Bilateral optic neuropathy with IgGkappa multiple myeloma improved after myeloablative chemotherapy.

A 49-year-old woman with immunoglobulin GK multiple myeloma developed progressive visual loss with bilateral upper and lower central arcuate scotomas. Funduscopic and electrophysiologic studies indicated bilateral optic neuropathy. The immunoglobulin G fraction of the patient's serum reacted with retinal ganglionic cells in bovine retina. The visual abnormalities remitted after myeloablative chemotherapy and disappearance of the paraprotein.

Inhibition of proliferation and induction of differentiation in medulloblastoma- and astrocytoma-derived cell lines with phenylacetate.

The authors investigated the effects of a nontoxic differentiation inducer, phenylacetate (PA), on neuroectodermal tumor-derived cell lines. Treatment of medulloblastoma (Daoy and D283 MED) and glioma (U-251MG, C6, and RG2) cell lines resulted in a dose-dependent decline in DNA synthesis and cell proliferation, associated with accumulation in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle. Phenylacetate decreased transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta 2 production by medulloblastoma Daoy cells. Neutralizing antibodies against either TGF beta 2 or TGF beta 1 failed to block the growth arrest observed. This suggests that, unlike other differentiation agents, such as retinoic acid, the effect of PA on medulloblastoma proliferation is not mediated by a TGF beta pathway. In addition to cytostasis, PA induced marked morphological changes in U-251MG and C6 glioma cells associated with increased abundance of glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive processes. Although the morphology of PA-treated medulloblastoma cells was not significantly altered, the D283 MED cells exhibited increased expression of neurofilament proteins and Hu antigen, indicative of differentiation along a neuronal pathway. The effects of PA on the medulloblastoma cell lines were compared to its effects on the human neuroblastoma cell line BE(2)C, which is capable of a bidirectional differentiation toward a neuronal or a glial/schwann cell pathway. In BE(2)C cells, PA induced differentiation toward a schwann/glial cell-like phenotype, suggesting that the choice of differentiation pathway is cell type and agent specific. These in vitro antiproliferative and differentiation inducing effects of PA suggest that this agent warrants further evaluation as a potential therapeutic modality for the treatment of medulloblastoma and malignant glioma in humans.

Anti-histone antibodies in subacute sensory neuropathy.

We investigated the levels of anti-histone antibodies in the sera of 7 patients with subacute sensory neuropathy. IgG antibodies to histones H1 and H3 were significantly elevated in 4 of these patients. The anti-H1 antibodies reacted mainly with determinants located in the central globular and the carboxy-terminal domain of the H1 molecule. We also observed reactivity of these sera with histone H1 zero, a variant found in terminally-differentiated cells such as neurons. This study suggests a potential for histones to serve as autoantigens in humorally-mediated paraneoplastic diseases.

Alterations in cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase activities during differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells.

3T3-L1 cells contain multiple forms of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase in both supernatant (100,000 X g, 40 min) and particulate fractions. Supernatant fractions from both undifferentiated and differentiated cells contained calmodulin-sensitive activity. In undifferentiated 3T3-L1 cells, only a small fraction of the total cAMP phosphodiesterase activity was found in the particulate fraction and the specific activity of the particulate was lower than the supernatant. With differentiation the specific activity of the particulate doubled, and there was a dramatic increase in total activity in this fraction, while in the supernatant total cAMP phosphodiesterase activity increased less and specific activity decreased. The particulate fraction accounted for approximately 70% of the total cAMP phosphodiesterase activity in differentiated cells in contrast to about one-third in undifferentiated cells. In addition, there was a qualitative change in particulate phosphodiesterase activity. In fractions from 3T3-L1 adipocytes, with either cAMP or cGMP as substrate, Lineweaver-Burk plots were nonlinear, with low Km components of less than 1 microM, and cGMP inhibited cAMP hydrolysis. In particulate fractions from undifferentiated cells, cGMP did not inhibit and often enhanced hydrolysis of cAMP. With differentiation, there was also a marked increase in particulate cGMP phosphodiesterase activity. cAMP and cGMP phosphodiesterase activities solubilized from particulate fraction of differentiated cells coeluted from DEAE-Biogel and exhibited kinetic properties similar to the crude particulate fractions. During differentiation, there seems to be an alteration in the distribution of phosphodiesterase activity as well as the appearance of a particulate phosphodiesterase with kinetic properties similar to a particulate phosphodiesterase found in mature rat adipocytes.