No abstract available.
Female* ; Humans

No abstract available.
Anemia* ; Diagnosis*

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Delivery of Health Care*

No abstract available.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* ; Folic Acid* ; Metabolism* ; Methotrexate*

No abstract available.

Multipotent neural stem cells (NSCs) are operationally defined by their ability to self-renew, to differentiate into cells of all glial and neuronal lineages throughout the neuraxis, and to populate developing or degenerating CNS regions. Thus their use as a graft material can be considered analogous to hematopoietic stem cell-mediated reconstitution and gene transfer. The recognition that NSCs propagated in culture could be reimplanted into mammalian brain, where they might integrate appropriately throughout the mammalian CNS and stably express foreign genes, has unveiled a new role for neural transplantation and gene therapy and a possible strategy for addressing the CNS manifestations of diseases that heretofore has been refractory to intervention. We have tracked the response of host and transplanted NSCs to brain or spinal cord injury and explored the therapeutic potential of NSCs injected into the animal CNS subjected to focal hypoxic-ische-mic (HI) brain or spinal cord injury. Such cells integrated appropriately into the degenerating CNS, showed robust engraftment and foreign gene expression within the region of CNS injury, and appeared to have migrated preferentially to the site of injury, experienced limited proliferation, and differentiated into neural cells lost to injury, trying to repopulate the damaged CNS area. The transplantation of exogenous NSCs may, in fact, augment a natural self-repair process in which the damaged CNS "attempts" to mobilize its own pool of stem cells. Providing additional NSCs and trophic factors may optimize this response. Therefore, NSCs may provide a novel approach to reconstituting CNS damaged by HI brain or spinal cord injury. Preliminary data in animal models of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury or contusive spinal cord injury lend support to these hypotheses.
Animals ; Brain ; Brain Injuries ; Gene Expression ; Genetic Therapy ; Models, Animal ; Neural Stem Cells* ; Neurons ; Spinal Cord Injuries ; Stem Cells ; Transplants

No abstract available.
Prescriptions* ; Primary Health Care*

No abstract available.
Ambulatory Care Facilities* ; Humans ; Outpatients*

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the specific cytokine pattern and its profiles in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we measured the mRNA expression of the IL-4, IL- 2, IFN-r7 and IL-10 in the PBMC s and synovial tissue samples. METHOD: We analyzed the cytokine mRNA copy number semiquantitatively in the fresh PBMC s from 13 rheumatoid patients who were not treated with corticosteroid or DMARDs(disease modifying antirheumatic drugs) which may affect the expression of cytokine and 16 healthy normal controls. Mononuclear cells were separated into three compartment(total PBMC, CD4+ cells, and CD4 cells) by the magnetic bead method. Synovial tissues were obtained from surgical procedure freshly. RNA was extracted from 1x10 cells of each PBMC compartment and synovial tissue. To determine the copy number of cytokine mRNA expression, RT-PCR and dot blot hybridization was performed with the RNA extracted from the samples. RESULT: In CD4+ compartment IFN(interferon)-r mRNA was marginally lower in RA patients(143+114) than in normal control(742+1052, p=0.0517) but IL(interleukin)-4 mRNA expression was higher in RA group(73+50 vs. 32+23 in normal control, p=0.0066). Also in CD4- compartment IFN-r mRNA expression was lower in RA(479+850 vs. 6154+15,059 in normal control, p=0.1875) although it was not significant statistically and IL-4 expression was higher in RA group(308+277 vs. 150+100 in normal group, p=0.0428). In PBMC compartment IFN-1 mRNA expression was also decreased in RA group (148+145 vs. 712 +768, p=0.0148), but IL-4 mRNA expression was marginally increased(186+145 vs. 109+62, p=0.0652). In synovium, interestingly, there was virtually no de novo synthesis of IL-4. CONCLUSION: There is significant difference in cytokine pattern of peripheral PBMC between RA and control group. The main cellular IL-4 source in periph- eral blood is not the CD4+ cells. Also there is significant difference of cytokine pattern between the peripheral blood and eynovium in rheumatoid arthritis.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* ; Humans ; Interleukin-10 ; Interleukin-4 ; RNA ; RNA, Messenger ; Synovial Membrane*