Efficacy and safety of repeat courses of rituximab treatment in patients with severe refractory juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

Treatment of severe juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) represents a serious challenge. This study investigates the efficacy and safety of repeat courses of rituximab in patients with different forms of JIA refractory to infliximab and standard immunosuppressive therapy. Patients (n = 55; age 2.

Adhesion capacity and integrin expression by dendritic-like cells generated from acute myeloid leukemia blasts by calcium ionophore treatment.

Objective: Dendritic cells (DC) play a key role in initiation of immune responses. In vitro modified acute myeloid leukemia (AML) blasts acquire certain specific features of DC and are suggested as a potential source of anti-leukemia vaccines. AML-DC have been characterized in terms of costimulatory molecule expression and cytokine production.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (CD143) is abundantly expressed by dendritic cells and discriminates human monocyte-derived dendritic cells from acute myeloid leukemia-derived dendritic cells.

Objectives: The pattern of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) expression in dendritic cells (DC) and macrophages derived from normal monocytes vs that in DC derived from acute myeloid leukemia blasts was investigated.

Materials And Methods: ACE expression was quantified by flow cytometry using a set of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed against five different epitopes on the ACE molecule and by enzyme activity measurement.

Results: The binding pattern of a set of anti-ACE mAbs to the surface of blood cells and their progeny, as revealed by FACS, showed lineage and epitope specificity.