Becoming a young adult with cerebral palsy.

Aims: This paper aims to describe the functioning profile of a clinical sample of patients with Cerebral Palsy at the time of transition.

Methods And Procedure: For this retrospective observational study, we considered data concerning 389 patients born from 1967 to 1997 with a diagnosis of CP and discharged at the age of 18 ± 3 from "La Nostra Famiglia" Children Care Centres. We reported data concerning: identifiable risk factors, the type of CP, the level of motor, manual and communication abilities, the occurrence of associated impairments and environmental factors, and examine the trends over the decades.

The antigen receptor complex on cord B lymphocytes.

The neonatal immune system responds to a restricted range of antigens, producing largely IgM antibody of low affinity. Comparison of the components of the B-cell antigen receptor complex shows significantly elevated membrane levels of IgM in neonatal B cells, compared with adult cells. CD79, which acts as the signal transducer for membrane immunoglobulin, is elevated in parallel with IgM, while IgD is elevated to a lesser degree.

The Fas antigen (CD95) on human lymphoid cells: epitope analysis with ten antibodies.

The expression of CD95 antigen was examined on adult and cord blood lymphocytes using a highly sensitive immunofluorescence/flow cytometric procedure. CD95 was expressed by the majority of circulating blood T cells in adults, and by a smaller proportion of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in cord blood. The majority of circulating B cells did not react with seven CD95 antibodies, but three antibodies did stain B cells.

Purification of cord blood lymphocytes.

When cord blood is separated using standard methods based on Ficoll-Hypaque, the mononuclear fraction is contaminated with erythrocytes and also with nucleated cells that do not express the leucocyte marker CD45. The contamination with CD45-negative cells can exceed 50%, and will interfere with phenotypic, mRNA or functional analysis. A large proportion of these cells are erythrocyte precursors.

Expression of cytokine receptors by human cord blood lymphocytes: comparison with adult blood lymphocytes.

The expression of receptors for several cytokines (IL 2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-7, tumor necrosis factor, and interferon-gamma) was examined in human cord blood cells in comparison with adult blood cells. A previously described high sensitivity immunofluorescence procedure was used to render the low levels of receptor measurable. Cord blood lymphocytes expressed measurable levels of most cytokine receptors, but expression tended to be lower than in adult blood cells.