A 23 day old infant patient underwent 99mTc-denatured RBC scanning for locating possible ectopic spleen in our department.  The scan showed no tracer activity in normal splenic bed in the left upper quadrant and an ectopic spleen was shown on the right side of abdomen inferior to the liver. 99mTc-denatured RBC scan is an easy and available method for splenic localization i...

To cite: Kamal N, Chen C, Ling A, et al. BMJ Case Reports Published online: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/bcr-2012007903 DESCRIPTION A 54-year-old caucasian man with a history of hypertension and traumatic splenectomy presented with an enlarged right inguinal lymph node. During the work-up, the patient received a contrast-enhanced CT scan of the chest, abdomen and pelvis that iden...

To cite: Soraru J, Cardaci G. BMJ Case Rep Published online: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/bcr-2014208376 DESCRIPTION An 81-year-old man was investigated for weight loss, fever, deranged liver enzymes and elevated inflammatory markers. CT imaging revealed a lobulated well-defined anterior mediastinal mass (1.7×2.8×3.2 cm) and a further small (1.43×0.59×1.9 cm) subpleural nodule in...

Nitric oxide (NO) activates soluble guanylyl cyclase in smooth muscle cells to induce vasodilation in the vasculature. However, as hemoglobin (Hb) is an effective scavenger of NO and is present in high concentrations inside the red blood cell (RBC), the bioavailability of NO would be too low to elicit soluble guanylyl cyclase activation in the presence of blood. Therefore, NO bioactivity must b...

Red blood cell (RBC) membrane proteins undergo progressive pathological alterations during storage. In conditions of increased cellular stress, the cytoskeleton also sustains certain modifications. The hemoglobin (Hb) content and oxidative status of the RBC cytoskeletons as a function of the storage period remain unclear. The possible Hb content and oxidative alterations occurring in the cytosk...

Oil-induced mononuclear phagocytes (MN) were quantitatively assayed for various hydrolases as unfractionated suspensions of frozen and thawed cells. They apparently contain two proteases. The first, measured with urea- or acid-denatured hemoglobin, was similar to purified Proteinase I of lung with respect to pH optimum (pH 4), stability, hydrolytic and polymerizing activities, and reactions to ...

One hypothesis to explain the age-dependent clearance of red blood cells (RBCs) from circulation proposes that denatured/oxidized hemoglobin (hemichromes) arising late during an RBC's life span induces clustering of the integral membrane protein, band 3. In turn, band 3 clustering generates an epitope on the senescent cell surface leading to autologous IgG binding and consequent phagocytosis. B...

Bacterial ribosomes or their 50S subunit can refold many unfolded proteins. The folding activity resides in domain V of 23S RNA of the 50S subunit. Here we show that ribosomes can also refold a denatured chaperone, DnaK, in vitro, and the activity may apply in the folding of nascent DnaK polypeptides in vivo. The chaperone was unusual as the native protein associated with the 50S subunit stably...

The protein composition of ghosts, inside-out vesicles (IOV), and membrane skeletons (MS) of erythrocytes (RBC) from splenectomized (spx) and nonsplenectomized (non-spx) patients with beta-thalassemia major and beta-thalassemia intermedia was determined. Ghosts from spx thalassemia intermedia patients had a significant increase in their globin content (which was mostly heme reactive) and contai...