BACKGROUND In recent years, the presence of disseminated tumor cells (DTC) in bone marrow (BM) of patients with breast cancer (BC) is considered as an important clinical feature of the distribution process. However, relapse often occurs in spite of the negative results of the bone marrow cytology. This suggests the need to find additional signs of the possibility for predict the recurrence. A...

PURPOSE Previous studies showed that serum tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b (TRACP5b) activity was increased in 70% to 94% of breast cancer (BC) patients with bone metastasis (BM). This study aims to determine whether serum TRACP5b is useful for identifying limited or extensive BM in BC patients. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Serum TRACP5b activity was measured in 168 BC patients, including 81 wh...

Bruch's membrane (BM) is a unique pentalaminar structure, which is strategically located between the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and the fenestrated choroidal capillaries of the eye. BM is an elastin- and collagen-rich extracellular matrix that acts as a molecular sieve. BM partly regulates the reciprocal exchange of biomolecules, nutrients, oxygen, fluids and metabolic waste products betw...

Flt3 ligand (FL) is a potent hemopoietic growth factor that strikingly enhances stem cells and dendritic cells (DC) in vivo. We examined the impact of infusing FL-mobilized bone marrow (BM) cells on microchimerism and anti-donor reactivity in normal and tacrolimus-immunosuppressed, noncytoablated allogeneic recipients. BM from B10 (H2b) mice given FL (10 microg/day; days 0-8; FL-BM) contained a...

Incomplete donor chimerism (DC) after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is associated with reduced overall and disease-free survival and decreasing DC can precede overt relapse of malignant diseases. Sensitive chimerism quantification may therefore allow for early therapeutic intervention, potentially improving treatment response. Frequently, post-HSCT chimerism monitoring involves...

Tumor cells traverse basement membranes (BM) during the stages of the metastatic process. Penetration of the BM may involve proteolysis by enzymes directly or indirectly associated with tumor cells. This study evaluated the role of the serine proteases urokinase (plasminogen activator), plasmin, and another regulatory protease, alpha-thrombin, in the degradation of the BM. Homogeneously pure en...

AIMS We aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of routine use of PCR amplification of immunoglobulin gene rearrangements in bone marrow (BM) staging in patients with follicular lymphoma (FL). METHODS Clonal rearrangements were assessed by immunoglobulin heavy and light-chain gene rearrangement analysis in BM aspirates from 96 patients diagnosed with FL and related to morphological detection o...