Nutritional aspects in autoimmune diseases undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: overview and recommendations on behalf of the EBMT ADWP and Nurses Group.

Autoimmune diseases (ADs) represent a heterogeneous group of conditions affecting 5-10% of the global population. In recent decades, hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), mainly autologous, has been successfully adopted to treat patients affected by severe/refractory ADs. In this context malnutrition has a detrimental impact on relapse, mortality, infection rate, engraftment, long-term survival, and prolongation of hospitalization.

Mixed lymphocyte reaction in human monoclonal gammopathies.

Ten multiple myeloma (MM) and 5 monoclonal gammopathies of undetermined significance (MGUS) were studied. The mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) proliferative response was of the same order of magnitude in MM and in MGUS as in normal controls. Normal results were obtained when pathological lymphocytes were used as either responding or stimulating cells.

The idiotypic specificities of lymphocytes in human monoclonal gammopathies: analysis with the fluorescence activated cell sorter.

Four monoclonal IgG kappa gammopathies were studied with anti-idiotypic sera and the percentage of lymphocytes bearing such idiotypes was evaluated with a fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS). A large percentage (10-15%) of peripheral lymphocytes bearing receptors with the same idiotypic specificities as the M component was observed in multiple myeloma (MM) and in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), suggesting a malignant origin for both these diseases. Capping-endocytosis and resynthesis experiments showed that these idiotypic receptors were not simply adsorbed on the cell membrane, but actually synthesized by the cells bearing them.