Environmental enrichment affects immunity and reduces disease severity in pigs after co-infection, with stronger effects when applied from birth than from weaning.

We investigated whether environmental enrichment applied at different life stages of pigs affects the susceptibility to and severity of disease by studying immune cell functions around weaning and during nursery, the effects of infection in models and using a co-infection model of (PRRSV) followed by an infection. Pigs were either conventionally housed (CCH) or enriched housed throughout life, with enrichment consisting of extra space, rooting materials and co-mingling with another litter before weaning (EEH), or they were switched from conventional to enriched housing at weaning (CEH). Sixty days after birth, ten pigs per treatment were infected with PRRSV followed by an infection eight days later.

Time-restricted versus standard-duration immunosuppression after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: Results of the prospective randomized HOVON-96 trial.

Cyclosporine A combined with mycophenolate mofetil (CsA/MMF) has become an established regimen for the prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) following non-myeloablative (NMA) allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT). However, the optimal duration of immunosuppression (IS) has not yet been defined and overtreatment is of concern. We hypothesized that time-restricted IS with CsA/MMF would increase the proportion of patients with non-severe GVHD compared to standard-duration IS, thereby resulting in reduction of the relapse rate and improvement of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).

Loss of taxonomic and functional diversity and decrease in primary productivity with nitrogen enrichment after a long-term release from grazing in an alpine grassland.

Moderate grazing can sustain high species diversity and productivity. However, nitrogen enrichment often reduces species richness while promoting primary productivity, which contradicts the traditional understanding of the positive effect of plant diversity on productivity. Whether the responses of diversity and productivity to N enrichment on a long-term scale conform to those on short-term scale.