The American Society for Apheresis (ASFA) Journal of Clinical Apheresis (JCA) Special Issue Writing Committee is charged with reviewing, updating and categorizing indications for the evidence‐based use of therapeutic apheresis (TA) in human disease. Since the 2007 JCA Special Issue (Fourth Edition), the committee has incorporated systematic review and evidence‐based approaches in the grading and categorization of apheresis indications. This Eighth Edition of the JCA Special Issue continues to maintain this methodology and rigor in order to make recommendations on the use of apheresis in a wide variety of diseases/conditions. The JCA Eighth Edition, like its predecessor, continues to apply the category and grading system definitions in fact sheets. The general layout and concept of a fact sheet that was introduced in the Fourth Edition, has largely been maintained in this edition. Each fact sheet succinctly summarizes the evidence for the use of TA in a specific disease entity or medical condition. The Eighth Edition comprises 84 fact sheets for relevant diseases and medical conditions, with 157 graded and categorized indications and/or TA modalities. The Eighth Edition of the JCA Special Issue seeks to continue to serve as a key resource that guides the utilization of TA in the treatment of human disease.

The American Society for Apheresis (ASFA) JCA Special Issue Writing Committee is charged with reviewing, updating and categorizating indications for therapeutic apheresis. Beginning with the 2007 ASFA Special Issue (Fourth Edition), the committee has incorporated systematic review and evidence-based approach in the grading and categorization of indications. This Sixth Edition of the ASFA Special Issue has further improved the process of using evidence-based medicine in the recommendations by consistently applying the category and GRADE system definitions, but eliminating the "level of evidence" criteria (from the University HealthCare Consortium) utilized in prior editions given redundancy between GRADE and University HealthCare Consortium systems. The general layout and concept of a fact sheet that was utilized in the Fourth and Fifth Editions, has been largely maintained in this edition. Each fact sheet succinctly summarizes the evidence for the use of therapeutic apheresis in a specific disease entity. This article consists of 78 fact sheets (increased from 2010) for therapeutic indications in ASFA categories I through IV, with many diseases categorized having multiple clinical presentations/situations which are individually graded and categorized.

Dietary vitamin A deficiency causes eye disease in 40 million children each year and places 140 to 250 million at risk for health disorders. Many children in sub-Saharan Africa subsist on maize-based diets. Maize displays considerable natural variation for carotenoid composition, including vitamin A precursors alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, and beta-cryptoxanthin. Through association analysis, linkage mapping, expression analysis, and mutagenesis, we show that variation at the lycopene epsilon cyclase (lcyE) locus alters flux down alpha-carotene versus beta-carotene branches of the carotenoid pathway. Four natural lcyE polymorphisms explained 58% of the variation in these two branches and a threefold difference in provitamin A compounds. Selection of favorable lcyE alleles with inexpensive molecular markers will now enable developing-country breeders to more effectively produce maize grain with higher provitamin A levels.

Peripheral nerve injury can lead to a persistent neuropathic pain state in which innocuous tactile stimulation elicits pain behavior (tactile allodynia). Spinal administration of the anticonvulsant gabapentin suppresses allodynia by an unknown mechanism. In vitro studies indicate that gabapentin binds to the ␣ 2 ␦-1 (hereafter referred to as ␣ 2 ␦) subunit of voltage-gated calcium channels. We hypothesized that nerve injury may result in altered ␣ 2 ␦ subunit expression in spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) and that this change may play a role in neuropathic pain processing. Using a rat neuropathic pain model in which gabapentin-sensitive tactile allodynia develops after tight ligation of the left fifth and sixth lumbar spinal nerves, we found a Ͼ17-fold, time-dependent increase in ␣ 2 ␦ subunit expression in DRGs ipsilateral to the nerve injury. Marked ␣ 2 ␦ subunit upregulation was also evident in rats with unilateral sciatic nerve crush, but not dorsal rhizotomy, indicating a peripheral origin of the expression regulation. The increased ␣ 2 ␦ subunit expression preceded the allodynia onset and diminished in rats recovering from tactile allodynia. RNase protection experiments indicated that the DRG ␣ 2 ␦ regulation was at the mRNA level. In contrast, calcium channel ␣ 1B and ␤ 3 subunit expression was not co-upregulated with the ␣ 2 ␦ subunit after nerve injury. These data suggest that DRG ␣ 2 ␦ regulation may play an unique role in neuroplasticity after peripheral nerve injury that may contribute to allodynia development. Key words: ␣ 2 ␦ calcium channel subunit; peripheral nerve injury; rhizotomy; allodynia; dorsal root ganglia; spinal cord; sensory neuronsPeripheral nerve injury may lead to neuropathic syndromes characterized by both spontaneous and evoked painful sensations. Allodynia, or an exaggerated response to otherwise innocuous tactile stimuli, is considered both a hallmark and the most troublesome of these syndromes (Price et al., 1989;Wahren and Torebjork, 1992;Koltzenburg et al., 1994). The molecular mechanisms of neuropathic pain states are not clear. It has been hypothesized that disordered sensory processing arises from long-term changes in the function of sensory afferents and the organization of sensory input into the dorsal horn (Coderre et al., 1993;Woolf and Doubell, 1994).Pharmacological evidence suggests that spinal N-type voltagegated calcium channels (N-VGCCs) play a role in neuropathic pain transduction. Intrathecal delivery of N-type ( -conopeptides), but not L-or P-type, VGCC antagonists suppresses allodynia in neuropathic rat models (Chaplan et al., 1994b;Calcutt and Chaplan, 1997). Autoradiographic studies showed the highest density of conopeptide-binding sites in the spinal dorsal horn (lamina I and II) where primary afferents terminate (Kerr et al., 1988;Takemura et al., 1989). N-VGCCs are also found in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons where they are differentially modulated after sciatic nerve damage (Abdulla and Smith, 1997).High-threshold neuronal VGCCs contain thr...

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Complementary DNAs were isolated and used to deduce the primary structures of the alpha 1 and alpha 2 subunits of the dihydropyridine-sensitive, voltage-dependent calcium channel from rabbit skeletal muscle. The alpha 1 subunit, which contains putative binding sites for calcium antagonists, is a hydrophobic protein with a sequence that is consistent with multiple transmembrane domains and shows structural and sequence homology with other voltage-dependent ion channels. In contrast, the alpha 2 subunit is a hydrophilic protein without homology to other known protein sequences. Nucleic acid hybridization studies suggest that the alpha 1 and alpha 2 subunit mRNAs are expressed differentially in a tissue-specific manner and that there is a family of genes encoding additional calcium channel subtypes.

Plant oil is an important renewable resource for biodiesel production and for dietary consumption by humans and livestock. Through genetic mapping of the oil trait in plants, studies have reported multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with small effects, but the molecular basis of oil QTLs remains largely unknown. Here we show that a high-oil QTL (qHO6) affecting maize seed oil and oleic-acid contents encodes an acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT1-2), which catalyzes the final step of oil synthesis. We further show that a phenylalanine insertion in DGAT1-2 at position 469 (F469) is responsible for the increased oil and oleic-acid contents. The DGAT1-2 allele with F469 is ancestral, whereas the allele without F469 is a more recent mutant selected by domestication or breeding. Ectopic expression of the high-oil DGAT1-2 allele increases oil and oleic-acid contents by up to 41% and 107%, respectively. This work provides insights into the molecular basis of natural variation of oil and oleic-acid contents in plants and highlights DGAT as a promising target for increasing oil and oleic-acid contents in other crops.