Stable pediatric kidney transplant recipients run higher urine indoleamine 2, 3 dioxygenase (IDO) levels than healthy children.

Immune cells utilize the IDO enzymatic conversion of trp to kyn to determine T-cell activation vs. anergy/apoptosis. In prior studies, urine IDO levels were higher in rejecting renal allografts than in stable state.

Verification of association of elevated serum IDO enzyme activity with acute rejection and low CD4-ATP levels with infection.

Background: Both acute rejection (AR) and major infection events (MIE) can reduce long-term allograft survival. We assessed the simultaneous efficacy of serum and urine biomarker indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) enzyme activity and peripheral blood CD4-ATP levels for AR and MIE association, respectively.

Methods: We prospectively tested 217 blood and 167 urine serial samples, collected monthly for 12 months after transplantation from 29 consecutive children receiving a kidney transplant.

Immune biomarker panel monitoring utilizing IDO enzyme activity and CD4 ATP levels: prediction of acute rejection vs. viral replication events.

Infections have become as important an event as acute rejection posttransplant for long-term allograft survival. Less invasive biomarkers tested so far predict risk for one event or the other, not both. We prospectively tested blood and urine monthly for 12 months posttransplant from children receiving a kidney transplant.

Multifocal juvenile xanthogranuloma presenting with a hand mass and bilateral vitreous hemorrhage in a neonate.

Purpose: To describe a rare case of multifocal juvenile xanthogranuloma (JXG) in a neonate presenting with a large hand mass, bilateral vitreous hemorrhage, and posterior segment involvement.

Methods: Biopsy of hand lesion led to the diagnosis of JXG. Further systemic workup and ocular examination revealed bilateral vitreous hemorrhage and a small, creamy yellowish subretinal lesion above the fovea in the macula of the left eye.

Spinal and paraspinal Ewing tumors.

Purpose: To perform a review of the 40-year University of Florida experience treating spinal and paraspinal Ewing tumors.

Patients And Methods: A total of 27 patients were treated between 1965 and 2007. For local management, 21 patients were treated with radiotherapy (RT) alone and 6 with surgery plus RT.

Definitive radiotherapy for ewing tumors of extremities and pelvis: long-term disease control, limb function, and treatment toxicity.

Purpose: More than 70% of Ewing tumors occur in the extremities and pelvis. This study identified factors influencing local control and functional outcomes after management with definitive radiotherapy (RT).

Patients And Methods: A total of 75 patients with a localized Ewing tumor of the extremity or pelvis were treated with definitive RT at the University of Florida between 1970 and 2006 (lower extremity tumors in 30, pelvic tumors in 26, and upper extremity tumors in 19).

Impact of local management on long-term outcomes in Ewing tumors of the pelvis and sacral bones: the University of Florida experience.

Purpose: This retrospective analysis describes our 35-year experience with respect to disease control and functional status.

Patients And Methods: Thirty-five patients with localized Ewing tumors of the pelvis and sacral bones were treated from 1970 to 2005. Twenty-six patients were treated with definitive radiotherapy (RT), and 9 patients were treated with combined local therapy in the form of surgery + RT.

Long-term clinical and functional outcomes after treatment for localized Ewing's tumor of the lower extremity.

Purpose: Retrospective review describing the 35-year University of Florida experience with Ewing's tumors of the lower extremity.

Patients And Methods: Fifty-three patients were treated between 1971 and 2006. Thirty patients were treated with radiotherapy (RT) alone and 23 patients were treated with surgery +/- RT.

Distinct and shared transcriptomes are regulated by microphthalmia-associated transcription factor isoforms in mast cells.

The Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (Mitf) is an essential basic helix-loop-helix leucine zipper transcription factor for mast cell development. Mice deficient in Mitf harbor a severe mast cell deficiency, and Mitf-mutant mast cells cultured ex vivo display a number of functional defects. Therefore, an understanding of the genetic program regulated by Mitf may provide important insights into mast cell differentiation.