Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0035412 (rhabdomyosarcoma)
 6,156 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Recently, great interest has been shown in the histological identification of small cell tumours of childhood--nephroblastoma (Wilms' tumour), neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma--using immunohistochemical methods. However, several antigens operationally specific for leucocyte typing in blood and marrow are also expressed on cells of epithelial and neural origin. We undertook phenotypic characterization of 17 non-haemopoietic small cell tumours of childhood using a panel of 30 monoclonal antibodies to leucocyte, epithelial and cytoskeletal antigens using a sensitive alkaline phosphatase-anti-alkaline phosphatase technique on cryostat sections of fresh tumour. Our results demonstrated frequent expression of the leucocyte-associated antigens CD10 (CALLA), CD9 (p24) and CDw32 (FcRII) in these small cell tumours and occasional expression of MHC class II (HLA-DR) and HNK-1 antigens. However, the leucocyte-associated antigens CD45 (leucocyte common), CD22 (pan B-cell), CD11b (C3bi receptor), CD15 (Lewisx) or CDw42 (platelet gp Ib) were not detected on any tumour. Aberrant expression of desmin, neurofilament and UJ13A antigen was found in nephroblastoma and of epithelial-associated markers (CIBr17 and 43-9F) in neuroblastoma. Our results also demonstrated broad reactivity in frozen section with two monoclonal antibodies specific for melanoma (NKI/C-3) or epithelial cells (OM-1) in paraffin sections. Hence, it is necessary to include monoclonal antibodies to CD45 and pan-epithelial antigens, e.g. LP34 (cytokeratin) or HEA125 for the precise immunohistochemical identification of small round cell malignancies of childhood.
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PMID:Phenotypic characterization of non-haemopoietic small cell tumours of childhood with monoclonal antibodies to leucocytes, epithelial cells and cytoskeletal proteins. 254

B cells producing antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor (AchR) play a central role in the pathogenesis of myasthenia gravis (MG). Although anti-AchR autoantibodies have been studied extensively, not much is known about autoimmune B cells and their antigen-driven activation. This has mainly been due to difficulties in establishing and maintaining untransformed antigen-specific B cells in vitro. In this study, we show that highly enriched B cells from peripheral blood and thymus of MG patients can be maintained in culture over a period of 4 weeks when grown on the AchR-expressing rhabdomyosarcoma cell line TE671 together with an anti-CD40 stimulus and lymphokines. Anti-AchR antibody secretion could be detected in the majority of B cell cultures on TE671 cells up to 4 weeks. In contrast, B cells cultured on CDw32-transfected L cells binding anti-CD40 antibodies (the CD40 system) produced only small amounts of anti-AchR antibodies at single time points, whereas the overall IgG production was higher than on TE671 cells. The expression of the relevant autoantigen on the adherent cell line in addition to other growth stimuli could account for this difference and may provide a useful tool for investigating antigen-dependent B cell activation in MG and other B cell-mediated autoimmune conditions.
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PMID:Myasthenia gravis: selective enrichment of antiacetylcholine receptor antibody production in untransformed human B cell cultures. 1055 8