Sleep organization in children with partial refractory epilepsy.

Although it is currently known that sleep can influence epilepsy and epilepsy can influence sleep organization, few data have been published on this mutual interaction concerning the pediatric population. The objective of this study was to verify the eventual presence of sleep alterations in children with partial refractory epilepsy. Seventeen patients with partial refractory epilepsy were submitted to whole-night polysomnography as part of their epilepsy investigation.

Abrogation of surgery-induced decline in circulating dendritic cells by subcutaneous preoperative administration of IL-2 in operable cancer patients.

Surgery-induced immunosuppression is characterized by a decline in lymphocyte count, particularly T lymphocyte number. In addition, preliminary studies have shown that the postoperative period is also characterized by a decline in the number of circulating dendritic cells (DC), whose fundamental anticancer role has been recently demonstrated. Previous studies had already shown that the preoperative injection of IL-2 may completely abrogate surgery-induced lymphocytopenia, whereas its eventual influence on DC system during the perioperative period is still unknown.

Ex vivo pharmacological purging of leukapheresis collections with nitrogen mustard: amifostine pretreatment improves both early and late peripheral blood progenitor cell recovery.

Ex vivo pharmacological purging of bone marrow has been used to eliminate clonogenic tumor cells contaminating the autograft and potentially responsible of relapse. A considerable improvement of pharmacological purging would be achieved only if normal marrow progenitor cells could be selectively protected by the cytotoxicity of these agents. Amifostine (WR-2721; Ethyol), a phosphorylated aminothiol compound, has been shown to have this property both in vivo and in vitro.

Direct demonstration of cytokeratin filaments by electron microscopy in K562 cell lines in liquid culture.

Our previous study suggested the presence of cytokeratins in the supernatant of human K562 erythroleukemic cell line. In this study we confirm, by using an electron microscopy technique, that K562 cells contain typical intermediate tonofilaments with the characteristics of cytokeratins. After variable intervals of liquid culture, K562 cells have been examined for their clonogenic ability by immunostaining and ultrastructural study.

Pharmacologic bone marrow purging: is there any place for etoposide? In vitro comparison with mafosfamide.

Residual leukemic cells in a bone marrow graft may increase the risk of relapse after autotransplantation. We have compared the efficacy of etoposide with that of mafosfamide, which has been used mainly for purging in acute leukemias. First, we examined the effects of VP-16 and ASTA-Z on the normal hematopoietic progenitors and on the erythroleukemic cell K562.

Comparison of two selective media and a membrane filter technique for isolation of Campylobacter species from diarrhoeal stools.

Diarrhoeal stool specimens from 415 patients were examined for Campylobacter spp. by culture on charcoal cefoperazone deoxycholate agar (CCDA), Skirrow medium and Columbia blood agar overlaid with a 0.65 micron pore size membrane filter.