Thalidomide has both anti-inflammatory and regulatory effects in Behcet's disease

Thalidomide is shown to be an effective treatment for mucocutaneous symptoms of Behcet's disease (BD). In this study, the effects of thalidomide on peripheral blood mononuclear cells were investigated ex vivo. In an open prospective study, ten patients were given 200 mg/day thalidomide for 12 weeks and cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4), CD8, CD11a, CD11b, CD16, CD18, CD28, CD44, CD45RO, CD45RA, CD56, CD120a and γδ+ T cells were analysed with flow cytometry at 0, 3, 7, 30 and 90 days. Two patients were excluded from the analysis for attacks of uveitis within the first 2 weeks. At day 7, tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) receptor+ (CD120a; 12% vs 5%), CD8/CD11b+ (12% vs 6%) and CD16/CD56+ (16% vs 9%) cells decreased in BD patients compared to day 0. On the other hand, CD4+CD45RO+ T cells (24% vs 34%) at day 30 and γδ+ T cells (11% vs 21%) at day 90 increased after treatment. These results suggest that thalidomide tends to decrease TNF-α receptor levels, CD8/CD11b+ T cells and natural killer cells in early treatment and increases CD4+CD45RO+ memory T and γδ+ T cells later in BD.     

The effects of pentoxifylline on liver regeneration after portal vein ligation in rats.

AIM: To determine the effects of pentoxifylline, a methyl xanthine derivative on hepatic cell production of uninterferred lobe after portal vein branch ligation. METHODS: Sixty-six rats were randomly allocated into 9 groups with 8 rats in PVL groups and 6 rats in sham operation groups. The portal branches of the median and the lateral liver lobes, corresponding to approximately 70% of the liver volume were ligated in the PVL groups. The control group received 0.9% NaCl solution. The rats in the treatment groups received pentoxifylline at the dose of 50 mg/kg/dy. After 1, 2, 4 days of portal vein ligation in both PVL and PVNL lobes the levels of adenine nucleotides were determined and flowcytometric analysis of cell cycles were performed. RESULTS: On the first day of portal branch ligation energy charge was significantly lower, in pentoxifylline treated group comparing to pentoxifylline untreated group, both in PVL and PVNL lobes (P<0.05). Proliferative indexes were 0.38 and 0.29 in pentoxifylline treated and pentoxifylline untreated PVNL lobes respectively (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Pentoxifylline treatment resulted in an increase of percentage of calls entering mitosis phase on the first day after PVL, somehow accelerating the regeneration process.     

Lupus vulgaris in a pediatric patient: a clinicohistopathological diagnosis

Lupus vulgaris is the most common form of cutaneous tuberculosis which usually occurs in patients previously sensitized to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We present a case of a 10-year-old boy who was diagnosed as lupus vulgaris clinically and histopathologically. He had well demarcated, irregularly bordered, pink, infiltrated plaques on his left cheek showing apple-jelly appearance on diascopy. The histopathological examination showed tuberculoid granulomas with Langhans type giant cells. The Mantoux reactivity was in normal limits, and no acid-fast bacilli was found in the lesion, either by direct stained smears or by culture. The lesions showed marked improvement on anti-tuberculosis treatment. We want to emphasize that histopathological examination has diagnostic value in lupus vulgaris in correlation with clinical appearance, when direct analysis or culture is negative.     

Poor coronary collateral circulation is associated with higher concentrations of soluble adhesion molecules in patients with single-vessel disease

OBJECTIVE: As the endothelium and inflammatory cells play a crucial role in the development of collaterals after a sudden or slowly progressing stenosis of coronary arteries, the levels of soluble endothelial adhesion molecules (CAMs) including vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM-1) intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and E-selectin were compared between patients with poor coronary collaterals and patients with well-developed collaterals. METHODS: In the study, 97 non-diabetic subjects with single-vessel disease were included. Collateral supply to the stenotic coronary artery was determined by angiographic grading system of 0-3 (Rentrop et al. J Am Coll Cardiol 1985; 5:587-592). Serum levels of adhesion molecules were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: Patients were divided into two groups according to the collateral degree (group A: 50 patients with grade 0 and 1; group B: 47 patients with grade 2 and 3 collaterals). The groups were well matched with respect to baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics. Levels of soluble VCAM-1 (mean+/-SEM; 875+/-26.6 versus 742.7+/-35.1 ng/ml; P=0.004), ICAM-1 (322.4+/-12.4 versus 269.4+/-13.3 ng/ml; P=0.005), and E-selectin (43.6+/-2.6 versus 33+/-2.4 ng/ml; P=0.004) were found to be significantly higher in group A in comparison with group B. In addition, when patients were divided into four groups according to the collateral degree, patients with grade 0 collaterals had the highest values and those with grade 3 collaterals had the lowest values for all these molecules. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that poor collateral circulation is associated with increased levels of soluble CAMs in patients with obstructive coronary artery disease. However, further studies are needed to elucidate the exact role of these inflammatory markers in the setting of poor collateral circulation.     

