Haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for a case with X-linked chronic granulomatous disease.

CGD is a rare primary immunodeficiency with high mortality rates when treated conventionally, especially for the X-chromosome-linked form. HSCT is the only curative therapy for CGD; however, haploidentical transplantation in CGD is rare. Here, we report a case of X-linked CGD treated successfully by haploidentical HSCT. The patient showed a positive result with full donor chimerism, good quality of life, and the absence of recurrent infectious diseases at follow-up (68 months). Thus, haploidentical HSCT may serve as an acceptable treatment approach for patients who have CGD, but no HLA-matched related or unrelated donor.

Ultrasonic frogs show hyperacute phonotaxis to female courtship calls.

Sound communication plays a vital role in frog reproduction, in which vocal advertisement is generally the domain of males. Females are typically silent, but in a few anuran species they can produce a feeble reciprocal call or rapping sounds during courtship. Males of concave-eared torrent frogs (Odorrana tormota) have demonstrated ultrasonic communication capacity. Although females of O. tormota have an unusually well-developed vocal production system, it is unclear whether or not they produce calls or are only passive partners in a communication system dominated by males. Here we show that before ovulation, gravid females of O. tormota emit calls that are distinct from males' advertisement calls, having higher fundamental frequencies and harmonics and shorter call duration. In the field and in a quiet, darkened indoor arena, these female calls evoke vocalizations and extraordinarily precise positive phonotaxis (a localization error of <1 degrees ), rivalling that of vertebrates with the highest localization acuity (barn owls, dolphins, elephants and humans). The localization accuracy of O. tormota is remarkable in light of their small head size (interaural distance of <1 cm), and suggests an additional selective advantage of high-frequency hearing beyond the ability to avoid masking by low-frequency background noise.

Adoptive transfer of cytomegalovirus/Epstein-Barr virus-specific immune effector cells for therapeutic and preventive/preemptive treatment of pediatric allogeneic cell transplant recipients.

SUMMARY: This report describes a safe and effective therapy through adoptive transfer of donor cytomegalovirus (CMV)/Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) immune effector cells. The patients, from 3 to 10 years of age, suffering from hematologic diseases received haploidentical transplantation. All 3 patients developed varying levels of viremia from days 13 to 31 and 2 patients developed CMV-interstitial pneumonitis or interstitial inflammation after transplantation. Tapering down the dose of immunosuppressives together with intensive antivirus therapy and escalated infusions of donor-derived CMV/EBV immune effector cells effectively controlled virus-related diseases. All 3 patients survived and remained CMV/EBV-free 14-16 months after transplantation.

[Two Kinds of HLA-mismatched Allogeneic Hematopoictic Stem Cell Transplantation for Treatment of Hematologic Malignancies].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the safety and effectiveness of HLA-mismatched allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) combined with related haploidentical bone marrow infusion for treatment of hematologic malignancies and to explore the mathod for reduction of aGVHD incidence and clinical significance. METHODS: A total of 30 patients with hematologic malignancies (8 cases of AML, 17 AML, 2 MDS and 3 Mix-AL) received related haploidentical and unrelated HLA-mismatched allo-HSCT combined with related haploidentical bone marrow infusion. Among them 20 cases received related haploidentical transplantation of the first donor, 10 cases received unrelated HLA-mismatched treaplantation. The new conditioning regimen for the patients underwent allo-HSCT consisted of fludarabine, busulfan, Me-CCNU and cyclophosphamide. The drugs for GVHD prophylaxis included cyclosporine A and methotrexate, while mycophenolate mofetil and rabbit anti-T-lymphocyte globulin (ATG) were used. RESULTS: All the patients achieved full engraftment. The median time for neutrophils to reach over 0.5 × 10(9)/L was 14 days (8-26 days), while the median time for platelets to reach over 20 × 10(9)/L was 11.5days (10-24 days). The incidence of I-II grade of aGVHD at 100 d was 22.28% (95% CI 9.9%-34.7%), the incidences of II-IV and III-IV grade of aGVHD were 22.7% (95% CI, 10%-35.4%) and 12.7% (95% CI 6.9%-15.5%) respectively. The incidences of I-II and III-IV cGVHD were 13.3% (95% CI, 1.4%- 26.8%) and 3.3 % (95% CI, 0%-12.2%), one case (3.3%) was in extensive cGVHD. DFS and OS of 2 years were 81.1% (95% CI, 66.0%-96.2%) and 68.2% (95% CI 51.0%-85.4%). CONCLUSION: These data suggest that the incidence of grade II-IV grade of aGVHD in recipients of 2 partially HLA-matched units was lower, co-infusion of haplo-BM and partially matched units in allogeneic transplantation is safe and effective for reducing the incidence of aGVHD and improving the survival in DFS.

[Different effects of illumination with xenon and sulfur lamp on growth and development of cotton plants].

Experiments were carried out with cotton (Gossgpium hirsutum cv. Xuzhou 142) plants to study the effects of illumination with xenon and sulfur lamp on development of cotton plants. The results showed that, compared with xenon lamp, illumination with sulfur lamp inhibited excessive elongation of hypocotyl via promotion of longitudinal elongation of epidermis and cortex cells, increased the numbers of branches, buds and bolls significantly. It suggested that illumination with sulfur lamp rendered cotton photomorphogenesis more favorable to yield formation.

[Differences in plant hormone level of cucumber seedlings grown under sulfur or xenon lamp].

The primary mechanism of growth difference of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) seedlings cultured under sulfur lamp and xenon lamp in a phytotron was investigated. Compared with cucumber seedlings grown under xenon lamp, those under sulfur lamp were shorter, and the cell number in the middle hypocotyls epidermis and cortex of them were more (Fig. 1, Table 1). Endogenous hormone analysis indicates that the content of IAA and GA(3) of seedlings under sulfur lamp were 17% and 24% lower, while ABA content was 31% higher than that under xenon lamp (Fig. 2). Based on these results, it is suggested that the growth difference between cucumber seedlings grown under sulfur lamp and under xenon lamp might be related to the control of endogenous hormones.