Telomere Length of Individual Chromosomes in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

We analyzed telomere length of individual chromosomes in peripheral blood lymphocytes of healthy individuals and patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Quantitative fluorescent in situ hybridization and subsequent computer analysis of metaphase chromosomes showed that distribution of telomere length on individual chromosomes is different under normal and pathological conditions. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis had significantly shorter chromosome 4p telomeres, which can be essential for pathogenesis of this multifactorial disease. Additionally, disease activity inversely correlated with telomere length on chromosome 10p carrying genes involved in T cell differentiation and proliferation.

[The standardization of diagnostic of paroxysmal night hemoglobinuria cytometry].

The flow cytometry becomes a more and more largely applied technique. However, the sufficient novelty of technique has no worked-out standards of diagnostic of many diseases. The lacking of external control of quality promotes development of large variety of approaches to diagnostic of diseases and impossibility to compare the study results from different laboratories. The paroxysmal night hemoglobinuria is an acquired clonal disease characterized by proliferation of stem cells with partial or total loss of expression of glykosylphosphosphatidyl inositol anchor needed to conjugate a number of surface proteins. The flow cytometry is a basic technique of detection and monitoring of clone of paroxysmal night hemoglobinuria. The article presents the results of paroxysmal night hemoglobinuria testing of 8 patients in 6 independent laboratories using flow cytometry by standard protocol recommended by the International society of clinical cytometrists (ICCS).

Telomere lengthening in CD8(+)cells in polyclonal in vitro stimulation is associated with an increase in protein content of catalytic subunit of telomerase (hTERT).

Culturing of polyclonally activated T lymphocytes for 7 days in vitro leads to telomere lengthening in CD8(+), but not CD4(+)lymphocytes. Under these conditions, CD8(+)lymphocytes more intensively express telomerase catalytic subunit protein (hTERT) and divide more often than CD4(+)lymphocytes. It changes the ratio of CD4(+)and CD8(+)subpopulations in favor of the latter by the end of culturing.

Processes of homeostatic proliferation in the pathogenesis of autoimmune glomerulonephritis induced by chronic graft-versus-host reaction.

Lymphopenia developing at the early stage of chronic graft-versus-host reaction is associated with increased content of IL-7 in the peripheral blood and leads to an increase of the CD4(+)and CD8(+)cell subpopulations in the spleen of the recipient. After 3 months, some animals develop autoimmune glomerulonephritis (lupus recipients). High levels of IL-7 and T-cells with the memory cell phenotype (CD4(+)CD45RB(low)and CD8(+)CD45RB(low)) persist in these animals, in contrast to nonlupus recipients without signs of autoimmune disease. This can attest to the involvement of homeostatic proliferation processes in the formation of autoimmune disease in this model.

[Inflammatory breast cancer: clinical course, diagnosis and treatment].

To identify influence of different therapeutic and prognostic factors on survival, a review of the data on treatment of 197 patients with inflammatory breast cancer was carried out at the Dispensary (1994-2004). Multimodal treatment included combinations of radiotherapy, mastectomy and chemotherapy (CMF--75; CAF--98 and taxanes--9). Significantly lower survival was reported for patients with lymph node involvement (N1, N2 and N3) and those without mastectomy and radiotherapy. Overall 10-year survival was registered only in those who had received chemotherapy, radiotherapy and mastectomy (20.2% +/- 5.5); overall 5-year survival was 42.0% +/- 4.8.

[Significance of tissue pH in the prognosis of postoperative complications in heart surgery patients]. / Znachenie tkanevogo pH dlia prognoza posleoperatsionnykh oslozhnenii u kardiokhirurgicheskikh bol'nykh.

Ischemia of the gastrointestinal mucosa is characterized by acidosis in the submucosal layer during the majority of interventions, which necessitates monitoring of tissue pH (pHi) of the abdominal organs during aortocoronary bypass surgery and the immediate postoperative period. The pHi was measured by gastrotonometry with a nasogastral tube (Trip catheter) and Tonocap-TC200 device (Datex Engstrom, Finland); pHi was measured in 17 patients in department of intensive care on days 1 or 2 after cardiosurgical interventions with at least 120-min artificial circulation and in 23 patients during the operation. Surgical treatment consisted in correction of acquired valvular diseases, myocardial revascularization (shunting operations), and combinations of these operations. The first stage of investigation revealed a relationship between decreased pHi level to the acid values and complicated course of the postoperative period. The second stage showed that postoperative complications occurred in 27.2% cases only in patients subjected to long artificial circulation bypass (more than 120 min). The frequency of complications were 2-fold more in the patients with tissue acidosis (pHi < 7.35) during surgery than in patients with normal and alkaline pHi values. The following complications occurred: acute pancreatitis, acute peptic ulcer, acute renal and polyorgan failure. Comparative analysis of pHi and other metabolic markers of arterial blood showed a correlation between these parameters, but pHi was more specific for the diagnosis of tissue ischemia. Hence, a low invasive highly specific method of gaseous gastrotonometry helps evaluate the blood supply to abdominal organs during and after cardiac surgery with artificial circulation and predict postoperative gastrointestinal and grave systemic complications (sepsis, acute renal failure, and polyorgan failure).

