T-regulatory cells-Triumph of perseverance: The Crafoord Prize for Polyarthritis in 2017.

The Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis ranks as one of the most prestigious prizes and can be awarded only if the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decides the likelihood of prize worthy progress in the field, and at most every 4th year. This has happened only four times since 1982. This year the 5th Laureates were Shimon Sakaguchi, Fred Ramsdell, and Alexander Rudensky with the motivation "for their discoveries relating to regulatory T cells, which counteract harmful immune reactions in arthritis and other autoimmune diseases".

Collagenous colitis in systemic sclerosis: an overlooked and treatable complication.

Collagenous colitis (CC) is an inflammatory bowel condition of unknown etiology. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) has been associated with CC in a few cases, but it is not clear whether CC could be considered an unusual manifestation of SSc or an independent condition. Here we present a case of SSc-associated CC and compare routine histology and immunofluorescence studies for allograft inflammatory factor 1 and caveolin 1 expression with other cases of CC and healthy controls.

International consensus criteria for the diagnosis of Raynaud's phenomenon.

Vasoconstriction accompanied by changes in skin color is a normal physiologic response to cold. The distinction between this normal physiology and Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) has yet to be well characterized. In anticipation of the 9th International Congress on Autoimmunity, a panel of 12 RP experts from 9 different institutes and four different countries were assembled for a Delphi exercise to establish new diagnostic criteria for RP.

Messages from the morgue to rheumatology: from Chagas disease to giant cell arteritis.

Autopsy rates have fallen from over 50% to less than 10% in recent decades. The drastic decline creates uncertainty regarding causes of death and has negative effects for research, training, and patient safety, despite advances in imaging and laboratory testing. Rheumatology is as much at a loss as other specialties.

The SAPHO syndrome and genetics - discoveries in need of replication.

SAPHO and its relative CMRO are uncommon but not rare chronic conditions with unknown etiology. Environmental factors, perhaps related to microorganisms, may be important triggers, but there is no support for a septic nature. The monogenic animal models called cmo and Lupo with autosomal recessive transmission have not been replicated in human diease.

Peptidylarginine deiminases and the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis: a reflection of the involvement of transglutaminase in coeliac disease.

Post-translational modifications are associated with certain autoimmune diseases. For example, in the initial steps of coeliac disease (CD), transglutaminase type 2 (TG2) catalyzes a post-translational deamidation of specific glutamine residues in dietary gluten, resulting in antibodies against both modified gliadin and against TG2. Anti-TG2 has become a specific biomarker for CD.

Serum IL-15 in patients with early systemic sclerosis: a potential novel marker of lung disease.

The pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc) is characterized by autoimmunity, vasculopathy and fibrosis. IL-15 is a pleiotropic cytokine that has impact on immune, vascular and connective tissue cells. We therefore investigated IL-15 in the circulation of patients with early SSc and explored possible associations of serum IL-15 with vasculopathy and fibrosis.

Outcome measurements in scleroderma: results from a delphi exercise.

Objective: To obtain a consensus on the minimal clinically relevant treatment effect in various scleroderma disease outcome measures to be used in future clinical trials.

Methods: A Delphi consensus building exercise using a survey was sent out to members of the Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium (SCTC). The 65 SCTC members were divided into 2 groups.