[Assessment of clinical competence of medical school graduates in Italy with standardized patients. The opinion of the examinees].

An international collaborative project for the evaluation of clinical competence at the end of the Medical School curriculum using the ECFMG-CSA (Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates--Clinical Skills Assessment) prototype was started in Italy in April 1996. Faculty representatives from Italian Medical Schools and experts from the ECFMG in Philadelphia participated in the Project. The CSA consists of integrated clinical encounters with 10 standardized patients during which the examinee is asked to obtain a focused history, perform a relevant physical examination and communicate initial diagnoses and management plan to the Standardized Patient (SP).

Effect of desferrioxamine and hydroxypyridones on hemopoietic progenitors and neuroectodermal tumor cells.

The iron chelator desferrioxamine (DFO) has been shown to inhibit the proliferation of hemopoietic progenitors and several tumor cell lines. We have compared the in viro hemopoietic inhibitory effect of desferrioxamine (DFO) and hydroxypyridones (HPOs) on hemopoietic progenitors and two human neuroectodermal (NE) tumor cell lines, NB 100 and SKNMC. Both DFO and HPOs showed a direct dose-related inhibitory effect on BFU-E and CFU-GM obtained from purified human non-T MNAC (T-lymphocyte-depleted nonadherent mononuclear cells) and CD34+ cells.

Interleukin 3 stimulates proliferation and triggers endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecule 1 gene activation of human endothelial cells.

Proliferation and functional activation of endothelial cells within a tissue site of inflammation are regulated by humoral factors released by cells, such as T lymphocytes and monocytes, infiltrating the perivascular space. In the present study we investigated the effects of interleukin 3 (IL-3), an activated T lymphocyte-derived cytokine, on cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). Proliferative activity, evaluated both by estimation of the fraction of cells in the S phase and by direct cell count demonstrated that IL-3, at the dose of 25 ng/ml, enhances more than threefold both DNA synthesis and cell proliferation above baseline control conditions.

Modulation of in vitro myelopoiesis by LGL: different effects on early and late progenitor cells.

We describe here the modulatory activity of human peripheral blood natural killer (NK) cells on the growth and differentiation of myeloid progenitor cells at different stages of maturation. NK-enriched cell fractions containing 54 to 75% large granular lymphocytes (LGL) and displaying high levels of NK activity significantly inhibited the growth of late (7 day) granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cells (CFU-GM) from about 50% of normal human bone marrow samples. However, the same fractions strongly enhanced the growth of early (14 day) stem cells from peripheral blood.

Insulin requirement of human leukemic cell lines.

The growth characteristics of human leukemic cell lines in serum supplemented medium and in serum free medium with and without the addition of insulin were investigated. No relation was found between the insulin binding capacity of the cells and their hormone-dependence for growth.