentially growing populations of cells. In addition, it was found that the fraction of persisters that survived treatment in one antibiotic was uncorrelated with the fraction surviving in a second antibiotic. However, without Inositol monophosphatase 1 a quantitative model of persistence, this result cannot unambiguously exclude other explanations, such as differences in the death rates of cells between isolates. Here, using a collection of environmental isolates of E. coli, we examine

variation in the frequency of persister cells in naturally occurring strains. In order to consistently measure persister fractions, we use a mathematical model to derive quantitative and reliable estimates of the fraction of persisters in each population. Our quantitative set of data corroborates the results of the previous study on commensal and pathogenic E. coli isolates [18], showing that there is substantial variation in the fraction of persister cells among environmental isolates of E. coli. In addition, we show that the fraction of cells that survive drug treatment in one drug is uncorrelated with the fraction surviving in a second drug. Importantly, we show that this lack of correlation extends to drugs have nearly identical modes of action. Finally, by using combinations of antibiotics, we provide evidence that for any single strain, there may be a subset of persister cells that are recalcitrant to treatment with any antibiotic.

YscL proteins exhibit similar patterns, except that they generally have shorter primary Wortmannin molecular weight repeat segments. We report here a statistical characterization of the amino acids composing the variable positions PKC inhibitor in the primary repeat segments of a varied collection of FliH and YscL sequences from different bacterial species. As they are analyzed separately, the specific portion of the

repeat segments being discussed – AxxxG, GxxxG, or GxxxA – will be referred to as the “”repeat type”". Additionally, we make the distinction between the first, second, and third variable residue in a given repeat, which will be denoted as positions x1, x2, and x3, respectively. Below, we describe the analysis performed on FliH, which is of primary interest due to its uniquely long primary repeat segments. Some of the analysis described below was also performed for YscL; full details are provided in the Results and Methods sections. To provide a general characterization of the glycine repeats in FliH, some

initial data were gathered, such as the number of proteins having a repeat segment flanked by Axxx and xxxA, and the lengths of the primary repeat segments in each sequence. Next, secondary structure prediction this website programs were employed to predict whether the glycine repeat segments are likely to adopt a helical conformation, as would be expected given the amino acid compositions of these repeats, as well as previous results concerning the role of glycine repeats in helix-helix dimerization. A multiple alignment of the glycine repeat segments of FliH and YscL was then

created, which provides insight into how FliH/YscL proteins from different bacterial species relate to each other in terms of the length and composition of their primary repeat segments. The distribution of amino acids in the three variable positions in each repeat type was then determined. We hypothesized that the amino acid frequencies in the glycine repeats would Methane monooxygenase differ significantly from the amino acid frequencies in the entirety of all the FliH/YscL proteins; to provide support for this hypothesis, statistical tests were used to determine the probability that any differences found could have occurred by chance. To ensure that the tabulated amino acid frequencies and positional correlations were not simply the result of high sequence similarity due to sampling sequences that are phylogenetically closely related (especially in the GxxxG segment), we employed an overall 25% amino acid sequence identity cut-off to filter out highly similar FliH sequences and select an approximately even sampling of the available FliH sequences.

42. Eddy SR: Profile hidden Markov models. Bioinformatics 1998, 14:755–763.PubMedCrossRef

43. Eisenhaber B, Schneider G, Wildpaner M, Eisenhaber F: A sensitive predictor for potential GPI lipid modification sites in fungal protein sequences and its application to genome-wide studies for Aspergillus nidulans, Candida albicans, Neurospora crassa, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe . J Mol Biol 2004, 337:243–253.PubMedCrossRef Authors’ contributions All authors read and approved the final version of the paper. NM was the main author of the paper and participated in CAZy annotation and Erastin solubility dmso experimental validation. ED contributed to the experimental work on biofilm formation. PMC participated and supervised the CAZy annotation. SMC contributed to the interpretation selleck inhibitor of the results. BH participated and supervised the CAZy annotation and contributed to the manuscript. ER supervised the experimental work and contributed to the manuscript.”
“Background Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a spiral-shaped, Gram-negative bacterium find more that infects half the world’s population and is the major cause of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcers and gastric malignancies, including gastric non-cardia adenocarcinoma and mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma [1, 2]. Most infected individuals

present with no clinical symptoms, but approximately 10~20% will develop peptic ulcers and 1% will develop gastric cancer [3, 4], which could be associated with the diversity of H. pylori. H. pylori exhibits exceptionally high rates of DNA point mutations and intra- and inter-genomic recombination. Recently, many molecular typing tools have been developed to investigate genetic relatedness among H. pylori isolates. However, these methods have limitations including lower discrimination power, or preventing results from different labs being compared [5, 6]. In 1999, MLVA analysis was proposed as a general approach to providing accurate, Epothilone B (EPO906, Patupilone) portable data that were appropriate for the epidemiological investigation of bacterial pathogens

