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Summary The haemophagocytic syndrome (HPS) is a rare but frequently fatal disorder of immune regulation caused by hypercytokinemia. Using cytometric bead array technique, the serum T‐helper cell type 1 (Th1) and 2 (Th2) cytokines including interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ), tumour necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin (IL)‐10, IL‐6, IL‐4 and IL‐2 were determined in 24 children with de novo HPS and 87 children as control. The median levels of serum IFN‐γ, IL‐10 and IL‐6 in the acute phase of HPS were 901·7, 879·0 and 63·8 pg/ml, respectively, significantly higher than those after remission, and in the healthy volunteers and patients with viral infection. IL‐4 was slightly elevated while IL‐2 and TNF were within normal range in acute phase. Patients with bacterial sepsis showed an extremely high level of IL‐6 and moderate level of IL‐10, whereas IFN‐γ was only slightly elevated. Five patients were diagnosed with HPS according to the Th1/Th2 cytokine pattern 3–13 d earlier than they fulfilled the relevant diagnostic criteria. IL‐10 level >2000 pg/ml was an unfavorable prognostic factor for HPS treatment response (P = 0·033) and outcome (P = 0·009). We conclude that the significant increase of IFN‐γ and IL‐10 and a slightly increased level of IL‐6 is an early, specific and prognostic cytokine pattern for childhood HPS.

Recently a new family of Cr-based A 2 Cr 3 As 3 (A = K, Rb, Cs) superconductors were reported, which own a rare quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) crystal structure with infinite (Cr 3 As 3 ) 2chains and exhibit intriguing superconducting characteristics possibly derived from spin-triplet electron pairing. The crystal structure of A 2 Cr 3 As 3 is actually a slight variation of the hexagonal TlFe 3 Te 3 prototype although they have different lattice symmetry. Here we report superconductivity in a 133-type KCr 3 As 3 compound that belongs to the latter structure. The single crystals of KCr 3 As 3 were prepared by the deintercalation of K ions from K 2 Cr 3 As 3 crystals which were grown from a high-temperature solution growth method, and it owns a centrosymmetric lattice in contrast to the non-centrosymmetric K 2 Cr 3 As 3 .After annealing at a moderate temperature, the KCr 3 As 3 crystals show bulk superconductivity at 5 K revealed by electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity measurements. The discovery of this KCr 3 As 3 superconductor provides a different structural instance to study the exotic superconductivity in these Q1D Cr-based superconductors.

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Abstract:Here we report the preparation and superconductivity of the 133-type Cr-based quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) RbCr 3 As 3 single crystals.