Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberance with a unique appearance mimicking neurofibroma arising from a conventional area.

A 21 year-old Japanese man had a rapidly growing pedunculated soft tumor in the abdomen within the past year, the base of which had persisted for 17 years. A skin biopsy of the soft part resembled neurofibroma. However, the excised specimen showed that the tumor base comprised spindle cells arranged in a storiform fashion and expanded around fat cells with a honeycomb infiltration.

A case of incidentally detected IgG4-related sclerosing disease involving inflammatory abdominal aortic aneurysm and autoimmune pancreatitis.

A 59-year-old asymptomatic man was incidentally found to have a periaortic mass and an elevated serum amylase level during his medical check-up. Additional findings, such as infiltration of immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4)-producing plasma cells in the mass lesion, elevation of serum IgG4 (1000 mg/dl), and pancreatic duct narrowing as evidenced on a magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography scan, confirmed the diagnosis as retroperitoneal fibrosis complicated with autoimmune pancreatitis. The patient responded favorably to steroid treatment before the appearance of symptoms.

Acute idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura complicated with diffuse alveolar hemorrhage in an elderly patient.

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a hemorrhagic disease that often occurs in the elderly. It generally presents as a chronic disease with insidious onset, and is frequently resistant to various therapies. Compared to patients less than 40 years old, those older than 60 years tend to show a higher rate of ITP-related mortality.

The novel murine CD4+CD8+ thymocyte cell line exhibits lineage commitment into both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells by altering the intensity and the duration of anti-CD3 stimulation in vitro.

A CD4(+)CD8(+) double-positive thymocyte cell line, 257-20-109 was established from BALB/c mice thymocytes and used to analyze the requirements to induce CD4 or CD8 single-positive (SP) T cells. CD4SP cells were induced from 257-20-109 cells by anti-CD3 stimulation in the presence of the FcR-positive macrophage cell line, P388D1. During stimulation, maturation events, such as the down-regulation of CD24 and the up-regulation of CD69, H-2D(d), CD5, and Bcl-2, were recognized.

Age-related change in thymic T-cell development is associated with genetic loci on mouse chromosomes 1, 3, and 11.

Age-related decline in thymic T-cell development in 22-month-old C57BL/6J X DBA/2J (BXD) recombinant inbred strains of mice was functionally and phenotypically analyzed and genetically mapped. There was a positive correlation of the concanavalin A (Con A)-induced thymocyte proliferative response with the capability of thymocytes to mature to the CD4(+)CD8(+) stage. The accumulation of CD4(-)CD8(-) stage of thymocytes in 22-month-old BXD mice was further identified to be associated with a developmental block between the CD25(-)CD44(+) and the CD25(+)CD44(+) stages.