The view that rheumatoid arthritis may have an infective aetiology dates from the 1930s at least, and enjoys a fluctuating popularity. It is based on some similarities between rheumatoid arthritis and diseases known to be caused by infective agents (Hill, 1968; Ford, 1963, 1968; Lancet, 1970; Buchanan and Dick, 1972) or on the similarity of the pathological changes in human rheumatoid arthritis...

a 2-year-old male pekingese dog was referred to shiraz university’s veterinary teaching hospital for anorexia and depression. the case had no history of surgery. physical examination revealed no abnormalities except mild depression and fever. small, coccoid, epicellular bacteria were detected on erythrocytes by microscopic examination of the giemsa-stained blood smears. abnormalities noted in t...

The amino terminal sequence of the Candida albicans cell wall protein Int1 exhibited partial identity with the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II binding site of the Mycoplasma arthritidis superantigen MAM. Int1-positive C. albicans blastospores activated human T lymphocytes and expanded Vbeta subsets 2, 3, and/or 14; Int1-negative strains were inactive. Release of interferon-gamma...

A Mycoplasma pulmonis strain, recovered from the arthritic joints of mice employed in the serial passage of a chemically induced tumor, was found to be arthritogenic for mice under experimental conditions. Some joint involvement occurred in all mice challenged intravenously with this strain, and M. pulmonis was recovered frequently from the enlarged joints. The arthritis was migratory, appearin...

Stimulation of monocytes and resident macrophages by mycoplasmas induces production of numerous cytokines. We have previously reported that membrane lipoproteins derived from Mycoplasma fermentans are responsible for the induction of proinflammatory cytokines by monocytic cells and that triggering protein tyrosine kinase activation is an essential requirement for this biologic effect. In the pr...