Major peripheral arterial graft infection is a potentially devastating complication of vascular surgery, associated with significant mortality and high amputation rates. Autologous saphenous veins are considered optimal arterial conduits for lower extremity revascularization in infected fields, but they are often unavailable or unsuitable in these patients. This study describes two patients with major peripheral graft infection, but without available autologous veins, who underwent graft excision and cryopreserved cadaveric arterial allograft reconstruction. Although long-term graft durability is unclear because of gradual deterioration and degeneration, these findings suggest that cadaveric allografts may be good options for patients with major peripheral graft infection.
Allografts* ; Amputation ; Blood Vessel Prosthesis ; Cadaver* ; Humans ; Lower Extremity ; Mortality ; Saphenous Vein ; Tissue Preservation ; Transplants* ; Veins

A nucleoside diphosphate-linked moiety X (Nudix) hydrolase-like gene, YSA1, has been identified as one of the gromwell plant extract-responsive genes in Cryptococcus neoformans. Ysa1 is known to control intracellular concentrations of ADP-ribose or O-acetyl-ADP-ribose, and has diverse biological functions, including the response to oxidative stress in the ascomycete yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this study, we characterized the role of YSA1 in the stress response and adaptation of the basidiomycete yeast, C. neoformans. We constructed three independent deletion mutants for YSA1, and analyzed their mutant phenotypes. We found that ysa1 mutants did not show increased sensitivity to reactive oxygen species-producing oxidative damage agents, such as hydrogen peroxide and menadione, but exhibited increased sensitivity to diamide, which is a thiol-specific oxidant. Ysa1 was dispensable for the response to most environmental stresses, such as genotoxic, osmotic, and endoplasmic reticulum stress. In conclusion, modulation of YSA1 may regulate the cellular response and adaptation of C. neoformans to certain oxidative stresses and contribute to the evolution of antifungal drug resistance.
Adenosine Diphosphate Ribose ; Ascomycota ; Basidiomycota ; Cryptococcus neoformans* ; Cryptococcus* ; Diamide ; Drug Resistance, Fungal ; Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress ; Hydrogen Peroxide ; Lithospermum ; O-Acetyl-ADP-Ribose ; Oxidative Stress* ; Oxygen ; Phenotype ; Plants ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae ; Vitamin K 3 ; Yeasts

As a part of our ongoing search for a safe and efficient anti-tumor vaccine, we attempted to determine whether the molecular nature of certain tumor antigens would influence immune responses against tumor cells. As compared with freeze-thawed or formaldehyde-fixed tumor antigens, heat-denatured tumor antigens elicited profound anti-tumor immune responses and greatly inhibited the growth of live tumor cells. The heat-denatured tumor antigens induced a substantial increase in the anti-tumor CTL response in the absence of any adjuvant material. This response appears to be initiated by strong activation of the antigen-presenting cells, which may recognize heat-denatured protein antigens. Upon recognition of the heat-denatured tumor antigens, macrophages and dendritic cells were found to acutely upregulate the expression of co-stimulatory molecules such as B7.2, as well as the secretion of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-12 and TNF-alpha. The results of this study indicate that heat-denatured tumor extracts might elicit protective anti-tumor adaptive immune responses and also raise the possibility that a safe and efficient adjuvant-free tumor vaccine might be developed in conjunction with a dendritic cell-based tumor vaccine.
Adjuvants, Immunologic ; Animals ; Antibodies, Neoplasm/immunology ; Antibody Specificity/immunology ; Antigens, Neoplasm/immunology ; Cancer Vaccines/*immunology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; Cytokines/biosynthesis ; Cytotoxicity, Immunologic/immunology ; Dendritic Cells/immunology ; *Hot Temperature ; Immunity, Cellular/immunology ; Immunization ; Immunologic Memory/immunology ; Macrophages, Peritoneal/immunology ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Neoplasms/*immunology/*pathology ; Survival Analysis ; T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic/immunology