Variability in Retronasal Odor Identification Among Patients With Chronic Rhinosinusitis.

Background Retronasal olfaction is important in flavor detection and enjoyment. The ability to identify specific individual retronasal odors may play a role in quality of life for patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Objective To identify patterns and improve understanding of retronasal identification of individual odors in CRS patients.

Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor reactivates human cytomegalovirus in a latently infected humanized mouse model.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in organ transplant recipients. The use of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized stem cells from HCMV seropositive donors is suggested to double the risk of late-onset HCMV disease and chronic graft-versus-host disease in recipients when compared to conventional bone marrow transplantation with HCMV seropositive donors, although the etiology of the increased risk is unknown. To understand mechanisms of HCMV transmission in patients receiving G-CSF-mobilized blood products, we generated a NOD-scid IL2Rγ(c)(null)-humanized mouse model in which HCMV establishes latent infection in human hematopoietic cells.

Antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis prevents vaginal transmission of HIV-1 in humanized BLT mice.

Background: Worldwide, vaginal transmission now accounts for more than half of newly acquired HIV-1 infections. Despite the urgency to develop and implement novel approaches capable of preventing HIV transmission, this process has been hindered by the lack of adequate small animal models for preclinical efficacy and safety testing. Given the importance of this route of transmission, we investigated the susceptibility of humanized mice to intravaginal HIV-1 infection.

Intrarectal transmission, systemic infection, and CD4+ T cell depletion in humanized mice infected with HIV-1.

Intrarectal infection between men who have sex with men represents a predominant form of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission in developed countries. Currently there are no adequate small animal models that recapitulate intrarectal HIV transmission. Here we demonstrate that human lymphocytes generated in situ from hematopoietic stem cells reconstitute the gastrointestinal tract of humanized mice with human CD4(+) T cells rendering them susceptible to intrarectal HIV transmission.

Humanized mice mount specific adaptive and innate immune responses to EBV and TSST-1.

Here we show that transplantation of autologous human hematopoietic fetal liver CD34+ cells into NOD/SCID mice previously implanted with human fetal thymic and liver tissues results in long-term, systemic human T-cell homeostasis. In addition, these mice show systemic repopulation with human B cells, monocytes and macrophages, and dendritic cells (DCs). T cells in these mice generate human major histocompatibility complex class I- and class II-restricted adaptive immune responses to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and are activated by human DCs to mount a potent T-cell immune response to superantigens.