Bovine Hemoglobin-Based Oxygen Carrier Treatment in a Severely Anemic Jehovah's Witness Patient After Cystoprostatectomy and Nephrectomy: A Case Report.

Patients who are Jehovah's Witnesses are known to the medical community for frequently declining blood products, even at times of life-threatening anemia. Alternatives to red blood cell transfusion are being developed, including hemoglobin (Hb)-based oxygen carriers. We present the case of a 77-year-old male Jehovah's Witness who underwent a cystoprostatectomy and radical nephrectomy with a postoperative Hb nadir of 4.5 g/dL. He received an Hb-based oxygen carrier, PEGylated carboxyhemoglobin bovine (Sanguinate), with gradual improvement in anemia symptoms and eventual discharge to a short-term rehabilitation facility.

Fibronectin matrix assembly suppresses dispersal of glioblastoma cells.

Glioblastoma (GBM), the most aggressive and most common form of primary brain tumor, has a median survival of 12-15 months. Surgical excision, radiation and chemotherapy are rarely curative since tumor cells broadly disperse within the brain. Preventing dispersal could be of therapeutic benefit. Previous studies have reported that increased cell-cell cohesion can markedly reduce invasion by discouraging cell detachment from the tumor mass. We have previously reported that α5ß1 integrin-fibronectin interaction is a powerful mediator of indirect cell-cell cohesion and that the process of fibronectin matrix assembly (FNMA) is crucial to establishing strong bonds between cells in 3D tumor-like spheroids. Here, we explore a potential role for FNMA in preventing dispersal of GBM cells from a tumor-like mass. Using a series of GBM-derived cell lines we developed an in vitro assay to measure the dispersal velocity of aggregates on a solid substrate. Despite their similar pathologic grade, aggregates from these lines spread at markedly different rates. Spreading velocity is inversely proportional to capacity for FNMA and restoring FNMA in GBM cells markedly reduces spreading velocity by keeping cells more connected. Blocking FNMA using the 70 KDa fibronectin fragment in FNMA-restored cells rescues spreading velocity, establishing a functional role for FNMA in mediating dispersal. Collectively, the data support a functional causation between restoration of FNMA and decreased dispersal velocity. This is a first demonstration that FNMA can play a suppressive role in GBM dispersal.