Both patients experienced a negative outcome, contrasting with the usually indolent course of PCALCL in immunocompetent patients, LDC000067 since both died of complications related to the lymphoma 30 and 13 months later, respectively. The unusual clinical aggressiveness of these two cases of PCALCL suggests that, in this peculiar subset with a deep structures involvement hallmark, a worse prognosis could be expected, especially in immunocompromised patients. This information should be taken into

consideration when making therapeutic choices.”
“Fibrinogen is a multifunctional plasma protein that plays a crucial role in several biological processes. Elevated fibrinogen induces erythrocyte hyperaggregation, suggesting an interaction between this protein and PS-095760 red blood cells (RBCs). Several studies support the concept that fibrinogen interacts with RBC membrane and this binding, due to specific and non-specific mechanisms, may be a trigger to RBC hyperaggregation in inflammation. The main goals of our work were to prove that human RBCs are able to specifically bind soluble fibrinogen, and identify membrane molecular targets that could be involved in this process. RBCs were first isolated from

blood of healthy individuals and then separated in different age fractions by discontinuous Percoll Selleckchem AZD2014 gradients. After isolation RBC samples were incubated with

human soluble fibrinogen and/or with a blocking antibody against CD47 followed by fluorescence confocal microscopy, flow cytometry acquisitions and zeta potential measurements. Our data show that soluble fibrinogen interacts with the human RBC membrane in an age-dependent manner, with younger RBCs interacting more with soluble fibrinogen than the older cells. Importantly, this interaction is abrogated in the presence of a specific antibody against CD47. Our results support a specific and age-dependent interaction of soluble fibrinogen with human RBC membrane: additionally we present CD47 as a putative mediator in this process. This interaction may contribute to RBC hyperaggregation in inflammation. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“Context: The stages of the menopause transition are characterized by changes in ovarian hormones and increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and vasomotor symptoms that may adversely affect vascular health.\n\nObjective: We tested the hypothesis that endothelial function, a predictor of CVD, would be reduced across the stages of the menopause transition, independent of CVD risk factors and vasomotor symptoms.