We report on the occurrence of a cell population within the murine epidermis which, by both morphologic and surface property criteria, is distinct from all other epidermal cell types known so far. These previously unrecognized cells are evenly distributed within the epidermis, display a primarily dendritic shape, exhibit a lobulated nucleus, contain large amounts of vimentin type intermediate-sized filaments, but lack desmosomes, melanosomes, Merkel cell granules, and Birbeck granules. As opposed to melanocytes, these cells fail to display tyrosinase activity. Surface marker analysis reveals these cells to uniformly express the Thy-1 antigen and to lack I-A and I-E/C antigen specificities. A major portion of these Thy-1-bearing cells are reactive with a monoclonal antibody to the Ly-5 determinant whereas attempts to demonstrate Lyt-1,2,3 antigens consistently yield negative results. These findings strongly suggest that Thy-1+ epidermal cells originate from the bone marrow; however, their precise relationship to distinct members of the hemopoietic differentiation pathway remains to be established.
We report a patient presenting at age 16 years with postural instability and falls who developed severe generalized dystonia by the age of 20 years. He was the product of a consanguineous marriage. Maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother (brother and sister) living in the Azores were both affected by Machado-Joseph disease (MJD) beginning late in life. To date neither of the patient's parents are clinically affected. Linkage studies in this family and others of Azorean descent have confirmed the recent mapping of the MJD gene to chromosome 14q. Genotyping of the members of this pedigree provides strong genetic evidence that our patient is homozygous for the MJD gene. Our results combined with experience in 2 putative homozygotes previously reported in the literature suggest that gene dosage is an important determinant of age of onset and clinical phenotype in MJD. Other possible influencing factors are discussed.
We measured neopterin, a biochemical indicator for the activation of cell-mediated immune reactions, in urines from 105 individuals at risk of infection with human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1), 83 of whom were seropositive for antibody to HIV-1. We compared absolute numbers of T-cell subsets (CD4+ helper/inducer T-cells, CD8+ suppressor/cytotoxic T-cells), and the ratio of CD4+ T-cells to CD8+ T-cells with the urinary neopterin concentrations. Concentrations of neopterin in urine were inversely correlated with absolute numbers of CD4+ T-cells and with CD4+/CD8+ ratios in anti-HIV-1 seropositive subjects but not in those seronegative. Various statistical comparisons of the data further demonstrated that neopterin concentrations showed larger differences between anti-HIV-1 seronegative and seropositive subjects than absolute numbers of CD4+ T-cells or CD4+/CD8+ ratios. These results seem to indicate that neopterin concentrations increase earlier in the course of HIV-1 infection, before effects on T-cell subpopulations are detectable, and may further support the suggestion that neopterin measurement could be of use for monitoring infected subjects or predicting the progression of disease.
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