Higher Total Leukocyte Counts Research Articles

Immunology and growth faltering of Anga children, Papua New Guinea: preliminary work.

Nutrition-infection interactions among poor children of the less-developed world influence growth and development. However, the relative importance of each is difficult to determine, because the relationship is mediated by immunological status. In this analysis, relationships between immunological measures and anthropometry were sought among 41 Anga, Papua New Guinea children aged 0-7 years. These had elevated serum total leucocyte and leucocyte subset counts relative to western reference values. Although there was no correlation between anthropometric nutritional status and total leucocytes and leucocyte subsets for this group, the small group (n=8) with very high total leucocyte count (greater than 15,000/mm2) had significantly lower mean Z score of stature for age (-3.78), and weight for stature (-1.35) than those with leucocyte counts lower than this cut-off (weight for stature Z score: -0.59; stature for age Z score: -2.68, respectively. Low stature-for-age Z score was associated with lower total lymphocyte count and increasing age, against a background of elevated lymphocyte levels relative to western reference values among the older children; low weight-for-stature Z score was associated with lower neutrophil count, against a background of normal neutrophil levels across all age groups. The pattern of weight and stature growth seen in the Anga may reflect extended nutritional deficits which result in stunting of a degree to which the most growth-compromised children die, leaving those above a threshold associated with high mortality alive. Thus, the anthropometric and immunological characteristics of the older children in this small sample may reflect the biology of survival under severe ecological conditions, where poor linear growth and elevated leucocyte status relative to normative values are characteristics of survivorship.

Repair of thermal brain injury in laboratory rodents

Large zones of coagulation necrosis were produced in the cerebral hemispheres of rodents by burning the intact skull. Mice and guinea pigs responded weakly, with relatively few macrophages and slow vascular proliferation. Rats, gerbils, and hamsters responded more rapidly and with far more macrophages. Vascular and reticulin proliferation was especially notable in hamsters. In addition to the large interspecies differences, there were small intraspecies differences among inbred strains of mice but not among rats. Sex, adrenal factors, and genetic disposition to high or low total blood leukocyte counts were not responsible for these differences. Age had a minor role. Further comparative anatomical studies may increase the understanding of repair of brain injuries.