Background: Bone Marrow Biopsy is used as an intervention to diagnose certain hematological and systemic diseases as an adjunct to routine laboratory investigations. The procedure includes getting an aspirate and a trephine biopsy. Slides/Smears are prepared from the aspirate and touch imprints along with Hematoxylin and Eosin (H and E) stained sections are prepared from the trephine. Traditionally the slides from the aspirate have been prepared directly (without anticoagulants) and examined along with the trephine biopsy sections to reach a diagnosis. EDTA (Ethylene Diammine Tetra Acetate) preserved specimen can also be used to make slides of the aspirate. Objective: To compare two methods of bone marrow aspirate preparation. Design of study: Randomized controlled trial. Place of study: Department of Pathology, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad Materials and methods: Patients coming to the Department of Pathology for bone marrow biopsy had their samples taken. Half of each sample was used to make direct smears and the other half was preserved in EDTA i.e. the purple top vials. Slides were made at the end of the procedure by the preserved sample and then the two were stained by the same person and procedure (Wright stain) and examined for any differences in quality. SPSS version 21.2 was used to analyze the data. Results: A total of 132 was taken.77 (58.3%) were males and 55(41.7%) were females. 50(37.9%) were adults and 82(62.1%) were children. P–value was found to be 0.81392 which was non-significant proving the fact that the 2 techniques are comparable. Conclusion: EDTA preserved bone marrow aspirate can be used to prepare slides at the end of the whole procedure without compromising the quality of the smears and result interpretation.

Tributyltin (TBT) is found in human blood and other tissues and thus is of considerable concern as to its effects on human health. Previous studies have demonstrated that TBT has detrimental effects on immune function. Recently, we found that exposures to TBT caused increased secretion of two important proinflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) and interferon gamma (IFNγ). Elevation of either of these cytokines has the potential to cause chronic inflammation, which is an important factor in a number of diseases including cancer. The current study examined the mechanism of TBT-induced elevations of TNFα and IFNγ secretion and found that the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway was essential to the ability of TBT to stimulate secretion. Additionally, this study demonstrated that increased secretion of these cytokines was due to TBT-induced increases in their overall synthesis, rather than simply being due to an increase in the release of already formed proteins. The TBT-induced increases in synthesis were evident within 6 hours of exposure. The p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway is also necessary for the TBT-induced increases in both TNFα and IFNγ synthesis. The role of increased transcription of TNFα and IFNγ mRNA in response to TBT exposures as a possible explanation for the increased synthesis of these cytokines was also examined. It was found that increased mRNA levels did not appear to explain fully the increases in either TNFα or IFNγ synthesis. Thus, TBT is able to increase secretion of two important proinflammatory cytokines by increasing their synthesis.

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