The prognostic impact of CD163-positive macrophages in follicular lymphoma: a study from the BC Cancer Agency and the Lymphoma Study Association

PURPOSE: We aimed to assess the prognostic significance of follicular lymphoma-associated macrophages in the era of rituximab treatment and maintenance. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We applied immunohistochemistry for CD68 and CD163 to two large tissue microarrays (TMA). The first TMA included samples from 186 patients from the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA) who had been treated with first-line systemic treatment including rituximab, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisone. The second contained 395 samples from PRIMA trial patients treated with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone, and randomized to rituximab maintenance or observation. Macrophage infiltration was assessed using Aperio image analysis. Each of the two cohorts was randomly split into training/validation sets. RESULTS: An increased CD163-positive pixel count was predictive of adverse outcome in the BCCA dataset [5-year progression-free survival (PFS) 38% vs. 72%, respectively, P = 0.004 in the training cohort and 5-year PFS 29% vs. 61%, respectively, P = 0.004 in the validation cohort]. In the PRIMA trial, an increased CD163 pixel count was associated with favorable outcome (5-year PFS 60% vs. 44%, respectively, P = 0.011 in the training cohort and 5-year PFS 55% vs. 37%, respectively, P = 0.030 in the validation cohort). CONCLUSIONS: CD163-positive macrophages predict outcome in follicular lymphoma, but their prognostic impact is highly dependent on treatment received

Immobilization of foreign protein into polyhedra of Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV)*

In the late phase of Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) infection, a large amount of polyhedra appear in the infected cell nucleolus, these polyhedra being dense protein crystals protecting the incorporated virions from the harsh environment. To investigate whether the foreign protein could be immobilized into the polyhedra of BmNPV, two recombinant baculoviruses were generated by a novel BmNPV polyhedrin-plus (polh+) Bac-to-Bac system, designated as vBmBac(polh+)-enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and vBmBac(polh+)-LacZ, which can express the polyhedrin and foreign protein simultaneously. Light microscopy analysis showed that all viruses produced polyhedra of normal appearance. Green fluorescence can be apparently detected on the surface of the vBmBac(polh+)-EGFP polyhedra, but not the BmNPV polyhedra. Fluorescence analysis and anti-desiccation testing confirmed that EGFP was embedded in the polyhedra. As expected, the vBmBac(polh+)-LacZ polyhedra contained an amount of LacZ and had a higher β-galactosidase activity. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western blotting were also performed to verify if the foreign proteins were immobilized into polyhedra. This study provides a new inspiration for efficient preservation of useful proteins and development of new pesticides with toxic proteins

The Problem of Suffering and the Sociological Task of Theodicy

Once the preserve of philosophy and theology, what Weber called `the problem of theodicy' - the problem of reconciling normative ideals with the reality in which we live - recurs in the social sciences in the secular form of `sociodicy'. Within a functionalist framework, sociodicies have offered legitimizing rationalizations of social adversities, inequalities and injustice, but seldom address the existential meaning and ethical implications of human affliction and suffering in social life. We suggest that an apparent indifference to these questions in social theory reflects a deeper tension between modernity's millennial expectations of moral progress and the escalating history of violence, exploitation and suffering in the modern world. The task of sociodicy, we argue, should be reconstructed as a critique of the decivilizing implications of this tension, not just to document the consequences of suffering on people's lives, but in order to reassess the experience of modernity at the end of one of the most disturbed and violent centuries the world has known