Associations of Socioeconomic Status With Disease Progression in African Americans With Early Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Objective: In prior cross-sectional analyses of African American patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), measures of socioeconomic status (SES) were associated with clinical joint damage and poorer patient-reported outcome scores. The purpose of this study was to determine whether SES measures are associated with disease progression in a cohort of African American patients with early RA (<2 years duration).

Methods: We analyzed baseline SES and change in 60-month clinical radiographs and patient-reported outcomes data (n = 101 and 177, respectively) in individuals with early RA.

Targeting cellular senescence as a novel treatment for osteoarthritis.

Cellular senescence is associated with normal development and wound healing, but has also been implicated in the pathogenesis of numerous aging-related diseases including osteoarthritis (OA). Treatment strategies for OA are being developed that target senescent cells and the paracrine and autocrine secretions of the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). The field of potential therapies continues to expand as new mechanistic targets of cell senescence and the SASP are identified.