Standardized administration and scoring guidelines for the Spinal Cord Independence Measure Version 3.0 (SCIM-III).

Study Design: Qualitative studies.

Objective: To develop clear and specific administration and scoring procedures for the Spinal Cord Independence Measure Version 3.0 as a performance-based and interview assessment.

Coaching-in-Context With Informal Maternal Care Partners of Children With Spinal Cord Injury.

Background: Coaching-in-Context (CinC) is a conversation-based process for working with people that draws on the tenets of positive psychology, is solution-focused and strength-based, and uses evidence-informed coaching techniques that create opportunities for clients to be at their best when engaging in the roles and activities that are desired, required, or expected of them.

Objectives: To explore the use of CinC with informal maternal care partners (mothers, grandmothers) of children with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Methods: This study was a multicenter, single group, pre-post treatment design.

Personalized medicine for reconstruction of critical-size bone defects - a translational approach with customizable vascularized bone tissue.

Tissue engineering principles allow the generation of functional tissues for biomedical applications. Reconstruction of large-scale bone defects with tissue-engineered bone has still not entered the clinical routine. In the present study, a bone substitute in combination with mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) with or without growth factors BMP-2 and VEGF-A was prevascularized by an arteriovenous (AV) loop and transplanted into a critical-size tibia defect in the sheep model.

Pediatric measure of participation short forms version 2.0: development and evaluation.

Design: Mixed methods cohort study.

Objectives: To develop and assess psychometric properties of the pediatric measure of participation (PMoP) short forms (SF) version 2.0.

Highlighting gaps in spinal cord injury research in activity-based interventions for the upper extremity: A scoping review.

Background: Upper extremity activity-based therapy for neurologic disorders employs high-intensity, high repetition functional training to exploit neuroplasticity and improve function. Research focused on high-intensity upper extremity activity-based therapy for persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) is limited.

Objective: To summarize high-intensity activity-based interventions used in neurological disorders for their current or potential application to SCI.

Tracking Spinal Cord Injury Functional Outcomes Across the Lifespan: Validation of Linking Coefficients.

Objective: Validation of linking coefficients to transform Pediatric Spinal Cord Injury Activity Measure (PEDI-SCI/AM) scores to adult Spinal Cord Injury-Functional Index (SCI-FI) scores.

Design: This cross-sectional study administered PEDI-SCI/AM and SCI-FI computerized adaptive tests (CATs) and short forms (SFs) to children with SCI and parents or caregivers.

Setting: Hospitals, university, and rehabilitation institute.

Activity-based Rehabilitation Interventions of the Neurologically Impaired Upper Extremity: Description of a Scoping Review Protocol.

A scoping review provides a means to synthesize and present a large body of literature on a broad topic, such as methods for various upper extremity activity-based therapy (ABT) interventions. To describe our scoping review protocol to evaluate peer-reviewed articles focused on ABT interventions for individuals with neurologically impaired upper extremities. At Jefferson College of Health Professions and Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Jefferson, Philadelphia, the authors will follow this protocol to conduct a scoping review by establishing a research question and conducting a search of bibliographic databases to identify relevant studies.

Evaluation of the Capabilities of Upper Extremity Test (CUE-T) in Children With Tetraplegia.

The Capabilities of Upper Extremity Test (CUE-T) is a spinal cord injury (SCI)-specific instrument based on the CUE Questionnaire (CUE-Q). To evaluate the psychometric properties of CUE-T in children with cervical SCI and determine the lowest age appropriate for test administration. In this repeated measures multicenter study, 39 youths, mean age 12.

Despite limitations in content range, the SCIM-III is reproducible and a valid indicator of physical function in youths with spinal cord injury and dysfunction.

Study Design: Multi-center, repeated measures OBJECTIVES: Evaluate psychometric properties of the SCIM-III in children.

Setting: Seven facilities in North America METHODS: One-hundred and twenty-seven youths, mean age of 10.8 years and chronic spinal cord injury/dysfunction completed two administrations of the Spinal Cord Independence Measure-III (SCIM-III).

Recommendations for the National Institute for Neurologic Disorders and Stroke spinal cord injury common data elements for children and youth with SCI.

Study Design: In 2014, the adult spinal cord injury (SCI) common data element (CDE) recommendations were made available. This project was a review of the adult SCI CDE for relevance to children and youth with SCI.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to review the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) adult SCI CDEs for relevance to children and youth with SCI.

The Pediatric Measure of Participation (PMoP) short forms.

Study Design: Multi-center cross-sectional cohort study.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to develop and validate short forms (SFs) of participation for child- and parent-reported outcomes following spinal cord injury (SCI).

Setting: Three pediatric orthopedic hospitals in the United States.

Expression of SV2 isoforms during rodent brain development.

Background: SV2A, SV2B and SV2C are synaptic vesicle proteins that are structurally related to members of the major facilitator superfamily (MFS). The function and transported substrate of the SV2 proteins is not clearly defined although they are linked to neurotransmitters release in a presynaptic calcium concentration-dependent manner. SV2A and SV2B exhibit broad expression in the central nervous system while SV2C appears to be more restricted in defined areas such as striatum.

An improved protocol for efficient engraftment in NOD/LTSZ-SCIDIL-2Rγnull mice allows HIV replication and development of anti-HIV immune responses.

Cord blood hematopoietic progenitor cells (CB-HPCs) transplanted immunodeficient NOD/LtsZ-scidIL2Rγ(null) (NSG) and NOD/SCID/IL2Rγ(null) (NOG) mice need efficient human cell engraftment for long-term HIV-1 replication studies. Total body irradiation (TBI) is a classical myeloablation regimen used to improve engraftment levels of human cells in these humanized mice. Some recent reports suggest the use of busulfan as a myeloablation regimen to transplant HPCs in neonatal and adult NSG mice.

