Toxoplasma gondii seropositivity in renal patients: rate, pattern, predictors and related morbidity.

Infection is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) due to their depressed immunity. T. gondii is a ubiquitous parasite that causes severe manifestations in immunocomprmised patients.

Study of P53 in peripheral blood and synovial mononuclear cells of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis patients and its relation to the degree of disease activity.

Over expression of P53 has been described in many inflammatory conditions including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA) as a protective mechanism to induce apoptosis of synovial cells. Lack of P53 function through mutation in human synoviocytes increases the development of normal synovial fibroblasts into transformed aggressive synovial fibroblasts. P53 levels were determined in supernatant of cultured mononuclear cells (MCs) isolated from peripheral blood (PBMCs) of patients with RA (n = 10) and OA (n = 10) as well as 10 normal healthy controls (C).