Programmed death-1 pathway in host tissues ameliorates Th17/Th1-mediated experimental chronic graft-versus-host disease.

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a major cause of late death and morbidity after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, but its pathogenesis remains unclear. We investigated the role of the programmed death-1 (PD-1) pathway in chronic GVHD using a well-defined mouse model of B10.D2 (H-2(d)) donor to BALB/c (H-2(d)) recipients.

[Rectal metastasis from lung cancer; report of a case].

A 70-year-old male underwent left pneumonectomy for lung cancer in November 2008. Although he was diagnosed as pT2bN1M0 (stage II B) after the operation, adrenal metastasis was found 8 months later. Positron emission tomography (PET) revealed accumulation in the adrenal gland and rectum.

Synthetic retinoid Am80 ameliorates chronic graft-versus-host disease by down-regulating Th1 and Th17.

Chronic GVHD (cGVHD) is a main cause of late death and morbidity after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, but its pathogenesis remains unclear. We investigated the roles of Th subsets in cGVHD with the use of a well-defined mouse model of cGVHD. In this model, development of cGVHD was associated with up-regulated Th1, Th2, and Th17 responses.

Successful voriconazole treatment of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in a patient with acute biphenotypic leukemia.

A 23-year old woman with acute biphenotypic leukemia (ABL) complained of chest pain with cough, high fever and hemoptysis during induction chemotherapy, although she had been treated with anti-biotics and micafungin. We made a clinical diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) based on a consolidation in the right upper lung field on a chest radiograph as well as a high level of serum beta-D-glucan (with no evidence of tuberculosis and candidiasis). We changed her treatment from micafungin to voriconazole.

Clinical outcomes of unrelated donor umbilical cord blood transplantation for 30 adults with hematological malignancies.

Background: Umbilical cord blood transplantation (CBT) has increasingly been used as a therapeutic option for adult patients for whom allogeneic stem-cell transplantation is not indicated, due to the availability of cord blood. However, myeloablative conditioning regimens are associated with significant mortality, and high relapse rates in reduced-intensity regimens may result in a poor rate of disease-free survival for those with advanced stages of hematological malignancies. Therefore, it remains unknown whether CBT is a truly effective option for such adults with high-risk disease, as well as for those with standard-risk disease.

A newly designed and constructed 20 kHz magnetic field exposure facility for in vivo study.

Exposure to man-made electromagnetic fields has increased over the past century. As a result of exposure to these fields, concerns have been raised regarding the relationship between electromagnetic fields and human health. Interest in the biological and health effects of intermediate frequency (IF) magnetic fields has grown recently because of the increase in public concern.

Construction of a three-dimensional outline of the heart and conduction pathway by means of a 64-channel magnetocardiogram in patients with atrial flutter and fibrillation.

Background: Magnetocardiography (MCG) has the potential for collecting three-dimensional (3D) intracardiac electric information, because the magnetic field is unaffected by the shape of the lungs and torso. In the present study, we report on the generation of a 3D heart outline and conduction pathway by means of a current density map using a 64-channel SQUID system, and an evaluation of its significance in patients with atrial flutter (AFL) and atrial fibrillation (AFIB).

Methods: The subjects consisted of 20 healthy volunteers, and 3 patients with AFL and 4 patients with AFIB.

Long-range EEG phase synchronization during an arithmetic task indexes a coherent cortical network simultaneously measured by fMRI.

An open question lies in whether or not distributed activities in the distant brain regions are integrated into a coherent ensemble for cognitive information processing. Long-range phase synchronization is often observed by scalp EEG measurements during cognitive tasks and is considered to provide a possible neural principle for the functional integration of distributed neural activities. Synchronization could be reflected at the neuron firing level or at the local field potential and could appear in the scalp EEG under certain conditions on neural spatial and temporal coherence.

A long-range cortical network emerging with theta oscillation in a mental task.

Human scalp EEG has demonstrated that global coherence among distant areas increases during cognitive tasks, suggesting that oscillating neural activities work to generate global neuronal assemblies for cognitive functions. The theta oscillation in a frequency range of 4-8 Hz with large amplitudes which emerges during mental tasks around the frontal midline region is called fm theta. If theta oscillation concerns the global neuronal assemblies, fm theta should be associated with regional activities that depend on task conditions.