[7–11]. However, there’s little information concerning populations of H. pylori species using MLVA. Whether this method is available for the H. pylori population is still uncertain. H. pylori infections in China are common and extensively distributed, with an average infection rate of about 58%. In this study, 12 VNTR loci of the H. pylori genome were identified and used to analyze 202 strains of H. pylori which originated from different regions of China and Japan. Results Multi-VNTR loci for H. pylori genome PCR products amplified from the reference strains 26695, HPAG1 and J99 were identical to the published sequences sizes. Of the locus VNTR-2576 and VNTR-614, the PCR products sequencing were consistence with our electrophoresis results. The exact number of tandem repeats at each locus could be determined from the sizes of the PCR products. In this study, 30 VNTR loci were candidated from the H. pylori database.

burnetii. Both sets of microarray data (Additional file 1-Supplemental Tables S1.A and S1.B) containing differentially expressed genes for mock and CAM treated C. burnetii infections of THP-1 cells were SGC-CBP30 order annotated using DAVID to extract the

biological functions of the listed genes. The X axis shows the percentage of differentially expressed genes associated with each annotation term while the Y axis shows the prominent biological functions (annotation terms) obtained through functional annotation of the differentially expressed genes. P-values for each annotation term are calculated using modified Fisher’s exact test. A P-value cut off 0.05 or less has been used to identify biological functions. Top panel, shows the common host cell functions regulated under both EPZ5676 cell line conditions (mock and CAM treatment). Middle panel shows the major cellular functions Saracatinib affected only in C. burnetii infected THP-1 cells undergoing mock treatment. Bottom panel shows the crucial host cell functions influenced only in C. burnetii infected THP-1 cells undergoing CAM treatment. (DOC 68 KB) References 1. Maurin M, Raoult D: Q Fever. Clin Microbiol Rev 1999, 12:518–553.PubMed 2. Voth DE, Heinzen RA: Lounging in a lysosome: the intracellular lifestyle of Coxiella burnetii . Cellular Microbiology 2007, 9:829–840.PubMedCrossRef 3. Kazar J: Coxiella burnetii Infection. Annals of the New York

Academy of Sciences 2005, 1063:105–114.PubMedCrossRef 4. Shannon

J, Heinzen R: Adaptive immunity to the obligate intracellular pathogen Coxiella burnetii . Immunologic Research 2009, 43:138–148.PubMedCrossRef 5. Heinzen RA, Hackstadt T, Samuel JE: Developmental biology of Coxiella burnetii . Trends in Microbiology 1999, 7:149–154.PubMedCrossRef 6. Coleman SA, Fischer ER, Howe D, Mead DJ, Heinzen RA: Temporal Analysis of Coxiella burnetii Morphological Differentiation. J Bacteriol 2004, 186:7344–7352.PubMedCrossRef 7. Howe D, Melnicáková J, Barák I, Heinzen RA: Maturation of the Coxiella burnetii parasitophorous vacuole requires Teicoplanin bacterial protein synthesis but not replication. Cellular Microbiology 2003, 5:469–480.PubMedCrossRef 8. Portnoy DA: Manipulation of innate immunity by bacterial pathogens. Current Opinion in Immunology 2005, 17:25–28.PubMedCrossRef 9. Bhavsar AP, Guttman JA, Finlay BB: Manipulation of host-cell pathways by bacterial pathogens. Nature 2007, 449:827–834.PubMedCrossRef 10. Voth DE, Heinzen RA: Coxiella type IV secretion and cellular microbiology. Current Opinion in Microbiology 2009, 12:74–80.PubMedCrossRef 11. Pan X, Luhrmann A, Satoh A, Laskowski-Arce MA, Roy CR: Ankyrin Repeat Proteins Comprise a Diverse Family of Bacterial Type IV Effectors. Science 2008, 320:1651–1654.PubMedCrossRef 12. Howe D, Heinzen RA: Coxiella burnetii inhabits a cholesterol-rich vacuole and influences cellular cholesterol metabolism. Cellular Microbiology 2006, 8:496–507.PubMedCrossRef 13.

