Complementary Effects of Interleukin-15 and Alpha Interferon Induce Immunity in Hepatitis B Virus Transgenic Mice.

Unlabelled: In chronic hepatitis B (CHB), failure to control hepatitis B virus (HBV) is associated with T cell dysfunction. HBV transgenic mice mirror many features of the human disease, including T cell unresponsiveness, and thus represent an appropriate model in which to test novel therapeutic strategies. To date, the tolerant state of CD8(+) T cells in these animals could be altered only by strong immunogens or by immunization with HBV antigen-pulsed dendritic cells; however, the effectors induced were unable to suppress viral gene expression or replication.

Preclinical activity of the oral proteasome inhibitor MLN9708 in Myeloma bone disease.

Purpose: MLN9708 (ixazomib citrate), which hydrolyzes to pharmacologically active MLN2238 (ixazomib), is a next-generation proteasome inhibitor with demonstrated preclinical and clinical antimyeloma activity, but yet with an unknown effect on myeloma bone disease. Here, we investigated its bone anabolic and antiresorptive effects in the myeloma setting and in comparison with bortezomib in preclinical models.

Experimental Design: The in vitro effect of MLN2238 was tested on osteoclasts and osteoclast precursors from healthy donors and patients with myeloma, and on osteoprogenitors derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells also from both origins.

Usage of adenovirus expressing thymidine kinase mediated hepatocellular damage for enabling mouse liver repopulation with allogenic or xenogenic hepatocytes.

It has been shown that the liver of immunodeficient mice can be efficiently repopulated with human hepatocytes when subjected to chronic hepatocellular damage. Mice with such chimeric livers represent useful reagents for medical and clinical studies. However all previously reported models of humanized livers are difficult to implement as they involve cross-breeding of immunodeficient mice with mice exhibiting genetic alterations causing sustained hepatic injury.

Adiposoft: automated software for the analysis of white adipose tissue cellularity in histological sections.

The accurate estimation of the number and size of cells provides relevant information on the kinetics of growth and the physiological status of a given tissue or organ. Here, we present Adiposoft, a fully automated open-source software for the analysis of white adipose tissue cellularity in histological sections. First, we describe the sequence of image analysis routines implemented by the program.

Standards for medical device communication: X73 PoC-MDC.

When using a number of medical devices from very different manufacturers with different proprietary formats the problem of a lack of interoperability emerges. Connectivity and communications are then limited and the systems and users can not exploit all the possibilities that Information and Communication Technologies offer today. The use and application of standards can be the solution to bring light to this confusion of languages in this Tower of Babel.