Lumbar Lipomeningomyelocele Associated with Multiple Café au Lait Spots: A Case Report

We report on a child with several café au lait spots in association with a lumbar lipomeningomyelocele as an apparently new association. Cutaneous markers, the identification of which plays a crucial role in the early diagnosis and management of spinal malformations, can accompany occult spinal dysraphism. Herein we report a case of lumbar lipomeningomyelocele associated with an overlying café au lait spot that served as a marker of occult spinal dysraphism. The patient also had segmental café au lait spots on the face, making the association unique.     

Specific alterations in plasma proteins during depressed,manic, and euthymic states of bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a common psychiatric mood disorder affecting more than 1-2% of the general population of different European countries. Unfortunately, there is no objective laboratory-based test to aid BD diagnosis or monitor its progression, and little is known about the molecular basis of BD. Here, we performed a comparative proteomic study to identify differentially expressed plasma proteins in various BD mood states (depressed BD, manic BD, and euthymic BD) relative to healthy controls. A total of 10 euthymic BD, 20 depressed BD, 15 manic BD, and 20 demographically matched healthy control subjects were recruited. Seven high-abundance proteins were immunodepleted in plasma samples from the 4 experimental groups, which were then subjected to proteome-wide expression profiling by two-dimensional electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight/time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry. Proteomic results were validated by immunoblotting and bioinformatically analyzed using MetaCore. From a total of 32 proteins identified with 1.5-fold changes in expression compared with healthy controls, 16 proteins were perturbed in BD independent of mood state, while 16 proteins were specifically associated with particular BD mood states. Two mood-independent differential proteins, apolipoprotein (Apo) A1 and Apo L1, suggest that BD pathophysiology may be associated with early perturbations in lipid metabolism. Moreover, down-regulation of one mood-dependent protein, carbonic anhydrase 1 (CA-1), suggests it may be involved in the pathophysiology of depressive episodes in BD. Thus, BD pathophysiology may be associated with early perturbations in lipid metabolism that are independent of mood state, while CA-1 may be involved in the pathophysiology of depressive episodes.     

Hepatic effects of repeated oral administration of diclofenac to hepatic cytochrome P450 reductase null (HRN™) and wild-type mice

Hepatic NADPH-cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase null (HRN?) mice exhibit normal hepatic and extrahepatic biotransformation enzyme activities when compared to wild-type (WT) mice, but express no functional hepatic cytochrome P450 activities. When incubated in vitro with [¹⁴C]-diclofenac, liver microsomes from WT mice exhibited extensive biotransformation to oxidative and glucuronide metabolites and covalent binding to proteins was also observed. In contrast, whereas glucuronide conjugates and a quinone-imine metabolite were formed when [¹⁴C]-diclofenac was incubated with HRN? mouse liver, only small quantities of P450-derived oxidative metabolites were produced in these samples and covalent binding to proteins was not observed. Livers from vehicle-treated HRN? mice exhibited enhanced lipid accumulation, bile duct proliferation, hepatocellular degeneration and necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration, which were not present in livers from WT mice. Elevated liver-derived alanine aminotransferase, glutamate dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase activities were also observed in plasma from HRN? mice. When treated orally with diclofenac for 7 days, at 30 mg/kg/day, the severities of the abnormal liver histopathology and plasma liver enzyme findings in HRN? mice were reduced markedly. Oral diclofenac administration did not alter the liver histopathology or elevate plasma enzyme activities of WT mice. These findings indicate that HRN? mice are valuable for exploration of the role played by hepatic P450s in drug biotransformation, but poorly suited to investigations of drug-induced liver toxicity. Nevertheless, studies in HRN? mice could provide novel insights into the role played by inflammation in liver injury and may aid the evaluation of new strategies for its treatment.     

Association of Early Kidney Allograft Failure with Preformed IgA Antibodies to β2-Glycoprotein I

In the current immunosuppressive therapy era, vessel thrombosis is the most common cause of early graft loss after renal transplantation. The prevalence of IgA anti–β₂-glycoprotein I antibodies (IgA-aB2GPI-ab) in patients on dialysis is elevated (>30%), and these antibodies correlate with mortality and cardiovascular morbidity. To evaluate the effect of IgA-aB2GPI-ab in patients with transplants, we followed all patients transplanted from 2000 to 2002 in the Hospital 12 de Octubre prospectively for 10 years. Presence of IgA-aB2GPI-ab in pretransplant serum was examined retrospectively. Of 269 patients, 89 patients were positive for IgA-aB2GPI-ab (33%; group 1), and the remaining patients were negative (67%; group 2). Graft loss at 6 months post-transplant was significantly higher in group 1 (10 of 89 versus 3 of 180 patients in group 2; P=0.002). The most frequent cause of graft loss was thrombosis of the vessels, which was observed only in group 1 (8 of 10 versus 0 of 3 patients in group 2; P=0.04). Multivariate analysis showed that the presence of IgA-aB2GPI-ab was an independent risk factor for early graft loss (P=0.04) and delayed graft function (P=0.04). There were no significant differences regarding patient survival between the two groups. Graft survival was similar in both groups after 6 months. In conclusion, patients with pretransplant IgA-aB2GPI-ab have a high risk of early graft loss caused by thrombosis and a high risk of delayed graft function. Therefore, pretransplant IgA-aB2GPI-ab may have a detrimental effect on early clinical outcomes after renal transplantation.