Clinical impact of graft-versus-host disease against leukemias not in remission at the time of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from related donors. The Japan Society for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Working Party.

Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) increases post-transplant mortality and morbidity, but exerts a potent graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect. To clarify the impact of GVHD on outcome after transplant in aggressive diseases, patients with acute myeloid or lymphoblastic leukemia (AML, n = 366 or ALL, n = 255) in nonremission states, or chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML, n = 180) in accelerated phase (AP) or blastic crisis (BC), who received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from a related donor between 1991 and 2000, were analyzed. Significant improvement in overall and disease-free survival (DFS) was detected with grade I acute GVHD in AML (P = 0.0002 for overall survival and 0.0009 for DFS, respectively) and in CML (P = 0.0256 and 0.0366, respectively), while the trend towards improved survival was observed in ALL. Relapse rate was lower in grade I acute GVHD than in grade II in all three diseases, suggesting that treatment for grade II GVHD may compromise the GVL effect associated with GVHD. Chronic GVHD was found to suppress relapse in CML and ALL, but not in AML, although no improvement in survival was observed in any disease category. Our results suggest that treatment for grade II acute GVHD may need to be attenuated in transplant for refractory leukemias.

Loss factors of mirrors for a gravitational wave antenna.

Low-loss mirrors fabricated by ion-beam-sputtering machines for possible application in an interferometric gravitational wave antenna were evaluated by use of Nd:YAG laser light (lambda = 1064 nm) with two distinct measurements: a tabletop experiment that used a short cavity with a small beam with a beam waist of approximately 2w(0) = 0.82 mm, and an optical test that used a 20-m prototypical gravitational-wave detector with a large beam with a beam waist of approximately 2w(0) = 4.4 mm. A multilayer coating comprised 29 layers of SiO(2)/Ta(2)O(5) and one protective coating of SiO(2). The best values obtained as a result of these measurements were 16 ppm (parts in 10(6)) and 30 ppm in total loss, respectively. Also, a two-dimensional loss map generated by use of a small beam successfully revealed the existence of a loss structure within the coating surface. These results imply that a high-reflectance multilayer coating has some inhomogeneities and a loss distribution with a typical scale of a few millimeters and that the total measured losses depend on the beam spot size.

Ultralow-loss mirror of the parts-in-10(6) level at 1064 nm.

We describe an ultralow-loss and high-reflectance mirror at 1064 nm. A Fabry-Perot cavity is fabricated with two mirrors to measure the finesse and the transmission efficiency on resonance. The finesse was cross checked by two different methods: measurements of the cavity decay time and of the frequency-response function. As a result, a loss of 6 +/- 6 x 10(-6) (6 +/- 6 parts in 10(6), scatter and absorption) and a finesse of 2236 +/- 54 were measured during the cavity decay time. This result coincides with that of the response function within accuracies cited above. To our knowledge, the loss is the lowest obtained at 1064 nm.

Malignant lymphomas in Japanese AIDS patients.

Seven non-Hodgkin's malignant lymphomas (MLs) were found in 25 Japanese AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) patients who died at two hospitals in Tokyo. All of these MLs originated from extranodal organs including the brain (three cases), skin (two cases) liver and adrenal gland. B cell markers were demonstrated in all of them. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) capsid antigen (EBVCA) was demonstrated in 5/7, nuclear antigen (EBNA) in 2/2, the W fragment of EBV DNA by in situ hybridization in 5/7 and the same fragment by PCR in 6/7, indicating high association of these MLs with EBV. The adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), endemic in south-west Japan and known to have a high association with HTLV-I, was not found in this series. The incidence of ML among the present AIDS cases is higher than in any other autopsy reports from western countries, although statistical analysis did not show this to be significant in comparison to some of these reports at a level of p less than 0.05. In spite of apparent higher incidence, the histopathologic and immunophenotypic characteristics of AIDS-associated MLs in Japan are in accordance with those in western countries.

Tissue distribution of P-glycoprotein encoded by a multidrug-resistant gene as revealed by a monoclonal antibody, MRK 16.

A monoclonal antibody, MRK 16, specific to a human myelogenous leukemia cell line, K-562, and resistant to Adriamycin, was used to determine the localization of the antigen molecules (P-glycoprotein) recognized by the monoclonal antibody. P-glycoprotein was found to be expressed very strongly in the adrenal cortex and medulla of adults and strongly in the renal tubules of the kidney and the placenta. Interestingly, P-glycoprotein was not distributed in fetal and neonatal adrenals, and thus may be closely related to adrenal maturation. A high level of P-glycoprotein expression was also seen in one case each of untreated lung cancer (one of ten) and breast cancer (one of nine). Immunoelectron microscopically, the P-glycoprotein was distributed evenly on the membranes of K-562/ADM and 2780 cells. These results imply that the presence of the glycoprotein may be useful as a marker for in vitro studies of multidrug resistance in various malignancies and as an indicator of therapeutic efficacy of ex vivo eradication of multidrug-resistant cancer cells, although other mechanisms of drug resistance may exist, and there is a possibility that this MRK 16 monoclonal antibody may not recognize all P-glycoprotein.