A recent study has helped researchers gain insight into the genome-wide regulation of mRNA stability in RA fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS). Chronic exposure of FLS to tumor necrosis factor appears to increase mRNA stability, enhancing the expression of inflammatory genes and the perpetuation of synovitis…
When it was created in 1982, the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center comprised one-and-a-half rheumatologists: its founder, Lynell W. Klassen, MD, MACR, and Gerald Moore, MD, who later received formal training at the NIH and now serves as senior associate dean for academic affairs. Thirty-five years later, the…
The patient was a 48-year-old woman who saw her primary care physician for a flu-like illness three months prior to admission. Her symptoms initially improved, but recurred one month later; she was treated symptomatically, and again symptoms resolved. Two months later, she presented to an outside facility’s emergency department with fever to 103ºF, with associated…
New research reinforces the hypothesis that the gut microbiome triggers mucosal and systemic immune responses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The research, published in Arthritis & Rheumatology May 2017, found that subgroups of patients with RA have differential immunoglobulin G (IgG) or IgA immune reactivity with Prevotella copri, an intestinal microbe that appears to be…
The Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) held the 2017 OARSI World Congress in Las Vegas, April 27–30. Below, we report on two of the sessions held. Retinoic Acid & Hand Osteoarthritis Retinoic acid is a vitamin A derivative and hormonal signaling molecule with a role in cartilage and skeletal development. Retinoic acid has complex function,…
As a manifestation of hyperuricemia, inflammatory bullous lesions have rarely been described in the past century. A more classic presentation of hyperuricemia is acute inflammatory gouty arthritis, characterized by the deposition of monosodium urate crystals. Other complications of chronic untreated hyperuricemia may include polyarticular arthritis, tophus formation and possible chronic destructive lesions of the bone,…
The words genetically modified are making people run for the hills these days. Not so when it comes to arthritis care, however. In the lab of one pioneering researcher, genetic engineering is catapulting arthritis treatment years ahead. Farshid Guilak, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University, St. Louis, and…
A new measurement tool could mean big changes for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). With funding from the Rheumatology Research Foundation, Gregg Silverman, MD, led a study that developed a means for the measurement of immunologic memory in autoimmune disease. This new tool will allow rheumatologists and investigators to measure the immunologic defects that…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Ultrasonography of the major salivary glands may have a role in the diagnostic evaluation of patients with clinically suspected primary Sjogren’s syndrome, researchers from the Netherlands report. Salivary gland biopsies and anti-SSA/Ro antibodies are important for classifying patients as primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS). Some studies have also supported using ultrasonography of the…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The investigational drug romosozumab led to gains in hip bone mineral density (BMD) that were not seen with teriparatide in older women with osteoporosis transitioning from bisphosphonate therapy in the STRUCTURE study. Amgen’s romosozumab is a monoclonal antibody that inhibits sclerosin, a negative regulator of bone formation. In addition to stimulating bone…