Buffy coat-depleted allogeneic blood transfusion increases the incidence of postoperative infection in patients undergoing uncontaminated orthopedic surgery.

No abstract

Multiply traumatized patients exhibit an inadequate EPO response to low hemoglobin concentrations. Thus, anemia in severe trauma is the result of a complex network of bleeding, blunted EPO response to low hemoglobin concentrations, inflammatory mediators, and a hypoferremic state.

Results of the present study confirm the hypothesis of impaired T-cell-mediated immunity after allogeneic transfusion.

The neopterin derivatives, neopterln and 7,8-dihydroneopterin, modulate the cellular oxidant-antioxidant balance as well as the expression of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene. Since apoptosis can be induced by reactive oxygen intermediates and nitric oxide (NO) we investigated whether these neopterin derivatives induce apoptotic cell death. As model we selected the rat alveolar epithelial cell line L2.24 h incubation of neopterin (l-1000 p&I) as well as 7,Sdihydroneopterin (l-1000 pM) resulted in a significant increase of percent apoptotic cells (measured by FACS analysis). Coincubation of both pteridines with the cytomix (interferon-y plus tumor necrosis factor-a) led to a significantly higher apoptosis than the cytomix alone. In contrast to the cytomix, no iNOS gene expression and no NO release could be detected after incubation with neopterin or 7,8-dihydroneopterin. We conclude that neopterin and 7,8-dihydroneopterin are per se inducers of apoptosis which is not mediated by nitric oxide. This may be of importance in inflammatory pulmonary diseases associated with an activation of the cellular immune system.