Intractable coronary fibromuscular dysplasia leading to end‐stage heart failure and fatal heart transplantation

Coronary fibromuscular dysplasia is uncommon, and even rarer its unstable and recurrent course. We present the unique case of a 52-year-old woman who underwent in total 12 coronary angiographies and three percutaneous coronary intervention within 24 months because of repetitive acute coronary syndromes due to refractory spasm, dissection, restenosis all leading to end-stage heart failure, and heart transplantation. The patient died 12 days after the heart transplantation complicated by intraoperative acute thrombotic occlusion of left anterior descending artery of the graft despite normal pretransplant coronary angiography. Autopsy of the recipient heart confirmed coronary fibromuscular dysplasia with massive intimal hyperplasia and restenosis

Microphysics and chemical composition of particulate dry deposition measured in Tinfou, Morocco

Samples were collected with a Sigma-2 sampler (Waza et al., 2019) during the SAMUM-2 campaign (Heintzenberg, 2009; Kandler et al., 2009) 2 m above ground between 12 may 2006 and 06 June 2006. The geographical coordinates are N 30.2378° and W 5.6079°, height is approximately 680 m above sea level. Samples were subject to automated scanning electron microscopy with coupled X-ray analysis (Kandler et al., 2018). This data set contains the results of a sample re-analysis with more modern instrumentation in 2017. Note that not all daily samples could be analyzed, as some were totally overloaded during dust wind situations. This corresponds to the missing numbers and gaps in the time line. Each data file is one sample (approximately diurnal collection), an overview with meta data is given in the sample list file. Please refer to the description files for more details

Dendritic cells combined with tumor cells and α-galactosylceramide induce a potent, therapeutic and NK-cell dependent antitumor immunity in B cell lymphoma

Abstract Background Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are a small population of lymphocytes with unique specificity for glycolipid antigens presented by non-polymorphic CD1d receptor on dendritic cells (DCs). iNKT cells play a central role in tumor immunology since they are implicated in the coordination of innate and adaptive immune responses. These cells can be activated with the prototypic lipid α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer), stimulating interferon gamma (IFN-γ) production and cytokine secretion, which contribute to the enhancement of T cell activation. Methods We evaluated the antitumor effect of a combination of dendritic cells (DCs) and tumor cells with the iNKT cell agonist α-GalCer in a therapeutic model of B cell lymphoma. iNKT, NK and T cell phenotype was determined by flow cytometry. Serum cytokines were analyzed by Luminex technology. Significant differences between survival curves were assessed by the log-rank test. For all other data, Mann–Whitney test was used to analyze the differences between groups. Results This vaccine induced a potent (100% survival), long-lasting and tumor-specific antitumor immune response, that was associated with an increase of both Th1 cytokines and IFN-γ secreting iNKT cells (4.59 ± 0.41% vs. 0.92 ± 0.12% in control group; p = 0.01) and T cells (CD4 IFN-γ+: 3.75 ± 0.59% vs. 0.66 ± 0.18% p = 0.02; CD8 IFN-γ+: 10.61 ± 0.84% vs. 0.47 ± 0.03% p = 0.002). Importantly, natural killer (NK) cells played a critical role in the antitumor effect observed after vaccination. Conclusions This study provides clinically relevant data for the development of iNKT-cell based immunotherapy treatments for patients with B cell malignancies

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved