Clinical significance of platelet derived growth factor in hodgkin's disease and non hodgkin lymphoma

Platelet-derived growth factor [PDGF] is one of the numerous proteins that regulate cell growth and division. It is a major mitogenforfibroblasts, smooth muscle cells and other cells. Many tumors have been shown to express PDGF and its cognate receptors, and in these, an autocrine stimulation of tumor cell growth may prevail. The aim of this work was to study PDGF levels in patients with Hodgkin's disease [HD] and non Hodgkin lymphoma [NHL], both before and after 3 cycles of chemotherapy and their relation to disease progression and response to treatment. This study was conducted on 20 lymphoma patients [gpl] including 7 patients with Hodgkin s disease and 13 patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 10 age and sex-matched normal healthy controls were also included in our study [gpII]. All patients were subjected to thorough history taking, clinical examination, routine laboratory investigations, lymph node biopsies to diagnose the lymphoma and staging of the lymphoma was done by radiological studies and bone marrow aspiration and trephine biopsies when needed, PDGF was measured in the serum of controls and patients before starting chemotherapy. This measurement was repeated after completion of 3 cycles of chemotherapy, together with assessment of response to chemotherapy, both clinically and radiologically. Serum PDGF levels in our lymphoma patients, both before and after 3 cycles of chemotherapy were significantly higher than the control group. No significant differences were noted between our ND and NHL patients as regards serum PDGF levels. There was a sigmfi cant positive correlation between serum PDGF levels and serum LDH levels in our patients. Patients with advanced disease [stage III, IV] at presentation had significantly higher serum PDGF levels than patients with earlier stages [stage I, II]. Also, patients who showed a response to therapy had significantly lower pretreatment values of serum PDGF than patients with no response or with progressive disease. In conclusion, serum PDGF levels were significantly higher in lymphoma patients, compared to normal controls. Significant reduction in serum PDGF levels occurred in patients who responded to 3 cycles of chemotherapy. There was no signfi cant dUiference between our HD and NHL patients as regards PDGF levels and there was a significant positive correlation between serum PDGF and serum LDH levels, both before and after treatment

study on some biologically and chemically induced hepatic dysfunctions

The present work was planned to study the influence of either hepatitis B virus [HBV] infection or occupational exposure to vinyl chloride [VC] on the detoxification capacity of the liver and on immunologic response. Also, the present study was an attempt to differentiate between biologically- and chemically-induced hepatic dysfunctions. In HBV infected patients, chronic or acute, and VC-workers, whole blood reduced glutathione [GSH] level, serum activity of gamma-glutamyl transferase [GGT], and Glutathione-S-Transferase [GST] and liver function tests were measured. Also, T-lymphocyte count and determination of serum level of interleukin-1[beta] [IL-1beta] were carried out. From the present study, it was concluded that exposure to environmental factors that cause hepatic damage, either biological or chemical, affected much its detoxifying capacity through GSH and its related enzymes GGT and GST. The involvement of GSH in detoxification of reactive VC metabolites or reactive oxygen species liberated during HBV infection led to its depletion. The increase in the GST serum activity reflects its de novo synthesis and its release into circulation in response to hepatic damage. The observed change in GGT level is an adaptive mechanism in which an increase in GGT activity acts to restore GSH used in the detoxification of xenobiotic and reactive oxygen species. The results also showed that exposure to these environmental factors had its deteriorating effects on the immunoresponse which was observed by the significant reduction in the T-lymphocyte count and the significant increase in the serum level of IL-1beta

Study of platelet factor 4 in schistosomal hepatic fibrosis with and without diabetes mellitus

This work included 30 patients with SHF, 10 of them had IDDM [group A], 10 patients had NIDDM [group B] and 10 patients had SHF only [group C]. Another 10 normal persons were used as control. All patients and control groups were subjected to clinical examination and laboratory investigations including liver function tests, fasting and PP blood glucose, complete blood picture and estimation of plasma platelet factor 4 by ELISA. A statistically significant rise of PF4 was found in the diabetic groups only, also there was a positive correlation between the increase in PF4 level versus both the increase in age of the patients and the prolonged duration of DM using multiple regression test. Therefore, the diabetic effect on PF4 supersede the effect of SHF on platelet behavior