No specific characteristics have been identified as predictors of peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) mobilization in healthy donors. In this study, clinical characteristics and laboratory data for 122 healthy donors who underwent apheresis on day 5 of treatment with recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) were retrospectively analyzed for correlations with CD34(+) cell mobilization. The variables that were analyzed included age, sex, body weight, basal complete blood count, and maximum white blood count (WBC) before apheresis, G-CSF type, and dosage. Median age and body weight were 42.5 years (range 16-65) and 72.5 kg (range 47-121), respectively. By univariate analysis, male sex (P = 0.007), body weight (< or = 70 vs. >70 kg, P = 0.04), and donor's age (< or = 50 vs. > 50 years; P = 0.015) were correlated with the number of CD34(+) cells mobilized. By multivariate analysis, donor's age and male sex were the only two variables that significantly predicted a high CD34(+) cell level. In conclusion, our data suggest that male sex and younger age are the only factors that significantly affect CD34(+) mobilization in healthy donors.

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BackgroundSome evidence supports vascular aging as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are a subset of bone-marrow cells that are thought to play an important role in improving the endothelial function. In particular, it has been shown that EPCs recruited into ischemic tissues promote angiogenesis and thereby contribute to tissue regeneration. The recruitment of EPCs to promote neovascularization or repair damaged endothelium is diminished by aging. Therefore, it is possible that aging can alter the process of differentiation from immature early-EPCs to mature and ready for homing late-EPCs. This process is complex and proceeds through several steps. Early-EPCs express markers of hematopoietic stem cells (CD34 and CD133), then these cells loose CD133 and express endothelial markers, such as VEGFR2 and Ve-Cadherin. Material and methodsFollowing approval of the study by the local ethics committee 26 healthy subjects were enrolled. Participants were classified in two groups, accordingly to their age: 13 young subjects (8 men, 5 women; age, 43±0.65) and 13 aged subjects (6 men, 7 women; age, 56±1.5).We analyzed peripheral blood not later than 5h after collection, using a high performance flow cytometer BD FACSCanto. We identified after setting a live gate on cells: ResultsWe found that there were not significant differences in the numbers of early-EPCs and EPCs between young and aged people. In contrast, aged people showed a dramatic decrement in the number of late-EPCs with respect to the young group (*P<0.001; Fig. 1). ConclusionsOur results suggest that one of the mechanisms that underlies the age-associated alterations in vascular

Post-mortem microbiology is an important tool in legal medicine and forensic pathology; this case report shows the importance of microbiological testing to establish the cause of death in infection suspected death. We refer a case of fatal Influenza A (H1N1) diagnosed only after dead with post-mortem microbiology tool.