OBJECTIVE The molecular mechanism of citrullination involves the calcium-dependent peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) family of enzymes. These enzymes induce a stereochemical modification of normal proteins and transform them into autoantigens, which in rheumatoid arthritis trigger a complex cascade of joint inflammatory events followed by chronic synovitis, pannus formation, and finally, cartila...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune disease that afflicts the synovium of diarthrodial joints. The pathogenic mechanisms inciting this disease are not fully characterized, but may involve the loss of tolerance to posttranslationally modified (citrullinated) antigens. We have demonstrated that this modification leads to a selective increase in antigenic peptide affinity for major hi...

Peptidylarginine deiminase type 4 (PADI4) genotypes were shown to influence susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the Japanese population. Such an association could not previously be confirmed in different European populations. In the present study, we analysed exons 2-4 of PADI4 in 102 German RA patients and 102 healthy individuals to study the influence of PADI4 variability on RA sus...

The coefficient in a linear regression model is commonly employed to evaluate the genetic effect of a single nucleotide polymorphism associated with a quantitative trait under the assumption that the trait value follows a normal distribution or is appropriately normally distributed after a certain transformation. When this assumption is violated, the distribution-free tests are preferred. In th...

Immunoglobulin Binding Protein (BiP) is a member of heat shock protein 70 famaily, and is also known as an autoantigen in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Serum anti-BiP antibody is detected up to 60% of RA patients, and recent reports demonstrated that serum anti-BiP antibody is also detected in systemic lupus erythematosus patients. Notably, anti-citrullinated BiP antibody is revealed as a...

AIM Autoantibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) are considered to be a sensitive and specific marker for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This study evaluated the diagnostic and analytical performances of the automated anti-CCP assay. MATERIALS AND METHOD Sera from 80 patients with established RA, 65 from other rheumatic diseases (non-RA) and 55 from healthy controls were studied...