PURPOSE Significantly increasing heart transplantations have been performed in Taiwan in the past decades, but the trends of maintenance immunosuppression for heart transplant recipients have not been well known. In this study, we aimed to explore the trends of maintenance immunosuppressive therapy and common complications for heart transplant recipients. METHODS We retrospectively analyzed a...

INTRODUCTION Refractory coeliac disease (RCD) is a rare and severe malabsorptive disease. The condition has two subtypes: RCDI and RCDII. Different treatments have been tested: and because RCD has a poor prognosis due to progress to enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphoma, the aim was to review the epidemiologic aspects and the therapeutic options for RCD. METHODS A systematic literature searc...

In this study, we tested the hypothesis that insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) modulates apoptosis in human breast cancer cells, HBL100, induced by diverse chemotherapeutic drugs. IGF-1 increased cell survival of HBL100 cells treated with 5-fluorouracil (antimetabolite), methotrexate (antimetabolite), tamoxifen (antiestrogen/antiproliferative), or camptothecin (topoisomerase 1 inhibitor) and...

The water-soluble carbodiimide salt 1-ethyl-3-(3'-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide. HCl (EDCI-HCl) has been shown to increase the complement-dependent lysis of cultured mouse neuroblastoma C1300 cells by two types of antibody: (1) natural antibodies in the sera of normal (nonimmunized) rabbits, and (b) serum antibodies from snygeneic tumor-bearing A/HeJ mice. In the latter case, both the level ...

Leflunomide, a potent disease-modifying antirheumatic drug used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), exhibits anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative and immunosuppressive effects. Although most of the beneficial effects of leflunomide have been attributed to its antimetabolite activity, mainly in T cells, other targets accounting for its potency might still exist. Because of mounting ev...

BACKGROUND To date, the clinical trials of tacrolimus (TAC) versus cyclosporine modified (CsA), have not defined which agent is more cost-effective for immunosuppression in renal transplant recipients especially in a quadruple immunosuppressive regimen. METHODS The objective of this randomized, prospective study was to compare the clinical and economic outcomes of TAC versus CsA, in a regimen...

Azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine are antimetabolite thiopurine drugs that play important roles in the treatment of leukemia and in the management of conditions requiring immunosuppression, such as inflammatory bowel disease. The biochemical pharmacology of these drugs suggests that inhibition of purine nucleotide formation through the 6-thioguanine nucleotide metabolites is their key molecular...