Corticosteroids reduce pathological angiogenesis yet compromise reparative vascular remodeling in a model of retinopathy.

Tissue inflammation is often broadly associated with cellular damage, yet sterile inflammation also plays critical roles in beneficial tissue remodeling. In the central nervous system, this is observed through a predominantly innate immune response in retinal vascular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinopathy of prematurity. Here, we set out to elucidate the dynamics of the immune response during progression and regression of pathological neovascularization in retinopathy.

Paraneoplastic Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder: A Rare Case of Advanced Breast Cancer with Intractable Nausea and Vomiting.

BACKGROUND Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that includes the triad of transverse myelitis, optic neuritis, and area postrema syndrome (APS), characterized by intractable nausea and vomiting. NMOSD can be part of a paraneoplastic syndrome and is associated with seropositivity to aquaporin-4 (AQP-4). We present a patient with uncontrollable nausea and vomiting who developed herpes zoster and acute myelitis and was finally diagnosed with paraneoplastic NMOSD due to breast cancer.

Early-life peripheral infections reprogram retinal microglia and aggravate neovascular age-related macular degeneration in later life.

Pathological neovascularization in age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD) drives the principal cause of blindness in the elderly. While there is a robust genetic association between genes of innate immunity and AMD, genome-to-phenome relationships are low, suggesting a critical contribution of environmental triggers of disease. Possible insight comes from the observation that a past history of infection with pathogens such as Chlamydia pneumoniae, or other systemic inflammation, can predispose to nvAMD in later life.

Past history of obesity triggers persistent epigenetic changes in innate immunity and exacerbates neuroinflammation.

Age-related macular degeneration is a prevalent neuroinflammatory condition and a major cause of blindness driven by genetic and environmental factors such as obesity. In diseases of aging, modifiable factors can be compounded over the life span. We report that diet-induced obesity earlier in life triggers persistent reprogramming of the innate immune system, lasting long after normalization of metabolic abnormalities.

MPGN Type 3 Associated with Pemphigus Herpetiformis Mimicking PGNMID and Dermatitis Herpetiformis.

A 45-year-old man suffering from dermal blistering disease with proteinuria and hematuria underwent renal biopsy. The renal biopsy specimen suggested proliferative glomerulonephritis with monoclonal IgG deposits under routine light, immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. The staining for IgG subclasses (IgG1 and IgG2) and κ/λ light chain indicated secondary immune complex type MPGN type 3.

Efficacy and safety of preprandial versus postprandial administration of low-dose cyclosporin microemulsion (Neoral) in patients with psoriasis vulgaris.

A study of therapeutic drug monitoring indicated that cyclosporin administered before meals produces higher blood concentrations than an equivalent dose administered after meals. Our objective was to compare the efficacy of cyclosporin administered before and after meals, respectively, in psoriasis vulgaris patients. We performed an open trial study.

Induction of therapeutically relevant cytotoxic T lymphocytes in humans by percutaneous peptide immunization.

Percutaneous peptide immunization (PPI) is a simple and noninvasive immunization approach to induce potent CTL responses by peptide delivery via skin with the stratum corneum removed. After such a barrier disruption in human skin, epidermal Langerhans cells, although functionally matured through the up-regulation of HLA expression and costimulatory molecules, were found to emigrate with a reduced number of dendrites. CD8(+) populations binding to MHC-peptide tetramers/pentamers and producing IFN-gamma appeared in the blood after PPI with HLA class I-restricted antigenic peptides.

A case of Epstein-Barr virus-associated natural killer/T-cell lymphoma presenting as dermatomyositis: extranodal relapse after 7 years in remission.

A 56-year-old Japanese man was admitted to our hospital due to a fever of unknown origin. He had had a history of extranodal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type, and had been in complete remission for 7 years until June 2003, when he developed high fever, eyelid swelling, and muscular weakness. Serum creatine kinase levels were elevated.

Necrobiosis lipoidica of the glans penis.

We report a 65-year-old diabetic man with necrobiosis lipoidica occurring on the glans of penis. He was initially seen with chronic ulcerative balanitis that eventually healed with strict control of diabetes mellitus, cystostomy, and pentoxifylline, leaving heavily depressed scars. Penile necrobiotic palisading granulomas include necrobiosis lipoidica and granuloma annulare.

Assessment of epidermal barrier function by photoacoustic spectrometry in relation to its importance in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis.

With the use of the photoacoustic spectrometry system, in which a mixture of lipid- and water-soluble dyes is applied to the skin and then irradiated with light from a xenon lamp (425 nm and 550 nm), we measured photoacoustic signals of both dyes within the stratum corneum and their disappearance rate through the stratum corneum. The signal intensity was higher and dyes penetrated faster in clinically normal skin of patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) compared with healthy subjects, indicating an impairment of the in vivo cutaneous permeability barrier function against both lipophilic and hydrophilic chemicals. Furthermore, penetration rates of the hydrophilic dyes tended to increase in proportion to the severity of AD and significantly correlated with serum IgE levels in the severe AD group.