Autologous transplantation of peripheral blood progenitor cells mobilized by chemotherapy with or without G-CSF (filgrastim) in resistant lymphoproliferative diseases: Enhanced hemopoietic recovery with filgrastim primed progenitors

Background and Methods. Bone marrow transplantation is increasingly used to overcome the bone marrow toxicity from myeloblative therapy. Peripheral blood progenitor cell transplantation (PBPCT) has been recognized as an alternative source of bone marrow for hemopoietic recovery after myeloblative therapy. In the steady state condition hemopoietic progenitors are scarce in peripheral blood; chemotherapy and growth factors are both able to increase PBPCs. Twenty-five patients affected by resistant lymphoproliferative diseases [4 multiple myeloma (MM), 19 non Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and 2 Hodgkin's disease (HD)] were submitted to autologous peripheral blood progenitor cell transplantation (PBPCT). PBPCs were collected after chemotherapy (CT) alone (8 patients) or plus filgrastim (17 patients). Filgrastim was not administered after PBPCT in any case. Results and Conclusions. A statistically significant difference between the two groups was found for the following parameters: number of leukaphereses administered, amount of CFU-GM infused, time to hemopoietic recovery, amount of supportive care, number of days of antibiotic therapy, length of hospitalization. PBPCs primed with filgrastim CT appeared to be markedly superior to CT-recruited PBPCs in reducing the period of neutropenia and, surprisingly, of thrombocytopenia. Reduction in hematologic toxicity resulted in a decrease of transplantation-related toxicity and mortality, even in elderly and/or heavily pretreated patients

Auditory Oddball Deficits in Schizophrenia: An Independent Component Analysis of the fMRI Multisite Function BIRN Study

Deficits in the connectivity between brain regions have been suggested to play a major role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis of schizophrenia was implemented using independent component analysis (ICA) to identify multiple temporally cohesive, spatially distributed regions of brain activity that represent functionally connected networks. We hypothesized that functional connectivity differences would be seen in auditory networks comprised of regions such as superior temporal gyrus as well as executive networks that consisted of frontal-parietal areas. Eight networks were found to be implicated in schizophrenia during the auditory oddball paradigm. These included a bilateral temporal network containing the superior and middle temporal gyrus; a default-mode network comprised of the posterior cingulate, precuneus, and middle frontal gyrus; and multiple dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex networks that constituted various levels of between-group differences. Highly task-related sensory networks were also found. These results indicate that patients with schizophrenia show functional connectivity differences in networks related to auditory processing, executive control, and baseline functional activity. Overall, these findings support the idea that the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia are widespread and that a functional connectivity approach can help elucidate the neural correlates of this disorder