Painless Synovial Effusions

Protease inhibitors in inflammatory synovial effusions.

Granulocyte lysosomal enzymes can potentially participate in cartilage degradation in inflammatory arthritides. However, we have shown that the quantity of several such enzymes in an inflammatory synovial effusion correlates negatively with the degree of radiographic damage of the joint from which the fluid was sampled. In the current work the quantity of the following 5 protease inhibitors was...

Painless Childbirth

Absorption of artificial effusions from synovial joints: an experimental study in rabbits.

1. The absorption of fluid from the joint cavity was studied by measurement of the flow of Ringer solution or paraffin oil, from an infusion reservoir, into rabbit knee joints at constant pressures between 0 and 25 cm water. 2. Although no oil was absorbed across the synovium, oil flowed continuously into the joint cavity at constant intra-articular pressure. It was concluded that the joint cap...

Active and latent forms of transforming growth factor beta activity in synovial effusions

We have evaluated the possible involvement of TGF-beta in rheumatoid arthritis by assay of 16 cell-free synovial fluids for the presence of its active and "latent" forms. Evidence has been obtained for TGF-beta-like activity in synovial effusions by four criteria: (a) TGF-beta receptor competition, (b) soft-agar colony formation of AKR-2B and NRK-49F indicator cells, (c) immunological neutraliz...

Identification of immunostimulatory dendritic cells in the synovial effusions of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Dendritic cells in the circulation are leukocytes that are rich in Ia antigens and that actively stimulate T cell replication. We have identified dendritic cells in the joint effusions of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. By phase-contrast and immunofluorescence microscopy, synovial mononuclear cells contained 1-5% dendritic profiles that were rich in HLA-DR and DQ, had small amounts of C3bi ...