Added value of multiple autoantibody testing for predicting progression to inflammatory arthritis in at-risk individuals.

Background: Predicting progression to clinical arthritis in individuals at-risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis is a prerequisite to developing stratification groups for prevention strategies. Selecting accurate predictive criteria is the critical step to define the population at-risk. While positivity for anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) remains the main recruitment biomarker, positivity for other autoantibodies (AutoAbs) identified before the onset of symptoms, may provide additional predictive accuracy for stratification.

Third-Generation Anti-Cyclic Citrullinated Peptide Antibodies Improve Prediction of Clinical Arthritis in Individuals at Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Objective: To 1) determine the prevalence of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide 3 (anti-CCP3) antibodies in anti-CCP2 antibody-positive (anti-CCP2+) at-risk individuals, and 2) explore the additional value of anti-CCP3 antibodies in anti-CCP2+ at-risk individuals for predicting progression to inflammatory arthritis.

Methods: Stored serum samples obtained from 347 anti-CCP2+ (BioPlex 2200; Bio-Rad) at-risk individuals without clinical synovitis were tested for anti-CCP3 antibodies. Anti-CCP2 titers were categorized as low or high, and anti-CCP3 titers were categorized as negative, low, or strong.

Dissection of the FCGR3A association with RA: increased association in men and with autoantibody positive disease.

Objectives: Genome-wide association studies in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have failed to examine the FCGR gene cluster because of the confounding effects of segmental duplication. This study aimed to replicate previous candidate gene studies that had identified a significant association between the FCGR3A-158V allele and RA and then sought to estimate specific subgroup effects.

Methods: FCGR3A-158F/V genotyping was undertaken in a UK Caucasian replication cohort comprising 2049 patients with RA and 1156 controls.

Synovial fluid mesenchymal stem cells in health and early osteoarthritis: detection and functional evaluation at the single-cell level.

Objective: Arthritic synovial fluid (SF) contains mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which could simply reflect their shedding from diseased joint structures. This study used the bovine model to explore SF MSCs in health and enumerated them at the earliest stages of human osteoarthritis (OA) in radiographically normal joints.

Methods: Clonogenicity and multipotentiality of normal bovine SF MSCs were compared with donor-matched bone marrow (BM) MSCs at the single-cell level.

Mesenchymal stem cell tissue engineering: techniques for isolation, expansion and application.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are undifferentiated multipotent cells which reside in various human tissues and have the potential to differentiate into osteoblasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes, fibroblasts and other tissues of mesenchymal origin. In the human body they could be regarded as readily available reservoirs of reparative cells capable to mobilize, proliferate and differentiate to the appropriate cell type in response to certain signals. These properties have triggered a variety of MSC-based therapies for pathologies including nonunions, osteogenesis imperfecta, cartilage damage and myocardial infarction.