ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: This retrospective study aimed to describe a cohort of 38 pediatric patients with MOGAD and to investigate the clinical differences between patients with CSF-negativity and CSF-positivity for MOG-abs. METHODS: The clinical and laboratory characteristics of pediatric patients with MOGAD were retrospectively studied. Demographics, clinical characteristics, CSF analysis, treatments and prognosis of patients were recorded. All patients' serums and CSF were tested for MOG-IgG by live cell-based assays (CBA). The data were statistically analysed. RESULTS: A total of 38 pediatric MOGAD patients were enrolled in the study, including 22 (57.9 %) females and 16 male (42.1 %) with a mean age of 8.4 ± 4.0 years at disease onset. Twenty-seven (71.7 %) patients were CSF-positive for MOG-abs while 11 (28.9 %) patients were CSF-negative for MOG-abs. The median follow-up was 25.5 months (IQR 5.5-73.25). Seventeen (44.7 %) patients presented a relapsing disease course, and the majority of these patients was CSF positive with a significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.038) in terms of recurrent diseases. CSF-positive patients presented more often an increased white cell count (p = 0.043), and in this cohort clinical phenotypes with spinal involvement were more frequent while encephalitis-like phenotypes were more frequent in the CSF negative cohort (p = 0.019). CONCLUSIONS: CSF-status appears to identify two subgroups in this pediatric MOGAD population; thus, CSF-status requires further studies in pediatric patients with MOGAD.
ABSTRACT
Cyanobacteria have long been thought to induce the formation of Ca-carbonates as secondary by-products of their metabolic activity, by shifting the chemical composition of their extracellular environment to conditions favoring mineral precipitation. Some cyanobacterial species forming Ca-carbonates intracellularly were recently discovered. However, the environmental conditions under which this intracellular biomineralization process can occur and the impact of cyanobacterial species forming Ca-carbonates intracellularly on extracellular carbonatogenesis are not known. Here, we show that these cyanobacteria can form Ca-carbonates intracellularly while growing in extracellular solutions undersaturated with respect to all Ca-carbonate phases, that is, conditions thermodynamically unfavorable to mineral precipitation. This shows that intracellular Ca-carbonate biomineralization is an active process; that is, it costs energy provided by the cells. The cost of energy may be due to the active accumulation of Ca intracellularly. Moreover, unlike cyanobacterial strains that have been usually considered before by studies on Ca-carbonate biomineralization, cyanobacteria forming intracellular carbonates may slow down or hamper extracellular carbonatogenesis, by decreasing the saturation index of their extracellular solution following the buffering of the concentration of extracellular calcium to low levels.
