Serum interleukin-6 levels during bone marrow transplantation: impact on transplant-related toxicity and engraftment.

The biological properties of IL-6 include the induction of acute phase proteins, stimulation of hematopoietic stem cell growth and thrombopoiesis. Serum levels of IL-6 were closely monitored in 66 patients before and after allogeneic (n = 37), autologous bone marrow transplantation (n = 8) or autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (n = 21). Almost every patient showed elevated IL-6 serum levels during the aplastic phase.

Modulation of leukemic cell growth by tumor necrosis factor: action and expression in myeloid leukemia.

Normal and leukemic bone marrow cells were studied in the presence of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) together with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) or granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in clonogenic assays. Cells of four normal volunteers, three patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, 16 patients with acute non-lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL), and six patients with myelodysplastic disorders were compared. Our results show four patterns of response to TNF in the presence of G-CSF or GM-CSF: (a) increased sensitivity to inhibition by TNF relative to the response of normal bone marrow cells; (b) response indistinguishable from normal bone marrow cells; (c) refractoriness to TNF at all doses; (d) synergistic growth stimulation with both G-CSF and GM-CSF.

[Retinoblastoma gene analysis in a patient with osteosarcoma following previous bilateral retinoblastoma].

In a native osteosarcoma specimen of a patient cured of a bilateral retinoblastoma eight years before we found a homozygous deletion of a 7.5 kb Hind III-fragment within the retinoblastoma gene and a hemizygous deletion of the same fragment in its constitutional cells. In a native osteosarcoma tissue of a lung metastasis of a patient with sporadic osteosarcoma the Rb-gene-analysis did not reveal any deletion within the gene.

[Nightly home artificial respiration in juvenile Pompe's disease with pulmonary hypertension and right cardiac insufficiency].

A 17-year-old girl with type II glycogen storage disease (Pompe's) developed severe right-heart failure as a result of pulmonary hypertension due to, predominantly nocturnal, hypoventilation. At night the partial pressure of oxygen was only 30-50 mmHg, pCO2 70-100 mmHg. After persistent nightly intermittent positive pressure ventilation blood gases as well as electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings have now--after 12 months--become normal and the patient has been completely restored to a normal life.

A variant of the anti-Purkinje cell antibody in a patient with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration.

An anti-Purkinje cell antibody was found in the serum and CSF of a man with adenocarcinoma of the lung and paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration (PCD). This antibody differed from the autoantibodies found in patients with gynecologic cancer and PCD in that it produced a different pattern of Purkinje cell cytoplasmic staining, did not react with PCD antigens in Purkinje cell Western blots, and the antigen had a different species distribution. Unlike the antinuclear antibody found in patients with PCD and small-cell lung carcinoma, the antigen was restricted to the cytoplasm of Purkinje cells.