CIAO: Chandra's Data Analysis System

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Adhesion of lymphocytes to hepatic endothelium.

Chronic inflammation occurs when factors that regulate the process of leucocyte recruitment are disrupted, and it is dependent on recruitment, activation, and retention of lymphocytes within tissue microenvironments. The molecular mechanisms that mediate lymphocyte adhesion to vascular endothelial cells have been described by several groups, but the signals involved in the recruitment of lymphocytes via the hepatic circulation have yet to be elucidated fully. This article considers the liver as a model of organ specific lymphocyte recruitment. In this context, the roles of leucocyte and endothelial adhesion molecules and chemokines in lymphocyte recruitment are discussed. The article also reviews the mechanisms that regulate lymphocyte recirculation to the liver under both physiological and pathological conditions and draws parallels with other organs such as the gut and skin

A highly virulent variant of HIV-1 circulating in the Netherlands.

We discovered a highly virulent variant of subtype-B HIV-1 in the Netherlands. One hundred nine individuals with this variant had a 0.54 to 0.74 log <sub>10</sub> increase (i.e., a ~3.5-fold to 5.5-fold increase) in viral load compared with, and exhibited CD4 cell decline twice as fast as, 6604 individuals with other subtype-B strains. Without treatment, advanced HIV-CD4 cell counts below 350 cells per cubic millimeter, with long-term clinical consequences-is expected to be reached, on average, 9 months after diagnosis for individuals in their thirties with this variant. Age, sex, suspected mode of transmission, and place of birth for the aforementioned 109 individuals were typical for HIV-positive people in the Netherlands, which suggests that the increased virulence is attributable to the viral strain. Genetic sequence analysis suggests that this variant arose in the 1990s from de novo mutation, not recombination, with increased transmissibility and an unfamiliar molecular mechanism of virulence