[HLA DRB1*, DQB1*, DPA1*, and DPB1* and their association with the pathogenesis of leukemia in the population of Venezuela].

Background: The HLA complex involved is a factor in the pathogenesis of leukemia.

Objectives: The presence of class II HLA alleles DRB1 *, DQB1 *, DPA1 *, and DPB1 * was evaluated in 47 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 48 with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) for comparison with 48 healthy volunteers in Zulia, Venezuela, and to evaluate potential associations of HLA with leukemia.

Methods: Low- and high-resolution PCR-SSP was used for class II HLA regions DRB1 *, DQB1 *, DPA1 *, and DPB1 * following the instructions of KIT Olerup SSP Genovision.

[Autoreactive TCD8+ lymphocytes in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in association with HLA and adenovirus infection].

Background: A possible interaction between a specific HLA type and Adenovirus has been postulated as a promoter in leukemia clonal evolution. The HLA-DRB1*14, specifically DRB1*14:21, 14:22, 14:45, 14:26, 14:33, 14:51, 14:35 subtypes was the most frequent in CML Venezuelan patients.

Objectives: It is interesting to evaluate the molecular mimicry between the Adenovirus and the DRB1*14 subtypes which exhibit the same change in the amino acid position of the DR53 epitope.

Uncontrolled donation after circulatory death: European practices and recommendations for the development and optimization of an effective programme.

The shortage of organs remains one of the biggest challenges in transplantation. To address this, we are increasingly turning to donation after circulatory death (DCD) donors and now in some countries to uncontrolled DCD donors. We consolidate the knowledge on uncontrolled DCD in Europe and provide recommendations and guidance for the development and optimization of effective uncontrolled DCD programmes.

The global diffusion of organ transplantation: trends, drivers and policy implications.

Rising incomes, the spread of personal insurance, lifestyle factors adding to the burden of illness, ageing populations, globalization and skills transfer within the medical community have increased worldwide demand for organ transplantation. The Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation, which was built in response to World Health Assembly resolution WHA57.18, has conducted ongoing documentation of global transplantation activities since 2007.

Expression of BMPRIA on human thymic NK cell precursors: role of BMP signaling in intrathymic NK cell development.

The bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway regulates survival, proliferation, and differentiation of several cell types in multiple tissues, including the thymus. Previous reports have shown that BMP signaling negatively regulates T-cell development. Here, we study the subpopulation of early human intrathymic progenitors expressing the type IA BMP receptor (BMPRIA) and provide evidence that CD34(+)CD1a(-)BMPRIA(+) precursor cells mostly express surface cell markers and transcription factors typically associated with NK cell lineage.

[Evaluation and maintenance of the lung donor].

Spain has a rate of 34.4 donors per million population, making it the country with the highest rate of organ donation all over the world. In spite of these values, need of lungs for transplantation is always greater than the number of organs obtained.

Results of clinical lung transplant from uncontrolled non-heart-beating donors.

Background: The scarcity of grafts for lung transplant and the growing number of candidates expecting an organ has led to an increase of deaths in patients waiting for lung transplantation. Non-heart-beating donors (NHBD) represent a promising source of grafts for those who are involved in clinical lung transplantation. We present the results of our series of 17 out-of-hospital NHBD lung transplantations performed since 2002.

Victims of cardiac arrest occurring outside the hospital: a source of transplantable kidneys.

Background: The use of non-heart-beating donors could help shorten the list of patients who are waiting for a kidney transplant. Several reports describe acceptable results of transplantations from non-heart-beating donors who had in-hospital cardiac arrest, but few reports describe results of transplantations from non-heart-beating donors who had cardiac arrest that occurred outside of the hospital (Maastricht type I and type II donors).

Objective: To compare graft survival rates among patients receiving kidneys from heart-beating donors versus type I or type II non-heart-beating donors.

Lung transplantation from out-of-hospital non-heart-beating lung donors. one-year experience and results.

There is currently no method for preservation and functional evaluation of clinical out-of-hospital non-heart-beating lung donors (NHBLD) that can be applied practically and systematically in clinical lung transplantation programs. A new method of preservation and functional evaluation of the lung has been developed in NHBLD that is based on the knowledge of various experimental studies. Initially, the viability of lungs harvested this way was proved from preliminary functional and histologic tests.

Does donor brain death influence acute vascular rejection in the kidney transplant?

Background: There is increasing experimental evidence to suggest that donor brain death enhances susceptibility to early inflammatory responses such as acute rejection in the kidney transplant. The aim of the present study was to establish whether the injury induced or aggravated by donor brain death could exert an effect on recipient immunologic tolerance by comparing data from patients receiving a kidney from non-heart-beating donors (NHBD) or from brain-dead donors (BDD).

Methods: We reviewed data corresponding to 372 renal transplants performed from January 1996 to May 2002.

[Inflammation mediators (C reactive protein) in children with proteic-energetic malnutrition and in eutrophic children].

A multicentrical clinical study was designed with the purpose of measuring C-reactive protein (CRP) in normal and malnourished children, with and without infection. Blood samples were collected without anticoagulant from 109 venezuelan children, between the ages of 6 months and 6 years. The statistical analysis was carried out using the t Student and ANOVA.

Increasing the donor pool using en bloc pediatric kidneys for transplant.

Objectives: En bloc pediatric kidney transplants (EBPKT) are still a subject of controversy. The aim of this study was to determine whether acceptable long-term graft survival and function can be achieved in EBPKT compared with the transplant of single, cadaveric, adult donor kidneys.

Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of 66 recipients of en bloc kidneys from cadaveric pediatric donors and 434 patients who underwent transplantation with a single kidney from an adult donor between January 1990 and May 2002 at the authors' hospital.