David G. Motto, MD, PhD, James A. Williams, MD and Laurence A. Boxer, MD
Background: Chronic childhood autoimmune hemolytic anemia is an uncommon disorder that is associated with significant morbidity. Treatment with high dose steroids, splenectomy and frequent blood transfusions results in a myriad of complications including growth failure, bone demineralization, Cushing’s syndrome, immunosuppression, and transfusional hemosiderosis.
Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of the monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody, rituximab, in treating children with AIHA.
Methods: Four children with chronic AIHA, including two with prior splenectomy, who were dependent on high dose steroids and refractory to other immunosuppressive regimens were treated with four to six weekly doses of rituximab at a dose of 375 mg/m2.
Results: All four patients became transfusion-independent and were taken off prednisone completely. Adverse effects included infusion-related reactions that were mild, and infectious complications of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and varicella pneumonia.
Conclusions: Treatment with rituximab appears promising for refractory AIHA; it may obviate the need for prednisone and may result in sustained disease remissions in some patients.
Shifra Sela, PhD, Revital Shurtz-Swirski, PhD, Jamal Awad, MD, Galina Shapiro, MSc, Lubna Nasser, MSc, Shaul M. Shasha, MD and Batya Kristal, MD
Background: Cigarette smoking is a well-known risk factor for the development of endothelial dysfunction and the progression of atherosclerosis. Oxidative stress and inflammation have recently been implicated in endothelial dysfunction.
Objectives: To assess the concomitant contribution of polymorphonuclear leukocytes to systemic oxidative stress and inflammation in cigarette smokers.
Methods: The study group comprised 41 chronic cigarette-smoking, otherwise healthy males aged 45.0 ± 11.5 (range 31–67 years) and 41 male non-smokers aged 42.6 ± 11.3 (range 31–65) who served as the control group. The potential generation of oxidative stress was assessed by measuring the rate of superoxide release from separated, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate-stimulated PMNL and by plasma levels of reduced (GSH) and oxidized (GSSG) glutathione. Inflammation was estimated indirectly by: a) determining the in vitro survival of PMNL, reflecting cell necrosis; b) in vivo peripheral PMNL counts, reflecting cell recruitment; and c) plasma alkaline phosphatase levels, indicating PMNL activation and degranulation.
Results: PMA-stimulated PMNL from cigarette smokers released superoxide at a faster rate than PMNL from the controls. Smokers had decreased plasma GSH and elevated GSSG levels. In vitro incubation of control and smokers' PMNL in sera of smokers caused necrosis, while control sera improved smoker PMNL survival. Smokers' PMNL counts, although in the normal range, were significantly higher than those of controls. Plasma ALP levels in smokers were significantly higher than in controls and correlated positively with superoxide release and PMNL counts.
Conclusions: Our study shows that PMNL in smokers are primed in vivo, contributing concomitantly to systemic oxidative stress and inflammation that predispose smokers to endothelial dysfunction, and explains in part the accelerated atherosclerosis found in smokers.
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PMNL = polymorphonuclear leukocytes
PMA = phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate
GSH = reduced glutathione
GSSG = oxidized glutathione
ALP = alkaline phosphatase
Peter C. Harpel, MD and Nasreen S. Haque, PhD
Chemokines and their receptors play regulatory roles in inflammatory reactions. Lipoprotein(a) is an atherogenic lipoprotein, however the mechanisms of its actions are not defined. Our interest in chemokines and their receptors was stimulated by the finding that incubation of Lp(a) with human umbilical vein endothelial cells produced a conditioned medium that was chemotactic for human monocytes. Since infiltration of monocytes into the vessel wall is an early lesion in atherosclerosis, this finding provided a novel mechanism to explain the relationship between Lp(a) and atherosclerosis. The chemoattractant produced by HUVEC was identified as CCL1/I-309, a CC chemokine previously reported to be secreted by stimulated monocytes/macrophages and T lymphocytes. CCR8, the CCL1 receptor, was identified on endothelial cells, and CCL1 was found to be a chemoattractant for these cells. Most recently we demonstrated functional CCR8 on human vascular smooth muscle cells and found that the Lp(a)-HUVEC conditioned medium is a chemoattractant for these cells. CCL1 increased metalloproteinase-2 production by HUVEC, an activity that enables these cells to remodel the vascular matrix. These studies suggest that CCR8 may play an important role in arterial wall pathology.
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Lp(a) = lipoprotein(a)
HUVEC = human umbilical vein endothelial cells
Philip Vaughan, MBBS, Jeremy Gardner, MBBS, Francesca Peters, MBBS, MRCP and Rosalind Wilmott, RGN
Tomas Ganz, PhD, MD
Systemic infection or inflammation causes a decrease in intestinal iron absorption and impairs the release of recycled iron from macrophages. Decreased availability of iron may deny this essential element to invading pathogens and may inhibit their multiplication and other metabolic processes but also results in anemia of chronic disease. This article reviews recent discoveries that shed light on the regulation of iron metabolism during infection and iron overload, and point to the central role of a newly discovered peptide, hepcidin. Evidence to date indicates that hepcidin is a negative regulator of intestinal iron absorption, placental iron transport, and the release of iron from macrophages that recycle iron from senescent red cells. It may also be the central mediator of iron sequestration during infections and inflammatory states and the mediator of anemia of chronic disease. Rapid progress in this area is a good example of the beneficial effects of improvements in peptide analysis and chemistry, advances in genomics, and the increasing use of transgenic mice to determine the function of newly discovered genes and proteins.
Liat Nadav, MD, Benjamin Geiger, PhD and Ben-Zion Katz, PhD
Arnon Blum, MD, Julia Sheiman, MD and Yonathan Hasin, MD
Joseph D. Rosenblatt, MD, Seung-Uon Shin, PhD, Hovav Nechustan, MD, PhD, Kyung Hee Yi, BSc and Khaled Tolba, MD
Pesach. J. Shteper, MSc and Dina Ben-Yehuda, MD
Jacob Cohen, MSc, Lia Supino-Rosin, MSc, Eran Barzilay, BSc, Ronit Eisen-Lev, DMD, Moshe Mittelman, MD and Drorit Neumann, PhD
Martin H. Ellis, MD and Rivka Zissin, MD