Adjuvants = Chemical substances which are supposed to enhance the immune response to the vaccine. The desired immune response to vaccines is the production of antibodies, and this is enhanced by adding certain substances to the vaccines. These are called adjuvants (from the Latin adjuvare, meaning "to help"). There are several types of adjuvants. Today the most common adjuvants are aluminium hydroxide, aluminium phosphate and calcium phosphate. In the conventional vaccines, adjuvants are used to elicit an early, high and long-lasting immune response. The newly developed purified subunit or synthetic vaccines using biosynthetic, recombinant and other modern technology are poor immunogens and require adjuvants to evoke the immune response. The use of adjuvants enables the use of less antigen to achieve the desired immune response, and this reduces vaccine production costs. With a few exceptions, adjuvants are foreign to the body and cause adverse reactions. References

Anaerobic / Anaerobe = Can thrive only in locations where there is no oxygen.

Analog = Chemistry. A structural derivative of a parent compound that often differs from it by a single element

Anemia = A condition in which the blood has lower than normal amounts of hemoglobin or red blood cells.

Anion Gap = Sodium + Potassium - CO2 + Chloride 
The anion gap is used to measure the concentration of cations (sodium and potassium) and the anions (chloride and CO2) in the extracellular fluid of the blood. 
(Na + K) - (Cl + [HCO3-])  (all units mmol/L)

Aerobic =  The condition of requiring oxygen; an aerobe is an organism which can live and grow only in the presence of oxygen.

Bacteriostatic =Inhibits or retards bacterial growth.

Bactericide = Kills/destroys bacteria, but not necessarily their spors.

Clostridium =  A genus of bacteria belonging to the family Bacillaceae.These anaerobic, spore-forming rods are widely distributed in nature, with more than 250 species recognized. They are common in the soil and in the intestinal tract of humans and animals and are frequently found in wound infections. In humans several species are pathogenic, being the primary causative agents of gas gangrene.

Clostridium tetani The causative organism of tetanus or lockjaw.It produces a powerful exotoxin, one portion of which affects nerve tissue and the other of which is hemolytic. 

"Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary," Copyright © 2001 by F. A. Davis Co., Phil., PA

Dermatophytes = Fungi that can cause infections of the skin, hair, and nails due to their ability to utilize keratin. 
The organisms colonize the keratin tissues and inflammation is caused by host response to metabolic by-products. These infections are known as ringworm. 

Endotoxins = are part of the cell wall of species classified as "gram-negative bacteria". The toxic components of the gram-negative cell wall are called "lipopolysaccharides" and are usually liberated as the result of cell death. All gram-negative bacteria produce lipopolysaccharides, but only a few are also capable of producing exotoxins. 

Exotoxins = are toxins that are secreted by the cell either as part of the normal metabolic process or sometimes as a result of cell death. Exotoxins are most often associated with contaminated food & water or insect bites. Representative diseases = Botulism, cholera, diphtheria, tetanus, bubonic plague, food poisoning, Whooping cough, gangrene, Escherichia coli (enterotoxigenic strains), Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes.

FSH = Follicle stimulating hormone - A gonadotropic hormone of the anterior pituitary that stimulates growth of follicles in the ovaries of females and function of the seminiferous tubules in males.

Glucocorticoid(s) = Any  of a group of corticosteroids (i.e. hydrocortisone or dexamethasone). Glucocorticoids are involved especially in carbohydrate, protein, and fat metabolism, and increase liver glycogen and blood sugar by increasing gluconeogenesis. They are anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive.

Hypothermia = Subnormal temperature of the body.

Metabolite = 1 : a product of metabolism
2 : a substance essential to the metabolism of a particular organism or to a particular metabolic process 

Motility =1 : a product of metabolism
2 : a substance essential to the metabolism of a particular organism or to a particular metabolic process 

Osmotic cathartic = osmotic laxatives: attract and retain fluid in bowel

Prostacyclin =  a prostalandin that is a metabolite of arachidonic acid, it inhibits platelet aggregation and dilates blood vessels.

Prostaglandins = Inflammation is caused by the production of chemicals called prostaglandins. The prostaglandins increase blood flow to injured tissues and increase the leaking of white blood cells (WBCs) from capillaries (small blood vessels), which leads to the accumulation of WBCs in the injured tissue. The WBCs (along with other cells) release enzymes to clean up the damaged tissue, to help return it to normal. This is all part of the normal healing process and it is necessary. However, there is still the need to control inflammation, to prevent excessive pain and scarring.

Retrovirus = type of RNA virus that, unlike other RNA viruses, reproduces by transcribing itself into DNA. An enzyme called reverse transcriptase allows a retrovirus’s RNA to act as the template for this RNA-to-DNA transcription. The resultant DNA inserts itself into a cell’s DNA and is reproduced along with the cell and its daughters. The life cycle is completed when the viral DNA in selected daughter cells makes an RNA copy of itself that covers itself in a protein coat and leaves the cell. Retroviruses sometimes destroy the cells whose DNA they alter, as with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and sometimes cause them to become cancerous, as with the viruses that cause certain leukemias. Lentiviruses are retroviruses that cause slowly progressing diseases, such as AIDS. 
 

Sensitivity  =  the probability that a truly diseased animal will test positive when the test is applied.

Specificity  =  the probability that a truly healthy (non-diseased) animal will test negative when the test is applied. 

Thromboxane =  any of several substances that are formed from endoperoxides, causes constriction of vascular and bronchial smooth muscle, and promote blood coagulation.