A lymphangiosarcoma with metastases was found in a horse that presented with respiratory distress and edema in the ventral thorax and abdomen. The necropsy revealed diffuse edema in the subcutaneous connective tissue. Mediastinal, mesenteric, iliac, and renal lymph nodes were enlarged and white with soft, yellowish necrotic areas. Histologic examination revealed numerous channels and disorganized vessels lined by large polyhedral, polymorphic cells. Tumor metastases were observed in the spleen, lungs, and kidneys. Immunohistochemical evaluation of the tumor cells demonstrated positive staining for factor VIII, vimentin, and keratin. Laminin was scarce, and collagen IV staining was negative, consistent with a discontinuous or absent basement membrane.

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SummaryA broad variety of foreign genes can be expressed in transgenic plants, which offer the opportunity for large-scale production of pharmaceutical proteins, such as therapeutic antibodies. Nimotuzumab is a humanized anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) recombinant IgG1 antibody approved in different countries for the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, paediatric and adult glioma, and nasopharyngeal and oesophageal cancers. Because the antitumour mechanism of nimotuzumab is mainly attributed to its ability to interrupt the signal transduction cascade triggered by EGF/EGFR interaction, we have hypothesized that an aglycosylated form of this antibody, produced by mutating the N 297 position in the IgG 1 Fc region gene, would have similar biochemical and biological properties as the mammalian-cell-produced glycosylated counterpart. In this paper, we report the production and characterization of an aglycosylated form of nimotuzumab in transgenic tobacco plants. The comparison of the plantibody and nimotuzumab in terms of recognition of human EGFR, effect on tyrosine phosphorylation and proliferation in cells in response to EGF, competition with radiolabelled EGF for EGFR, affinity measurements of Fab fragments, pharmacokinetic and biodistribution behaviours in rats and antitumour effects in nude mice bearing human A431 tumours showed that both antibody forms have very similar in vitro and in vivo properties. Our results support the idea that the production of aglycosylated forms of some therapeutic antibodies in transgenic plants is a feasible approach when facing scaling strategies for anticancer immunoglobulins.

An evaluation of the performance of a laboratory-scale microalgae pond treating effluent from an anaerobic fixed bed reactor digesting distillery wastewater was carried out. The microalgae pond operated with an effluent recycling (R) of 10:1 with respect to the influent and at surface organic loading rates of 418 kg COD ha(-1) day(-1) and 92 kg BOD5 ha(-1) day(-1). During the experiment total chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), total solids (TS), total suspended solids (TSS), volatile suspended solids (VSS), total nitrogen, ammonia, total phosphorus, orthophosphate, total chlorophyll (CT) and chlorophyll a (Ca) concentrations were monitored. Overall COD and BOD5 removal efficiencies of 98.2% and 98.8% were obtained. The global solids removal efficiencies were of 93.2%, 92.6% and 97.6% for TS, TSS and VSS, respectively. The removal efficiencies obtained for organic nitrogen and ammonia were 90.2% and 84.1%, respectively. Finally, the removals for total phosphorus and orthophosphate were 85.5% and 87.3%, respectively. It was demonstrated that microalgae grew in this waste by determination of the total chlorophyll and chlorophyll a in the effluent.

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