INTRODUCTION Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) has been implicated in tissue destruction/remodeling. The absence of u-PA results in resistance of mice to systemic immune complex-driven arthritis models; monoarticular arthritis models involving an intra-articular (i.a.) antigen injection, on the other hand, develop more severe arthritis in its absence. The aims of the current study are...

The K/BxN serum-transfer arthritis (STA) model is a murine model in which the immunological mechanisms occurring in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other arthritides can be studied. To induce K/BxN STA, serum from arthritic transgenic K/BxN mice is transferred to naive mice and manifestations of arthritis occur a few days later. The inflammatory response in the model is driven by autoantibodies a...

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that affects approximately 0.5-1% of the general population and leads to chronic synovial inflammation, destruction of cartilage and bone, and disability. The heritability of rheumatoid arthritis has been estimated to be about 60%, while the contribution of HLA to heritability has been estimated to be 11-37%. Other genes, such as...

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This study is based on the comparative analysis of 38 patients with reactive arthritis defined by Amor criteria, a group of 33 patients with rheumatoid polyarthritis and 50 healthy controls. Antioxidant systems (glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, catalase) were investigated in inflammation consecutive to immune and infectious syndromes. Our study showed that reactive arthritis and rh...

Rheumatoid arthritis is significantly associated with the HLA determinant HLA-DRw4 and cell-mediated reactivity to collagen. To determine if genes linked to those coding for HLA-DRw4 constituted immune response genes for collagen reactivity, peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 20 individuals with rheumatoid arthritis, 13 individuals with other arthropathies, and 41 normal individuals were c...

Inflammatory arthritis is a condition which is characterised by recurrent episodes of joint pain and swelling. It encompasses a spectrum of disorders ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to ankylosing spondylitis. In these conditions, for reasons that are poorly understood, the immune system raises an inflammatory response within the joint space. In some cases, autoantigens have been identified (e...

A modified model of adjuvant arthritis is described that permits simultaneous quantitative measurement of the humoral and the cellular immune response to a secondary immunogen (el4 cells) in the arthritic rat. Application of the new model system to mechanism studies is illustrated with cyclophosphamide. The drug is shown to suppress adjuvant arthritis by a combined anti-inflammatory and immunos...

Introduction Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis(JIA) is an inflammatory chronic disease concerning joints and others structures. According to International League of Association for Rheumatology (ILAR) seven subtypes of arthritis can be defined in relation with the number of joints and the extra-articular involvement occurring in the first six months of disease. Although JIA pathogenesis is not comp...

Proteoglycan (PG) aggrecan-induced arthritis (PGIA) is a murine model of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Although BALB/c and DBA/2 mice share the same MHC (H-2d) haplotype, the BALB/c strain is susceptible to PGIA, while DBA/2 mice are resistant. Therefore, these two inbred mouse strains provide an opportunity to study arthritis susceptibility factors excluding the effects of MHC-associated genetic ...