A new nonisotopic, highly sensitive assay for the measurement of human placental growth hormone: development and clinical implications.

Human placental GH (hGH-V) is a variant of pituitary hGH (hGH-N) synthesized and secreted by syncytiotrophoblasts during pregnancy. It differs from hGH-V by only 13 amino acid residues, which makes difficult a specific measurement of hGH-V without interference from hGH-N. To overcome the analytical difficulties, we produced new high affinity monoclonal antibodies specific for hGH-V.

Selection of CD34-Positive Blood Cells for Allogeneic Transplantation: Approaches to Optimize D34-Cell Recovery, Purity, Viability, and T-cell Depletion.

BACKGROUND: Methods for clinical-scale selection of CD34-positive hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells have facilitated allogeneic transplants using HLA-mismatched healthy donors. We examined different approaches to purify mobilized CD34+ cells, focusing on yield, purity, and viability of the selected cells and T-cell depletion levels. METHODS: Sixty-seven CD34-positive selections were performed for a total of 37 allogeneic transplantations, 23 of which from HLA-haploidentical donors.

The bradykinin B2-receptor in human decidua.

Bacterial infection of the amniotic cavity is one of the most frequent causes of preterm delivery. Bacterial products activate a network of autocrine and paracrine mediators in fetal membranes and decidua, with prostaglandins finally inducing contractions of the myometrium. Bradykinin and its B2-receptor (B2R) seem to be part of this network.

Induction of the bradykinin B2-receptor, but not of the bradykinin B1-receptor, by interleukin-1beta in cultivated human decidua-derived cells.

Aspects of the pathophysiological steps leading to preterm labor after intrauterine infection can be studied in a cell culture model of decidua-derived cells. In this model, bradykinin (BK) increases the release of arachidonic acid (AA), the precursor of labor-promoting prostaglandins. The release is more than additively increased when cells are pretreated with interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta).

CD99 (MIC2) expression in paediatric B-lineage leukaemia/lymphoma reflects maturation-associated patterns of normal B-lymphopoiesis.

We have recently shown that CD99 (MIC2) is differentially expressed during normal early B-cell development in the bone marrow (BM). Since immature B-cell precursors (BCP) are assumed to correspond to some extent to acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) cells with respect to patterns of phenotypic differentiation, we wondered whether the particular maturation-associated expression patterns of CD99 in the normal BCP stages were conserved also in malignant cells. Therefore we compared malignant and physiological B cells from paediatric ALL/NHL and normal BM samples with respect to CD99 expression using selective gating and semi-quantitative flow cytometry.