HAX1 deficiency has recently been identified as a cause of severe congenital neutropenia (SCN), but little is known about the phenotype. We described an SCN patient with a homozygous 256C-to-T transition causing an R86X mutation in the HAX1 gene. Notably, the patient has been complicated by epilepsy and severe delay of motor, cognitive, and intellectual development; each developmental quotient ...

The molecular heterogeneity of severe congenital neutropenia (SCN) is increasingly recognized and may influence the risk-benefit assessment of therapeutic strategies. We report on a patient with p14 deficiency who succumbed to severe grade IV graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) after a human leukocyte antigen-identical bone marrow transplantion (BMT) from a sibling donor. Before BMT, in vitro gene...

Patients with idiopathic, cyclic, and congenital neutropenia have recurrent severe bacterial infections. One hundred twenty-three patients with recurrent infections and severe chronic neutropenia (absolute neutrophil count < 0.5 x 10(9)/L) due to these diseases were enrolled in this multicenter phase III trial. They were randomized to either immediately beginning recombinant human granulocyte c...

Mutations in the ELA2 gene encoding neutrophil elastase (NE) are present in most patients with severe congenital neutropenia (SCN). However, the mechanisms by which these mutations cause neutropenia remain unknown. To investigate the effects of mutant NE expression on granulopoiesis, we used the HL-60 promyelocytic cell line retrovirally transduced with the G185R NE mutant that is associated wi...

Chronic neutropenia (CN) is a rare disorder in children. It is defined by an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) below 1500 cells per cubic microliter of peripheral blood, lasting for at least 6 months. It can be acquired or congenital. More frequent – acquired chronic neutropenia is mainly caused by: malnutrition, exposure to drugs, chemical compounds and viral infections. CN is the cardinal sympt...

A 10-year-old girl presented with esotropia. She had 35 prism diopters of esodeviation at far and near with left inferior oblique muscle overaction (+3). Cycloplegic refraction was +0.5D OD and +0.75D OS, and visual acuity was 20/25 in each eye. The patient was being treated with G-CSF (Leufokine) due to her severe congenital neutropenia (WBC 3350, neutrophil 7.3%, and ANC 170/ul). Despite of l...

Timing of daily torpor was assessed in suprachiasmatic nucleus-ablated (SCNx) and sham-ablated Siberian hamsters fed restricted amounts of food each day either in the light or dark phase of a 14:10 light-dark cycle. Eighty-five percent of sham-ablated and 45% of SCNx hamsters displayed a preferred hour for torpor onset. In each group, time of torpor onset was not random but occurred at a mean h...

We present a stochastic model of driver mutations in the transition from severe congenital neutropenia to myelodysplastic syndrome to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The model has the form of a multitype branching process. We derive equations for the distributions of the times to consecutive driver mutations and set up simulations involving a range of hypotheses regarding acceleration of the muta...

Hibernation patterns were monitored continuously for 2.5 years in female squirrels that were neurologically intact or in which the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) was completely ablated (SCNx). The number of hibernation bouts in SCNx squirrels increased by 159%, total hibernation time increased by 58%, and periodic arousals from hibernation were 47% longer in SCNx than in control squ...

The phagocytic, bactericidal, and metabolic activities of monocytes from patients with congenital neutropenia were not significantly different than the activities of monocytes from patients with cyclic neutropenia or chronic infections. However, significant differences in metabolic, phagocytic, and bactericidal functions were found between monocytes from any source and normal neutrophils. Durin...