Synovial membrane and synovial fluid represent a good source of mesenchymal stem cells. They have been regarded as a promising therapeutic tool for musculoskeletal regeneration. Synovium-derived mesenchymal stem cells have higher expression of CD44 and better chondrogenic potential in vitro than mesenchymal stem cells from other tissues. In this study we compared mesenchymal stem cells from syn...

BACKGROUND Mast cells have been implicated in the pathogenesis of arthritis, but elucidation of their precise role has been hampered by a lack of efficient and selective inhibitors of their function. OBJECTIVE To elucidate the role of mast cells in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to assess whether apoptosis of cultured and synovial tissue mast cells can be induced by inhibit...

INTRODUCTION Members of the peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) family catalyse the posttranslational conversion of peptidylarginine to peptidylcitrulline. Citrullination of proteins is well described in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and hypercitrullination of proteins may be related to inflammation in general. PAD activity has been demonstrated in various cell lysates, but so far not in synovial flu...

The eventual occurrence of gross aberrations in the number and pattern of chromosomes is one o the main objections to the use of cell cultures in the study of physiology and disease. Such aberrations are essential features of the permanent cell lines such as HeLa, and accompany the phenomenon of "transformation", in which radical changes occur in cell structure, growth, and secretory functions....

BACKGROUND The synovial T cell infiltrate in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is diverse but contains clonally expanded CD4+ populations. Recent reports have emphasized that RA patients have a tendency to develop CD4+ T cell oligoclonality which also manifests in the peripheral blood. Clonal dominance in the tissue may thus result from antigen specific stimulation in the synovial membrane or may refle...

Synovial sarcoma is an aggressive soft tissue sarcoma genetically defined by the fusion oncogene SS18-SSX. It is hypothesized that either SS18-SSX disrupts SWI/SNF complex inhibition of the polycomb complex 2 (PRC2) methyltransferase Enhancer of Zeste Homologue 2 (EZH2), or that SS18-SSX is able to directly recruit PRC2 to aberrantly silence target genes. This is of potential therapeutic value ...

OBJECTIVES The palisading cells of rheumatoid nodules share certain features with synovial intimal cells. The similarities between the two cell populations have been reassessed using new cytochemical markers. METHODS Cell populations in cryostat sections of non-inflamed, rheumatoid and osteoarthritic synovial tissues, and rheumatoid nodules were assessed for the presence of CD68, prolyl hydro...

We previously demonstrated that blocking the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) receptor, c-Met, using a HGF antagonist, NK4, inhibited arthritis in a rheumatoid arthritis (RA) model mice. In the present study, we investigated the role of c-Met signaling in synovial cell function. We demonstrated that synovial tissues from RA patients and MH7A cells, a human RA synovial cell line, expressed HGF and...

background and objectives: mycoplasma arthritidis mitogen (mam) superantigen has been shown to induce chronic arthritis, which resembles human rheumatoid arthritis (ra) in a rodent model. however, its role as a causative agent in human ra is not well understood yet. the aim of this study was to investigate the presence of mam superantigen gene in the synovial fluid (sf) of ra patients. material...

OBJECTIVES The B-cell chemokine, CXCL13, is a proposed serum biomarker of synovitis in RA. Its behaviour in the context of B-cell depletion therapy and reconstitution was studied during treatment of RA with rituximab. METHODS Serum samples from 20 RA patients were analysed for CXCL13, RF-IgM and anti-CCP by ELISA before and 2 and 6 months following rituximab treatment. B cells were monitored ...