Impact of maternal engrafted cytomegalovirus-specific CD8+ T cells in a patient with severe combined immunodeficiency.

OBJECTIVES: In patients with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), the immune system often fails to eradicate maternal cells that enter the foetus via the placenta, resulting in transplacental maternal engraftment (TME) syndrome. However, the clinical significance of TME has not been comprehensively elucidated. METHODS: Here, we describe a patient with SCID with a novel frameshift IL2RG mutation associated with maternal engrafted CD8+ T cells that had been expanded by viral infection. To evaluate the origin of the expanded T cells, we HLA-typed the myeloid and T cells of the patient and analysed the immunological characteristics of the expanded CD8+ T cells using T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire and flow cytometry analysis. RESULTS: In our patient, the maternal engrafted CD8+ T cells expanded and exerted in vitro antiviral function against human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection before and after haematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). After haploidentical HCT from the maternal donor, maternal engrafted CMV-specific CD8+ T cells were maintained, successfully proliferated and activated against CMV. We found no evidence of acute graft-versus-host disease or infectious complications other than recurrent episodes of CMV viraemia, which were well controlled by ganciclovir and, possibly by, the maternal engrafted CMV-specific CD8+ T cells. CONCLUSION: Our findings elucidate a possible functional role of TME in controlling CMV infection in patient with SCID and suggest an optimal strategy for donor selection in patients with SCID with TME.

Comparison of Short-Term Associations between PM2.5 Components and Mortality across Six Major Cities in South Korea.

Association between short-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and mortality or morbidity varies geographically, and this variation could be due to different chemical composition affected by local sources. However, there have been only a few Asian studies possibly due to limited monitoring data. Using nationwide regulatory monitoring data of PM2.5 chemical components in South Korea, we aimed to compare the associations between daily exposure to PM2.5 components and mortality across six major cities. We obtained daily 24-h concentrations of PM2.5 and 11 PM2.5 components measured from 2013 to 2015 at single sites located in residential areas. We used death certificate data to compute the daily counts of nonaccidental, cardiovascular, and respiratory deaths. Using the generalized additive model, we estimated relative risks of daily mortality for an interquartile range increase in each pollutant concentration, while controlling for a longer-term time trend and meteorology. While elemental carbon was consistently associated with nonaccidental mortality across all cities, nickel and vanadium were strongly associated with respiratory or cardiovascular mortality in Busan and Ulsan, two large port cities. Our study shows that PM2.5 components responsible for PM2.5-associated mortality differed across cities depending on the dominant pollution sources, such as traffic and oil combustion.

Mercury leaching characteristics of waste treatment residues generated from various sources in Korea.

In this study, mercury (Hg) leaching characteristics of the waste treatment residues (fly ash, bottom ash, sludge, and phosphor powder) generated from various sources (municipal, industrial, medical waste incinerators, sewage sludge incinerator, oil refinery, coal-fired power plant, steel manufacturing plant, fluorescent lamp recycler, and cement kiln) in Korea were investigated. First, both Hg content analysis and toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) testing was conducted for 31 collected residue samples. The Hg content analysis showed that fly ash from waste incinerators contained more Hg than the other residue samples. However, the TCLP values of fly ash samples with similar Hg content varied widely based on the residue type. Fly ash samples with low and high Hg leaching ratios (RL) were further analyzed to identify the major factors that influence the Hg leaching potential. Buffering capacity of the low-RL fly ash was higher than that of the high-RL fly ash. The Hg speciation results suggest that the low-RL fly ashes consisted primarily of low-solubility Hg compounds (Hg2Cl2, Hg(0) or HgS), whereas the high-RL fly ashes contain more than 20% high-solubility Hg compounds (HgCl2 or HgSO4).

Behavior of PAHs from sewage sludge incinerators in Korea.

Although production of sewage sludge increases every year, its proper treatment has only been recently raised as a new issue, as current landfill and ocean dumping arrangements are expected to become increasingly difficult to manage in the future. The Korean Ministry of Environment plans to diversify its processing facilities and expand its processing systems by 2011, with the purpose of processing all sludge produced in Korea. According to this plan, incineration (including incineration of municipal wastes) will process 30% of the entire sewage sludge throughout the country in 2011. This study reviews the characteristics of PAH, which is one of the organic substances found in sewage sludge during the incinerating process. The total amount of PAH produced from sewage sludge incineration was found to be 6.103 mg/kg on average, and investigation performed on 16 PAHs of inlets and outlets of the air control devices at five full-scale incineration facilities showed that concentrations of the PAHs on the inlet and on the outlet ranged from 3.926 to 925.748 microg/m(3) and from 1.153 to 189.449 microg/m(3), respectively. In the case of the incineration facility fed with municipal waste (95%) and sewage sludge (5%), the total of the PAH emissions concentration was higher than that found at the incineration facilities used exclusively to treat sewage. The combustion of waste vinyl and plastics contained in municipal waste fed into the facility might contribute to the high levels of PAHs in the stack gas. However more investigation is needed on the production mechanism of PAHs at different operating conditions of the incineration facilities, such as the types of waste, and other relevant factors.