Synovial synthesis of immune complex constituents and rheumatoid factors has been estimated in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and in unclassifiable inflammatory arthritis (IA) and related to duration of symptoms. Within 6 months of onset of symptoms both RA and IA patients synthesised (or trapped) immune complexes locally. However, local synthesis of the rheumatoid factors was almost exclusive to RA...

OBJECTIVE To compare four different inception cohorts of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with respect to treatment strategies, disease activity, and outcome during a five year follow up period. METHOD Data from cohorts of patients with early RA, with a standardised assessment at least every six months for five years from four different centres, were included in one database. Owi...

1. Abstract 2. Introduction 3. The process of angiogenesis and its experimental models 4. Angiogenic mediators in the rheumatoid synovium 4.1. Heparin-binding growth factors 4.2. Other non-heparin binding growth factors 4.3. Cytokines 4.4. Chemokines and chemokine receptors 4.5. Extracellular matrix components and matrix-degrading proteolytic enzymes 4.6. Cellular adhesion molecules 4.7. Other ...

Background: There has recently been increasing interest in the role of the human microbiome in disease. Antibiotic use is known to disrupt the intestinal microbial environment and cause acute disease, for example pseudomembranous colitis. This study aimed to investigate the hypothesis that long-term antibiotic use is associated with the development of chronic diseases, i.e., Asthma, Rheumatoid ...

We investigated the immunochemical and molecular characteristics of murine monoclonal rheumatoid factors. Study of the fine specificity of 20 monoclonal rheumatoid factor antibodies shows a wide degree of heterogeneity. However, many express an interstrain cross-reactive idiotype. We show that our rheumatoid factors utilize a restricted set of the heavy-chain variable region (VH) repertoire rep...

Sera from 53 Nigerian patients satisfying the American Rheumatism Association criteria for a diagnosis of definite or probable rheumatoid arthritis and sera from sick and healthy Nigerian controls were tested for rheumatoid factor, autoantibodies, and immunoglobulin levels. Rheumatoid factor and autoantibodies were found no more frequently in patients with rheumatoid arthritis than in controls....