[Impact of chlorination and ozonization on the total mutagenic activity of drinking water]. / Vliianie khlorirovaniia i ozonirovaniia na summarnuiu mutagennuiu aktivnost' pit'evoi vody.

The total mutagenic activity of chemical pollution of the water taken from the Volga water reservoir was investigated after its treatment with chlorine and ozone. The toxicity of the water was absent after its ozone treatment. Mutagens were found to form after water chlorination. Their levels can be reduced by subsequent treatment with ozone in a dose of 0.5 mg/l.

[The prediction of the individual chemosensitivity of human malignant tumors: the biological patterns and clinical results]. / Prognozirovanie individual'noi khimiochuvstvitel'nosti zlokachestvennykh opukholei cheloveka: biologicheskie zakonomernosti i klinicheskie rezul'taty.

Individual laboratory prediction of the sensitivity of human neoplasms to chemicals is justified on the basis of the authors' own data and those available in the literature. The potentialities and limitations of methods for individual prediction, as well as clinical results are discussed. Data are given on some biological mechanisms responsible for tumor growth which have been obtained in in vitro and in vivo tests with human tumor tissue and carcinoma cells. Further perspectives of this line of studies are discussed.

[Clinical applications of xenopericardial conduits in surgery of ascending aortic aneurysms]. / Klinicheskoe primenenie kscenoperikardial'nykh konduitov v khirurgii anevrizm voskhodiashchei aorty.

At the Department of Acquired Cardiac Diseases (Head is Prof. G. I. Tsukerman), A. N. Bakulev Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery, 145 patients underwent operation for ascending aortic aneurysms, out of them the Bentalle-De Bono and the Cabrol operations were performed in 81 and 25 patients, respectively, the remaining 39 patients had palliative interventions. From February 1991 to April 1993, the clinic performed in 11 patients prosthesis of the ascending aorta with a xeno-pericardial conduit containing a bioprosthesis of the same tissue. The paper describes the technical features of bio-conduit implantation. The use of xeno-pericardial conduits facilitates the technique of applying anastomoses, lowers hemophilia and reduces the length of an operation. Hemorrhagic and thromboembolic events are expected to be reduced in late periods. At the hospital stage 1 patient died. The cause of his death was peri-coronary hematoma. Ten patients are still under observation. Repeated examinations have not detected no specific complications typical of those observed in the application of synthetic conduits. The first experience has proved to be quite promising. However, the final assessment is possible only when sufficient clinical materials are accumulated and late outcomes are studied.

[The current status of the problem and the treatment possibilities in disseminated malignant neoplasms of the maxilla]. / Sovremennoe sostoianie problemy i vozmozhnosti lecheniia rasprostranennykh zlokachestvennykh novoobrazovanii verkhnei cheliusti.

A study of the results of treatment of 170 patients makes a case for combined electrosurgical resection of the maxilla and local chemotherapy with deposited cytostatic drugs for localized malignant tumors of this site. No recurrences were detected within the first 12 months in 75.4% of patients and 52%--in control. Three-year survival in treated patients and controls was 67 and 48%, respectively.

[The clinical assessment of the results of predicting individual sensitivity to adjuvant chemotherapy in lung tumors]. / Klinicheskaia otsenka rezul'tatov prognozirovaniia individual'noi chuvstvitel'nosti k ad''iuvantnoi khimioterapii opukholei legkogo.

The value of subrenal capsule assay for predicting individual chemoresistance of tumor was evaluated using samples from 32 lung carcinomas. Treatment with drugs which had proved effective in the test was followed by a recurrence-free period of 15.5 +/- 3.7 months, as compared to 8.0 +/- 1.0 months for patients receiving ineffective drugs.