A plant steroid, diosgenin, a new megakaryocytic differentiation inducer of HEL cells.

We investigated the effect of plant steroids 5 alpha-spirosten-3 beta-ol (diosgenin), 5 alpha-spirostan-3 beta-ol (tigogenin) and 5 alpha-spirostan-3 beta-ol-12-one (hecogenin) on the human erythroleukemia cell line (HEL TIB 180) and found that diosgenin addition to HEL cell cultures induces morphological and biochemical changes characteristic for megakaryocyte cells. Diosgenin-treated cells exhibit, at the ultrastructural level, increases in size in cytoplasmic and nuclear complexity. At the biochemical level, we demonstrated that diosgenin-treated HEL cells increased glycoprotein Ib (GpIb) expression as previously described in the megakaryocytic differentiation of HEL cells induced by nanomolar dose phorbol myristate acetate treatment.

[Angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia. Extensive form associated with thrombopenic purpura].

The authors report a case, on a 59-year-old female patient, of angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia (AHE) associated to a thrombopenic purpura (TP) of which the evolution is parallel. The clinical aspect is made of sub-cutaneous nodules of various sizes (1 or 2 cm on an average) and of more superficial, erythematous, sometimes telangiectatic, pseudo-angiomatous nodules. There are (about) 25 nodules, located on the face, the neck, the arms and the thorax, sometimes pruriginous: the rest of the examination is negative excepting axillary and inguinal small size lymph nodes and of a dermographism.

[Specific cutaneous localizations in multiple myeloma and Waldenström's macroglobulinemia. Apropos of 4 cases].

The specific skin locations of multiple myeloma (M. M.) and Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (M.