Objectives To assess to what extent educational differences in total life expectancy (TLE) and disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) could be reduced by improving fruit and vegetable consumption in ten European countries. Methods Data from national census or registries with mortality follow-up, EU-SILC, and ESS were used in two scenarios to calculate the impact: the upward levelling scenario (exposure in low educated equals exposure in high educated) and the elimination scenario (no exposure in both groups). Results are estimated for men and women between ages 35 and 79 years. Results Varying by country, upward levelling reduced inequalities in DFLE by 0.1-1.1 years (1-10%) in males, and by 0.0-1.3 years (0-18%) in females. Eliminating exposure reduced inequalities in DFLE between 0.6 and 1.7 years for males (6-15%), and between 0.1 years and 1.8 years for females (3-20%). Conclusions Upward levelling of fruit and vegetable consumption would have a small, positive effect on both TLE and DFLE, and could potentially reduce inequalities in TLE and DFLE.

BackgroundPersistent mixed chimerism represents a state in which recipient and donor cells stably co-exist after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. However, since in most of the studies reported in literature the engraftment state was observed in the nucleated cells, in this study we determined the donor origin of the mature erythrocytes of patients with persistent mixed chimerism after transplantation for hemoglobinopathies. Results were compared with the engraftment state observed in singly picked out burst-forming unit -erythroid colonies and in the nucleated cells collected from the peripheral blood and from the bone marrow. Design and MethodsThe donor origin of the erythrocytes was determined analyzing differences on the surface antigens of the erythrocyte suspension after incubation with anti-ABO and/or anti-C, -c, -D, -E and -e monoclonal antibodies by a flow cytometer. Analysis of short tandem repeats was used to determine the donor origin of nucleated cells and burst-forming unit -erythroid colonies singly picked out after 14 days of incubation. ResultsThe proportions of donor-derived nucleated cells in four transplanted patients affected by hemoglobinopathies were 71%, 46%, 15% and 25% at day 1364, 1385, 1314 and 932, respectively. Similar results were obtained for the erythroid precursors, analyzing the donor/recipient origin of the burst-forming unit -erythroid colonies. In contrast, on the same days of observation, the proportions of donor-derived erythrocytes in the four patients with persistent mixed chimerism were 100%, 100%, 73% and 90%. ConclusionsOur results showed that most of the erythrocytes present in four long-term transplanted patients affected by hemoglobinopathies and characterized by the presence of few donor engrafted nucleated cells were of donor origin. The indication that small proportions of donor engrafted cells might be sufficient for clinical control of the disease in patients affected by hemoglobinopathies is relevant, although the biological mechanisms underlying these observations need further investigation.Key words: hemoglobinopathies, persistent mixed chimerism, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.Citation: Andreani M, Testi M, Gaziev J, Condello R, Bontadini A, Tazzari PL, Ricci F, De Felice L, Agostini F, Fraboni D, Ferrari G, Battarra M, Troiano M, Sodani P and Lucarelli G. Quantitatively different red cell/nucleated cell chimerism in patients with long-term, persistent hematopoietic mixed chimerism after bone marrow transplantation for thalassemia major or sickle cell disease. Haematologica 2011;96(1):128-133. doi:10.3324/haematol.2010 This is an open-access paper.Quantitatively different red cell/nucleated cell chimerism in patients with long-term, persistent hematopoietic mixed chimerism after bone marrow transplantation for thalassemia major or sickle cell disease

Background: Inside the cell, the HIV Tat protein is mainly found in the nucleus and nucleolus. The nucleolus, the site of ribosome biogenesis, is a highly organized, non-membrane-bound subcompartment where proteins with a high affinity for nucleolar components are found. While it is well known that Tat accumulates in the nucleolus via a specific nucleolar targeting sequence, its function in this compartment it still unknown.

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Interferon beta (IFNβ) was the first specific disease-modifying treatment licensed for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and is still one of the most commonly prescribed treatments. A strong body of evidence supports the effectiveness of IFNβ preparations in reducing the annual relapse rate, magnetic resonance (MRI) disease activity and disease progression. However, the development of binding/neutralizing antibodies (BAbs/NAbs) during treatment negatively affects clinical and MRI outcomes. Therefore, guidelines for the clinical use for the detection of NAbs in MS may result in better treatment of these patients. In October 2012, a panel of Italian neurologists from 17 MS clinics convened in Milan to review and discuss data on NAbs and their clinical relevance in the treatment of MS. In this paper, we report the panel's recommendations for the use of IFNβ Nabs detection in the early identification of IFNβ non-responsiveness and the management of patients on IFNβ treatment in Italy, according to a model of therapeutically appropriate care.

In this consecutive series of patients treated with Duodopa, we observed one subacute sensory-motor PN and few length-dependent alterations of peripheral nerves, similar to those described during oral levodopa treatment.

Polymorphisms in the 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR) of HLA‐G, an important player in immunological tolerance, could be involved in post‐transcriptional expression control, and their association with different clinical immune‐related conditions including autoimmunity and transplantation is of mounting interest. Most studies have focused on a 14 base pair (bp) insertion/deletion (ins/del), while additional single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the HLA‐G 3′UTR have been described but not extensively investigated for their clinical relevance. Here we have comparatively studied the association between 3′UTR haplotypes of HLA‐G, or the 14 bp ins/del, with clinical outcome of HLA‐identical sibling hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in 147 Middle Eastern beta‐thalassemia patients. Sequence based typing of 3′UTR HLA‐G polymorphisms in the patients and in 102 healthy Italian blood donors showed strong linkage disequilibrium between the 14 bp ins/del and five 3′UTR SNPs, which together could be arranged into eight distinct haplotypes based on expectation‐maximization studies, with four predominant haplotypes (UTRs1–4). After HSCT, we found a moderate though not significant association between the presence of UTR‐2 in double dose and protection from acute graft versus host disease (hazard ratio (HR) 0.45, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.14–1.45; P = 0.18), an effect that was also seen when the corresponding 14 bp ins/ins genotype was considered alone (HR 0.42, 95% CI: 0.16–1.06; P = 0.07). No association was found with rejection or survival. Taken together, our data show that there is no apparent added value of considering entire 3′UTR HLA‐G haplotypes for risk prediction after allogeneic HSCT for beta‐thalassemia.

The information regarding the probability of finding a matched unrelated donor (MUD) within a relatively short time is crucial for the success of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), particularly in patients with malignancies. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed 315 Italian patients who started a search for a MUD, in order to assess the distribution of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles and haplotypes in this population of patients and to evaluate the probability of finding a donor. Comparing two groups of patients based on whether or not a 10/10 HLA-matched donor was available, we found that patients who had a fully-matched MUD possessed at least one frequent haplotype more often than the others (45.6% vs 14.3%; P = 0.000003). In addition, analysis of data pertaining to the HLA class I alleles distribution showed that, in the first group of patients, less common alleles were under-represented (20.2% vs 40.0%; P = 0.006). Therefore, the presence of less frequent alleles represents a negative factor for the search for a potential compatible donor being successful, whereas the presence of one frequent haplotype represents a positive predictive factor. Antigenic differences between patient and donor observed at C and DQB1 loci, were mostly represented by particular B/C or DRB1/DQB1 allelic associations. Thus, having a particular B or DRB1 allele, linked to multiple C or DQB1 alleles, respectively, might be considered to be associated with a lower probability of a successful search. Taken together, these data may help determine in advance the probability of finding a suitable unrelated donor for an Italian patient.