0000000000612987
AUTHOR
R. Porcasi
Value of bone marrow biopsy in the diagnosis of essential thrombocythemia.
Background and Objectives. Essential thrombocythemia (ET) is a Philadelphia chromosome-negative chronic myeloproliferative disorder (CMPD) whose diagnosis, according to the Polycythemia Vera Study Group (PVSG) criteria, does not include histopathological data. The new WHO classification of CMPD has supplied new diagnostic guidelines which highlight the value of histopathology and facilitate a more precise differentiation of ET from reactive conditions and other CMPD. Design and Methods. Bone marrow biopsies from 142 adult patients diagnosed with ET according to PVSG criteria were evaluated using the new WHO classification. Megakaryocyte morphology and arrangement, amount of fibrosis and a c…
Pleomorphic adenoma of the lateral nasal wall: case report.
Pleomorphic adenoma is the most common tumour of the salivary glands. However, it is extremely rare for these to originate in the nose and even when they do so, it is most commonly in the nasal septum. It is important to be aware of the paucity of presenting symptoms (nasal obstruction and epistaxis), as the lesion may not be recognized immediately. Growth is generally restricted locally and the tumour is not known to spread to the neighbouring structures. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice. Recurrences and evolution to malignancy are not frequent, but long-term follow-up is recommended. The case is presented of pleomorphic adenoma arising from the lateral wall of the right nasal…
Overexpression of interleukin-23, but not interleukin-17, as an immunologic signature of subclinical intestinal inflammation in ankylosing spondylitis
Objective Subclinical gut inflammation is common in spondylarthritis, but the immunologic abnormalities underlying this process are undefined. Perturbation of the interleukin-23 (IL-23)/Th17 axis has emerged as a fundamental trigger of chronic inflammation. This study was undertaken to investigate the expression and tissue distribution of IL-23/Th17–related molecules in Crohn's disease (CD) and in subclinical gut inflammation in ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods Quantitative gene expression analysis of Th1/Th2 and IL-23/Th17 responses was performed in intestinal biopsy samples obtained from 12 patients with CD, 15 patients with AS, and 13 controls. IL-23 tissue distribution and identific…
P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 as a potential target for humoral immunotherapy of multiple myeloma.
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), successfully adopted in the treatment of several haematological malignancies, have proved almost ineffective in multiple myeloma (MM), because of the lack of an appropriate antigen for targeting and killing MM cells. Here, we demonstrate that PSGL1, the major ligand of P-Selectin, a marker of plasmacytic differentiation expressed at high levels on normal and neoplastic plasma cells, may represent a novel target for mAb-mediated MM immunotherapy. The primary effectors of mAb-induced cell-death, complement-mediated lysis (CDC) and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC), were investigated using U266B1 and LP1 cell-lines as models. Along with immunolo…