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A I I0 Biochemical Society Transactions (2002) Volume 30, Part 6 D14 Plant biotcchnology and plant food allergens L.R. Beach 3939 Maquoketa Drive, Des Moines, I A USA 10311-2636 El Clinical importance of the intervertebral disc J.C.T. Fairbank Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford O X 3 7 L D The development of corn products with enhanced nutritional composition for improved feed will be used as examples in the process used to evaluate the potential allergenicity of candidate proteins. The alternative strategies to improve grain quality will be discussed with the allergenic risk potential for each strategy as a key factor to consider. The use of the decision tree for the evaluation of potential allergens as developed by the International Life Sciences Institute will be illustrated. Back pain is one of the most common symptoms and a major public health problem. The causes of back pain are multi-faceted. We remain ignorant in most cases of the precise cause of back pain. Intervertebral disc degeneration parallels the incidence of back pain although does not correlate absolutely with it. Psycho-social factors are important in chronic low back pain and may have a dramatic effect o n the outcome of treatment. Some intervertebral disc pathology such as prolapse gives a definite clinical syndrome of root pain. Even this is not closely related to disc pressure and may result from cytokines released from the degenerating disc. Most back pain is managed by a focus on developing muscle function in the back. When this fails a small proportion of patients can be helped by spinal fusion. This clinical confusion makes study of the mechanisms of disc degeneration difficult to interpret. Basic research requires close clinical cooperation to interpret and apply results of laboratory research to clinical practice. D15 Lactic acid bacteria for mucosal vaccines and therapy E2 Develouent of the annulus fibrosus J.R.Rilphs S. Hanniffy and J. Wells Institute of Food Research, Norwich, N R 4 7UA There is a considerable need to develop systems for the oral delivery of vaccines, therapeutic proteins and other substances to the intestinal tract where they would have the most potent local effects and/or maximum absorption rates. Studies carried out by a small number of independent laboratories and involving two successive European partnerships has now unequivocally demonstrated that immunisation with L.lactis and certain species of Lactobacillus expressing vaccine antigens can elicit antigen specific secretory IgA and protective levels of serum antibodies. Recently, L.lactis engineered to secrete IL-2 o r IL-6 was shown to potentiate o r modulate immune responses to a co-expressed antigen following mucosal immunisation. This important discovery indicated that biologically active proteins such as cytokines, enzymes and other bioactive molecules could be delivered to the intestinal tract using harmless lactic acid bacteria as mucosal delivery vehicles. Further potential exists to use LAB delivery systems to induce oral tolerance and suppress immunopathology in autoimmune diseases o r abrogate hypersensitivity to certain allergens. A new project funded by the European Commission entitled LABDEL, is aimed at harnessing this potential by developing and testing prototype LAB-based products for vaccination, prevention and treatment of type I allergy, treatment of a metabolic disorder and delivery of a therapeutic antioxidant. An overview of the LABDEL project and its progress will be presented. 0 2002 Biochemical Society School of Biosciences, Cardiff University (BIOSI2), PO Box 911, Cardiff CFlO3US Intervertebral discs have complex developmental origins. They arise in the embryo as periodic cellular condensations between the early vertebral bodies, centred around the notochord. The first sign of disc differentiation is swelling of the notochord to form the early nucleus pulposus, triggered by pressure from cartilage differentiation in the vertebral bodies. Coincident with this, the condensations differentiate into the annulus fibrosus, with inner cartilaginous and outer fibrous parts, as shown by their content of type I1 collagen and aggrecan and type I collagen and versican respectively. The organisation of collagen in the outer annulus is crucial to disc, and therefore spine, function. In adults, collagen is organised into lamellae; each contains parallel collagen fibres linking adjacent vertebral bodies, and successive lamellae have fibre angles of 50-60 degrees to one another, forming a radial ply structure. This orientation is set up at early stages of disc differentiation by cell orientation in the presumptive annulus; as the notochord bulges, outer annulus cells form sheets of parallel fibroblasts with the long axis of the cells in successive sheets alternating in angle by 50-60 degrees. The cell layers then deposit the oriented collagen. This orientation process is driven by the actin cytoskeleton and based o n organisation of cellcell contacts in the disc condensation.