Pulse corticosteroid therapy for alopecia areata: long-term outcome after 10 years.

Background: Few data are available concerning the efficiency of pulse corticosteroids in alopecia areata (AA).

Objective: Our purpose was to assess the long-term outcomes of patients treated with methylprednisolone bolus.

Methods: This study included 60 patients treated between 1995 and 2000.

Nitrification in biofilters under variable load and low temperature.

The evolution of European legislation has led to the rehabilitation of many wastewater treatment plants, sometimes through the installation of a biological complementary treatment stage. Among these sites, some plants in mountain areas are considering a biofiltration process. The design of such plants, especially for winter, appears to be tricky because of the very low influent temperature, the high performance requested for ammonia removal and the important and short term variations of the influent loads.

Differentiation of eosinophils from cord blood cell precursors: kinetics of Fc epsilon RI and Fc epsilon RII expression.

Expression of Fc epsilonRI and Fc epsilonRII/CD23 was examined by immunocytochemistry and flow cytometry on eosinophils differentiated from human cord blood cells in the presence of human interleukin-3 (rhIL-3), granulocyte/macrophage colony stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF) and interleukin-5 (rhIL-5) and on blood eosinophils purified from normal donors or patients with idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES). On cord blood derived eosinophils, Fc epsilonRI expression started at 1 week of culture and increased to reach a plateau at 3 weeks of culture. Fc epsilonRII/CD23 appeared slightly later, after 2 weeks of culture, and the percentage of Fc epsilonRII/CD23-positive eosinophilic cells increased and stayed in plateau.