Patient demographics as determinants of where they go for hospitalization, what inpatient care they get, and what they are charged: A national study.

This study focuses on the impact of race, income, age, and gender on hospital charges in the US. The data include 28,133 discharge records for appendectomies from a stratified sample of 4,584 hospitals in the HCUP's (Hospital Cost and Utilization Project) NIS (National Inpatient Sample) database. Results show that race, income, and age were significant determinants of hospital charges.

Operationalizing Integrated Immunization and Family Planning Services in Rural Liberia: Lessons Learned From Evaluating Service Quality and Utilization.

Background: Integration of family planning and immunization services provides an opportunity to meet women's need for postpartum family planning and infants' vaccination needs through client-centered care, while reducing financial and opportunity costs for families. The United States Agency for International Development's Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) supported the Liberia Ministry of Health to scale up integrated family planning and immunization services as part of a broader service delivery and health systems recovery program after the Ebola epidemic.

Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods program evaluation in 22 health facilities in Grand Bassa and Lofa counties.

Antigen-presenting human B cells are expanded in inflammatory conditions.

Traditionally, B cells have been best known for their role as producers of antibodies. However, in recent years, a growing body of evidence has accumulated showing that B cells fulfill a range of other immunologic functions. One of the functions that has attracted increasing attention is the capacity of B cells to induce antigen-specific activation of T cells through presentation of antigens.

CD40-activated B cells induce anti-tumor immunity in vivo.

The introduction of checkpoint inhibitors represents a major advance in cancer immunotherapy. Some studies on checkpoint inhibition demonstrate that combinatorial immunotherapies with secondary drivers of anti-tumor immunity provide beneficial effects for patients that do not show a strong endogenous immune response. CD40-activated B cells (CD40B cells) are potent antigen presenting cells by activating and expanding naïve and memory CD4+ and CD8+ and homing to the secondary lymphoid organs.

OCTET-CY: a phase II study to investigate the efficacy of post-transplant cyclophosphamide as sole graft-versus-host prophylaxis after allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.

Objective: Post-transplant cyclophosphamide is increasingly used as graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) prophylaxis in the setting of bone marrow transplantation. No data have been published on the use of single-agent GvHD prophylaxis with post-transplant cyclophosphamide in the setting of peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT).

Methods: In a phase II trial, 11 patients with myeloma or lymphoma underwent conditioning with fludarabine and busulfan followed by T-replete PBSCT and application of 50 mg/kg/d of cyclophosphamide on day+3 and +4 without other concurrent immunosuppression (IS).

Characterization of tumor-associated B-cell subsets in patients with colorectal cancer.

Purpose: A precise understanding of the mechanisms by which human immune cell subsets affect tumor biology will be critical for successful treatment of cancer using immunotherapeutic approaches. Recent evidence suggests that B cells can both promote and inhibit the development and progression of tumors. The aim of this study was to characterize the composition of the B-cell infiltrates in colorectal cancers (CRC) in order to gain further insight into the role of B cells in CRC.

Murine model of CD40-activation of B cells.

Research on B cells has shown that CD40 activation improves their antigen presentation capacity. When stimulated with interleukin-4 and CD40 ligand (CD40L), human B cells can be expanded without difficulties from small amounts of peripheral blood within 14 days to very large amounts of highly-pure CD40-B cells (>10(9) cells per patient) from healthy donors as well as cancer patients. CD40-B cells express important lymph node homing molecules and can attract T cells in vitro.

Generation of human CD40-activated B cells.

CD40-activated B cells (CD40-B cells) have been identified as an alternative source of immuno-stimulatory antigen-presenting cells (APC) for cancer immunotherapy. Compared to Dendritic cells (DCs), the best characterized APC, CD40-B cells have several distinct biological and technical properties. Similar to DCs, B cells show an increased expression of MHC and co-stimulatory molecules (Fig.

Chemical conjugation of linear and cyclic RGD moieties to a recombinant elastin-mimetic polypeptide--a versatile approach towards bioactive protein hydrogels.

An elastin-mimetic polypeptide, (EMM)(7), with the amino-acid sequence GRDPSS [VPGVG VPGKG VPGVG VPGVG VPGEG VPGIG](7) was used for chemical conjugation of various integrin ligands (RGD peptides) to prepare bioactive hydrogels. The chemical approach involved (1) chemical protection of lysine residues with Fmoc or Boc groups, (2) chemical ligation of a protected linear or cyclic RGD ligand, with or without a hexanoic-acid spacer to the glutamic acid residue, (3) deprotection of the lysine functionalities and the RGD moieties and (4) cross-linking to form a bioactive hydrogel. (1)H NMR spectroscopy was used to quantify the multiple steps in the reaction.