INTRODUCTION Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies have a diagnostic role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA); however, little is known about their origins and contribution to pathogenesis. Citrullination is the post-translational conversion of arginine to citrulline by peptidyl arginine deiminase, and increased citrullination of proteins is observed in the joint tissue in RA and in brain tissue in mu...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the potential and correlation between near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging using cyanine 5.5 conjugated with hydrophobically modified glycol chitosan nanoparticles (HGC-Cy5.5) and (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography ((18)F-FDG-PET) imaging of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). MATERIALS AND METHODS We used 10 CIA and 3 normal mice. Nine days after t...

Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is critical in controlling inflammatory responses and the prevention of autoimmune diseases. Although the effect of TGF-β1 on macrophages from normal mice or rats has been established, little attention has been paid to its effect on disease conditions. In the present study, we investigated the regulatory effect, and possible mechanism, of TGF-β1 exposure o...

The involvement of granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF) in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) was examined using GM-CSF-deficient mice. Although CIA is generally considered to be restricted to mice of the H-2q or H-2r haplotypes, we examined the role of GM-CSF in the CIA model using GM-CSF-deficient (-/-) and wild-type (+/+) mice on a C57BL/6 (H-2b) background. Mice were immunized by intradermal i...

Autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, result from a dysregulation of the immune response culminating in hyperactivation of effector cells leading to immune-mediated injury. To maintain an appropriate immune response and prevent the emergence of autoimmune disease, activation signals must be regulated by inhibitory pathways. Biochemical and genetic studies indicate that the type IIB lo...

We study the use of the-calculus for semantical descriptions of higher-order concurrent languages with state. As an example, we choose Concurrent Idealized ALGOL (CIA). CIA is particularly interesting as, yet being a core language, it combines imperative and parallel features with a procedural mechanism of full higher order. It can thus be used as a formal model for concurrent programs as, e.g....

Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability are three sides of the famous CIA security triangle. Since the evoting systems are built from particular components, the CIA security triangle of these systems has particular definitions for each side. This paper presents these CIA security definitions and criteria which each state-of-the-art electronic voting system must meet based on the view point...