Myocardial homing and coronary endothelial function after autologous blood CD34+ progenitor cells intracoronary injection in the chronic phase of myocardial infarction.

Transcoronary transplantation of progenitor cells has been proposed as a novel therapy for ischemic heart failure. The primary aims were to assess the feasibility of obtaining CD34+ cells from blood without mobilization in chronic conditions and to compare homing with results reported in acute conditions. We also evaluated the effect of CD34+ on endothelial function.

Early immunosuppression withdrawal after living donor liver transplantation and donor stem cell infusion.

Long-term results of organ transplantation are still limited by serious side effects of immunosuppressive drugs. A major issue, therefore, is to elaborate novel therapeutic protocols allowing withdrawal or minimization of immunosuppressive therapy after transplantation. We report on 3 patients prospectively enrolled in an original protocol designed to promote graft acceptance in living donor liver transplantation, using posttransplant conditioning with high doses of antithymocyte globulin followed by injection of donor-derived stem cells.

Myocardial homing of nonmobilized peripheral-blood CD34+ cells after intracoronary injection.

Granulocyte--colony-stimulating factor administered for autologous hematopoietic stem cell isolation from blood may favor restenosis in patients implanted after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We therefore tested the isolation of peripheral-blood CD34+ cells without mobilization in six patients with AMI. After large-volume cytapheresis and positive CD34+ cell selection, 3.

A new dendritic cell vaccine generated with interleukin-3 and interferon-beta induces CD8+ T cell responses against NA17-A2 tumor peptide in melanoma patients.

Dendritic cells derived from monocytes cultured in the presence of type I interferon were found to induce efficient T cell responses against tumor antigens in vitro. We vaccinated eight stage III or IV melanoma patients with dendritic cells generated with interferon-beta and interleukin-3, activated by poly I: C, and pulsed with the tumor-specific antigen NA17.A2.

Immunostimulatory properties of human dendritic cells generated using IFN-beta associated either with IL-3 or GM-CSF.

Despite limited clinical efficacy in large trials, dendritic cells (DC)-based immunization has yielded impressive responses in some patients. Key questions remain to be solved in order to optimize this therapeutic vaccine. Among them, the nature of the DC type used and its state of maturation are pivotal.

Immune characterization of clinical grade-dendritic cells generated from cancer patients and genetically modified by an ALVAC vector carrying MAGE minigenes.

Gene delivery into dendritic cells (DC) is most efficiently achieved by viral vectors. Recombinant canarypox viruses (ALVAC) were validated safe and efficient in humans. We aimed firstly to evaluate DC transduction by ALVAC vectors, then to investigate if such infection induced or not the maturation of the DC, and finally to assess the efficiency of ALVAC-MAGE-transduced DC to activate specific CTL clones.

Donor stem cell infusion after non-myeloablative conditioning for tolerance induction to HLA mismatched adult living-donor liver graft.

Background And Aim Of The Study: The induction of transplantation tolerance, defined as the survival of a functioning allograft in the absence of continuing immunosuppressive therapy, would be a major advance. Clinical and experimental data have shown that transplantation tolerance could be induced by pre-transplant myeloconditioning and infusion of donor hematopoietic cells. We investigated the feasibility and safety of a protocol to induce tolerance to HLA mismatched living-donor liver graft by pre-transplant non-myeloablative conditioning followed by donor stem cells (SC) infusion, in patients with advanced liver cancers.

Treatment of osteonecrosis of the femoral head with implantation of autologous bone-marrow cells. A pilot study.

Background: Aseptic nontraumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head is a disorder that can lead to femoral head collapse and the need for total hip replacement. Since osteonecrosis may be a disease of mesenchymal cells or bone cells, the possibility has been raised that bone marrow containing osteogenic precursors implanted into a necrotic lesion of the femoral head may be of benefit in the treatment of this condition. For this reason, we studied the implantation of autologous bone-marrow mononuclear cells in a necrotic lesion of the femoral head to determine the effect on the clinical symptoms and the stage and volume of osteonecrosis.

111In-oxine and 99mTc-HMPAO labelling of antigen-loaded dendritic cells: in vivo imaging and influence on motility and actin content.

In cancer vaccination trials, antigen-loaded dendritic cells (DCs) are usually injected intradermally and are expected to rapidly move to a regional lymph node where antigen presentation should occur. In this study we investigated the influence of indium-111 oxine (111In) and technetium-99m hexamethylpropylene amine oxime (99mTc-HMPAO) labelling on the motility and actin content of antigen-loaded DCs in parallel with in vivo migration in humans. Human autologous monocyte-derived DCs loaded with a tumour antigen were labelled with 111In (0.

Increased production of interleukin-10 and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist after extracorporeal photochemotherapy in chronic graft-versus-host disease.

Background: Mechanisms of action of extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) in graft-versus-host disease are incompletely understood. It has been proposed that phagocytosis of apoptotic bodies by monocytes and macrophages induces their activation, a process that increases production of immunosuppressive cytokines. We analyzed apoptosis and cytokine secretion in an autologous coculture system combining peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) obtained after ex vivo ECP treatment and nonirradiated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC).