Congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation connected to an extralobar pulmonary sequestration in the contralateral chest: common origin?

Extralobar pulmonary sequestration (ELS) and congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation have been reported to coexist in several variations. This suggests a common embryologic origin. A 6-month-old boy presented with a history of recurrent pneumonias. The patient was diagnosed with a right lower lobe congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation (CCAM) and a left lower lobe ELS/CCAM. The diagnosis was made with the aid of a multidetector computed tomography (CT). Three-dimensional CT reconstruction showed the presence of a right lower lobe CCAM, a left lower ELS with an aberrant arterial supply from the celiac axis, and possible venous drainage into the right CCAM. The patient underwent a right thoracotomy. Intraoperatively, the lesions were discovered to be connected by a band of tissue. The right lower lobe CCAM and the left ELS were removed from the right chest. Histologic analysis confirmed the presence of a CCAM within the right lower lobe. The ELS had involvement of a type II CCAM within the sequestration. The connection between the right CCAM and left ELS/CCAM showed an anomalous conducting airway, anomalous vein, and anomalous artery connecting the 2 lesions. The authors present the first case of a CCAM connected to an ELS/CCAM in the contralateral hemithorax. The unique anatomic configuration of these lesions suggests a common embryologic origin of ELS and CCAM.

Why does migration decrease fertility? Evidence from the Philippines.

We model the impact of past migration on fertility, assessing the separate effects of relative urbanization of the destination, as a proxy for norms, and post-migration employment, as a proxy for opportunity costs. In the Philippines, we find that large fertility declines accompany post-migration employment. If not followed by work for pay, the estimated fertility impact of migration is small. We find little evidence of migrant selectivity in fertility, and offer speculative evidence that fertility disruption accompanying migration may be large enough to account for much of the apparent effect of normative adaptation.

Safety and shedding of an attenuated strain of Listeria monocytogenes with a deletion of actA/plcB in adult volunteers: a dose escalation study of oral inoculation.

Listeria monocytogenes is an intracellular bacterial pathogen which causes bacteremia and has a tropism for the central nervous system and a propensity to cause maternofetal infection. L. monocytogenes has been shown to be an effective prophylactic and a therapeutic vaccine vector for viral and tumor antigens in animal models. L. monocytogenes mutants lacking the ActA protein, which is essential for intracellular movement, are attenuated but retain immunogenicity in mice. Given the pathogenic potential of L. monocytogenes, we created an attenuated mutant strain bearing double deletions in the actA and plcB virulence genes for an initial clinical safety study of a prototype L. monocytogenes vector in adults. Twenty healthy volunteers received single escalating oral doses (10(6) to 10(9) CFU, 4 volunteers per dose cohort) of this attenuated L. monocytogenes, designated LH1169. Volunteers were monitored in the hospital for 14 days with frequent clinical checks and daily blood and stool cultures, and they were monitored for six additional weeks as outpatients. There were no positive blood cultures and no fevers attributable to the investigational inoculation. Most volunteers shed vaccine bacteria for 4 days or less, without diarrhea. One volunteer had a late positive stool culture during outpatient follow-up. Three volunteers had abnormal liver function test results temporally associated with inoculation; one could be reasonably attributed to another cause. In the highest-dose cohort, humoral, mucosal, and cellular immune responses to the investigational organism were detected in individual volunteers. Attenuated L. monocytogenes can be studied in adult volunteers without serious long-term health sequelae.

Tumor immunity within the central nervous system stimulated by recombinant Listeria monocytogenes vaccination.

Tumors arising within the central nervous system (CNS) present the immune system with a challenging target, given the heterogeneous nature of these neoplasms and their location within an "immunologically privileged" site. We used the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus nucleoprotein (LCMV-NP) as a pseudotumor antigen to investigate recombinant Listeria monocytogenes as a tumor vaccine against s.c. and intracerebral challenges with a NP-expressing glioma, 9L-NP. Using Fischer 344 rats, we demonstrate that vaccination with recombinant L. monocytogenes-NP stimulates protection against s.c., but not intracerebral, 9L-NP tumor challenge in an antigen-specific, CD8(+) T-cell-dependent manner. After s.c. tumor rejection, enhanced antitumor immunity is achieved via epitope spreading that permits complete resistance against lethal intracerebral challenge with 9L-NP and with the untransfected parental 9L tumor. Unlike the CD8(+)-dependent immune responses against s.c. 9L-NP tumors, this expanded intracerebral immunity against endogenous tumor-associated antigens is dependent on both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the mechanisms of tumor immunity within the brain are different from those elicited against non-CNS tumors. Furthermore, vaccination approaches exploiting the concept of epitope spreading may enhance the efficacy of antitumor immune responses within the immunologically privileged CNS, potentially mediating tumor cell killing through both CD4(+)- and CD8(+)-dependent effector pathways.