Lung interstitial macrophages alter dendritic cell functions to prevent airway allergy in mice.

The respiratory tract is continuously exposed to both innocuous airborne antigens and immunostimulatory molecules of microbial origin, such as LPS. At low concentrations, airborne LPS can induce a lung DC-driven Th2 cell response to harmless inhaled antigens, thereby promoting allergic asthma. However, only a small fraction of people exposed to environmental LPS develop allergic asthma.

Molecular classification of T-cell lymphomas.

T-cell neoplasms encompass a heterogeneous group of relatively rare disease entities. This review, focused on lymphoblastic tumors (T-ALL/LBL) and nodal-based peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL), summarizes recent advances in the molecular characterization of these diseases. In T-ALL/LBL, molecular subgroups delineated by gene expression profiling correlate with leukemic arrest at specific stages of normal thymocyte development and different oncogenic pathways, and seem to be of interest for prognosis prediction.

Cross-reactive T cell responses in HIV CRF01_AE and B'-infected intravenous drug users: implications for superinfection and vaccines.

Abstract We previously observed limited cross-reactive T cell responses in two HIV-1-superinfected injection drug users (IDUs) before superinfection [Ramos A, et al.: J Virol 2002;76(15):7444-7452]. To elucidate the role of such responses in superinfection we examined cross-reactive T cell responses in IDUs infected with a single HIV-1 subtype.

Characterization of an antibody panel for immunohistochemical analysis of canine muscle cells.

Immunohistochemistry is an indispensable tool in the assessment and characterization of lineage-specific differentiation of grafted cells in cell-based-therapy. This strategy is under investigation for the treatment of many muscle disorders and different animals such as dogs are used as models to study the tissue regeneration. The aim of the present study was to characterize an antibody panel for the analysis of canine muscle cells, useful in routinely processed formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues.

The prevention of spontaneous apoptosis of follicular lymphoma B cells by a follicular dendritic cell line: involvement of caspase-3, caspase-8 and c-FLIP.

Background: Follicular lymphoma, the neoplastic counterpart of germinal center B cells, typically recapitulates a follicular architecture. Several observations point to the crucial role of the cellular microenvironment in the development and/or progression of follicular lymphoma cells in vivo. The aim of our study was to characterize the spontaneous apoptosis of follicular lymphoma cells in vitro, and the modulation of this apoptosis by follicular dendritic cells.

TARC and IL-5 expression correlates with tissue eosinophilia in peripheral T-cell lymphomas.

The current study attempts to characterize the eosinophilia associated with T-cell lymphomas and to investigate its possible relationship with the secretion of eosinophil-stimulating factors by lymphoma cells and/or intra-tumoral surrounding cells. Paraffin-embedded specimens from 50 patients diagnosed with peripheral T-cell lymphomas, either unspecified (PTCL-U, n=30) or angioimmunoblastic (AITL, n=20) were morphologically assessed for intra-tumoral eosinophilia and analyzed by immunohistochemistry using specific antibodies directed against TARC, IL-5, RANTES, and eotaxin. The AITL and PTCL-U cases contained a mean of 147+/-41 and 102+/-37 eosinophils per 10 high power fields, respectively.

The gene expression profile of nodal peripheral T-cell lymphoma demonstrates a molecular link between angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) and follicular helper T (TFH) cells.

The molecular alterations underlying the pathogenesis of angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) and peripheral T-cell lymphoma, unspecified (PTCL-u) are largely unknown. In order to characterize the ontogeny and molecular differences between both entities, a series of AITLs (n = 18) and PTCLs-u (n = 16) was analyzed using gene expression profiling. Unsupervised clustering correlated with the pathological classification and with CD30 expression in PTCL-u.

Establishment and characterisation of two novel human KSHV- and EBV-negative Burkitt cell lines, GAL-01 and GAL-02, from a primary lymphomatous effusion.

Objectives: Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) is a highly aggressive mature B-cell neoplasm comprising endemic, sporadic and immunodeficiency-associated variants. Human cell lines constitute a very useful tool to investigate the biology of lymphoid neoplasia. In this study, we succeeded in establishing two human cell lines, GAL-01 and GAL-02, from a HIV-negative patient with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) -negative sporadic BL presenting as an effusion.

Lymphotoxin-beta receptor-dependent genes in lymph node and follicular dendritic cell transcriptomes.

Affinity maturation and Ab class switches occur in lymphoid germinal centers (GCs), in which differentiation and maintenance depend on lymphotoxin (LT) signaling and include differentiation of follicular dendritic cells (FDCs). The events leading to FDC and GC maturation are poorly defined. Using several approaches of functional genomics, we enumerated transcripts affected in mice by suppressing LT beta receptor (LTbetaR) signaling and/or overrepresented in FDC-enriched GC isolates.

Interfaces between dendritic cells, other immune cells, and nerve fibres in mouse Peyer's patches: potential sites for neuroinvasion in prion diseases.

In this study, we examined where immune cells and nerve fibres are located in mouse Peyer's patches, with a view to identifying potential sites for neuroinvasion by prions. Special attention was paid to dendritic cells, viewed as candidate transporters of infectious prion. Double immunofluorescence labellings with anti-CD11c antibody and marker for other immune cells (B cells, T cells, follicular dendritic cells) were carried out and analysed by confocal microscopy on Peyer's patch cryosections.