Placental drug delivery for treatment of congenital hematopoietic disorders.

Objective: The success of in utero hematopoietic cell transplantation (IUHCTx) hinges on successful conditioning strategies of the host to overcome barriers to engraftment. The "space" barrier is a reflection of a finite number of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) niches within the host. Independent of the number of donor HSCs transplanted, engraftment is frequently low.

Clinical utility of an automated instrument for gram staining single slides.

Gram stains of 87 different clinical samples were prepared by the laboratory's conventional methods (automated or manual) and by a new single-slide-type automated staining instrument, GG&B AGS-1000. Gram stains from either heat- or methanol-fixed slides stained with the new instrument were easy to interpret, and results were essentially the same as those from the methanol-fixed slides prepared as a part of the routine workflow. This instrument is well suited to a rapid-response laboratory where Gram stain requests are commonly received on a stat basis.