Longitudinal Lower Airway Microbial Signatures of Acute Cellular Rejection in Lung Transplantation.

Acute cellular rejection (ACR) after lung transplant is a leading risk factor for chronic lung allograft dysfunction. Prior studies have demonstrated dynamic microbial changes occurring within the allograft and gut that influence local adaptive and innate immune responses. However, the lung microbiome's overall impact on ACR risk remains poorly understood.

Animal models of antimuscle-specific kinase myasthenia.

Antimuscle-specific kinase (anti-MuSK) myasthenia (AMM) differs from antiacetylcholine receptor myasthenia gravis in exhibiting more focal muscle involvement (neck, shoulder, facial, and bulbar muscles) with wasting of the involved, primarily axial, muscles. AMM is not associated with thymic hyperplasia and responds poorly to anticholinesterase treatment. Animal models of AMM have been induced in rabbits, mice, and rats by immunization with purified xenogeneic MuSK ectodomain, and by passive transfer of large quantities of purified serum IgG from AMM patients into mice.

Acute severe animal model of anti-muscle-specific kinase myasthenia: combined postsynaptic and presynaptic changes.

Objectives: To determine the pathogenesis of anti-muscle-specific kinase (MuSK) myasthenia, a newly described severe form of myasthenia gravis associated with MuSK antibodies characterized by focal muscle weakness and wasting and absence of acetylcholine receptor antibodies, and to determine whether antibodies to MuSK, a crucial protein in the formation of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) during development, can induce disease in the mature NMJ. Design, Setting, and

Participants: Lewis rats were immunized with a single injection of a newly discovered splicing variant of MuSK, MuSK 60, which has been demonstrated to be expressed primarily in the mature NMJ. Animals were assessed clinically, serologically, and by repetitive stimulation of the median nerve.

Feline porphyria associated with anemia, severe hepatic disease, and renal calculi.

A 13-year-old, neutered male domestic cat presented with signs of weight loss, anemia, and hepatomegaly. Pathognomonic signs of porphyria were identified. Charcoal-like renal calculi and severe liver changes were observed, neither of which has been previously reported in association with feline porphyria.