A review of the practices and results of the UTMB to South Pole teledermatology program over the past six years.

There is no place on earth more remote and inaccessible than Antarctica. In 2002, Raytheon Polar Services Co. (RPS) awarded The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston the contract to provide specialty medical services via telemedicine to the approximately 3,500 National Science Foundation (NSF) researchers and support personnel who rotate through Antarctica in a given year. We present the practices and results of the UTMB to the South Pole teledermatology program over the past six years, from 2003 to 2008. Issues encountered include logistics of sending out biopsies for pathologic diagnosis, limited bandwidth, and satellite availability for data transmission. The UTMB to the South Pole teledermatology program demonstrates the clinical practicality of telemedicine in providing dermatologic care to remote populations in extreme climate conditions.

Hair depigmentation during chemotherapy with dasatinib, a dual Bcr-Abl/Src family tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

Hair depigmentation has been shown to occur with disruption of the interaction between the ligand stem cell factor (SCF) with its class III receptor tyrosine kinase c-kit, also called the stem cell factor receptor. This article reports the case of a patient who experienced depigmentation of her eyelashes, eyebrows, and temporal scalp hair six-to-eight weeks after initiating treatment with dasatinib (BMS-354825 or Sprycel), a novel dual Bcr-Abl/Src family tyrosine kinase inhibitor for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). This case illustrates a previously unreported side-effect of dasatinib that is most likely due to the drug's inhibition of the c-kit, Src family, and platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta (PDGFRbeta) tyrosine kinases. Further study of hair depigmentation as a side effect of multi-kinase inhibitors can provide useful information on hair and melanocyte physiology.

Evaluation of MMP3 and TIMP1 as candidate genes for high myopia in young Taiwanese men.

PURPOSE: We studied the relationship between high myopia and the MMP3 and TIMP1 genes. DESIGN: Case-control study. METHODS: We enrolled 150 high myopic individuals (< or = -6 diopters) and 262 controls (> or = -1.5 diopters) initially, and another 216 cases and 474 controls were enrolled for genotyping promising polymorphisms for replication. Thirteen polymorphisms were genotyped in the initial data. Logistic regression was used to test for genetic effects. Subset analyses were performed according to the education level and family history. RESULTS: There was no significant association between any polymorphism and high myopia in the initial data. Among the highly educated subjects, the 5A/6A polymorphism at the MMP3 gene suggested a potential relationship with high myopia, and it was genotyped in the follow-up samples. However, this polymorphism failed to show any significant results in the overall subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The two genes may not play a crucial role for high myopia in young Taiwanese men.

Single intravenous injection of naked plasmid DNA encoding erythropoietin provides neuroprotection in hypoxia-ischemia rats.

Hypoxic-ischemic (H-I) encephalopathy is a major contributor to morbidity and mortality in infants and children. To delineate the nature and mechanism(s) of neuroprotection via erythropoietin (EPO) gene therapy, we evaluated the effects of single intravenous injection of naked plasmid DNA encoding EPO in H-I infant rats. Single administration of naked plasmid containing EPO cDNA driven under cytomegalovirus promoter (pCMV-EPO) by rapid injection via the tail vein produced a remarkable level of human EPO protein in the circulation, peaking at one day and lasting for 14 days after injection. There were significant improvements of water maze task in H-I rats after EPO gene therapy. Our data showed that the mechanisms of EPO gene therapy were rescue of CA1 neurons from lethal H-I injury, prevention of neuronal apoptosis in CA1 region, and decrease of glial activation in corpus callosum. This could be the first report of successful treatment of H-I injury by a single intravenous infusion of EPO gene.