acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

The legal contradiction implicit in the term 'human property' was never resolved. This is significant in all of the slaveholding South, but especially in Louisiana. It is important to remember that the French legal heritage influenced the citizens of the Pelican State to strongly resist the Americanizing influence of the common law, specifically because its implied rights were not tangible enough to make antebellum Louisianians feel protected by the law. They clung to their civil law with its complex, detailed codes as though their very liberty depended on it. It is ironic that the common law system extended greater protection to slaves than did Louisiana's civil law tribunals. Seen through the lens of court cases, Louisiana falls far short of the supposedly more enlightened slave code that historians ascribed to it Given the Louisiana mania for codification, the ambiguity of the Louisiana Supreme Court in dealing with slaves on the one hand as property, on the other as persons, and at times as both is quite significant and indicates a great deal about the moral posture of the court. For men who considered themselves to hold high Christian principles, treating slaves solely as property was abhorrent, even though the Black Code clearly stated that they were not only property, but immovables. The wording of the Civil Code reflects the ambiguity in the law: 'Slaves, though movable by their nature, are considered as immovables by the operation of law'; the Black Code refers to them as real estate. However, if the court had treated slaves solely as people, then the very institution of human bondage could not exist, destroying millions of dollars in slave assets. The ambiguous stance of the court in dealing with slaves was no accident. It was contrived to allow men who considered themselves moral to support an institution that was immoral. The law reflects the intrinsic conflicts within Louisiana society as a whole. Most Louisianians became convinced that slavery alone could allow economic prosperity. And Louisianians, despite their unique heritage, were not less susceptible to the lure of gain than were other southerners of English background and common law tradition / acase@tulane.edu

Blood films of snakes from southeastern Louisiana representing the genera Agkistrodon, Nerodia, Elaphe, Coluber, Lampropeltis, Farancia, Crotalus, Thamnophis, and Heterodon were examined for hemogregarine gamonts. Prevalence was relatively high compared with past surveys of wild snakes. A low prevalence was observed only for the mud snake (F. abacura reinwardtii) (7%, N = 57). Three types of gamonts were observed in blood films: Hepatozoon mocassini and a shorter gamont species (species 'A') were observed in most snake genera, but a larger gamont causing marked hypertrophy and hypochromasia of infected erythrocytes (species 'B') was only seen in cottonmouths (A. piscivorus leucostoma) and rat snakes (E. obsoleta lindheimeri). Patent infections of H. mocassini were achieved in juvenile water snakes (Nerodia spp.) by feeding them oocysts from experimentally-infected mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) or liver tissue from an infected frog or snake. Oocysts of species 'A' also developed in A. aegypti, but oocysts were not proven infective to snakes. Species 'A' was transferred from snake to snake by feeding them infected liver tissue. Transfer of species 'B' was not achieved, nor was sexual development observed. Congenital infection of H. mocassini occurred in a brood of banded water snakes (N. fasciata confluens). Gametogony and sporogony of H. mocassini were studied in A. aegypti at the ultrastructural level. Gamonts left snake erythrocytes and migrated intracellularly through the mosquito gut epithelium within 30 minutes postinfection, entered cells of the fat body by six hours, and within 24 hours were associated in pairs within the same fat cell and were undergoing sexual differentiation. Two days postinfection, microgamonts divided into four biflagellate microgametes within a parasitophorous vacuole of the mosquito fat cell shared by the macrogamete. The zygote remained in the parasitophorous vacuole and by day six multinucleate oocysts had developed within a bilayered oocyst wall. As individual sporoblasts developed, Type I crystalloid bodies grew in size and predominated in the cytoplasm. By day 17, sporozoites with an apical complex and anterior and posterior crystalloid bodies were observed within a bilayered sporocyst wall. Sporocysts remained within intact oocysts. Mature schizonts of H. mocassini were also observed in snake lung tissue seven weeks after they had ingested infected snake liver. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.) / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

Non-human primates are the best animal model to study the pathogenesis of HIV. The two common models for SIV pathogenesis are pathogenic and non-pathogenic SIV infections. The most widely used model of pathogenic infections is Rhesus macaques (Rh) infected with SIV strains derived from sooty mangabeys. Disease progression to AIDS occurs within a period of months to years, depending upon the SIV strain used. The best known example of non-pathogenic infections is African NHPs naturally infected with SIV. These animals rarely progress to AIDS despite maintaining levels of viremia that are at the same levels or higher than SIV viral loads in pathogenic infections. Little is known about the components of the immune system that are important for controlling SIV replication and disease progression in NHPs and HIV-infected humans. By understanding which immune correlates are important for controlling virus replication and progression to AIDS, it will be possible to design new HIV treatments. We intend to modulate SIV pathogenesis by separately depleting CD20, CD8, and regulatory-T cells in pathogenic and natural SIV infections of Rh and AGMs. Depletion of these cell types revealed that CD8 cells have a greater impact on SIV replication than depletion of CD20 cells. Moreover, we found that the experimental induction of immune activation, resulted in increases in viral replication, indicating that both immune activation and CD8+ cells are important controllers of disease progression to AIDS. These findings will be useful in the design of new therapies and treatments for HIV patients / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu