POEMS syndrome is a rare para-neoplastic syndrome secondary to a plasma cell dyscrasia. Effective treatment can control the disease-related symptom complex. We describe the clinical outcome of autologous stem cell transplantation for patients with POEMS syndrome, determining the impact of patient- and disease-specific factors on prognosis. One hundred and twenty-seven patients underwent an auto...

BACKGROUND To assess whether an objective performance criterion for in vitro fertilization (IVF) centers can be established. METHODS A retrospective analysis of 2011 National ART Surveillance System data for 451 U.S. IVF centers, 137 of which were included in the analysis since they performed >20 fresh embryo transfers per age group and >20 fresh oocyte donor transfers. The analysis of autolo...

We present evidence that most T cells proliferating in response to autologous sheep erythrocyte (SRBC)-separated non-T cells (NT) cells are not specific for autoantigens but for antigens derived from xenogeneic sources. The conclusion was based on the following three observations. First, we found that NT cells isolated in the absence of xenoproteins by means of density gradient centrifugation o...

We have reported that fusions of murine dendritic cells (DCs) and murine carcinoma cells reverse unresponsiveness to tumor-associated antigens and induce the rejection of established metastases. In the present study, fusions were generated with primary human breast carcinoma cells and autologous DCs. Fusion cells coexpressed tumor-associated antigens and DC-derived costimulatory molecules. The ...

BACKGROUND We performed a multicenter, open, randomized, clinical study of autologous cultured osteoblast injection for long-bone fracture, to evaluate the fracture healing acceleration effect and the safety of autologous cultured osteoblasts. METHODS Sixty-four patients with long-bone fractures were randomly divided into two groups, i.e. those who received autologous cultured osteoblast inje...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate and compare the audiometric outcomes of ossicular reconstruction with titanium prosthesis and autologous material. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Tertiary referral center. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Audiometric results of consecutive patients who performed ossiculoplasty with titanium prosthesis (n = 43) or autologous material (n = 48), from October 2008 ...

Cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) specific for autologous human squamous cell cancer of the lung were generated by stimulation of peripheral blood lymphocytes with autologous tumor cells in vitro. The CTL line was >97% CD3+, CD8+, CD16- and produced tumor necrosis factor-alpha, gamma-interferon, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor after stimulation with autologous tumor. The CTLs ...

BACKGROUND The majority of patients with cholinergic urticaria presents with strong hypersensitivity to autologous sweat. Patients with severe cholinergic urticaria are frequently resistant to H(1) antagonists which are used in conventional therapies for various types of urticaria. It has been reported that desensitization using partially purified sweat antigen was effective in a patient with c...

AIMS To report remodelling of enlarged dysmorphic filtration blebs with conjunctival compression sutures and autologous blood injection. METHODS A retrospective analysis of consecutively recruited patients with enlarged and dysmorphic filtration blebs who were managed with conjunctival compression sutures and subconjunctival autologous blood injections. Under topical anaesthesia, conjunctival...

Thanks to the coordinated efforts of four major scientific organizations, this report describes the "novel cellular therapy" activity in Europe for the year 2009. Fifty teams from 22 countries reported data on 814 patients using a dedicated survey, which were combined to additional 328 records reported by 55 teams to the standard European Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) database. Indica...