Human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) levels inversely correlate with lung function improvement (delta FEV1) in cystic fibrosis patients receiving ivacaftor treatment

Background

We have recently shown that human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) levels correlate with the severity of cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. However, there are no data on how HE4 levels alter in patients receiving CFTR modulating therapy.

Effects of contralateral white noise on click-evoked emissions in normal and sensorineural ears: towards an exploration of the medial olivocochlear system.

The association between contralateral stimulation and evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAEs) allows study of sound-evoked olivocochlear feedback and then of the medial olivocochlear system. A method allowing quantification of sound-evoked olivocochlear feedback is proposed. The feedback is present in almost all normal-hearing subjects, but with great interindividual variability. In sensorineural hearing loss, the feedback is present in 20 out of 21 subjects. One paradoxical clinical case is described with a unilateral increase of EOAE intensity during contralateral stimulation.     

Ovarian autoimmunity and corticotherapy in an in-vitro fertilization attempt

This case report describes a successful pregnancy and deliveryin a woman presenting with ovarian autoimmunity who had previouslybeen involved in two unsuccessful in-vitro fertilization (IVF)attempts. Ten days before a third attempt, she began a regimenof 25 mg per day of prednisolone which was continued throughoutthe whole IVF protocol. Ovulation was induced by human menopausalgonadotrophin. After administration of 5000 IU of human chorionicgonadotrophin, 18 oocytes were collected. At 48 h after inseminationwith the patient's husband's spermatozoa, four 4-cell pre-embryoswere transferred. A singleton pregnancy developed and led tothe birth of a girl who is doing well 10 months later.     

Value of immunologic phenotyping of acute leukemias in children

Immunologic typing has demonstrated considerable heterogeneity among the acute leukemias. The most significant recent advance has been development of monoclonal antibody techniques. Some markers identified using these techniques seem to be specific for a given stage of maturation of one lymphoid or myeloid cell line. Most acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALLs) are malignant proliferations whose differentiation appears to have become 'stuck' at one stage of maturation. Results of immunologic typing correlate well with the other clinical and biological data. For prognostic purposes, several patterns can be identified. Among B line ALLs, four varieties have been differentiated, i.e., CD10 negative ALLs, common ALLs, pre-B ALLs, and B ALLs. T ALLs include a broad spectrum of heterogeneous proliferations whose immunologic classification is made difficult by the large number of phenotypes encountered. Among acute myeloblastic leukemias (AMLs), some highly undifferentiated forms have been recognized, by means of immunologic typing, as originating in one of the myeloid cell lines. However, the nosologic and prognostic significance of these studies is less obvious than in ALLs.     

Copolymerization of 5-norbornen-2-yl acetate with cycloalkenes by the metathesis catalyst WCl6/(CH3)4Sn

Ring-opening metathesis copolymerization of 5-norbornen-2-yl

1 System. name: bicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-en-2-yl.

acetate (NBEAc; 80% endo) with cyclooctene (COE) and norbornene

2 System. name: bicyclo[2.2.1]hept-2-ene.

(NBE) was studied using WCl₆/(CH₃)₄Sn as catalytic system. The copolymerization parameters (r₁ = r₂ = 1 for the NBEAc/NBE system and r₁ = 1/r₂ = 132 for the NBEAc/COE system) show that the reactivity of the monomers is not affected by the presence of an ester substituent but that it depends on the structure of the hydrocarbon cycle. Thus the well known inhibition effect of the ester group may be concluded not to lie in the propagation step of the catalytic cycle.     

Anti-HBs Cellular Immune Response in Kidney Recipients before and 4 Months after Transplantation

Patients with renal failure represent a population at risk for hepatitis B, since only 50 to 60% of them develop protective humoral responses after vaccination. As this could be due to an altered regulation of cellular immune responses, the objectives of the present study were to evaluate the proliferative abilities of lymphocytes from patients with chronic renal failure after stimulation in vitro with a mitogen (pokeweed mitogen [PWM]) or HBsAg. In order to differentiate between the immunodeficiency associated with renal failure and that due to immunosuppression posttransplantation, the same subjects were tested before and 4 months after kidney transplantation. The lymphoproliferation assay used was performed by flow cytometry, which is based on sequential analysis of the cell cycle and which allows analysis of cytokine production. Serologically, the group of 36 patients tested comprised 22% nonresponders, 30% poor responders, and 48% responders. Lymphocyte growth was observed for all patients after stimulation with PWM, indicating that these cells had the capacity to proliferate in vitro. The level of lymphoproliferation in response to PWM was significantly reduced after transplantation, yet both before and after transplantation, all serologic nonresponders developed cellular responses to at least two vaccines. No correlation between humoral and cellular responses was shown. Proliferating cells were lymphocytes, which mostly secreted interleukin 4 (IL-4) and IL-10 for the three serologic groups. This study suggests that even when repeated vaccination fails to induce significant antibody levels in patients with renal failure, specific HBs cellular responses develop, and these may prove to be efficient in protecting these patients against hepatitis B.     

Partial purification and characterization of anhydrotetracycline oxygenase of Streptomyces aureofaciens

Anhydrotetracycline oxygenase was purified both by affinity chromatography and by hydrophobic interaction chromatography. Molecular weight of anhydrotetracycline oxygenase was determined to be 115,000 by Sephadex G-200 gel filtration. Using preparative isoelectric focusing the isoelectric point of the enzyme was estimated to be 5.3. The enzyme showed a sensitivity to thiol-specific inhibitors. During the hydrophobic interaction purification step, the activity dropped considerably. Reactivation occurred when a heat treated crude extract was added to the reaction mixture.     

Structural volumetry in NPH diagnostics and treatment—future or dead end?

Neurosurgical Review - To assess automated volumetric analysis as a potential presurgical diagnostic tool or as a method to potentially shed light on normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH)...     

Multiphenotypic acute leukemias: clinicopathologic correlations and response to therapy.

Multiphenotypic acute leukemias (MAL), defined by the coexpression on most blast cells of antigens classically attributed to different lineages, remain a rare event. We isolated a series of 26 such cases from a cohort of 1565 leukemic patients whose cells were immunophenotyped at diagnosis. Markers of B and myeloid lineage (BM) were associated in 16 cases (62%), 3 coexpressed B and T markers (BT), and T-cell and myeloid antigens (TM) were found in 7 (27%). A tumoral syndrome was observed in 69% of the patients, without significant differences between the immunophenotypic subgroups. Median event free survivals in the three immunophenotypic subgroups as defined were respectively 24 months for BM-MAL, 4 months for TM-MAL and 7 months for BT-MAL respectively. The poorer prognosis of TM-MAL was significantly different from that of BM-MAL (p < 0.001). This concurred with the poorer prognosis associated with CD7 expression or absence or CD10, both characteristic features of TM-MAL.