Epstein-Barr virus infection and related posttransplant lymphoproliferative diseases in pediatric liver transplant recipients

Thèse de doctorat en sciences médicales (pédiatrie) (MED 3) -- UCL, 200

Prevention and treatment for epstein-barr virus infection and related cancers

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was the first herpes virus described as being oncogenic in humans. EBV infection is implicated in post-transplant lymphoproliferative diseases (PTLD) and several other cancers in non-immunocompromised patients, with more than 200,000 new cases per year. While prevention of PTLD is improving, mainly based on EBV monitoring and preemptive tapering of immunosuppression, early diagnosis remains the best current option for the other malignancies. Significant progress has been achieved in treatment, with decreased mortality and morbidity, but some challenges are still to face, especially for the more aggressive diseases. Possible prevention by EBV vaccination would be a more global approach of this public health problem, but further active research is needed before this goal could be reached. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Les traits internationaux devant le Parlement (1945-1955)

Préface de Paul de Visscherinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Durabilité et Soins de Santé: Quels Défis pour le Futur - Editorial

Parce qu’il est dans son ADN d’être tournée vers l’intérêt des générations futures, l’UCLouvain a traduit fermement son engagement en termes de durabilité dans son plan « Transition », résultat d’une démarche de co – construction avec la communauté universitaire et articulé autour de 3 axes : enseignement, recherche, campus durables

PNEUMOPATHIE INTERSTITIELLE DIFFUSE PAR INTOXICATION AU PARAQUAT

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Hepatocyte apoptosis

Apoptosis has been documented as a frequent hurdle phenomenon that occurs in human hepatocytes during isolation, storage, infusion and after engraftment within the recipient liver parenchyma. Apoptosis is an active form of cell death that involves programmed cellular machineries leading to a progressive self-destruction of the cell. In contrary to necrosis, it can affect individual cells within a cell population. It is characterized by chronological alteration of intracellular biochemical signaling pathways followed by cellular morphological changes, DNA fragmentation, perturbation of mitochondrial membrane function and changes in the plasma membrane. These cellular alterations can be analyzed using different methodologies on adherent, suspended and in situ engrafted hepatocytes. This chapter presents a brief overview of these techniques and provides methodology for the evaluation of hepatocyte apoptosis at the structural and biochemical levels

Hepatocyte transplantation: current and future developments

Purpose of review Hepatocyte transplantation is gaining increasing interest among clinicians, because it has now been shown to be feasible and well tolerated, with demonstrated clinical benefit. It is less invasive than orthotopic liver transplantation, preserving the native liver, avoiding early technical complications and the consequences of long-term I progressive graft damage. The technique ideally suits patients with inborn errors of metabolism, either as a full treatment option, or in more severe situations as a bridge to transplantation. Hepatocyte transplantation in these patients can bring metabolic control for variable periods of time, up to 18 months after infusions. The current review will focus on the recent developments of new strategies and discuss their potential benefits for the improvement of liver regenerative medicine using cell therapy. Recent findings No new cases of hepatocyte transplantation have been reported since 2006, whereas appreciable advances have been published in the fields of liver stem cells, hepatocyte cryopreservation and the control of rejection. Summary These developed strategies may help to improve the efficacy of the technique by understanding the outcome of transplanted cells, and on this basis may limit their loss after transplantation and evaluate the benefit of the use of stem cell sources

Cell transplantation in the treatment of liver diseases.

The liver performs multiple functions that are essential for life, the most crucial being its role in the body metabolism. Impairment of this function, because of liver insufficiency, can be partially restored by medical management but OLT remains the ultimate therapeutic treatment. Because not always indicated or available, other alternatives are proposed such as LCT. Compared to OLT, this procedure is less invasive, less expensive, and fully reversible. More than 50 patients have thus far benefited of this technique and are reviewed here. Indications were multiple including inborn errors of metabolism, FHF, acute on chronic diseases, and decompensated end-stage cirrhosis. Documented results were encouraging, especially for metabolic disorders, with medium-term efficacy up to two yr. Related complications were exceptional. On this basis, LCT has entered its phase of clinical application and current indications and protocols are detailed. Ongoing lines of research are discussed, including cell quality, stem cell field, and rejection prevention. Further improvement of the procedure is therefore expected and should lead to broader applications of LCT

Leukemia inhibitory factor contributes to hepatocyte-like differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.

The current majority of protocols for hepatocyte differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are conducted using oncostatin M (OSM) as an inducer of hepatocyte-like maturation. As leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and OSM share similar signaling pathways, we examined whether LIF could play a role in the hepatocyte differentiation process. A differentiation protocol was designed using LIF as a maturation cytokine and this was compared with standard and control protocols applied to human MSCs of bone marrow origin. We observed that mesenchymal-derived hepatocyte-like cells (MDHLCs) acquired similar morphological changes when exposed to LIF or to OSM. Using protein and gene expression assays, we noticed a comparable hepatic marker expression in both differentiation conditions. Furthermore, LIF and OSM allowed the acquisition of equivalent levels of hepatocyte-like functionality as attested by evaluation of urea secretion and glycogen deposition. However, no increase in the expression of hepatocyte-like features could be observed in MDHLCs after a combined exposition to LIF and OSM. In conclusion, we demonstrated that LIF can play a similar role as OSM in the hepatocyte differentiation process of human MSCs