Association between Gene Polymorphism and High Dose Methotrexate Toxicity in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and Non Hodgkin Malignant Lymphoma: Introducing a Haplotype based Approach.

Background: We investigated the clinical relevance of genetic variability for high dose methotrexate (HD-MTX) related toxicities in children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and non Hodgkin malignant lymphoma (NHML).

Patients And Methods: Eighty-eight children and adolescents with ALL/NHML were investigated for the influence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotypes on HD-MTX induced toxicities.

Results: Patients with rs2838958 TT genotype had higher probability for mucositis development as compared to carriers of at least one rs2838958 C allele (OR 0.

[Prolonged survival of skin allografts in rats by injection of serum or a serum fraction extracted from pregnant rats].

This work report the partial purification of an alpha 2-macroglobulin present in the serum of allopregnant rats. Ultrogel filtration followed by immune absorption on different antisera were used giving a single band on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. This fraction was able to inhibit in vitro T cell cytotoxic response to allogenic cells.

Autoantibodies and the physiological role of immunoglobulins.

In this article Pierre Grabar returns to the proposal he first made 30 years ago that alloreactive and autoreactive antibodies represent a physiological system for disposing of the products of metabolism and catabolism.

[Induction of immune tolerance by free unreactive haptens].

The injection of free non-reactive hapten, before immunization with the same hapten conjugated to one carrier protein, induces specific unresponsiveness to the hapten in Rats. Two haptens have been assayed: dinitrophenyl-Lysine and Arsonate-Tyrosine. In both cases, the Rats responded normally to the carrier but did not respond to the hapten.

[Autoantibodies and immunologic theories].

A hypothesis is put forward to the effect that immunological phenomena represent a particular case of the transport of metabolites, rather than obligatory "defense mechanism". This hypothesis excludes the necessity in additional postulates (forbidden clones, somatic mutations, cells-repressors etc.) to account for the basic immunological phenomena, such as recognition, appearance of autoantibodies and tolerance.