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...
Objective. To study the effects of recombinant tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin 1 beta (IL-1 beta) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) on proteoglycan metabolism of isolated chondrocytes. Methods. Human articular cartilage cells were cultured in agarose gel. In these culture conditions, chondrocytes keep their phenotypic stability. They re...
The ability to analyze T cell receptor (TCR) thymic repertoire shaping in humans by self and foreign ligands is hampered by the lack of suitable models. We recently documented that the mouse severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID)-human fetal liver/thymus model recapitulates the TCR Vbeta gene repertoire of human thymocytes. Here, we show that an e...
