Is rejection a diffuse or localized process in small-bowel transplantation?

Utilization of endoscopy to both visualize and selectively biopsy an intestinal allograft has become the standard for early recognition and treatment of intestinal allograft rejection. Despite the widespread acceptance of the need for selective mucosal biopsies, it has not been shown that the histological features of intestinal allograft rejection are either localized or occur as part of a more diffuse phenomenon within a tubular allograft. To resolve these issues, 88 ileoscopies were performed in 12 small-bowel allograft recipients and mucosal biopsy samples were obtained at 5, 10, and 15 cm, respectively, from the ileal stoma. Each mucosal biopsy was labeled, processed, and evaluated individually for the presence and severity of any evidence for allograft rejection. The data obtained suggest that intestinal allograft rejection is a diffuse process, and biopsies obtained randomly from an ileal graft are likely to demonstrate evidence of allograft rejection when such is present. © 1994 Springer-Verlag New York Inc

Neel Temperature of Quasi-Low-Dimensional Heisenberg Antiferromagnets

The N\'eel temperature, $T_{\rm N}$, of quasi-one- and quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnetic Heisenberg models on a cubic lattice is calculated by Monte Carlo simulations as a function of inter-chain (inter-layer) to intra-chain (intra-layer) coupling $J'/J$ down to $J'/J\simeq 10^{-3}$. We find that $T_{\rm N}$ obeys a modified random-phase approximation-like relation for small $J'/J$ with an effective universal renormalized coordination number, independent of the size of the spin. Empirical formulae describing $T_{\rm N}$ for a wide range of $J'$ and useful for the analysis of experimental measurements are presented.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let

The adverse impact on liver transplantation of using positive cytotoxic crossmatch donors

Because of the liver graft's ability to resist cytotoxic antibody-mediated rejection, it has become dogma that the conventional transplant crossmatch used to avoid hyperacute rejection of other organs is irrelevant to the liver. We examined this hypothesis in a consecutive series of adult primary liver recipients treated with FK506 and low-dose steroids. Twenty-five of 231 (10.8%) patients received a liver from a cytotoxic-positive crossmatch donor (more than 50% of donor T lymphocytes were killed by dithiothre-itol-pretreated recipient serum). The outcome was compared with that of 50 negative crossmatch patients who had their transplantations just before and after the crossmatch positive cases. The one-year graft and patient survivals were 56% and 68%, for positive and 82% and 86% for negative crossmatch patients (P=0.004, P=0.03, respectively). The difference between patient and first graft survival was accounted for by retransplantation, which was 4 times more frequent in the positive-crossmatch cases. Histologically, failed allografts obtained at the time of retransplantation revealed a spectrum of pathologic findings related to vascular injury. This study showed a higher difficulty of intraoperative blood product management, a degraded prognosis, and a poorer average quality of ultimate graft function when liver transplantation was performed against positive cytotoxic crossmatches. In such patients for whom crossmatch-negative donors may never be found because of the broad extent and intensity of sensitization, special therapeutic strategies perioperatively must be evolved if results are to improve. © 1992 by Williams and Wilkins

Randomness-driven quantum phase transition in bond-alternating Haldane chain

The effect of bond randomness on the spin-gapped ground state of the spin-1 bond-alternating antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain is discussed. By using the loop cluster quantum Monte Carlo method, we investigate the stability of topological order in terms of the recently proposed twist order parameter [M. Nakamura and S. Todo: Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 077204]. It is observed that the dimer phases as well as the Haldane phase of the spin-1 Heisenberg chain are robust against a weak randomness, though the valence-bond-solid-like topological order in the latter phase is destroyed by introducing a disorder stronger than the critical value.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; minor changes; accepted for publication in J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Effect of rejection on electrophysiologic function of canine intestinal grafts: Correlation with histopathology and na-k-ATPase activity

To investigate whether electrophysiologic changes can detect the early onset and progress of intestinal rejection, changes in in vitro electrophysiologic function, intestinal histopathology, and Na-K-ATPase activity were studied in dogs. Adult mongrel dogs of both sexes, weighing 18-24 kg, were used for auto and allo small bowel transplantation. The entire small bowels, except for short segments at the proximal and distal ends, were snitched between a pair of dogs (allograft). Animals receiving intestinal autotransplantation were used as controls. AIIograji recipients were sacrificed 3, 4, 5, 7, or 9 days after transplantation, and autograft recipients were sacrificed 3, 7, or 14 days afier transplantation. Immunosuppression was not used. Electrophysiologic measurements were done with an Ussing chamber. Histological analysis was performed blindly using whole thickness sections. Na-K-ATPase activity in the mucosal tissue, which is said to regulate the potential difference, was also measured. Potential difference, resistance, and Na-K-ATPase activity of the allografi intestine decreased with time and were significantly lower 7 and 9 days after transplantation compared to host intestine, normul intestine, and graft intestine of controls (autograft). Potential difference, resistance, and Na-K-ATPase activity of the native intestinal tissue and the autografts did not decrease with time. Detection of histologically mild rejection of the intestine, which is important for appropriate immunosup-pressive treatment in clinical cases, could not be achieved based on electrophysiology or Na-K-ATPase activity. Deterioration of electrophysiologic function during rejection correlated with the histological rejection process and Na-K-ATPase activity; however, electrophysiology my not be a reliable tool for monitoring grafrs, since it cannot detect early intestinal rejection. © 1995 Informa UK Ltd All rights reserved: reproduction in whole or part not permitted

On the ground-state properties of antiferromagnetic half-integer spin chains with long-range interactions

The Lieb-Shultz-Mattis theorem is extended to Heisenberg chains with long-range interactions. We prove that the half-integer spin chain has no gap, if it possesses unique ground state and the exchange decays faster than the inverse-square of distance between spins. The results can be extended to a wide class of one-dimensional models.Comment: 3 pages, RevTeX