Stromal cells like synovial fibroblasts gained great interest over the years, since it has become clear that they strongly influence their environment and neighbouring cells. The current review describes the role of synovial fibroblasts as cells of the innate immune system and expands on their involvement in inflammation and cartilage destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Furthermore, epige...

Synovial fluid is generally considered to be a dialysate of plasma to which mucin has been added during its passage through the synovial membrane (Ropes and Bauer, 1953). The proteins of the serum and synovial fluid have been shown to be qualitatively identical (Schmid and MacNair, 1956) and the concentrations of the various proteins in synovial fluid probably depend upon the following factors:...

Normal human synovial fluid contains trace amounts of phospholipids and cholesterol. Phospholipid composition is similar to that in serum. Rheumatoid synovial fluid contains increased amounts of phospholipid, cholesterol, and neutral lipids. In most cases the concentration is 40 to 60 per cent of that found in simultaneously collected serum specimens. A direct relationship appears to exist betw...

Uric acid (UA) is known to activate the NLRP3 (Nacht, leucine-rich repeat and pyrin domain containing protein 3) inflammasome. When activated, the NLRP3 (also known as NALP3) inflammasome leads to the production of IL-18 and IL-1β. In this cohort of subjects with knee osteoarthritis (OA), synovial fluid uric acid was strongly correlated with synovial fluid IL-18 and IL-1β. Synovial fluid uric a...

Background Synovial sarcoma is a rare malignant soft tissue tumor characterized by a poor outcome. We report herein our experience concerning synovial sarcoma and review its diagnosis, histology, treatment and prognosis. Methods This is a retrospective review, from 1990 to 2007, of cases of synovial sarcoma diagnosed at the Department of Pathology, Farhat Hached hospital, Sousse, Tunisia. The...

This study was performed to evaluate whether endocan expression, which is known to be involved in tumor angiogenesis, was increased in rheumatoid arthritic tissues. In addition, the involvement of adiponectin in the regulation of endocan expression in arthritic joints was examined. Arthritic synovial tissues from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or osteoarthritis (OA) were immunostained ...

Synovial osteochondromatosis is a benign metaplasia of the synovium resulting in the formation of osteocartilaginous nodules within the synovial lining. At presentation, radiographs typically reveal these nodules to have broken free from the synovial lining, becoming loose bodies residing in the free space of the affected joint. These fragments readily receive the necessary nutrients for contin...

OBJECTIVE To analyse the functional activity of the plasminogen activators urokinase (uPA) and tissue type plasminogen activator (tPA) in human synovial membrane, and to compare the pattern of expression between normal, osteoarthritic, and rheumatoid synovium. The molecular mechanisms underlying differences in PA activities between normal and pathological synovial tissues have been further exam...

Mesenchymal stromal cells have emerged as powerful modulators of the immune system. In this study, we explored how the human macrophage response to TNF is regulated by human synovial fibroblasts, the representative stromal cell type in the synovial lining of joints that become activated during inflammatory arthritis. We found that synovial fibroblasts strongly suppressed TNF-mediated induction ...

Immunohistochemical study showed selective localisation of human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) to the synovial lining layer. Although the synovial lining layer of the rheumatoid, osteoarthritic, and traumatic joints was hEGF positive, hEGF staining was especially dense at the rheumatoid synovial lining layer; the staining increasing linearly according to the degree of stratification of the lin...