Male sickle cell patients, compensated transpubertal hypogonadism and normal final growth.

Objective: Investigate the gonadal hormonal function in sickle cell individuals.

Context: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with delayed physical and sexual development, and it has been related to both primary testicular failure and hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis abnormalities.

Design: The study of the pituitary gonadotrophin reserve was done evaluating the hormonal levels before and after stimulation by gonadoliberin.

Impaired pubertal development and testicular hormone function in males with sickle cell anemia.

Changes in weight/height ratio, delayed sexual maturation, hypogonadism and impaired fertility have been demonstrated in sickle cell disease (SCD). This study aimed to evaluate the clinical and laboratory views of the Leydig cells function after stimulation with hCG in adults with sickle cell disease. We studied 15 patients with SCD (18 to 40 years; median=27 years old), fourteen homozygous S, and one with SC disease.

CD34-positive cells and their subpopulations characterized by flow cytometry analyses on the bone marrow of healthy allogenic donors.

Context And Objective: Counting and separating hematopoietic stem cells from different sources has importance for research and clinical assays. Our aims here were to characterize and quantify hematopoietic cell populations in marrow donors and to evaluate CD34 expression and relate this to engraftment.

Design And Setting: Cross-sectional study on hematopoietic stem cell assays, using flow cytometry on donor bone marrow samples, for allogenic transplantation patients at two hospitals in São Paulo.

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), p53 and MDM2 expression in Hodgkins disease.

Context And Objective: Tumor cells in Hodgkins disease (HD) express cell proliferation markers that are evaluated according to the oncogenes involved or the expression of their proteins. Correlations between the protein expression grade and clinical data are now important for disease prognosis.

Design And Setting: This was a retrospective analysis on proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), p53 and MDM2 (murine double minute-2) expression using immunohistochemistry, on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues from diagnostic biopsies on 51 patients with HD.

Fludarabine induces apoptosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia--the role of P53, Bcl-2, Bax, Mcl-1, and Bag-1 proteins.

The expression of P53, Bcl-2, Bax, Bag-1, and Mcl-1 proteins in CD5/CD20-positive B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) cells from 30 typical CLL patients was evaluated before and after 48 h of incubation with 10(-6) M fludarabine using multiparametric flow cytometric analysis. Protein expression was correlated with annexin V expression, Rai modified clinical staging, lymphocyte doubling time, and previous treatment. Our main goal was to determine the predictive value of these proteins in CLL cells in terms of disease evolution.