Eine Erfassung der tagebautypischen Biotoptypen mit den Kartierungsschlüsse in der ClR-Biotoptypen und Nutzungstypen- bzw der selektiven Biotopkartierung der § 30-Biotope Sachsen-Anhalts ist nur bedingt möglich. Deshalb wurde durch die Mitarbeiter des Forschungsverbundes ein spezieller Biotoptypenkatalog Für die Bergbaufolgelandschaft erarbeitet. Die wesentlichsten und für den Naturschutz interessantesten Biotoptypengruppen sollen im Folgenden kurz vorgestellt werden.
Von den in Sachsen-Anhalt vorkommenden etwa 2300 höheren Pflanzenarten konnten ca. 725 Arten, also rund ein Drittel, in den Folgelandschaften des Braunkohlenbergbaues nachgewiesen werden. Diese Zahl erscheint relativ gering, ist aber bei Berücksichtigung der teilweise extremen abiotischen Bedingungen und des geringen Entwicklungsalters der Lebensräume doch erstaunlich groß.
In an ongoing clinical phase I/II study, 16 pediatric patients suffering from high risk leukemia/tumors received highly purified donor natural killer (NK) cell immunotherapy (NK-DLI) at day (+3) +40 and +100 post haploidentical stem cell transplantation. However, literature about the influence of NK-DLI on recipient's immune system is scarce. Here we present concomitant results of a noninvasive in vivo monitoring approach of recipient's peripheral blood (PB) cells after transfer of either unstimulated (NK-DLI(unstim)) or IL-2 (1000 U/ml, 9–14 days) activated NK cells (NK-DLI(IL-2 stim)) along with their ex vivo secreted cytokine/chemokines. We performed phenotypical and functional characterizations of the NK-DLIs, detailed flow cytometric analyses of various PB cells and comprehensive cytokine/chemokine arrays before and after NK-DLI. Patients of both groups were comparable with regard to remission status, immune reconstitution, donor chimerism, KIR mismatching, stem cell and NK-DLI dose. Only after NK-DLI(IL-2 stim) was a rapid, almost complete loss of CD56(bright)CD16(dim/−) immune regulatory and CD56(dim)CD16(+) cytotoxic NK cells, monocytes, dendritic cells and eosinophils from PB circulation seen 10 min after infusion, while neutrophils significantly increased. The reduction of NK cells was due to both, a decrease in patients' own CD69(−) NCR(low)CD62L(+) NK cells as well as to a diminishing of the transferred cells from the NK-DLI(IL-2 stim) with the CD56(bright)CD16(+/−)CD69(+)NCR(high)CD62L(−) phenotype. All cell counts recovered within the next 24 h. Transfer of NK-DLI(IL-2 stim) translated into significantly increased levels of various cytokines/chemokines (i.e. IFN-γ, IL-6, MIP-1β) in patients' PB. Those remained stable for at least 1 h, presumably leading to endothelial activation, leukocyte adhesion and/or extravasation. In contrast, NK-DLI(unstim) did not cause any of the observed effects. In conclusion, we assume that the adoptive transfer of NK-DLI(IL-2 stim) under the influence of ex vivo and in vivo secreted cytokines/chemokines may promote NK cell trafficking and therefore might enhance efficacy of immunotherapy.