Effects of Oxytocin on Attention to Emotional Faces in Healthy Volunteers and Highly Socially Anxious Males

Background:

Evidence suggests that individuals with social anxiety demonstrate vigilance to social threat, whilst the peptide hormone oxytocin is widely accepted as supporting affiliative behaviour in humans.

Methods:

This study investigated whether oxytocin can affect attentional bias in social anxiety. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, within-group study design, 26 healthy and 16 highly socially anxious (HSA) male volunteers (within the HSA group, 10 were diagnosed with generalized social anxiety disorder) were administered 24 IU of oxytocin or placebo to investigate attentional processing in social anxiety. Attentional bias was assessed using the dot-probe paradigm with angry, fearful, happy and neutral face stimuli.

Results:

In the baseline placebo condition, the HSA group showed greater attentional bias for emotional faces than healthy individuals. Oxytocin reduced the difference between HSA and non-socially anxious individuals in attentional bias for emotional faces. Moreover, it appeared to normalize attentional bias in HSA individuals to levels seen in the healthy population in the baseline condition. The biological mechanisms by which oxytocin may be exerting these effects are discussed.

Conclusions:

These results, coupled with previous research, could indicate a potential therapeutic use of this hormone in treatment for social anxiety.     

Evaluation of the thyroid disorders in children with familial Mediterranean fever

Clinical Rheumatology - Although it is well-known that autoimmune thyroid diseases are more common in most of the autoimmune connective tissue diseases, the relationship between autoinflammatory...     

Pulmonary manifestations of antiphospholipid syndrome: a retrospective analysis of 67 patients

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a systemic autoimmune disorder characterized by arterial and/ or venous thrombosis accompanied by persistently elevated levels of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs). The aim of this study is to evaluate the pulmonary manifestations of APS and compare the levels of aPLs in patients with and without pulmonary involvement. We retrospectively reviewed the files of patients with the diagnosis of APS between October 2010 and May 2017. Demographic data, clinical, radiological and laboratory findings were recorded. The study included 67 patients (56 female/11 male) with a mean age of 39?±?13 years. Pulmonary manifestations such as parenchymal and/or vascular involvement were seen in 12 (17.9%) patients. The patients with and without pulmonary manifestations were not significantly different in terms of age (p?=?0.46), comorbidities (p?=?0.48) and APS duration (p?=?0.66). Acute pulmonary thromboembolism (PE) was determined in 11 (16.4%), alveolar hemorrhage in 2 (3%) patients. Four patients with acute PE (36%) developed chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). One patient developed both CTEPH and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage after acute PE during follow up. Antiphosholipid antibody IgM was highly positive in patients with PE compared to patients without PE (p?=?0.005). Other antibodies and lupus anticoagulant were not significantly different in patients with and without PE. None of the patients were deceased due to pulmonary manifestations of APS. PE was the most common pulmonary manifestation of APS. The development of CTEPH was high among APS patients. Patients with APS should be closely followed for the onset of PE and CTEPH.

     

Myeloid antigen expression provides favorable outcome in patients with adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a single-center study

Between July 1992 and July 2001, 81 patients with de novo adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated according to the German Multicenter Study Group for Adult ALL (GMALL) 01/81 protocol were evaluated in order to analyze the effect of aberrant myeloid antigen expression on prognosis. We observed myeloid antigen aberrant expression in 21 of the adult ALL cases. We did not observe any effect of aberrant myeloid antigen expression on the time to achieve remission, relapse rate, and death rate. After 5 years of follow-up, cumulative disease-free survival of myeloid antigen (My) (+) and My (-) adult ALL patients was 67% and 43%, respectively. These data were not found to be statistically significant (P=0.29), but we did find a statistically significant difference in overall survivals between these two groups (85% vs 50%) (P=0.05). Twenty-nine patients died and the remaining 52 patients were followed for a median of 31 months. We could not find any special effect of the known prognostic factors on prediction of relapse in multivariate analysis. However, myeloid antigen expression was the most significant factor, which affected long-term survival in our patients (P=0.01). These data indicate that myeloid antigen expression is useful for predicting a favorable outcome of adult patients with ALL.