Many of these new agents or treatment strategies have also been incorporated into combination therapy involving

conventional anticancer drugs in several clinical trials, which may help enhance currently available treatment modalities. However, some puzzling and troubling questions such as whether these treatment strategies induce resistance in tumours and whether they will cause normal cells to die in massive numbers still remain unanswered. This is a true concern if lessons were to be learnt from the conventional anticancer drugs, which wipe out both normal cells and tumour cells and cause brutal side effects and tumour resistance. On the other hand, it would be of clinical benefit, if these molecules that target apoptosis are specifically acting

on a single find more pathway or protein. However, this website most of the molecules that enter clinical trials act on several targets and these include many inhibitors of the Bcl-family QNZ nmr of proteins and some pan-IAP inhibitors. Hence, evidence-based long-term follow ups on patients receiving these new cancer treatments are needed and ongoing research should focus on those strategies that can selectively induce apoptosis in malignant cells and not the normal ones. Acknowledgements The author would like to acknowledge the International Medical University, Malaysia for funding research that led to the writing of this work (grant number: 231/2011). References 1. Bauer JH, Hefand SL: New tricks of an old molecule: lifespan regulation by p53. Aging Cell 2006, 5:437–440.PubMedCrossRef 2. Gasco M, Shami S, Crook T: The p53 pathway in breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res 2002, 4:70–76.PubMedCrossRef 3. Rodrigues NR, Rowan A, Smith ME, Kerr IB, Bodmer WF, Gannon JV, Lane DP: p53 mutations in colorectal cancers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1990,87(19):7555–7559.PubMedCrossRef 4. Morton JP, Timpson

P, Karim SA, Ridgway RA, Athineos D, Doyle B, Jamieson NB, Oien KA, Lowy AM, Brunton VG, Frame MC, Jeffry Evans TR, Sansom OJ: Mutant p53 drives metastasis and overcomes Florfenicol growth arrest/senescence in pancreatic cancer. PNAS 2010,107(1):246–251.PubMedCrossRef 5. Jensen M, Engert A, Weissinger F, Knauf W, Kimby E, Poynton C, Oliff IA, Rummel MJ, Österborg A: Phase I study of a novel pro-apoptotic drug R-etodolac in patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Invest New Drugs 2008,26(2):139–149.PubMedCrossRef 6. Baritaki S, Militello L, Malaponte G, Spandidos DA, Salcedo M, Bonavida B: The anti-CD20 mAb LFB-R603 interrupts the dysregulated NF-κB/Snail/RKIP/PTEN resistance loop in B-NHL cells: role in sensitization to TRAIL apoptosis. Int J Oncol 2011,38(6):1683–1694.PubMed 7. Kerr JF, Harmon BV: Definition and incidence of apoptosis: an historical perspective. In Apoptosis: the molecular basis of cell death. Volume 3. Edited by: Tomei LD, Cope FO. New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; 1991:5–29. 8.

Results ELS habitat quality scores Of the 35 experts contacted, 27 (77 %) responded; eighteen of which (51 %) returned completed questionnaires while nine (25 %) declined to participate due to concerns with the use of expert questionnaires to inform ecological models, concerns over their own expertise or a lack of time available. As expected, option EF4 (Nectar flower mix) was given the greatest PHB with a mode score of 3 and a mean of 2.83 (Table 2). On average, each expert allocated six options a PHB score of 0 and an average of 1.5 options a PHB score of 3. Expert Quisinostat manufacturer confidence in responses

was EPZ-6438 in vivo generally high with 13 (72 %) giving confidence scores of 3 or 4 and only two (11 %) experts giving scores of 1. When weighted for expert confidence, mean PHB values for all options fell sharply (mean 0.86); EF4 remained the highest rated (PHB 2.83) followed by options for hedges EB10, EB3, EB8/9 and woodland edges EC4 (mean PHB ≥ 1.75) while options for winter stubbles EF6, EF22 and EG4 remained the lowest rated options (mean PHB ≤ 0.5). Model costs and benefits The three most important options in the 2012 baseline option mix were for hedges and low input grassland Selleck GSK2879552 EB1/2, EK2 and EK3 (Table 2) which collectively account for 50 % of total points. The grassland option area was 216 % greater than the arable option area, most likely because of high uptake

