Preclinical modeling of myelodysplastic syndromes.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) represent a heterogeneous group of hematological clonal disorders. Here, we have tested the bone marrow (BM) cells from 38 MDS patients covering all risk groups in two immunodeficient mouse models: NSG and NSG-S. Our data show comparable level of engraftment in both models. The level of engraftment was patient specific with no correlation to any specific MDS risk group. Furthermore, the co-injection of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) did not improve the level of engraftment. Finally, we have developed an in vitro two-dimensional co-culture system as an alternative tool to in vivo. Using our in vitro system, we have been able to co-culture CD34+ cells from MDS patient BM on auto- and/or allogeneic MSCs over 4 weeks with a fold expansion of up to 600 times. More importantly, these expanded cells conserved their MDS clonal architecture as well as genomic integrity.

[Diagnosis and surgical treatment of obstructive jaundice in benign diseases]. / Diagnostika i khirurgicheskoe lechenie obturatsionnoi zheltukhi pri dobrokachestvennykh zabolevaniiakh.

The article analyses the results of the diagnosis and surgical treatment of obstructive jaundice caused by benign diseases in 279 patients. Cholelithiasis was the cause of obstructive jaundice in 82.4% of patients; in 30.3% of cases the clinical symptomatology of the disease was atypical due to which the patients were at first placed erroneously in hospitals for infectious diseases. Endoscopic methods of examination proved to be most informative: the informativeness of ERP was 91%, that of combined laparoscopy--98.5%. Choledochoduodenostomy is the operation of choice in choledocholithiasis, and double drainage after O.B. Milonov--in combination of obstructive choledocholithiasis with papillostenosis.