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Objectives: Hamstring strain injuries (HSI) are common among football and soccer athletes. Eccentric strength imbalance is considered a contributing factor for HSI. There is, however, a paucity of data on hamstring imbalances of soccer and American football athletes as they age and advance in skill level. High school athletes will display greater interlimb discrepancies compared with collegiate and professional athletes. In addition, soccer athletes will exhibit greater hamstring asymmetry than American football athletes. Methods: Hamstring testing was performed on soccer and American football athletes using the NordBord Hamstring Testing System (Vald Performance, Albion, Australia). Age, sex, weight, sport specialization, and sport level were recorded. Maximum hamstring forces (N), torque (N · m), and work (N · s) were measured. Hamstring imbalance (%) was calculated by dividing the absolute value of the difference in leg forces divided by their sum. One-way analysis of variance and independent sample t tests compared measurements between athlete groups. Results: A total of 631 athletes completed measurements, including 88 high school male soccer, 25 college male soccer, 23 professional male soccer, 83 high school female soccer, 28 college female soccer, 288 high school football, and 96 college football athletes. High school soccer players displayed significantly greater imbalances for torque (P = 0.03) and work (P < 0.01) than football athletes. Imbalances for maximum force (P = 0.035), torque (P = 0.018), and work (P = 0.033) were significantly higher for male soccer athletes in high school compared with college- and professional-level athletes. Female high school soccer players had significantly higher imbalance in torque (P = 0.045) and work (P = 0.001) compared with female collegiate soccer players. Football athletes did not experience significant changes in force imbalances between skill levels. Conclusions: High school soccer athletes exhibit greater hamstring imbalances than football athletes. Higher levels of play in soccer, for both male and female athletes, correlate with less hamstring asymmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of the pregnant woman with the antiphospholipid syndrome (APLS) has improved over the last 10 years. The recurrent pregnancy loss that is associated with this disease is managed with prophylactic low dose aspirin and heparin therapy. This therapy leads to a 40% absolute risk reduction in pregnancy loss. However, many women still fail to deliver a live infant despite this therapy so immunologic manipulation of the mother''s disease in this group needs to be considered. Intravenous immunoglobulin and plasma exchange may have a role. New immunosuppressive drugs such as tacrolimus have yet to be tried. Monoclonal antibodies to B cells, B-cell growth factors, complement proteins and integrin molecules, all of which appear to play a role in the disease process, may also offer patients some hope. Similarly, biologics such as C1 esterase inhibitor protein, cell surface complement regulator proteins or interleukin-3 need to be tried given their efficacy in models of antibody-induced cell injury. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Peripheral blood lymphocytes of33 patients with histopathologic confirmation of mycosis fungoides and 27 healthy controls matched for age and sex were analyzed with a panel of monoclonal antibodies using both single and dual color immunofluorescence. Patients with mycosis fungoides had a significant reduction in the percentage of circulating T cells with a naive phenotype (i.e., CD4+2H4+ and CD4+Leu8+), as well as a significant reduction in the absolute numbers of circulating lymphocytes with the phenotype CD8+Leu8+ compared to the control cohort. The reduction in circulating naive T cells was found to occur irrespective of stage of disease, duration of disease, or mode of treatment. The depletion of circulating naive T cells may reflect in- creased conversion to memory T cells in the peripheral blood or skin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SummaryPrimary transcripts for all Ig heavy chain isotypes are alternatively processed to encode either secreted or membrane forms of the same antibody and, in plasma cells, a shift towards the secreted form occurs. In principle, measuring the relative quantities of secreted and membrane forms for a particular isotype could monitor B-cell plasmacytoid differentiation. Ratios of α heavy chain mRNA secreted (αs) to membrane (αm) form were assessed by quantitative reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR; TaqMan) using an IgA plasma cell line (NCI-H929), a surface IgA+ line (Dakiki) and human tonsillar B cells. While NCI-H929 cells showed the highest αs: αm ratio as expected, αs mRNA predominated for all unstimulated B cells and Dakiki cells. Treatment of B cells and Dakiki cells with IL-2 and IL-10 resulted in a further progression towards the αs form, correlating with increased human plasma cell antigen-1 (HPC1) mRNA levels. However, α mRNA processing and HPC1 expression were independently regulated, as IFN-γ treatment suppressed HPC1 levels while increasing αs: αm ratios. Cytokine-mediated increases in the αs: αm ratio resulted from strongly enhanced levels of αs with relatively constant αm values. Differentiation-related changes in mRNA processing can thus be tracked by automated quantitative PCR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bcl-2 translocations in follicular lymphomas (FL) are often associated with downstream immunoglobulin class switch recombination (CSR) on the translocated allele. We studied cell lines with different translocations into the IgH locus to gauge any common features associated with downstream CSR events. CSR associated with chromosomal rearrangements was observed in cells (RL) with translocations similar to those frequently observed in FL (bcl-2-JH), and such CSR was also seen with a myc (near exon 1)-JH5 intron translocation (MC116), but not for far 5′-myc-JH5 intron (P3HR-1) or myc-Sμ translocations (Ramos). Both MC116 and P3HR-1 myc translocations showed evidence for an origin from somatic hypermutation. Therefore, the association of JH translocations with CSR on the translocated allele is unlikely to be linked with specific translocation mechanisms, and the P3HR-1 configuration indicated that the downstream class switching is not a necessary consequence of (or precondition for) such a translocation event. MC116 and RL, but not P3HR-1 cells, showed constitutive transcription through the translocated IgH alleles, suggesting that transcription through this region or the processing of such transcripts may promote CSR. However, while CSR events clearly occurred in the precursors of MC116 and RL, neither cell line could undergo complete class switching. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]