Newer approaches to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Growing evidence suggests that rheumatoid arthritis should no longer be considered a benign disease. Considerable data suggest that this disease is associated with diminished long-term survival. Other studies have also shown that in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, bone damage can occur very early in the disease course.

The use of methotrexate in steroid-resistant systemic lupus erythematosus.

Although the use of methotrexate (MTX) is gaining acceptance in the treatment of several connective tissue diseases, there is little evidence of its therapeutic value in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We examined the response to MTX in patients with steroid-resistant SLE in an open, unblinded study. Of 10 SLE patients treated with MTX (7.

Characterization of a concanavalin A-induced amplifier T cell which augments in vitro antibody responses to DNP-Ficoll.

The addition of the T-cell mitogen concanavalin A (Con A) on Day 2 of a 4-day in vitro culture of murine spleen cells with the thymus-independent (TI) antigen DNP39-Ficoll resulted in significant enhancement of the direct antitrinitrophenyl (TNP) plaque-forming cell (PFC) response. This enhancement was mediated by a nylon wool- and antiimmunoglobulin-nonadherent amplifier T cell (TA). TA activity was not eliminated by in vitro treatment of T cells with anti-Thy 1.

Long-term organ culture of normal human bladder.

Normal adult human bladder obtained at cystoscopy has been maintained in long-term organ culture. Several media were tested for their ability to maintain viability and normal tissue morphology. The optimum medium was Ham's F-12 nutrient mixture, supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum, hydrocortisone (1 microgram/ml), and FeSO4, (0.