Growth kinetics of fibroblasts from a patient with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

A 6-year-old girl with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (type I) who shows hyperelastic skin, hypermobile joints and delayed wound healing is reported. The growth kinetics of fibroblasts derived from her skin was examined using 3H-thymidine autoradiography. Our study showed that these fibroblasts had poor proliferative activity, compared with normal age-matched fibroblasts. Thus, we could suggest that the pathogenesis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome was partially attributed to the lack of proliferative activity of the fibroblasts.

Exchange of dominant lymphoid cell clones in a patient with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma

We performed a genotypic study on lymphoid cells from a patient with adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). Clonal proliferation of human lymphotropic virus type-1(HTLV-1)-infected helper T-cells was detected in the primary skin tumors, while no clonality of the virus-infected lymphocytes was observed in the peripheral blood. Following intensive chemotherapy, however, we detected the presence of two genotypically different HTLV-1-infected lymphocyte clones in different samples taken from the peripheral blood. These data demonstrated the exchange of the dominant neoplastic clone in the clinical course of ATL, suggesting the possibility that a certain clone among many repertoires of HTLV-1-infected T-cells has a capability of leukemogenesis, instead of the primary tumour cells.