of these options in less productive areas (Hodge and Reader 2010). Total costs of the ELS options considered from a 2012 baseline were estimated at £32.2 M, giving a £1:£4.13 cost:benefit ratio compared with the ELS payments (£133 M) provided. In terms of pollinator habitat quality; the baseline ELS provides 200 M units total HQ benefit, quantitatively equivalent to 1.5 units of HQ per £1 of ELS payment. The most costly options were those that included seed costs (See Table 7 in Appendix). EB1/2, EF6, EK2 and EC2 contributed the greatest proportion of points to the hedge/ditch (48.1 %),

arable (18 %), grassland (18.6 %) and plot/tree (75.5 %) option categories respectively. To assess the costs of providing pollinator habitat oriented ELS compositions, the study utilised expert opinion to weight three redistributions of ELS options by multiplying the PHB values provided by the ELS points conferred to each option. The most beneficial options Phospholipase D1 in each category were EB10 (hedge/ditch option), EF4 (arable option), EK1 (grassland option) and EC1 (tree/plot option). Under Model A the number of units within each of the four option categories was restructured to reflect the benefits to pollinator habitat, increasing the quality of the absolute area currently managed (Table 3). This increased the area managed under ELS by 108.3 % (Table 4) but also produces the greatest total private costs (~£59.1 M) and more than doubles both public costs (£144 M; 108 %) and total HQ benefits (+140 %).

hydrophila different type of wounds variable

(12-96 h) Hour to days gas in soft tissue ICU stay critical care therapy surgery antibiotics HBO The clinical findings important for PSI-7977 manufacturer establishing the early NF diagnosis can be divided into two groups, early and advanced symptoms [25]. Primary or idiopathic NF usually occurs in the absence of a known causative factor or entry site for bacteria spreading. On the other side, secondary NF is the result of a known etiology and takes place through laceration of skin, cut, abrasion, contusion, burns, bite, subcutaneous injection or operative incision. The most common early signs are erythema, local warmth, skin induration and edema. In the disease’s fulminant form, the patient is critically ill with signs and symptoms of severe septic shock and MODS, and extensive spreading of soft tissue necrosis. The clinical picture worsens very quickly, practically during only a few hours [25, 26]. The acute form of the infection spreads for a few days and it first begins with severe pain before the cutaneous manifestations appear.

The subacute NF form has an indolent clinical course, which progresses slowly over days or weeks [25]. Early clinical status during the first 24 hours usually includes minor trauma, skin infection like folliculitis or abscess, gangrene on the extremities, pressure sore(s), or a complicated surgical incision like hernia repair. The external signs on the skin may be erythema or induration. The patient usually feels pain on the site of the injury. There is a disproportion between the Montelukast Sodium character of the injury and intensity of the pain. Pain GDC 0032 price out of proportion with the apparent lesion severity should suggest a possible NF diagnosis [1, 2]. During the next 2-4 days, the pain becomes more intense. In the clinical status we find many symptoms of Epacadostat cell line general toxicity like fever, dehydration, confusion, dizziness, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, weakness and malaise. If the patient is not admitted to an ICU or the diagnosis is established late in its course, more serious clinical symptoms ensue. The limbs and

the area of body where the patient felt pain begin to swell, and may show a purplish rash or blisters with “”dish-wash”" purulent or haemorrhagic fluid. Cutaneous changes may be minimal, or may progress to blisters and bullae, and then to circumscribed necrosis of skin. Also, emphysema and gas formations with crepitations in overlying skin may appear. The pain grows, but remains an disproportionate to the clinical picture [1, 5, 6]. In the late phase within 4-6 days, symptoms of septic shock or MODS usually appear. Those symptoms may include cardiac shock with tachycardia, hypotension and decreased cardiac minute output, an elevated white blood cell count, metabolic acidosis, coagulopathy, changes in mental status and weakness. The patient in the late stage of NF appears apathetic and indifferent.

