Dell’s news

Hey Lori, that’s great to hear that Dell was walking unassisted. And I’m glad to hear that they figured out the blood work issue. I tried to find meaningful information about CD4 and did manage to find quite a bit, but nothing that would have been much use.

I was in France all last week, a last minute thing, so I have been unable to keep up with the Forum. Sorry for the lack of posts and responses.

Norb, I seem to be following along in your footsteps, reading tons of information these days, mostly associated with biology of the immune system. One thing I cannot seem to locate is detailed information about the CD20 marker which attaches to the undifferentiated B cell (apparently as a conduit into the B cell for calcium to enter resulting in differentiation). In one of your posts, you mentioned that the plasma cells do not carry the CD20 marker and therefore are not targeted by Rituxan. Do you recall where you found that information about the plasma cells and the CD20. I want to include this in my discussion later this month with my neurologist when we get together to talk about Rituxan treatment and my insistance over anti-MAG measurement (or at least IgM measurements). I want to know as much about B cell immunology as she does so that there can be no doubts.

I made myself a glossary below for anyone’s use:
Ab Antibody
Ag Antigen
CD Cluster of Differentiation
CH Heavy chain constant region
CL Light chain constant region
CR Complement receptor
CSF Colony-stimulating factor
TC Cytotoxic T-cells
DNA deoxyribonucleic acid
Fab Antigen-binding fragment
Fc Crystallizable Fragment (of antibody)
HLA Human leukocyte antigen system
Ig Immunoglobulin
IL Interleukin as in Cytokine designation (eg. IL-4, IL-5, etc.)
IFN Interferon
mAbs Monoclonal antibodies
MHC major Histocompatibility complex
NK Natural killer cell
PC Plasma cell
RNA Ribonucleic acid
SCF Stem cell factor
TCR T-cell receptor
TH CD4 Helper T cell
TNF Tumor necrosis factor
TGF Transforming growth factor
VH Heavy chain variable region
VL Light chain variable region
WBC White Blood cell

Finally, Allaug, A very heartfelt thank-you for your nice email about Toronto.

Cheers everyone
Andrew

Best wishes to all.