Background & Aims: Infliximab therapy is an effective approach to treating Crohn's disease. Development of antinuclear antibodies has been described in patients treated, but the size of the problem and the relationship with autoimmunity have not been investigated. We investigated the occurrence of antinuclear antibodies in 125 consecutive Crohn's d...
Objective: To compare work disability, sick leave, and productivity costs due to ankylosing spondylitis (AS) of three European countries. Methods: 216 patients with AS from the Netherlands, France, and Belgium participated in a two year observational study. Employment and work disability rates at baseline were adjusted for age and sex. Productivity...
Background: In a pilot study, the anti-tumour necrosis factor α monoclonal antibody, infliximab, induced a rapid and significant improvement in global, peripheral, and axial disease manifestations of patients with active spondyloarthropathy. Objective: To determine whether repeated infusions of infliximab would effectively and safely maintain the o...
Objective. To confirm in a placebo-controlled trial the safety and efficacy profile of infliximab in short-term treatment of patients with active spondylarthropathy (SpA). Methods. Forty patients with active SpA were randomly assigned to receive an intravenous loading dose (weeks 0, 2, and 6) of 5 mg/kg infliximab or placebo. Evaluations for effica...
The tumour necrosis, factor family molecule RANKL (RANKL, TRANCE, ODF) and its receptor RANK are key regulators of bone remodeling an dendritic cell communications, and lymph node formation. Moreover, RANKL and RANK are expressed, in mammary gland epithelial cells,and control the development of a lactating mammary gland during pregnancy and the pro...
OBJECTIVES—To evaluate the effect of anti-TNFα on the Th1 and Th2 cytokines in patients with spondyloarthropathy (SpA). METHODS—Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were obtained from 20 patients with active SpA treated with infliximab (5 mg/kg). For comparison, PBMC were also obtained from 15 healthy controls and 19 patients with active rheum...
Objective. To assess the effects of treatment with anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNF alpha) on synovial histology in patients with spondylarthropathy (SpA) in order to confirm the effect on peripheral synovitis and to investigate the immunologic mechanisms involved in anti-TNF alpha therapy. Methods. Patients with treatment-resistant SpA w...
Cathepsin B has previously been shown to proteolytically activate the proinflammatory caspase-11 in vitro, Here we show that cathepsin B is not involved in activation of caspase-11 induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and subsequent maturation of interleukin (IL)-1 beta in macrophages. Nevertheless, we found that the cathepsin B inhibitor benzyloxyc...
OBJECTIVE—To evaluate the efficacy and safety of a loading dose regimen of three intravenous infusions with infliximab in patients with active spondyloarthropathy. METHODS—A monocentre, open-label pilot study of 21 patients with different subtypes of spondyloarthropathy was conducted. Treatment resistant patients with active disease (fulfilling inc...
The TNF-family molecule osteoprotegerin ligand (OPGL, also known as TRANCE, RANKL and ODF) is a key regulator of bone remodeling and essential for the development and activation of osteoclasts. Intriguingly, OPGL also regulates T cell-dendritic cell communications, dendritic cell survival and lymph-node organogenesis. Here, Young-Yun Kong and colle...