Alkaline phosphatase activity PMEF cells were cultured in a 48-well culture dish at a density of 5 × 103 cells per well for 4 days. Then medium was replaced with treatment solution, which was DMEM containing 5% serum plus GO or S-rGO. After 4 days, the alkaline-phosphatase activity was measured according to the method described by manufacturer’s instructions (DALP-250, QuantiChrom™ Alkaline Phosphatase Assay Kit, Gentaur, Belgium). selleckchem The plates were incubated at 37°C for 30 min. The amount

of released p-nitrophenol was measured at 405 nm in a 96-well microplate reader. Enzyme activity was evaluated as the amount of nitrophenol released through the enzymatic reaction, and absorbance was recorded using a microplate reader (Bio-RAD 680, Hercules, CA, USA) at 405 nm. For normalization, the

total protein content was measured using a bicinchoninic acid protein assay kit. Thus, the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was expressed and normalized by the total protein content (U/mg). Results and discussion Reduction of GO by SLE Reduction of GO was carried out at room temperature using spinach leaf extract. On completion of the reduction process, the color change from brown to black Torin 1 in vitro provides the soluble reduced product (inset of the Figure 1). This preliminary experiment suggested that spinach leaf extracts have the ability to remove oxygen-containing moieties present in GO, which is the piece of evidence for reduction process. Further, the spectra of GO and S-rGO were recorded using UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, 17-AAG which is a simple and valuable technique. GO shows a maximum absorption peak at 231 nm which was attributed to the π-π* transitions of the aromatic C-C bonds and a weak Ergoloid shoulder at 300 nm due to n-π* transitions of C=O bonds. After complete reduction, a red shift of this characteristic peak was observed at 265 nm for S-rGO (Figure 1); this indicates that electronic conjugation was restored. When SLE was used as control, it showed two peaks at 450 and 650 nm, which are different from those of GO and S-rGO. As GO had

a light brownish color and S-rGO a black color suspension, as we have expected, the optical absorption of all S-rGO was higher than that of GO. In agreement with our results, Thakur and Karak observed a characteristics peak value at 268 nm using phytoextracts for both Camellia sinensis peel aqueous extract-reduced GO and Mesua ferrea leaf aqueous extract-reduced GO [50]. Figure 1 UV–vis absorption spectra of SLE, GO, and S-rGO suspensions in water. XRD analysis XRD is an effective technique to investigate the interlayer changes and the crystalline nature of the synthesized material. XRD patterns of GO and S-rGO are shown in Figure 2. Pristine graphite exhibits a basal reflection (002) peak at 2θ = 26.6° corresponding to a d spacing of 0.335 nm.

However, this group increased significantly during the treatment period. It remains unclear, if Pasteurella multocida has developed resistance to check details Tylosin in CDK inhibitor the here studied dogs, or if the intestinal phylotypes differ from those isolated from the lung. Tylosin appears to be an appropriate antibiotic for the treatment of C. perfringens-associated diarrhea in canine patients, although resistant strains have been observed [10]. Similarly, in a chicken model of necrotizing enteritis, tylosin quantitatively decreased the proportion of mucolytic C. perfringens [18]. However in this study, the percentage of C. perfringens-like organisms increased from 21.8% on day 0 to 86.7% on day 14 in one dog, suggesting

that this dog harbored a resistant strain. Our results also suggest that the proposed mode of action of an antibiotic on different bacterial genera does not necessarily match the in vivo effects, as several bacterial groups that are considered to be sensitive to tylosin increased in their proportions. Because of the

nature of an ecosystem, selleck kinase inhibitor the changes that are induced by an antibiotic on one set of organisms will affect others, and this is not necessarily predicted by in vitro antibiotic sensitivities. E. coli-like organisms, a bacterial group that has also been associated with a negative impact on gastrointestinal health in dogs [24, 35] increased significantly by day 28. The enrichment of E. coli-like organisms is not surprising, as this group is intrinsically resistant to tylosin, and similar increases have been observed in pigs after tylosin treatment [36]. However, we have no obvious explanation why this effect was observed on day 28 rather than day 14, the last day of tylosin administration. Also, based on the techniques used, it is not possible to determine if a bacterial population proliferated or simply increased in proportion because

other bacteria were affected (directly Loperamide or indirectly) by the antibiotic treatment. While E. coli-like organisms and C. perfringens increased in some of the dogs, this was not associated with any obvious clinical signs of gastrointestinal disease. We speculate that despite obvious changes in microbial populations, the intestinal ecosystem has enough functional redundancy to maintain gastrointestinal health. Similar findings have also been reported in humans, where short-term courses of antibiotics led to significant shifts in fecal microbiota patterns, yet no obvious gastrointestinal signs were observed [8, 16]. However, all these studies, including the present one, have evaluated healthy individuals, which may harbor a stable intestinal ecosystem that has enough functional redundancy to withstand short-term modulations. It is currently unknown how antibiotics affect dogs with gastrointestinal disease that may be more susceptible to such treatments.