Back pain following instillations of BCG for superficial bladder cancer is not a reactive complication: review of 30 Mycobacterium bovis BCG vertebral osteomyelitis cases

Clinical Rheumatology - Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) instillations are used in bladder cancer treatment. Adverse effects can occur. Osteoarticular complications are...     

Allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for myelofibrosis: a report of the Société Française de Greffe de Moelle et de Thérapie Cellulaire (SFGM-TC)

Allogeneic haematopoietic stem‐cell transplantation (HSCT) is the only curative treatment for myelofibrosis. We report an analysis of the Société Française de Greffe de Moelle et de Thérapie Cellulaire (SFGM‐TC) registry including patients with myelofibrosis transplanted between 1997 and 2008. Potential risk factors affecting engraftment, non‐relapse mortality (NRM), overall survival (OS) and progression‐free survival (PFS) were analysed. One hundred and forty‐seven patients, aged 20–68 (median 53) years, diagnosed with primary (53%) or secondary myelofibrosis underwent HSCT; 59% of patients were transplanted from a matched sibling donor. The conditioning regimen was myeloablative in 31% of patients. Ninety percent of the patients engrafted. Factors affecting favourably engraftment were splenectomy before HSCT, human leucocyte antigen (HLA) matched sibling donor, peripheral stem cell use as source of stem cells and absence of pre‐transplant thrombocytopenia. Four‐year OS, PFS and NRM survival were 39% (95%confidence interval [CI]: 31–50), 32% (95%CI: 24–43) and 39% (95%CI 30–48), respectively. Multivariate analysis indicated that HLA‐identical sibling donor, chronic phase disease and splenectomy in men had favourable impact on OS.     

Homology modelling of the major peanut allergen Ara h 2 and surface mapping of IgE-binding epitopes

Three-dimensional models built for the peanut Ara h 2 allergen and other structurally-related 2S albumin allergens of dietary nuts exhibited an overall three-dimensional fold stabilized by disulphide bridges well conserved among all the members of the 2S albumin superfamily. Conformational analysis of the linear IgE-binding epitopes mapped on the molecular surface of Ara h 2 showed no structural homology with the corresponding regions of the walnut Jug r 1, the pecan nut Car i 1 or the Brazil nut Ber e 1 allergens. The absence of epitopic community does not support the allergenic cross-reactivity observed between peanut and walnut or Brazil nut, which presumably depends on other ubiquitous seed storage protein allergens, namely the vicilins. However, the major IgE-binding epitope identified on the molecular surface of the walnut Jug r 1 allergen shared a pronounced structural homology with the corresponding region of the pecan nut Car i 1 allergen. With the exception of peanut, 2S albumins could thus account for the IgE-binding cross-reactivity observed between some other dietary nuts, e.g. walnut and pecan nut.     

Karyotype studies on different strains of Candida molischiana by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis

We used pulsed-field gel electrophoresis to compare the electrophoretic karyotype of a Candida molischiana mutant, de-repressed for -glucosidase production, with a wild-type strain and a reference strain. The chromosomal organization in this mutant yeast was found to be quite different. Hybridization patterns and the relative fluorescence of all bands indicated eight chromosomes in the mutant strain and seven in the other two. All three strains seemed to be haploid, with an estimated genome size of 12 Mb; the -glucosidase gene was on the same chromosome in all of them and the SfiI restriction patterns of this chromosome indicated that it is not affected by the mutation.