BACKGROUND Leptin and insulin levels are key factors regulating fetal and neonatal energy homeostasis, development and growth. Both biomarkers are used as predictors of weight gain and obesity during infancy. There are currently no prediction algorithms for cord blood (UCB) hormone levels using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) that have been directly trained with anthropometric maternal and neo...

Natural killer (NK) cell-based adoptive immunotherapy is an attractive adjuvant treatment option for patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Recently, we reported a clinical-grade, cytokine-based culture method for the generation of NK cells from umbilical cord blood (UCB) CD34⁺ hematopoietic progenitor cells with high yield, purity and in vitro functionality. The present study was designed to ev...

It is well established that high levels of unconjugated bilirubin (UCB) can be toxic to the central nervous system, and oxidative stress is emerging as a relevant event in the mechanisms of UCB encephalopathy. In contrast, the hydrophilic bile acid, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), has been reported as a cytoprotective and antioxidant molecule. In this study, we investigated if exposure of rat neur...

F.-C. Lin, Center for Imaging the Earth’s Interior, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, 390 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80390-0390, USA. ([email protected]) M. P. Moschetti, Center for Imaging the Earth’s Interior, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, 390 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80390-0390, USA. ([email protected]) M. H. Ritzwoller, Center for Imaging the Earth’s Interior, D...

Unconjugated bilirubin (UCB) causes encephalopathy in severely jaundiced neonates by damaging astrocytes and neurons. Astrocytes, which help defend the brain against cytotoxic insults, express the ATP-dependent transporter, multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (Mrp1), which mediates export of organic anions, probably including UCB. We therefore studied whether exposure to UCB affects the e...

Allogeneic stem cell transplantation has become a curative treatment option for many patients with haematological malignancies, bone marrow failure syndromes, thalassaemia, sickle-cell disease and some rare disorders of the blood and bone marrow. Ideally, stem cells from the peripheral blood or bone marrow are sourced from sibling donors or from a matched unrelated donor if a sibling donor is n...

We study the restless bandit problem where arms are associated with stationary φ-mixing processes and where rewards are therefore dependent: the question that arises from this setting is that of carefully recovering some independence by ‘ignoring’ the values of some rewards. As we shall see, the bandit problem we tackle requires us to address the exploration/exploitation/independence trade-off,...

Recent registry data suggest that host-versus-graft alloreactions mediated by anti-donor HLA antibodies in recipients of adult allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells or single-unit umbilical cord blood (UCB) contribute to the risk of graft failure. The present study evaluated the impact of anti-HLA antibodies on engraftment and unit predominance in 126 double-UCB (dUCB) recipients. Eighteen dUCB r...

Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands University of Texas SW Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA Schoen Klinik, Hamburg, Germany Division of Arthritis/Rheumatic Diseases (OPO9), Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA UCB Pharma, Brussels, Belgium UCB Pharma, Monheim am Rhein, Germany UCB Pharma, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA Swedi...

The authors previously demonstrated that unconjugated bilirubin (UCB) may inhibit the activities of various digestive proteases, including trypsin and chymotrypsin. The digestive proteases in the lower gut are important in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases. The effects of UCB on the inflammation and levels of digestive proteases in feces of rats with colitis have not yet been reve...