Antithyroid drug-induced agranulocytosis

Thyrotoxicosis is a common endocrine disorder. Antithyroid drug therapy is the standard treatment for this disease, especially in young women of reproductive age. A serious side effect of antithyroid drug use, however, is agranulocytosis. We report on two patients with antithyroid drug-induced agranulocytosis. Both patients presented with fever and severe neutropenia. The administration of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor resulted in a dramatic improvement in the white blood cell count and symptoms. Antithyroid drug-induced agranulocytosis is a potentially lethal condition but is completely reversible when recognised early and when prompt treatment is offered.published_or_final_versio

Bronchiolitis obliterans with organising pneumonia (BOOP) following allogeneic bone marrow transplant - a common pulmonary conplication following BMT?

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N-ras mutations in myelodysplastic syndromes in Hong Kong Chinese

Hong Kong Chinese patients with myelodysplastic syndromes were screened for the presence of N-ras mutation by using the polymerase chain reaction/dot blot hybridization technique. Three of 20 (15%) cases studied were found to harbour mutant N-ras in the bone marrow mononuclear cell population. One case of refractory anaemia with excess of blasts and with excess of blasts in transformation had substitution of arginine for glutamine at codon 61. A second case of refractory anaemia with excess of blasts had substitution of serine for glycine at codon 12. In this patient, mutant N-ras was detected in a follow up sample taken two months later although there was no change in the blast percentage compared with the presentation sample. Our study showed that N-ras mutation is an infrequent finding in Hong Kong Chinese myelodysplastic syndrome patients. An N-ras mutation is not necessarily accompanied by an alteration in the haematological picture.published_or_final_versio

Functional characterisation of a novel nucleoporin gene NUP98 in zebrafish embryo.

Oral PresentationINTRODUCTION: The nucleoporin gene nup98 is important for the regulation of cytoplasmic-nuclear trafficking. Frequent disruptions of NUP98 during chromosomal translocation in acute myeloid leukaemia suggest that it may play a role in normal haematopoiesis. nup98-knockout mice has resulted in early embryonic lethality. Therefore, its role in embryonic haematopoiesis remains unclear. In this study, we have cloned a zebrafish nup98 gene and examined its role in embryonic development, with particular reference to haematopoiesis. METHODS: Two expressed sequence tags with translated sequence homologous to human NUP98 were identified. The gene was cloned by PCR from cDNA of zebrafish embryos. Expression of nup98 in zebrafish embryos was investigated spatially by whole-mount in-situ hybridisation and temporally by RT-PCR. The functions of nup98 were examined by morpholino knockdown and the effects on embryonic development evaluated by gene expression studies and confocal microscopy. Cellular functions of zebrafish nup98 were investigated in HeLa cells. RESULTS: Zebrafish nup98 gene shared 65% identity to human NUP98 homolog in protein sequence. The gene was expressed during early embryonic development since 1-cell stage and diffusely in eyes and the developing brain since 18 hpf. About 30% nup98-knockdown embryos developed intracranial haemorrhage at 48 hpf, resulting from disrupted blood vessels. nup98-knockdown upregulated pu.1 and scl as evaluated by quantitative RT-PCR. Moreover, ectopic expression of zebrafish nup98 rescued the defective mRNA export due to NUP98 knockdown in HeLa cells. CONCLUSION: A novel zebrafish nup98 gene was shown to exhibit conserved function in mRNA trafficking. Its role in embryonic development should be further evaluated.published_or_final_versio

A comparison of TBI and non-TBI conditioning regimens in patients undergoing matched-unrelated bone marrow transplantation

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Traditional Chinese medicine: effect on bone marrow and peripheral blood cell counts and enzyme induction

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Chloramphenicol succinate a competitive substrate and inhibitor of succinate dehydrogenase: relation to its mechanisms of toxicity

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Changes in haematopoiesis in bone marrows primed with haematopoietic growth factors before allogeneic bone marrow transplantation: an interim analysis

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Molecular detection of minimal residual disease for patients with leukemia and lymphoma

Although a complete clinical remission can often be achieved with chemotherapy for patients with leukaemia and lymphoma, relapses still occur. Residual tumour cells probably have survived therapy and account for subsequent disease relapse. The sensitivity of conventioned ways of detecting residual tumour cells, such as morphological studies, immunophenotyping, and cytogenetics, is only about 1% to 5% and may be inadequate. Polymerase chain reaction technology had provided a simple and highly sensitive means for the detection of minimal residual disease. The technology has been successfully applied to study biopsy samples obtained from patients with leukaemia and lymphpma. Its clinical usefulness, however, requires further evaluation by prospective clinical studies.published_or_final_versio

Ex vivo expansion of peripheral blood haematopoietic stem cells: preclinical studies

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